Am I illiterate

Question

Hi , I came on this forum because I was looking for help on spelling and good grammar.

I have tertiary education; yes I managed with sheer hard work and as a mature student to pass well. I was a migrant as a child from another non speaking country in 1970. Back in those days they didn't have the resources for new migrant children to learn English in the schools like they do today. My parents worked long hours and were not home to see that I should do my homework. I am not blaming them, it was up to me to learn, but like all inquisitive children I preferred to play and get into trouble.
From determination and hard work I did well for myself, I have good business mind
I am writing on this form, because I need your opinion on my grammar and spelling. When you read this do I seem like an illiterate person? Please don't misunderstand me, I do use spell check and everything. It is very important for me to be accurate and I do try so very hard.
All I am asking you is can you read this? Are you able to pick up many errors? Or am I just being paranoid. Your assistance is appreciated.

I was thinking of employing a private engilsh teacher to teach me english Literature. I have so much pain in my sole regarding my inability to perfect the Engish language. I admire the power you gain when you can express yourself with the written word.

I felt that I needed to post this because I liked a forum, which I am on but got into an argument over something very silly and I noticed that my grammar was a weapon against me, and I felt humiliated and ashamed. (I am no longer on that forum.)

Every time I think about it I cry. Why does it affect me so much? If you have any suggestions, on how to improve and gain the gift of beautiful grammar and spelling, I would appreciate it.

Regards

Oran.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hello Oran, and welcome to English Forums. I see no reason to think your English is not very good indeed. You have no reason to be ashamed; at the same time, you should realize that misunderstandings break out on all forums. A good forum participant needs to cultivate a calm, even demeanor under all circumstances and understand that communicating one's feelings and opinions accurately, objectively and pleasantly is all but impossible across the internet, where one's smiling face is not there to help out.

I have indicated in bold below the few problems I was able to find. Most, I think, are just typing errors:

Hi, I came on this forum because I was looking for help on spelling and good grammar.
I have tertiary education; yes, I managed with sheer hard work and as a mature student to pass well. I was a migrant as a child from another non~~English~~speaking country in 1970. Back in those days, they didn't have the resources for new migrant children to learn English in the schools like they do today. My parents worked long hours and were not home to see that I should do my homework. I am not blaming them; it was up to me to learn, but like all inquisitive children I preferred to play and get into trouble.

From determination and hard work I did well for myself; I have a good business mind.
I am writing on this forum because I need your opinion on my grammar and spelling. When you read this, do I seem like an illiterate person? Please don't misunderstand me; I do use spell check and everything. It is very important for me to be accurate and I do try so very hard.
All I am asking you is can you read this? Are you able to pick up many errors? Or am I just being paranoid? Your assistance is appreciated.

I was thinking of employing a private English teacher to teach me English Literature. I have so much pain in my soul regarding my inability to perfect the Engish language. I admire the power you gain when you can express yourself with the written word.

I felt that I needed to post this because I liked a forum where I was on, but I got into an argument over something very silly and I noticed that my grammar was a weapon against me, and I felt humiliated and ashamed. (I am no longer on that forum.)

Every time I think about it I cry. Why does it affect me so much? If you have any suggestions on how to improve and gain the gift of beautiful grammar and spelling, I would appreciate it.

Regards,
Oran.

Oran · Answer

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter. Is this forum for people who are looking to improve their English skills?

How does it actually work?

I am ecstatic that I have found it, because now I can type away and maybe regain some confidence in myself .

Buckmajor · Answer

Hi Oran welcome to English Forums.

I would definitely say that English Forums is for anyone who is wanting to improve their English skills, because I'm one of them

.

Go hard Oran, type away, there is always room for correction which is all part of learning and improving. I have so much to improve and want to learn as much as I can.

You can add me as your friend's list too.

CHEERS

Yankee · Answer

Hi Oran

I also think your English is quite good. [Y]

oranI type it into a word document and then spell check it. (is that unethical).

No, that's not unethical. However, if you find that you are making lots of spelling mistakes, it might help if you manually retype any spelling errors that your spell checker identifies -- rather than just clicking and letting the spell-checker type the correct spelling for you. That may help you to remember the correct spelling next time you type the word.

You should also keep in mind that, although spell-checkers are very helpful tools, they will not find every single spelling error. For example, if you write "bear" rather than "bare", your spell-checker may not identify it as a misspelled word because both of those are correctly spelled words.

You might want to start a list of the words your spell-checker has identified as being misspelled. You may find that there are certain words you tend to always misspell. Once you have identified those words, you could focus your attention on those specific problem words.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you Yankee,

I agree with you regarding the spell check, it is just out of bad habit and no confidence that I automatically depend on that tool. I have now started to read slower and read each word and its sounds. I am unable to distinguish between the vowels a, u, and e, they sound the same to my ears. The other problem I have is stripped or striped. I require the dictionary for the meaning of the word; in order for me to us it correctly.

This reminds me of my exams in General nursing back in 1985. One of the multiple questions read.

Why would you redrape for a mastectomy after a breast biopsy. I couldn’t answer that question because I read the word re-drape as red rape.

I returned to the question at the end, when I had 5 min to go and realised what it had read. The answer to the question was “You would re-drape in order to confine the cancer cells and not spread them from the lump that has been excised back into the lymph and blood supply.

I don’t have a problem with medical terminology because I have been nursing for many years and had to learn anatomy and physiology well.

Spell check was not used much for the above letter.

Anonymous · Answer

Why is the above Anonymous. It was written by me, Oran.

Yankee · Answer

Hi Oran

You apparently were not logged in for either of your last two posts here. If you are not logged in, anything you post will show up as "Anonymous".

Oran · Answer

Thank you Yankee, I will check my login status from now on.

Oran

Am I illiterate

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