Re: Who is an ESL writer?

[Reshma <reshma_pendse -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- in>]

You're right, Tony. A certification might not help with accent and colloquialisms. But for people in the technical writing field, where plain English is expected, wouldn't a certification by a standard body help?

Regards,
Reshma

Sent from my iPhone, please ignore typos.

On 28-Mar-2013, at 11:38 PM, Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 10:27 AM, reshma pendse <reshma_pendse -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- in> wrote:
>> 
>> What do you think? Would a standard certification requirement make it easier for hiring managers to separate the wheat from the chaff, and reduce the challenges of working with under-qualified people? 
> 
> 
> Reshma,
> 
> I am reminded of the time many decades ago where my band played in a competition in Tokyo. One of the MCs was heralded for his mastery of the "New York Style". He spoke Japanese like a native. After all, he was a native Japanese man. But when he broke into English, his enunciation and voice morphed into that of an American DJ--or at least what they thought all American DJs sounded like.
> 
> So certification can only take one so far. And it would also depend on who managed the training. Even if I spoke another language with some degree of proficiency, I would have to live in a the target cultural area long enough to understand the differences between how words are supposed to be used vs how they are used right now. Just listen to a group of pre-teen boys talk about Herman Melville's classic work, featuring "Call me Ishmael", one Captain Ahab, and a whale--named Moby Dick.
> 
> 
> Sorry to hijack this question, but I wonder if there would be more consistency in the areas of Plain Language or Simplified Technical English? Practitioners in those specialized, controlled vocabularies would probably not use colloquial phrases at all.
> 
> -Tony
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>From our sponsor Doc-to-Help: Want to see a Doc-To-Help web-based Help sample with DISQUS for user commenting?

Learn more: http://bit.ly/13xpg5n

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives