Teacher Discussion Forums

Inspired by Juan-Two-Three's question, ...

Does the pseudonym you use on English language fora affect the way you are treated?

"In an experiment that I conducted some time ago I found that many instances of stylistic and idiomatic oddities that I had deliberately introduced in a piece of writing were noted and corrected by unknown referee readers, but exactly similar errors were untouched when I used an Anglo-Saxon-sounding pseudonym!"

http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/t ... 1/f.1.html

Nostalgia corner.

Remember this?

"There are in many phrases a word order that is generally accepted to be the norm, and a diversion from this order would immediately be noticed by a native speaker and not necessarily by a non-native.
For example, the colours of the Union Jack (the British national flag), are red, white and blue. If somebody described them as blue red and white, they are technically correct, but the native speaker would sense an uncomfortable feeling that the speaker was not quite right, or had spoken incorrectly."

Even the example used was frightfully pukka-sahib.


http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=5204

I was definitely being condescended to. Though to be fair so was everybody else, so who can say if it had anything to do with our nicks.

The speaker there, who was Argentinian, was choosing a 'pukka-sahib' example to back up the idea that the native speaker used word order in a way not explained by the grammar. The fact that the conclusions he drew were barmy, didn't mean he was condescending.