Text 1727, 74 rader
Skriven 2007-03-31 23:02:41 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/716.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Peter Coggon (1:123/140)
Ärende: Russian FidoNet
=======================
Hi, Peter!  Recently you wrote in a message to Dan Ceppa:

DC>  There are far more Russian nodes there than any in other
DC>  region.

PC>  That is interesting.  How do the people access it all?


          Most people in Z2 apparently have to pay by the minute for the time
they use on a land line.  There are many more points in Z2 than in Z1 because
dialup connections are prohibitively expensive.  Russia is a very big country
& there are a lot of people in Russia who want to learn English.  But we also
welcome folks from Canada, Brazil, and other places....  ;-)



PC>  I am sorry for using the conference for exchanging ideas
PC>  as I have realized now, that it is a Englsih tutor area,


          Yes, this is an English tutor area.  I think it's important to keep
the original purpose in mind because I've seen far too many other echoes turn
into chat areas when there's a lack of focus & slowly die as the participants
realize they can chat just about anywhere.  However, I think it's valuable to
exchange ideas with people from other countries... and if people are going to
learn to express themselves in English, it's appropriate for them to practise
writing about topics which interest them.  You may recall the lesson I had in
high school French, where we were required to memorize a dialogue about a guy
who asked for a mushroom omelet(te) in a restaurant.  To this day I've had no
need to ask for such a thing in French or in any other language... [chuckle].



PC>  I am the last person on earth to be used as an example
PC>  for grammar spelling and english in general.


          Nobody said you had to have perfect English to be here!  Not all of
our "tutors" come from North America... and not all of our "tutees" come from
SomePlace Else.  Russians, for example, can often explain certain concepts to
other Russians much more effectively than I can.  And you're quite welcome to
correct me, if you catch me making a mistake.  Seems to me we're all students
here.  Some of us may be more advanced students than others, that's all.  :-)



PC>  I know that from the frustration of my Brasilian wife,
PC>  with me over english.


          Ah... I think I understand the problem!  First of all, your wife is
most welcome to practise her English in this echo.  Apart from xxcarol and me
there haven't been any ladies here for awhile.  Secondly, I realize it may be
confusing to live with someone whose native language is not English.  You may
tend to forget what you know about English... just as a lot of the kids in my
English classes at school would forget to capitalize the names of the days of
the week & the months of the year once they started learning French.  Here in
southwestern BC, others are having the same problem nowadays.  I encounter so
many errors on a regular basis that I doubt my own spelling & grammar.

          I don't see very much wrong with your English.  If you don't mind a
bit of correction, however, I've noticed that you spell "spies" correctly but
don't seem to use the same principle with words such as "cities", "families",
"countries", "communities", "colonies", "parties", and "studies".  Some folks
tell me "What the hey... echomail is an ephemeral medium!"  For that reason I
ignore what I think are probably typos & I don't go around looking for things
to correct unless I'm asked to.  But if you're suffering from culture shock &
you'd like me to do some editing of your work, I may be able to help....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)