Bad English

[Former Member]

Hi,

Does it bother you when people post messages with bad English? I do not like to read messages with poor grammar and spelling.

No one is perfect. I realize that SAP is in the international market, and many of its developers are not native speakers/writers of English.

I myself am from India, and have taken effort to develop my language skills. My English is not perfect, but whenever I use it, I try my best to use proper English.

What can be done to encourage people to use good English?

Points to anyone who finds spelling or grammatical mistakes in my post!

Al Lal

[Former Member]

English does't belong to "The English" any more. I care about gramer, not serious about spelling at all, specially English's English when I am writing.

When any body is speaking, there are no rules, until unless you are polititian or a stage performer in the west end!

[Former Member]

Good Afternoon Mr "Nick",

I hope this not too bold a question, but, is English your native tongue?

Regards,

Chester

[Former Member]

I think we have plenty of rules when speaking.

Being a native of Glasgow i know i can't talk with my normal accent when i'm dealing with foreign consultants. We wouldn't get very far with me saying in broad Glaswegian "it's gan a wee bit pear shaped at activation".

I guess the same is true for anyone with a "stronger" regional dialect.

[Former Member]

Nick (Bradley) - English may not belong to the English anymore, but it does belong to management. You won't get many jobs with spelling mistakes in your resume.

Rob

[Former Member]

Yes , I do Agree on the concept of Good English (Grammar, Spelling, Sentence formation )

1).Grammar :- Mistakes made by members should be correted.

2).Spelling :- All spelling mistakes should be corrected,Other than SMS lingo's .

3).Sentence Formation :- Members before posting query should check up with their buddies .

If we need to bring a change in the forum, then we should play a vital role in correcting our fellow memebers .

Guess this would enhance the Texting Quality in our Forum.

Cheers

Tom.

[Former Member]

>

> Yes , I do agree on the concept of good English (Grammar, Spelling, Sentence formation )
> 
> 1).Grammar                        :-  Mistakes made by members should be corrected. - 
> 2).Spelling                          :- All spelling mistakes should be corrected,Other than SMS language .
> 3).Sentence Formation        :- Members before posting query should check up with their buddies . why post then?
> 
> If we need to bring a change in the forum, then we should play a vital role in correcting our fellow members .
> Guess this would enhance the Texting Quality in our Forum.
> 
> Cheers
> Tom.

LOL! I made a few corrections. leaving the rest to others.....

[Former Member]

Ravi,

I did not get you , actually what was the correction you made ?

What were you exactly trying to bring out with the modifications ?

tJ

[Former Member]

Now that we are discussing about loaned words in English, let me submit some English words , which have their origins from the Indian national language Hindi.

Juggernaut: meaning-> huge.

It was derived from the Hindi Word Jagannadh. It is the one of the names of the Hindu Mythological God named Krishna. The literal meaning of Jagannadh is "Lord of the world".

Every year a huge procession takes place in the City of Puri, where the Idol of the Lord is taken out in a huge chariot, from where the word Juggernaut has got its meaning.

Regards,

Ravi Kanth Talagana

[Former Member]

Hi Ravi,

Interesting : I learnt something today !

This forum can be very educational !

Regards,

Olivier

[Former Member]

Of course being brought up with the philosophy that on this planet there are only 2 types of people "Englishmen and The Rest" I can sympathize with the original tone of the question.

However there ARE a lot of people for whom English is NOT their native tongue and of course we should give them every consideration.

How would Native English speakers feel if they had to post for example to a Japanese Forum.

What however I Can't abide is the use of "Mobile phone-ese" or Text type abbreviations such as U or UR etc etc.

If you are posting anything then PLEASE USE PROPER CONSTRUCTED SENTENCES IN WHATEVER LANGUAGE.

You have plenty of space and time unlike the tiny screens on a mobile phone so there should be NO EXCUSE to use the computer as a glorified "texting" device - and half the interest in reading the posts is to read clear nicely crafted English.

"Mobile Phone-ese" or text type posts should IMO be DELETED.

Cheers

jimbo

[marilyn_pratt]

IMO? In Memory Of? International Meteor Organization? A [Japenese language slur |http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMO](country bumpkin?) Oh, you mean not all slang [are created equal|http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=1451]?

[pokrakam]

Now that's a different set of abbreviations, namely internet lingo that was very widely used on usenet. Some terms are acceptable netiquette in the more professional forums, e.g.

IMO = In My Opinion

IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

IMSNHO = In My Not So Humble Opinion

BTW = By The Way

FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions

some are debatable ... e.g. RTFM.

others are better suited to the coffee corner.

ROTFL = Rolling On the Floor Laughing

ROTFLMAO = Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Arm Off (or something like that....)

BTW, loved the video, ROTFL

Cheers,

Mike

[Former Member]

There's nothing wrong in using acceptable well known abbreviations such as etc. or whatever.

My comment about "Mobile phone-ese" type text language is that the whole post is usually written in some incredibly un-understandable short hand hieroglyphics which doesn't even amongst "inveterate texters" have any consistency as to meaning whereas a normal post might contain a few abbreviations but at least the main content will be clear and understandable as it will be written in basic understandable standard English. (or alternative language such as German, Spanish etc).

Cheers

-K

[Former Member]

Hi,

My post certainly has provoked discussion. Most of you disagree with me. I have not absolutely changed my mind. But I understand your point that there are regional variations in English.

The two major dialects of English are American and British. The grammar is basically the same. There are differences in spelling, like: "colour" versus "color". Either spelling to me is acceptable.

I like to read and write. I would not want to read a book or magazine with bad English. In SDN I am not expecting perfect English, just clear unambigous communication.

As a consultant who has worked in USA, Singapore, and India, I feel that communication skills are important. As a consultant I had to prepare and give a lot of presentations, and write a lot of documents. I used the same English in all three countries. It is critical that I use good English. I am a prefectionist, and I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well.

I do not fault anyone for not being a native speaker of English. Since it is most people's opinion that poor English is acceptable, I will accept this (in SDN).

Just a last point to think on. How would you react if official SAP material had poor grammar and spelling?

Regards,

Al Lal

[Former Member]

> Just a last point to think on. How would you react if official SAP material had poor grammar and spelling?

>

> Regards,

>

> Al Lal

I would like to point out that quite a few SAP messages have poor grammar, indifferent spelling and obscure meaning.

Regards

Gareth

[Former Member]

Gareth Ellem: I would like to point out that quite a few SAP messages have poor grammar, indifferent spelling and obscure meaning.

What is you reaction to this poor communication?

Forgive me for not being clear, but by SAP Material I meant documents and the text on the websites and such.

How would you feel or react if such SAP material had poor English?

Regards,

Al Lal

P.S. I will no longer try to write perfect English on SDN, as I have concluded that it is alright to use poor English in SDN. So please excuse me, if my English is not good.

[Former Member]

>

> >

> Just a last point to think on. How would you react if official SAP material had poor grammar and spelling?

>

LOL!

That should make them happy, at least someone thinks the SAP Doco is well worded.

Language is just a tool to communicate, so it doesn't matter if a SDNer has poor skills in it. What matters though is - how well they can portray their problem or present a solution.But I agree with most that SMS lingo should be avoided, it just shows a bit of lethargy from the respondent.

[Wil_Wilstroth]

• New SAP Course *

BE 400 - SAP English Writing Standards

I just woke up and I saw this... SMS lingo definitely should be avoided but its hard to do so when all your customers, friends, wives, children and relatives are using it...

On one hand, books by SAP having grammartical errors... we all can do one kind thing i.e. by informing the author about the error so she / he could correct it.

Edited by: william wilstroth on Jan 24, 2008 2:52 PM

[Former Member]

I haven't read all the posts on this thread, but it's interesting to note that most of them seem to be written, more or less 'properly'.

Why don't the "can u tell me how 2 call this fm" (without the question mark ofcourse!) lot hang out at the Coffee Corner?

I would love to hear their opinion!

[Former Member]

> I am a prefectionist, and I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well.

>

err...i suppose that was a typo (Spelling of prefectionist->Perfectionist), but when you are making a statement, you better be careful. You may end up contradicting your own sentence.

Regards,

Ravi Kanth Talagana

[Former Member]

Oh, the irony....

In reality it's possible to read words with the letters in the wrong order (there's an example that people occasionally e-mail me with a whole paragraph written in this way, don't have a copy at the moment though). So prefectionist will usually go unnoticed as we don't read a word letter by letter we just pattern match, just as in the following

"It's often easy to

to fool your eyes"

You may not notice straight away the word 'to' is repeated.

Whether the same is true of prfctnst I don't know, do we recognise the pattern in the word or are we essentially 'decoding' it?

Either way, I'm firmly against SMS speak. With a full PC keyboard there's no excuse for replacing 'what' with 'wht' or please with plz.

Regards,

Nick

[pokrakam]

>

> My post certainly has provoked discussion. Most of you disagree with me.

I thought most people are agreeing with you so far...?

I completely agree that an attempt at proper English is crucial. (or whatever language you're writing in - this doesn't just apply to SDN). If people cannot make the effort to explain themselves clearly and in a professional manner then they probably don't put much more effort into their job. This doesn't motivate me to respond.

I also agree with Kjetil's very valuable point about search engines. Another point: Think about the poor souls not so proficient with English! It is difficult enough learning a language without reading cryptic variations on a supposedly professional board.

Please note the emphasis on making the effort. I do not expect perfect spelling, grammar or a particular regional dialect. This is not about perfect English (though good English does give one a more professional appearance). I think to most people it is obvious whether someone is struggling with the language or just being sloppy. If they are still getting to grips with English, I take the time to re-read a post to make sure I understood what the person is trying to express (sometimes several times). When a question is unresearched and written in shorthand I tend to just ignore the post and move on.

Oddly, the Coffee Corner is the forum I post the most in these days.... hmmmm.

Cheers,

Mike

[Former Member]

Hi,

>Oddly, the Coffee Corner is the forum I post the most in these days.... hmmmm

Well that's because it is becoming the most interesting SDN forum : no spam, no "Hi experts", no "Urgent", no "ASAP".... !

Olivier

[KjetilKilhavn]

>

> >

> >Oddly, the Coffee Corner is the forum I post the most in these days.... hmmmm

> Well that's because it is becoming the most interesting SDN forum : no spam, no "Hi experts", no "Urgent", no "ASAP".... !

Not to mention that the traffic (number of posts) is comfortably low. That allows me to work in between getting up to date on SDN... And every post is on topic!

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am a native English speaker, but this is not as much of an advantage as you may think. I live and work in Australia, and in fact am from the country, rather than one of our large cities. What that means is that some of the forms, structures, and even actual words and underlying meanings, differ from those used by a native speaker from the US or the UK.

What this means, as we become more and more internationalised, is that we have to occasionally ask the speaker to restate their views to try to understand the message. The reason for this is that, over time and geographical distance, the language has evolved in its role as the means of communication for those using it most frequently. A fine example of this was the chat Dave Halitsky and I had over my use of the phrase "in anger" to describe a programming technique being used in production, rather than a test or sandpit system.

Another example of this occurred during the 2003 Rugby World cup. I sat watching the opening game with a New Zealander, a South African and a South Australian. During the couple of hours we shared, everyone had to ask his fellows to clarify statements due to our use of local inflection, meaning and slang terms to describe a game that we all new intimately.

But..... here's a thought. What if we all communicated on SDN using ABAP?

Seriously, it is interesting to imagine where this local English evolution will go. Could it be that in 100 years, English as we know it now could cease to be, replaced by several evolutions which would not be mutually understandable and therefore new languages in their own right. Before you laugh, this is where a lot of modern languages have come from, evolving form a common point. (see modern French, English and German being rooted from Latin).

Regards

Gareth

[Former Member]

 I am a native English speaker, but this is not as much of an advantage as you may think.  I live and work in Australia 

Aren't you contradicting yourself there

  (see modern French, English and German being rooted from Latin).

French is derived from Latin, but German and English most certainly aren't.

As for the new markup sytem here, what that's derived from is anybody's guess.

[Former Member]

>French is derived from Latin, but German and English most certainly aren't.

A lot of English words come from French and so indirectly from Latin.

Remember the Norman invasion...

Some French words even come from English words which come from French !

Exemple : Tennis

The French word Tennis comes from the English word Tennis which comes from "Tenez !" which means "Hold it !" . The player from the old "jeu de paume" shouted "Tenez !" before sending the ball.

There have been a lot of word exchanges between these 3 old European languages (French, German and English).

Olivier

[KjetilKilhavn]

>

> >French is derived from Latin, but German and English most certainly aren't.

> A lot of English words come from French and so indirectly from Latin.

There's a difference between imported words and a language's origin. For instance, the grammar will usually not be the same even if the (main) words are the same. Even if the French were to start using the word 'love' instead of 'aime' they would say "Je t'love" (I you love) - which should not be interpreted as French having derived from a movie character called ... (any guesses?)

Anyway, as we (Norwegians) all know you're really just speaking different variants of Norse with a few modern words tossed in. The Vikings pillaged and raped everywhere in Europe and North Africa a thousand years ago - and then went to North America for a quick look (and who knows what more during the time they stayed) - so basically almost everyone here are offspring from long-bearded bastards from Scandinavia under the influence of "magic mushrooms"

Then again, our language is of germanic origin, so I suppose WE are just all offspring from long-haired bastards from Central Europe....

[Former Member]

A lot of English words come from French and so indirectly from Latin.

Remember the Norman invasion...quote}

Thanks, I am aware of that.

As someone else pointed out, a few loan words (many of which were deliberately created by academics who customarily used Latin until relatively recently) do not mean that a language is derived from another. By that logic, Welsh is also derived from Latin - can you guess what these mean - eglwys, pont, ysgol?

[Romance languages|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_languages#Romance_languages]

[Germanic languages|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_languages#Germanic_languages]

[Former Member]

OK, OK, Kjetil and NXO,

I agree completely that the exchange of words does not mean that a language is derived from an other one.

I just find some word exchanges amusing.

"vasistas" is a French word for a small roof window.

Before 1870 there was no specific French word for these windows.

In 1871, our European neighbours the prussians came for a "visit". When they saw these strange windows on the French roofs, they asked "Was ist das ?".

The French people thought : In German, these windows are called "vasistas", we will now use this German word !

Have a good weekend !

Olivier

[Former Member]

Hi NXO

Well, in some respects you could make a strong argument that English could be classed as an Anglo-Fresian language, but I would contend that the Norman invasion meant the infusion of many French and Latin words and terms into the language, and this in part explains the grammatical and constructional differences between modern and old English. So although Latin is not a root language, it is a strong influence.

As for living and working in Australia, I manage by doing each on alternating days.

Cheers

Gareth

[Former Member]

Funny. This makes me think about the story of the English ship sinking close to the German coast. The captain sends a last SOS call on the radio:

- British accent: Mayday, mayday, we are sinking

Answer from the German coast guard:

- German accent: Sorry, but what are you thinking about?

[Former Member]

So although Latin is not a root language, it is a strong influence.

Although wikipedia isn't exactly proof, the link I posted clearly places English in the Germanic group; you're trying to change the meaning of the question after you've answered it. According to some sources the 100 commonest words are all Anglo-Saxon in origin.

Do you actually speak French or German?

[Former Member]

Patrick,

You know, of course, that Mayday comes from French ?

It should be actually spellt as "M'aider !" which means in French "Help me".

Our British Friends did not catch really well the spelling from the sound....

So nothing to do with Spring season !

Olivier

[Former Member]

Olivier - "aider" is the infinitive. I think the root of mayday is "m'aidez" (same pronunciation).

Rob

[Former Member]

Rob,

You are right "aider" is the infinitive but "m'aidez" alone does not mean anything.

You would say, in fact "Aidez moi."

.

"M'aider" is the short writing (useful when using Morse code) for "Veuillez m'aider" which means literally "Will you help me".

Regards,

Olivier

[Former Member]

Mea culpa. I shoulda known.

Rob

[Former Member]

Hi NXO

I think you have established I don't even speak English.

Gareth

[Former Member]

Acknwledgement : its a cut-paste

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. his will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

[Former Member]

Man! I really got lost on the last two paragraphs -:(

Very funny Ajay -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

[Former Member]

Wonderful.:) Atleast took me 10 complete minutes to rread the entire paragrapah. Not to mention I have got to read the last few lines quite a few times to understand it.

P.S : How will I be called after the fifth year?

Regards,

Jaishankar

[Former Member]

Apparently this was proposed for Europe only so an Indian name should be unaffected but then it speaks about changes to the spelling alone; so unless you are planning to change your name, you would still be called 'Jaishanker'.....

[Former Member]

sooo funny. and some at the forums really talk like that and think it makes sense )

[ThomasZloch]

That joke is also available in a German version, in the end it states we're all speaking Dutch...

funny indeed!

Cheers

Thomas

[ThomasZloch]

>

> Does it bother you when people post messages with bad English?

shouldn't it read "in bad English" or "using bad English" ?

[David]

Whenever I read one of these discussions, I always get a good laugh.

Various languages will morph over time into whatever the culture it is used in will demand.

I can think of a good example where I live in the US. The children of many immigrants from Central and South America have lost much of their language skills and now speak what is called "Spanglish". I have been told by our local school administrators that these children struggle in regular Spanish classes (those offered as a "foriegn language option") for this very reason.

The other thing that comes to mind are two of my favorite movies. "Blade Runner" and "Idiocracy". In the first there are several scenes with Edward James Olmos who speaks a mixture of Spanish, English, and Japanese - the author's vision of what would be predominantly spoken on the west coast of the US in the future. Even better is "Idiocracy" where people in the US speak a mixture of "Ghetto" and "Hillbilly" (better look those up on Wikipedia) in the 24th century.

One never knows what time will bring. Try speaking Elizabethan English like Shakespeare

Best Regards,

David

[Former Member]

@David - I generally do use Shakespearean English, but I find I have to tone it down for the forums.

Robert of Gloucester

[marilyn_pratt]

Twitter, sms culture gives us insights as to how we use language. Much as I hate to admit it (Shakespearean language lover that I am) even the smartest, most articulate folks out there are streamlining their language use and shorthanding it in 140 characters or less. The real question is how valuable the content, regardless of length

[KjetilKilhavn]

Does SAP's search solution handle kewl, cool, kool, and c00l as the same word? If not, does it handle WFlow, workflow, w0rkfl0w (i am so kool I can't even restrain from writing WF in the k00l new way) as the same word. Probably not...

Fair enough that an intelligent person can gather the meaning, but the search engines are more than likely a lot less intelligent than even me when processing words - although they are so at 1 million times the speed I can achieve.

So as long as one doesn't care about information re-use and ability to search intelligently there is no need to worry. I choose to worry.

As far as choice of dialects go I don't see the problem. There is English - and there is American English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English, and some more acknowledged variants. I thought we agreed to use English

Just trying to add tuppence to this colourful centre of SAP-related discussions.

[Former Member]

Yo Bob!

check out [da docs|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/00/5e261e7547d8479e062d72d68bc9e7/frameset.htm] proc tabl left (da new proc jangles) pnt 1. da last santince.

Da u wrt dat?

[Former Member]

Yo nite.k00l.thx 4 ya stuff.peece

[Former Member]

>

> Yo Bob!

>

> check out [da docs|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/00/5e261e7547d8479e062d72d68bc9e7/frameset.htm] proc tabl left (da new proc jangles) pnt 1. da last santince.

>

> Da u wrt dat?

Wow ! Is that English ? I can't read that !

[Former Member]

> Wow ! Is that English ? I can't read that !

Is there someone else up there we can talk to?

[mathew_muthalaly]

The attitude that comes through matters more than correctness of usage.

SDN is a professional forum and each member needs to take one another seriously. Anybody answering a question is investing valuable time for somebody else.

An accurate question indicates the amount of thought one has put in oneself, before asking a question. Also, it saves time in the long run.

[Former Member]

Mathew - I agree. How many times have you seen in the forum something like "My program dumps. How do I fix it?" It's not a matter of English usage. It's a matter of not being able (or being unwilling) to string two thoghts together.

EG.

"see the following code i am getting some Run time error. can any one tell whats the problem in this report."

Followed by ABAP code.

Rob

Edited by: Rob Burbank on Mar 5, 2008 5:30 PM

[Former Member]

I don't really think the problem is bad English (spelling or grammar). It's poorly thought out questions and a lack of basic undersatanding of what is being attempted...

Rob

[Former Member]

I'm not an English native speaker, but I try to do my best -:)

SCN is a global community...We had member from all around the world, and even when English is the "official language" doesn't mean that we all need to be "the most proficient" at it...There are a lot of people who doesn't participate on SCN just because they are not good enough at English and therefore don't want to post because they thing that people are not going to answer their questions just because they had bad grammar...I think that's kinda unfair...I know there a lot of "spell checks" (We got one on the forums LOL) But I don't actually use it -:)

Being from India, I don't think you should care that much about people using good grammar or not...Myself being from Peru...I don't care how people write, I just care to see if I can help them -:)

P.S: Please, don't think that I'm trying to dismiss your point, I'm just adding my 3 cents... -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

[Former Member]

Hi Abhinav,

What you think about this.....

It's from your post....Is it a good way to write english....

I myself am from India

[stephenjohannes]

I would concurr with the majority of the posters, that problem is really the SMS lingo, and not bad grammar or spelling. If you want to enforce use of the english language then we will need to decide on which dialect that should be the standard. This would give us just a few choices to start

- The queen's english

- Midwestern US ( Broadcast US TV standards )

- Southern US

- California

- Boston

- New York

- Philly

- Chicago

- Pittsburgh ( Yens know )

Take care,

Stephen

[Former Member]

The Queens English.

plz do da needful.

[Former Member]

lol,

this sounds a bit ignorant. as if the british empire had only one regular 'dialect' whereas god's own country had lots of regular ones.

from a neutral point of view there is British English, American English (both of which you can study as specific subjects at universities in my country) and then there is probably the global english which everyone uses who's mother tongue isn't english.

anton

[Former Member]

Hi,

I would had another english dialect : Globish which is the 300 english words internationally understood !

Regards,

Olivier

[Former Member]

Hi,

In a technical forum like SDN, language can take the back seat , so long as it does convey the intent of the person who poses the question.

But the usage of shortcuts, would definitely piss many people off, just due to the fact that it creates a feeling that the questioner is not really serious about the issue.

Regards,

Ravi Kanth Talagana

[KjetilKilhavn]

>

> Points to anyone who finds spelling or grammatical mistakes in my post!

I am of course risking my neck here, not being a native English speaker myself, but... isn't the following an example of incorrect use of capital letters?

>

> Hi,

>

> Does

Other than that I can only confirm that your attempt to use proper English is a good one.

I wonder how search engines are going to cope with all the "R U a total n00b" when they try to make sense out of documents in order to increase the relevance of search results? Perhaps the best would be to implement a pre-filter mechanism that discards documents with "2 many 'c00l' words" as being '2 hard 2 understand'.

[Former Member]

Everything is relative.

Two hundred years ago, it was French.

Two hundred years from now, it may be Hindi. Or Farsi. Or "Mandarin".

In this regard, it is intstructive to read what the old Italian man says to the victorious US soldier toward the end of Jospeh Heller's novel "Catch-22" - something about the longevity of empires relative to the longevity of the humble frog.

Come to think of it, it is also instructive to recall that 2500 years ago it was Greek - the language in which the philospher Heraclitus made his famous observation "panta rei" ("everything flows") - meaning "nothing is constant".

Just ask anyone who ever owned a piece of Cullinet or Wang.

djh

Edited by: David Halitsky on Jan 23, 2008 12:24 PM

Edited by: David Halitsky on Jan 23, 2008 12:29 PM

[suresh_datti]

@David: "Everything is relative".. I guess that says it all

@Lal: "My English is not perfect, but whenever I use it, I try my best to use proper English."

You should have avoided repeating the word "English" in the above sentence.

In this age when students write their essays in SMS lingo, grammar is my least concern. I am perfetcly satisfied if the message is understood.

A similar discussion cropped up some time back & I will repeat my repsonse.."English is a global language & has been customized to blend with whereever it is used".

~Suresh

[Former Member]

Hi,

The problem is not so much with spelling or grammar errors. With the majority of users being not native english speakers, this is quite normal. I, personally, make a lot of mistakes when writing in english.

The problem is the use of SMS linguo, I consider it to be a lack of respect.

I already had an answer from a guy who told me that he had no time to write full words in good english. I told him that it was his choice but that, in that case, I also had no time to answer his question...

I know a lot of forums which forbid strictly the use of SMS linguo and enforce the rule.

90% of the problems on SDN forums come from the lack of will from SAP to moderate efficiently the forums...

[Former Member]

> You should have avoided repeating the word "English" in the above sentence.

I'm a native English speaker. It's fine, and adds emphasis.