Thursday, January 17, 2008

Right and Wrong!

End of an illustrious career

I hardly ever write about anything related to cricket. Even if it is something as 'big' as Sydneygate. Due to essentially two reasons. Firstly there is hardly anything left to write after reams/TBs have been written/spoken on every conceivable aspect of the issue, and secondly there is a fatigue that grips me due to overcoverage of Cricket!

But I am making this exception to salute one of my most favorite and respected cricketers who said farewell from the game last week, and ironically while all of us were busy lambasting bad behavior on the ground the retirement of one of the most gentlemen cricketers hardly made any news, atleast in India.

I believe you will echo my feelings for Shaun Pollock, who showed us that you can be aggressive and competent without engaging in verbal slur. His records speak for themselves but, it was his onfield persona that made me his fan.

Good bye Sir. The game certainly owes a lot to you!

Correct Me!

A few months ago The Times Of India had a discussion on their edit page on the topic: Is it ok to allow SMS language in exams? The main argument supporting the issue (that yes it should be allowed) was that it is more important for examinees is to write correct answer. What use it is if someone writes a wrong answer in correct English? Fair enough! Only if I could find this supporter I would make him/her read all the crap that we Indians have started pasting all over the internet.

Don't get me wrong. (if you are getting me wrong in first place, that is!) I don't mean to be preachy but reading really terrible language even on technical forums is not a very enriching experience. (Read the comments on Rediff.com if you want to see really ugly face of Indians.) Instead of question you have to interpret the SMS words that poster has used. (Vaibhav and I have tried to be strict about language of questions posted on our C/C++/Java community on Orkut, and have had some success.)

And I am not even talking of grammatical and spelling errors here. Don't they have good old language writing classes in schools anymore? Or the students submit their answers through SMS only?

I think Firefox should start using something more than red dotted underlines to show people that perhaps the word they wrote does not exist in English!!

6 comments:

Vaibhav Choudhary said...

Ah cool, I am big fan of this guy. Excellent player who know how to win with honesty.

@second point: Yes, agree again. Not only this people start using the same in blogs as well. And the real problem is no one is following any paradigm. for some pl is people, for some its ppl !

Anonymous said...

Hi Abhishek,
Could not agree more to this...all who have some knowledge of cricket, know Shaun Pollock and what a great ambassador he has been for the game. Hats off to this legend...!

--> 2nd point - I agree to this as well Abhishek, SMS should ONLY be limited to mobile messaging as we have limited space there and the aim is not to to be grammatically correct, but to convey the message. But when it anything (SMS complement) it should be mandatory to use proper English and those who don't should be made aware of this. SMS in normal language, is an insult to the laguage itself!

Anonymous said...

Hi Abhishek,

Of course He is a great player.

Secondly I definitely agree to this point that SMS language should be limited to SMS only & not otherwise.I becomes really diffcult to actually understand what a person wants to convey... :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Abhishek,
I cannot agree more with you on the 2nd point. Its a pain to see people using chat/SMS language in Exams (and blogs) where language and expression really matter.

However, I feel we should be a little lineant to use it places like discussion boards. Lets analyse. Think of the people who post answers/solutions on discussion boards. They might not have that much time to elaborate their answers using complete words. I feel they do an honor in atleast taking out time to reply, and so I personally dont mind the language there.

Another example. Search for a video on you-tube and see the comments posted. They would be something like:
"Luv it"
"gr8"
"Coooooool"
"Wtchng non-stop!"
Again, I think it adds some spice and life to their comments saying it that way.
Would we really like a comment on an Enrique video which says "I really liked this video. It was cool. I have been watching it again and again. I just cant stop!I recommend it to all you Enrique fans. Please do watch it."
Instead, I would love to see someone say "Jus Watch it Man!!" :-)
But then, its my personal opinion.

But of course, for Exams and serious blogging, I never like these....


Thanks for notifying me about your blogs.... Will try to catch it more often....
Keep writing!

Regards
Anshuman

Waterfox said...

Anshuman gave the discussion a different and refreshing prospective I must say!

Yes, on YouTube or informal comments it is acceptable but I was talking of technical forums. I found a very nice looking article on some topic I was looking for and started reading it. Though the writer seemed to be very knowledgeable on the topic his language was so incorrect that after a while I had to leave the article. I am not making it up or exaggerating here. Though he was technically very sound, his language made me leave the article.

Waterfox said...

Thanks to Anshuman for pointing the mistake!
Read 'prospective' as 'perspective' in my previous comment. Wrong english!!!!