4 ms·

While living in China I've met several postgrads who studied in the UK or US but speak only pidgin English at best. How did they get through it? With money and

While living in China I've met several postgrads who studied in the UK or US but speak only pidgin English at best. How did they get through it? With money and copious amounts of cheating, probably.

bryanlarsen 10y ago
While criticizing someone else's English it's almost guaranteed you'll make an error of your own. It's 'pidgin English', not 'pigeon'.
- aaronbrethorst 10y ago
  I upvoted you, but the comma after 'pidgin English' should really go inside the quote. i.e. It's 'pidgin English,' not 'pigeon'. :) http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around...
  - nkoren 10y ago
    That is correct, but I believe you meant 'e.g.' rather than 'i.e.': http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/ie-versus-eg http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/ie-versus... (If someone can spot an error I've made, this can go on forever. Wheee!) ;-)
    - jwilk 10y ago
      No, their use of 'i.e.' was correct.
  - aninhumer 10y ago
    That's a style choice, and one that's largely rejected by this audience because we're used to logically nested programming languages.
    - aaronbrethorst 10y ago
      We're also used, I hope, to juggling multiple types of syntax in the same project. This is no different.
      - aninhumer 10y ago
        Yes, and if the person you replied to were writing an academic article for the American Psychological Association they would be wise to follow their style guide in that context.
        aaronbrethorst 10y ago
        APA style is used far beyond psychology, and is one of the three most common styles of writing, the other two being MLA and Chicago.
  - yorwba 10y ago
    Your source mentions that there are several punctuation styles and 'single quotes' + 'comma outside' corresponds to the British style.
  - mrkgnao 10y ago
    http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html
- teknologist 10y ago
  Fixed, thanks. To be clear I'm actually criticising their ability to get a point across in a language they claim to speak and have studied with at degree level.
- 72deluxe 10y ago
  No no it's pinyin English :-)
- jwilk 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law
- DanBC 10y ago
  Sometimes known as "Skitt's Law". http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/skitt-s-law http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/skitt-s-law
tluyben2 10y ago
I sometimes work with a PM in China who studied (recently!) four years in the UK. His English is so bad that I have to disect a sentence I utter to him completely and test every part every time to know if he even understood. How does that work indeed? How did he surive there? I cannot ask him for obvious reasons.

While living in China I've met several postgrads who studied in the UK or US but speak only pidgin English at best. How did they get through it? With money and copious amounts of cheating, probably.

bryanlarsen 10y ago

While criticizing someone else's English it's almost guaranteed you'll make an error of your own. It's 'pidgin English', not 'pigeon'.

aaronbrethorst 10y ago
I upvoted you, but the comma after 'pidgin English' should really go inside the quote. i.e. It's 'pidgin English,' not 'pigeon'. :) http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around...
- nkoren 10y ago
  That is correct, but I believe you meant 'e.g.' rather than 'i.e.': http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/ie-versus-eg http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/ie-versus... (If someone can spot an error I've made, this can go on forever. Wheee!) ;-)
  - jwilk 10y ago
    No, their use of 'i.e.' was correct.
- aninhumer 10y ago
  That's a style choice, and one that's largely rejected by this audience because we're used to logically nested programming languages.
  - aaronbrethorst 10y ago
    We're also used, I hope, to juggling multiple types of syntax in the same project. This is no different.
    - aninhumer 10y ago
      Yes, and if the person you replied to were writing an academic article for the American Psychological Association they would be wise to follow their style guide in that context.
      - aaronbrethorst 10y ago
        APA style is used far beyond psychology, and is one of the three most common styles of writing, the other two being MLA and Chicago.
- yorwba 10y ago
  Your source mentions that there are several punctuation styles and 'single quotes' + 'comma outside' corresponds to the British style.
- mrkgnao 10y ago
  http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html
teknologist 10y ago
Fixed, thanks. To be clear I'm actually criticising their ability to get a point across in a language they claim to speak and have studied with at degree level.
72deluxe 10y ago
No no it's pinyin English :-)
jwilk 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law
DanBC 10y ago
Sometimes known as "Skitt's Law". http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/skitt-s-law http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/skitt-s-law

tluyben2 10y ago

I sometimes work with a PM in China who studied (recently!) four years in the UK. His English is so bad that I have to disect a sentence I utter to him completely and test every part every time to know if he even understood. How does that work indeed? How did he surive there? I cannot ask him for obvious reasons.