On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 07:49:10PM +0200, Penguin Lover Alan McKinnon squawked: > If I read that message out loud, it sounds suspiciously like a babelfish > translation from Japanese to English. Whatever it is, the author of the > message is certainly not a native English speaker.
You have way too much faith in the education system provided by English speaking countries. While I cannot argue for most of those countries, I can claim, by example, that plenty of native-English-speaking red-blooded Americans write in a way not dissimilar to the snipplet cited above. This is not to say your conclusion is wrong; I just don't think it is possible to conclude from the evidence given that the author of the message is not a native English speaker, when I consider the kind of junk submitted to my in-law, who teaches at a fairly affluent suburban school district, by students who pretend that they are writing in English. Of course, you can bloody-well argue, by way of Henry Higgins, that "in America they haven't spoken [English] for years." :) W -- Herry Edsel Smith of Albany, NY: Born 1903- Died 1942 Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was. Sortir en Pantoufles: up 772 days, 16:43
