- The linguistic inhibition factor
Let's now deal with an important point especially to those whose native language is not English: pls. never feel shy or inhibited by the fact that you may fear that your command of English is not as good as that of other people that you see writing and posting on the Net!!!
To start with, even though the USA is the country that probably makes most use of the Net on a per capita basis, still the English non-native speaker community on the Net will turn out to be the majority! Just please consider that the entire English speaking community in the World that is on line--that is, putting together Netters from the USA, England, Australia, and all other places in this wide world of ours where babies learn English as their first language--this community does not outnumber the the community of Netters from every other land, as added together.
So, if you are not a native speaker of English, you can be sure you have plenty of good company around, and therefore should never allow this particularity to inhibit you from making your voice be heard, from getting your point across!
Ah!...you feel your command of English is not that good... You feel afraid of making bad grammar mistakes...you feel these possible mistakes may make your message look ridiculous...etc., etc....
No! No ways!!! Pls. do not allow yourself to waste time and energy this way!!!
The same goes for you who actually are a native speaker of English, and yet feel or fear that your use of English is not quite up to par with the linguistic level you see in the output of ongoing communication on line between/among most native users of English.
Of course, we should all always try to express ourselves as well as we possibly can! For this, per se, helps ensure that our message(s) be properly understood!
Other than this concern, that is, other than focusing genuinely on optimizing our communication possibilities as much as we may be able to, language use is by no means to constitute any other sort of concern to us, as we are involved in communication (whether on line or off line). Otherwise, instead of making use of language as the communication tool it is indeed meant to be, what we are actually doing is unduly turning language into a barrier for communication!!!
Language is meant to represent a bridge between two minds! Never a barrier imposed between them!
Language should bring us together; never tear us apart!
(5:11)
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