If users are newbies, why not spend around a half of hour (or even less) to read this one:
Writing a welcome message (visit to read full content, I only quoted part of language).
If you are fluent in any language other than English, then it is highly encouraged for you to post in your local board. These boards often have tight-knit communities which will be able to help you, and in some ways you might be at an advantage compared to English-only posters.
In the English sections, only English is allowed. It is not necessary to speak perfect English, though you should be understandable. Try your best. If you're unsure whether your English is good enough, ask in your local board or in the Beginners & Help section
Fortunately, in fact, most of time, theymos understands what users want to express.
As jackg mentioned, English is a fluid and forgiving language. Even on a pretty global forum like this, I only rarely see English so bad that I can't understand it at all. As long as you actually
have some ideas to express, you should be fine. You should keep in mind that poor English is more difficult to read, though, so if you know that your English is imperfect, it'd be courteous to keep your text to-the-point, and to do some extra checking to minimize errors as much as possible. (I do the same when writing imperfectly in my second languages.)
A good recent example which comes to mind is zentdex's
Where the merit pours. He made several English errors, but he was entirely understandable, and the post was overall a very good contribution.
The real problem is people posting nonsense just to post, with no real contribution to make or ideas to express. That's bad enough as-is, and poor English makes it even worse.
- If you are unable to write understandable posts in English, stick with your local boards.
- If you are able to read acceptably understandable posts in English, do it, but always remember to do vocabulary and grammar checking. (see at the bottom of this post)
- Focus on your core ideas, and express them as best as possible (in your ability of language), and don't try to over-expand your posts too lengthy. If your English writing skill is not good, try to expand your posts for too long will make it more messy.
- Don't try to polish your posts with uncommon words
In the same time, try to learn and improve your English writing skill.
There are tools for you, please see:
Basics:(2) Spending most of your time to read and learn
Only start composing your posts when you have something extremely constructive to discussions, topics.
Reasons:
- You are noobs, newbies (lack of knowledge, and experience), so what you think are constructive most likely unconstructive in reality.
- When you actually have reasons to start composing your posts, after finishing it, please re-read again and again to check that your posts are good in grammar, vocabularies, and good enough to express most of your ideas. I wrote most of your ideas because sometimes it is difficult for non-native English speakers to write down and completely express ideas by words. It's a challenge for non-native English speakers, who don't have English as their mother tongue.
< ... >
(6) Spend your time to improve your English, especially Reading and Writing skills
Reasons:
- If you can not read posts or topic in English well, can not get ideas of posts' / topics' authors, it means that you have nothing to do in the forum.
Remember that you have to get their ideas well enough to not misunderstand their core ideas.
- Next, after reading good enough to catch authors' ideas, it is time for you to express your own ideas in case you have something to ask for help, something to discuss, or something meaningful to help others. This is the time you need to have good enough Writing skill.
This is why I mentioned you should improve your English skills, step by step, from Reading to Writing. Of course, you can improve both skills simultaneously.
The forum is the place almost solely for discussions via Reading and Writing.
You can find available sources for English learning in the References at the end of this OP.
Intermediate:Advanced:Some useful tools to help you checking your vocabulary & grammar mistakes
• If you struggle with English it's probably best to try stick to your Local boards. Your English does not need to be anywhere near perfect and you will not be penalised for this but if people generally can't understand what you're saying then it will likely be considered unsubstantial or spam.
