Some
months ago I put a complimentary comment on a YouTube video which studied the
facts around some mysterious ancient artefacts. The man who presented it did so
calmly, rationally, and without unwarranted speculation or hyperbole. Today
someone entered a reply to my comment which read (and this was copied and
pasted from the channel so it’s exactly as it appeared):
Few and far Between Nowadays like joe friday "Just the facts" directly whiler so many others are overly BSOP!!!
What am I supposed to make of it? I read it several times, and on about the fourth I came to the tentative conclusion that he was agreeing with me. I also presumed that English is not his native language, and so I admired him for trying. And it did remind me – if I needed any reminding – that speaking a foreign language is at least as much about grammar, syntax, and conventions as it is about vocabulary. Knowing the words is good as long as you put them in the right order. (Then again, he might have been an American whose vote contributed to putting Donald Trump into the White House.)
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