samedi 2 février 2008

Self denunciation

Denounce : to condemn or censure openly or publicly

I write today to denounce myself. I refer to the dictionary definition of denounce for good reason, as the following post will show that the very nature of my denunciation relates to my terrible use of the English language, particularly in regards to spelling and grammar.

I'm sure that those of you who read my blog would have noticed that I often make spelling and grammar mistakes that I myself, consider unforgivable. As someone who used to pride herself on her correct use of the English language, it's painful to see how many mistakes I now make. I often read over previous posts just to check the spelling and grammar, and very often I find glaringly obvious mistakes that I missed the first time. Or there are those times when readers actually pull me up on my terrible errors and feeling embarrassed I check my blog and realise that they are indeed correct and I have been writing crap once again. Of course I log in straight away and correct the errors, but it still pains me to know that I'm making them in the first place.
It seems that my biggest problem is in fact with homophones - something which I have never had a problem with before. Having been an English teacher for a year, I'm well aware of what a homophone is, and as English is my native language it has not been something that I've ever had to grapple with or think about in the past. I can understand why people learning English may struggle with homophones, given that there are over 400 examples, however for someone with English as their mother tongue it is somewhat disturbing. I have already been pulled up on using here, instead of hear, new instead of knew, where instead of we're and the tragic but typical example of your instead of you're. This last example is a shocker, and I'm ashamed to admit that I've fallen into the category of people who sometimes make this mistake. I, more than anyone, wanted to join the facebook group which condemns the misuse of these very words, however I felt as though it would be hypocritical and hence I refrained.

I would like to think that these mistakes are due to the fact that I now live in France and speak French a lot of the time. This in a way is partly true, however one would think that my French should be improving significantly if my English is quickly deteriorating, surely that would be only fair - and yet it appears that for a very long time now I have been at the same level in French. I have hit a big plateau and have stopped moving up, and yet the English has suddenly taken a downhill slide....

So there you have it everyone - I apologise for my poor writing standard and encourage everyone to continue pointing out my errors in hope that one day I'll be able to speak and write like the good old days.

Self denunciation complete.

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