Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The layers of writing

First, one has to have something to say. Then you have to figure out how to say it according to the format that you are trying to fit. So it is not the same to write an e-mail, or a blog, or a poem, or a scientific article. But there is another level, wedged in within the previous two. Language. I am trying hard to perform the task of writing in a given format in a Language in which -it seems- I am not fully proficient. So I have to stop a thousand times (ok, hundred times) to check a word (why is it underlined???) an often times its meaning is not the one I want to use, sometimes it is just not colloquial (nobody uses it) and sometimes it just does not exist. I really feel deprived of language when I write in English. Boohoo you would say. Too bad, so sad. I dare you, who believes that it is "just not a big deal", to write in a language that is not your own. Many people don't even try it, and many people are just not as self conscious and don't really care if the words they use are not completely accurate to what they are trying to convey. And then there is the sentence length...Argh.

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