Aussie verses U S A Spelling.

In my original Blog, “Spellinmg and Othe rMistakes”, I mentioned a recent spelling mistake and thanked the person who corrected me and asked for future corrections when appropriate. Which I soon received. However most, but not all (See previous blog - Cursory Spell-Check verses the Real Thing.) were not really English spelling mistakes but only wrong from an American English viewpoint. Following is the comment I received from one of my American friends. He wrote: “Okay, I'm politely and courteously pointing out the following mistakes: “I” should be “it”, “reversed” should be “reversed”, “damming” should be “damning”, and “perpetrated” should probably be “perpetuated.”

So I (I hope) politely responded that most of the mistakes were not in fact mistakes but variances between English and American English.

However, thinking about the difference in spelling between American and Non American English does raise the issue of where and when to use either.

Do I remain obdurately Australian and write only in Australian English? Or do I go all the way the other way and use just the American spelling? Or better yet, choose my language to my main target audience.

I like to think that I have chosen the latter step as, so far at least, most of my known reading audience, seem to be non-American and have no problem with my English. Of course if I were to write to a mainly American audience, then I would happily converse in the language that they are more familiar with.

What about you now? Do you know what is the common denomination between you and your audience/market? And are you aiming for that or simply and maybe even arrogantly just going your own sweet way? Well I have had my say now, what say you? And in what language?

Cursory Spell-Check verses the Real Thing.

In my recent Blog, “Spellinmg and Othe rMistakes”, I mentioned a recent spelling mistake in a previous Blog and thanked the person who corrected me and asked for future corrections when appropriate. Not quite anticipating the response I got.

Following is the comment I received from one of my American friends. He wrote: “Okay, I'm politely and courteously pointing out the following mistakes: “I” should be “it”, “reversed” should be “reversed”, “damming” should be “damning”, and “perpetrated” should probably be “perpetuated.”

Without carefully reading all that he wrote, I picked up on his ‘Spelling mistakes” and the following is my reply to him: “Hi: Thanks for your corrections, however they have actually raised another problem for me and for all non-American writers for that matter. And that is, the spelling mistakes that you pointed out are only spelling mistakes for Americans. For everyone else, they are in fact not only correct but also English, as it has always been written. I have been aware of this problem before, but as I am an Australian writing in Australia for mostly Australians, I have so far refused to use the American spell-check and thus stick to the Aussie spelling. So while I do thank you for pointing this out, for the moment at least I will be sticking to The Aussie way of spelling for now.”

Having said, that I now realise that he was in fact right about me spelling “reversed” wrong and also using “I” instead of “It”. Somehow they did slip through my Aussie Spell-Check, and now that I have checked it properly I appreciate his corrections even more. However at first I could not see past his “obvious” mistakes, to see my own. Does that ever happen to you too?

You are so busy seeing others mistakes that you can’t even see your own, even when, like in this case they have been carefully and politely pointed out to you? Perhaps like me, you were both busy and tired and only gave it a cursory glance and not the proper attention it truly deserved?

If so, that is my plea for today. Never ever, even in the simple things, just give them your cursory attention. Always, and even in the ‘”simple “ thing, give them your full undivided attention the first time and you won’t have to spend much more time later, fixing up your problems caused by too much hast at first. What say you?

Do you Always Pass The Test?

From my original blog, “Spellinmg and Othe rMistakes”, I received a response from an American living and teaching in South Africa, offering corrections to my spelling, to which I responded quickly, pointing out that not all were Australian spelling Mistakes but in fact the difference between English and American English. I then went on to acknowledge that there really were a couple of mistakes in it originally irregardless of whose Spelling you used. To which my friend replied, “Yes, spelling is a problem for me, too. I've decided for the most part just to stick with American spelling and not try to use South African spelling (which I would not get right consistently). My rationale is that the UBI students read a lot of books with American spelling so my notes will just be more of the same!

You passed the test. I was just seeing if you really did want correction!”

Following is one of my replies to this comment “Thanks for your e-mail. Yes I really did want corrections; I just wasn't expecting them so quick, (says he ever so humbly). I am actually working on two blog responses to your original response, before this one. One on the American vs. Non-American spelling, and the other on how quick I was to pick up on the American Spelling aspect that I originally failed to see that I had indeed made two obvious mistakes. Thanks again for pointing that out.

As to South African spelling, there is nothing wrong with it from an English, Australian, New Zealand etc, etc, perspective. One just needs to use what is best for the occasion, that is all”.

However today what I wanted to actually focus on was my friend’s last line. “You passed the test. I was just seeing if you really did want correction!”

I truly am glad I passed the test, but I hadn’t realised that I was even being tested in the first place?

So as I close today, I have 2 questions for you.

1. When you say things are you serious or just being polite? Do you, as in my case, really want correction? Or are you just mouthing empty phrases? Fortunately for me, I passed the test. Do you?

2. Although we may not know we are being tested in any one thing, actually everything we say and do, is being checked and tested by someone, so the real question is, “Do we do everything that we do, to the best of our abilities, so that it will pass any and every reasonable test anyone might apply to it?” Over to you for reflection there.