Sunday 8 December 2013

Shut up, for the lack of your ability!

You see, while you keep going on about my inability to read and understand English, it's basically you, who lacks ability. And that is understanding how a bi-lingual brain actually deals with the two languages in the head. I've heard it so many times now, I'm sick to the back teeth with it. People, particularly writers who only speak English, who regularly 'chat' or 'argue' with me on fora, seem to think I'm a retarded English reader/speaker. The best suggestions, however, was in response to my slow reading pace: maybe I should read in German to speed things up. That left me reeling. I think I've never heard such a stupid suggestion in my life. Seriously? Do you really think I'm a slow reader in English, but super fast in German? And that after conversing with me regularly? What gave you the impression that I'm slow on the intake in English? The absurdity of this comment almost made me laugh. I've always been the last one reading in class, but the first to hand in an essay. I've been in this country for seven years and I've written seven books in English. Six of them are published. Yes, they needed some help regarding grammar--mainly phrasing and syntax, but with those corrections my skills improved. I'm criticised for not knowing much about dialogue punctuation when I started out with writing, and now claiming to be an editor; yes, even having written a rant and short editing manual for writers to help them with self-editing doesn't convince those doubters. How dare I? A German girl giving advice on how to write fiction in English? Uhhh, the rage. Doesn't matter that she knows what she's talking about or not, she's German and therefore can't understand English well enough, so don't listen to her. I knew it would happen at some point, that people argue my not having a degree in English or worked for a publishing house. Quite frankly, I don't care, as I don't edit anymore, for bicycles make me much happier than having to read the shoddy offerings (not all, I hasten to add) writers seem to think worthy of publishing. In case you haven't noticed, I'm known for ranting about the shite quality of self-published books, do you think it's because I don't understand the very basic scribblings of those authors whose books I've deleted? You probably think to yourself, I wonder what she'd think if the books were in written in German. Yeah, right. A writer with no talent won't be able to produce something readable, no matter the language.
The problem here I see is you, English-only speaker, having a narrow mind, one that doesn't understand how it feels to be fluent in at least two languages. So do me one favour, please, and shut the fuck up, or if you insist on having this discussion, go and learn a second language to the same level as my English is. Then we can talk, but I guess you'd be too mortified to actually dare to, as you'd come to realise what a bucket full of shite you've been dishing out.

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