<mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: Anyone who wants something translated should get it done by someone who's > first > language is the target language, and who's second language is the source > language. >
It is a problem, isn't it? When people have to read a paragraph two or three times because it is poorly written, they tend to stop reading. Poorly written papers at LENR-CANR.org attract few readers, even when the papers have merit and deserve to be read. It is a shame. I have edited roughly 200 papers, mainly ones written by people who are not native speakers of English. Most authors thank me, but some of them are upset when I point out mistakes. Some of the top Japanese professors tend to get upset. So I stopped editing their work years ago. The Japanese researchers I know probably do not have their papers translated. They write them in English. Their English is facile and quick, but full of grammatical errors. Whereas I write Japanese slowly but with few errors. The Japanese education system is at fault. Their English classes and methods of teaching are abominable. Students never learn the basics such as how to use "the" versus "a," whereas I learned Japanese grammar in great detail. They also never learn to pronounce the difference between "L" and "R." I can teach any student how to do that in a half-hour. The student may have to practice every day for a few weeks to master it, but it isn't difficult. Since they cannot pronounce the difference, they cannot hear it. So, they spend a lifetime struggling with words such as "red" and "led." There are several sounds in Japanese which we do not have in English, and vice versa. I learned them all in the first week of instruction, and I was drilled for 12 hours a day until I got them right. Learn first things first and you will avoid a lifetime of mistakes.
