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From English into X - how much does English knowledge matter?
Thread poster: S_G_C
Kristina Cosumano (X)
Kristina Cosumano (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:17
German to English
"Grammar Nazi" Dec 28, 2015

is a term one finds all over Facebook and probably other social media as well, especially where there are lots of Americans congregating. If the term is offensive to some, I understand why, but then again I would suggest watching a few episodes of the old TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (noting the most excellent Werner Klemperer, google him) which captures what I believe is the spirit of the term. Or, alternatively, "'Allo 'Allo!" from the BBC.

But why are so many native English speake
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is a term one finds all over Facebook and probably other social media as well, especially where there are lots of Americans congregating. If the term is offensive to some, I understand why, but then again I would suggest watching a few episodes of the old TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (noting the most excellent Werner Klemperer, google him) which captures what I believe is the spirit of the term. Or, alternatively, "'Allo 'Allo!" from the BBC.

But why are so many native English speakers such poor spellers? Well, it seems that the entire Internet is to blame. Until the Internet, most of what we read was published print material, from books, magazines, newspapers. Everything else was relegated to bulletin boards (the physical kind) or hand-written letters. Now, however, people write news articles, blog posts and even e-books without the support of an old-fashioned team of editors and spell-checkers (and "its/it's" and "their/there/they're" is exactly where your computer's spellcheck will NOT help you). And so what has happened is that there is all this badly written English out there having influence on us all, every time we are exposed to it.

Now add, to this mix, the urge to write immediately (Twitter) and digital keypads with auto-complete (mobile phones) and as a chaser we'll throw in the fact that most, if not all, of these writers weren't interested in holding pens or banging on typewriters in the 1980s, even if they were old enough to do so.

Don't even get me started on the fact that some of my own friends can't seem to grasp the difference between "lose" and "loose" — "loose" has won and is taking over, I fear.
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Helena Chavarria
Helena Chavarria  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:17
Member (2011)
Spanish to English
+ ...
It depends if you study English as a foreign or native language Dec 28, 2015

I don't usually make mistakes with 'their' and 'there'; 'it's' and 'its', etc. but I have a bit of a problem with many words that contain schwa. However, a lot of Spanish people I know never make similar mistakes when they write in English.

I came to the conclusion that once people have consciously learnt how a foreign word is written, they don't usually forget.

A similar thing happens with Spanish. For example, /b/ and /v/ have the same sound and /h/ is silent. It wou
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I don't usually make mistakes with 'their' and 'there'; 'it's' and 'its', etc. but I have a bit of a problem with many words that contain schwa. However, a lot of Spanish people I know never make similar mistakes when they write in English.

I came to the conclusion that once people have consciously learnt how a foreign word is written, they don't usually forget.

A similar thing happens with Spanish. For example, /b/ and /v/ have the same sound and /h/ is silent. It wouldn't be strange if you saw:

'E sacado la vasura', instead of 'He sacado la basura' (I have taken out the rubbish); 'por fabor', instead of 'por favor' (please) but I very much doubt a non-native speaker of Spanish would make the same mistakes.
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Angie Garbarino
Angie Garbarino  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:17
Member (2003)
French to Italian
+ ...
Totally agree Dec 28, 2015

Sandra& Kenneth wrote:

One who sends people who make spelling mistakes to the gas chambers?

I find this type of language nauseating.



Very nauseating


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:17
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
On the term "grammar nazi" Dec 28, 2015

KristinaC wrote:
Grammar Nazi ... is a term one finds all over Facebook and probably other social media as well, especially where there are lots of Americans congregating.


I find no evidence that it is specifically an American term. The term is more prevalent in the UK than "grammar police":

Guardian :: grammar nazi 275 :: grammar police 246
Financial Times :: grammar nazi 0 :: grammar police 2
The Times :: grammar nazi 6 :: grammar police 6
The Independent :: grammar nazi 8 :: grammar police 3
The Telegraph :: grammar nazi 12 :: grammar police 6
AC.UK :: grammar nazi 150 :: grammar police 40

I suppose that just like some people want the word "holocaust" to refer to only the Jewish genocide of WWII and find that it is sacrilegious to use it for anything else, so too some people want "nazi" to mean only the German Nazi Party from WWII, and find any other use of it disrespectful (to whom, we don't know). Ironically some such people are less aggressive about weeding out the use of "mecca" for anything other than Mecca. But we've had this discussion before, on the forums.


 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 18:47
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
On the nazi in grammar nazi Dec 29, 2015

In my view, in the term "grammar nazi", the word "nazi" is derogatory to the nazis, and hence this usage is politically correct.

Nazi here means a caricaturised person who is a stickler for rules, who gets very worked up even when small and insignificant breaches of rules happen. Using such a heavy term like nazi (who methodically sent millions of fellow countrymen to the gas chambers) for such trivial things, actually ridicules the nazis, and we are in this sense, condemning or rid
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In my view, in the term "grammar nazi", the word "nazi" is derogatory to the nazis, and hence this usage is politically correct.

Nazi here means a caricaturised person who is a stickler for rules, who gets very worked up even when small and insignificant breaches of rules happen. Using such a heavy term like nazi (who methodically sent millions of fellow countrymen to the gas chambers) for such trivial things, actually ridicules the nazis, and we are in this sense, condemning or ridiculing what the nazis stood for and what they did.

We are in no sense acquiescing or applauding their ideology, quite the contrary.

Objecting to such usages only shows lack of capacity to understand the implied meanings of these terms, and just taking them at face value. This in turn points towards insufficient grasp over language, which is quite damning for professional users of languages, such as translators.



[Edited at 2015-12-29 02:44 GMT]
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Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:17
French to English
thank you Dec 29, 2015

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:

In my view, in the term "grammar nazi", the word "nazi" is derogatory to the nazis, and hence this usage is politically correct.

Nazi here means a caricaturised person who is a stickler for rules, who gets very worked up even when small and insignificant breaches of rules happen. Using such a heavy term like nazi (who methodically sent millions of fellow countrymen to the gas chambers) for such trivial things, actually ridicules the nazis, and we are in this sense, condemning or ridiculing what the nazis stood for and what they did.

We are in no sense acquiescing or applauding their ideology, quite the contrary.

Objecting to such usages only shows lack of capacity to understand the implied meanings of these terms, and just taking them at face value. This in turn points towards insufficient grasp over language, which is quite damning for professional users of languages, such as translators.



[Edited at 2015-12-29 02:44 GMT]


Wow thank you Bala, that's a brilliant take on the term


 
Marius Reika
Marius Reika  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:47
English to Lithuanian
... Dec 29, 2015

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:

In my view, in the term "grammar nazi", the word "nazi" is derogatory to the nazis, and hence this usage is politically correct.

Nazi here means a caricaturised person who is a stickler for rules, who gets very worked up even when small and insignificant breaches of rules happen. Using such a heavy term like nazi (who methodically sent millions of fellow countrymen to the gas chambers) for such trivial things, actually ridicules the nazis, and we are in this sense, condemning or ridiculing what the nazis stood for and what they did.

We are in no sense acquiescing or applauding their ideology, quite the contrary.

Objecting to such usages only shows lack of capacity to understand the implied meanings of these terms, and just taking them at face value. This in turn points towards insufficient grasp over language, which is quite damning for professional users of languages, such as translators.


[Edited at 2015-12-29 02:44 GMT]


Good luck explaining this every time you use a word nazi. Such usage will always bring negative reactions, and they are totally justified, whatever the excuses are. Some things are just inappropriate.

Such usage does not ridicule, it just demonstrates the user's incapacity to perceive the sheer negativity of the term.


 
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