Many of the people I do have online conversations with speak English as their first language.
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Many of the people I do have online conversations with speak English as their first language. I kinda get by but you native speakers really underestimate how hard it is to express oneself in a foreign language. Concepts work differently, metaphors don't really translate, references you have used for decades don't make sense.
@tante the number of times I catch myself using a frech idiom in english that make sense only to french speakers
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@tante As a native English speaker and trained, professional English writer, let me reassure you that your writing is excellent.
@troublewithwords thank you, I appreciate you saying that
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@tante the number of times I catch myself using a frech idiom in english that make sense only to french speakers
@tournesol yeah. I'm basically just writing German with the words replaced.
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Like in German I am actually somewhat eloquent and texts I write don't look like a person with a head injury wrote them.
@tante
You english is fine. That can one understand.
(No seriously, from one non-native speaker to another, your english is impressive.)
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(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
@tante If ppl are unable to bring up some really valid points against your reasoning, they will go as low as starting to pick your grammar and wording apart. No surprise there. Don't let them get to you.
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(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
@tante This reminds me of that "semantic ablation" article from last week: https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/16/semantic_ablation_ai_writing/
I prefer real character of actual writing, and there's an extra... energy? tension? in English written by nonnative speakers. It gives a glimpse into alternative ways of slicing concepts that enriches rather than depletes the writing.
Screw the naysayers.
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(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
@tante you got the point across amazingly well. There were clumsy expressions, but few and far between. Better than I could ever express myself, and I've been learning, reading and speaking english regularly for over 40 years. I guess those people had to attack the form because it was too hard to find fault in the content.
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(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
Such accusations are obvious and ridiculous deflections.
These people are not being honest.
Please do not believe them.
(A native English speaker)
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@grrrr_shark yeah that captures it well. I also can't fully be "me" in English
@tante @grrrr_shark and the better you are in the foreign language, the worse it gets because people don't have that subconscious "oh this is their 2nd language. I better speak simply" trigger.
Paul Taylor has a great bit about this (Warning: strong language in both English and French. You can turn on translated CC if you don't speak French)
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@tante This reminds me of that "semantic ablation" article from last week: https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/16/semantic_ablation_ai_writing/
I prefer real character of actual writing, and there's an extra... energy? tension? in English written by nonnative speakers. It gives a glimpse into alternative ways of slicing concepts that enriches rather than depletes the writing.
Screw the naysayers.
@elizayer oh that article sounds interesting (and will provide a great excuse for my ideosyncratic writing style ;))
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Many of the people I do have online conversations with speak English as their first language. I kinda get by but you native speakers really underestimate how hard it is to express oneself in a foreign language. Concepts work differently, metaphors don't really translate, references you have used for decades don't make sense.
@tante I speak English quite well, but when reading a psychological book in English i realized that speaking the language and intuitively grasping its concepts are two very different things.
For all the samples, i had to translate them in my head, then imagine how i would react spontaneously - which was not working at all! -
(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
@tante One should be weary of purists of any kind.
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Many of the people I do have online conversations with speak English as their first language. I kinda get by but you native speakers really underestimate how hard it is to express oneself in a foreign language. Concepts work differently, metaphors don't really translate, references you have used for decades don't make sense.
@tante As explained very well in one book in the form of two books, written more or less simultaneously by two people in two languages at once (they were conferring frequently):
Douglas Hofstadter: Surfaces and Essences - Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking,
Emmanuel Sander: L'Analogie. Cœur de la pensée.
It’s from 2013 and it’s a real tour de force.
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(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
@tante You should’ve run it through an LLM.
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@tante You should’ve run it through an LLM.
@alper with your responses I am never quite sure if they are sarcastic, an attack or both
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@alper with your responses I am never quite sure if they are sarcastic, an attack or both
@tante They can be all at the same time!
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Many of the people I do have online conversations with speak English as their first language. I kinda get by but you native speakers really underestimate how hard it is to express oneself in a foreign language. Concepts work differently, metaphors don't really translate, references you have used for decades don't make sense.
People who speak/read/etc more than one language are superior thinkers and understand more. (EDIT: other things being equal, etc.)
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(Sparked by some of the comments to my recent article about Cory Doctorow telling me how my writing sucks and is unreadable because of grammar mistakes and typos.)
@tante I could read it just fine, people are too picky.
Also, I liked your point about leaving typos for the user to figure out rather than turning it over to an LLM -
Many of the people I do have online conversations with speak English as their first language. I kinda get by but you native speakers really underestimate how hard it is to express oneself in a foreign language. Concepts work differently, metaphors don't really translate, references you have used for decades don't make sense.
@tante I thought it was a great article, with points well made. The complaints say more about them than about your writing.
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@tante @grrrr_shark and the better you are in the foreign language, the worse it gets because people don't have that subconscious "oh this is their 2nd language. I better speak simply" trigger.
Paul Taylor has a great bit about this (Warning: strong language in both English and French. You can turn on translated CC if you don't speak French)
@varx @tante THIS. People presume I understand very well all the time, and that the way I speak is the way I intend to speak. What they don't get is that in my second languages, I'm often working at the absolute edge of my capability and can't maintain it for all that long.
I have days where I do very well and days where I can barely talk. People underestimate the mental overhead and... gah, L2s are such a complicated topic.
