Re: Advanced English to become official!

Pascal A. Kramm wrote:

>On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 12:25:16 -0700, Muke Tever <hotblack@...> wrote:
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>
>
>>Pascal A. Kramm <pkramm@...> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 09:56:57 +0100, Joe <joe@...> wrote:
>>>
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>>>>Problem is, Pascal's German, so it's bound to be imperfect.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>Oh my, what an ugly arrogant attitude >:(
>>>I can really hear the contempt in your voice... Why don't you say right
>>>away: "Germans are lower than dirt."
>>>
>>>
>>I don't think it would have to do with your ethnicity, merely with that
>>you are working with a language non-native to you.  If an American-English
>>speaker attempted a spelling reform of German, similar remarks could be
>>expected.
>>
>>
>
>If it were so, uch a concern could surely be expressed more cosiderately
>without making such an ugly ad-hominem attack:
>
>"Problem is, Pascal's German, so it's bound to be imperfect." -> that's a
>rather crude and very unpolite sweeping stake about all Germans being
>retarded (or otherwise being mentally incapable) and thus it's impossible
>that they can come up with something really good.
>
>
It *is* so, as I have said.  Frankly, you're simply making up ways to
get offended.  Not only that, you proceeded to make a generalisation
about Americans, on the basis that I was one, on the assumption that
they're arrogant.

>About being a native speaker or not - that doesn't say ANYTHING about the
>proficiency of the person in question! It's very well possible that a
>non-native speaker is better than a native one. Just to name an example:
>recently, all native speakers of British English at Oxford university (!)
>were tasked to complete a simple "Basic Proficiency test for non-native
>speakers" - originally intended to make sure that non-native speakers have
>at least a basic grasp of English. However, a whopping 20% of the NATIVE
>speakers miserably FAILED in this simple test!
>
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We're not discussing the grammar, we're discussing the phonology.
Which, since it is unstandardised in English, *has* no right or wrong
besides usage.  The purpose of a spelling reform is to more accurately
reflect sounds in a given language.

>About me not being able to take critic - I can, but not when it's initiated
>with a personal attack at me (and not only me, but all Germans in General).
>You can't expect me to sit still in that case!
>
>
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Of course it wasn't a personal attack against you.  I was just pointing
out that, as a non-native speaker, any odd things in your spelling
reform could be accounted for by your being a non-native speaker of
English.  If you choose to take that as a personal attack, it's your
problem, not mine.

And a hell of a lot of Germnas on this list have failed to be offended
by this comment.