The use of the English language can be very challenging for non-native speakers (which is actually the majority of the English speaking world population). Consequently, their use of both spoken and written English is sometimes really awkward and some sentences can be incomprehensible. In my day job at university, I’ve got lots of opportunities to meet people who are (like me) non-native speakers and with which I communicate in something that vaguely resembles “English”.
As I already documented in a previous blog entry, the works of students can be a rich source of constructs of deformed or mistreated English and they are sometimes quite hard to understand. Here are some anonymous examples:
“Types: They are defined using XML-Schema. The may be used to declare complex data types. If only simple data types like strings or integers are used they are not necessary.”
- Yes, keep it simple! That makes life much easier!
“Message: A message defines messages which are exchanged. There are incoming and outgoing messages.”
– Really? Who would have thought that? What goes in on one end, comes out on the other? Mindblowing …
“Operation: An operation is an action provided by the Web Service. Its an abstract description of this action.”
– Okay… what is it really? Abstract operations of actions? Actions of abstract operations? Or both?
Your ikangai university team
