Confusing Language

I don't know about you but I find this to be very humorous.

GUEST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IN ONE OF A FILIPINO PROGRAM EVENT:
   ORGANIZER: "Please acknowledge the Mayor, he was late. There, he just passed by."
   EMCEE:        "I would like to acknowledge the arrival of the late Mayor who just passed away."

I found this from one of JBSolis' blog entries. It reminds me how tricky English language can be sometimes; Especially when it's not your regular lingua.  When I was younger, I was always confused with some of the English words like why is the boutique word a lizard in the Philippines. Or, one of my grannies who we youngsters always thought of her as remnant of the World War 2 era, used to marry the suffix 'ize' into one of native dialect just to make one English word out of it. Like, "irogize' which would now mean - to move something. "Hey kid, IROGize that block of wood away from me! Why are you staring at? me?! You wanna make phan out of me? you wan to be funist? scolded? very painful? ha? ha?".

Ok, i made that out but she made it sound like that! Water is sometimes pronounced, "WOTiR!" making it sound like a glass of water stirred with sugar! In my language, there's no distinction between the sexes. There is no HE or SHE. Sometimes one old local folk, also a remnant of the Old World War 2, will utter a paragraph of phrases about the lady president (in English). And, made it sound like he's talking about the first gentleman and his  lady president but he's not. I sometimes make the same mistake. =P

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Coherence

Because I am lazy, I always missed out coherence in writing sometimes leading to my own confusion. I usually had to reread several times my posted blogs before I will realize my writing is like an uneven painted wall. I always have a habit of firing words and forget nevertheless, I am comfortable doing it that way. It is the coming back that I always feel awful reading it because I knew then I was not doing a good job. But, rather forgetting the discipline of a writer - coherence.

My mistakes too were attributed to not having observed to select the right words for what I meant. I knew selecting the right words for the things I needed to say has to be precise - giving the correct meaning to my thoughts. Why is the English language not so convenient to use sometimes but rather, how do you call it, meticulously necessary?

Coherence is I think the soul of what we are trying to write. While you give your readers a chance to breath through paragraphing, we make sense through it all by observing coherence. Imagine a torso of a man whose spinal chords are weak, they would appear bendy and the threat that they would fall off. All writing must be in harmony with nature. Breathing like a free flowing water.

I've heard this a millionth of times since my school days. Well, I had few literature teachers, having to speak Carabao English most of the time, is very aware of the coherence in writing. I haven't mastered this technique though. And, I continuously committed the mistake of not having to observe this.

So from definition by ANSWERS.COM:

It is the way a writing is logically layed out and connected. If it was an essay, one thing leads on to another, for example one paragraph leads on to another-the main ideas of each paragraph seem to connect but still make sense. this makes the reader feel that your writing is constantly flowing.

It also means you are very consistent in your writing. consistently and continuously through your writing you can connect each paragraph some how, that you can consistently write concisely as well. You can also consistently write in formal English. You can express yourself clearly and continuously through your essay for example.

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Lingua Franca

Because English is not my regular language, some points I needed to say is wrapped in my native tongue which then is translated into English. My English teacher used to tell me among other students that we need to think English in our heads in order to speak it effectively. It would be like having a pre-processor of everything before you write or speak the language.

Their are points in our heads that are just hard enough to explain thoroughly in English that, as it turns out, misses some significant points. The feeling is like trying to set foot on the sand while your body is floating on a body of water above your waist. Desperate enough to afoot against the current, you hover and momentum is just so difficult to achieve.

Nevertheless, learning the matter is somewhat an adventure. All my posts are experimental. It will usually take me several re-readings of my posts that I find them either awkward to read and needing reconstructions.

I welcome criticisms. After all, this is just part of my learning. After all, like everything in my work in IT, nobody taught me stuff. After multiple mistakes and discoveries, I can say that I'm doing well and just like any other endeavors, I'm beginning to set foot firmly.

(See not even the picture has something to do with what I'm talking about here) BUT, it's for you to find out the relevance, HEHEHEHE! Let's just say some stuff need to learn are tough as a game and we need to lighten up. :o)

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