>>>Next time when I get to translate something (if I ever dare do that), I'll take notes and post the worst dozen cases here.
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>>The two of us are certainly among the worst dozen cases here <lol>.
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>Include Terry... even though he's defending the language, he's actually helping me prove a point. When I say a word is missing, he gives me a workaround and points out that it's not a syllable longer. It's still missing.
>
>>I think it comes down to a certain amount of trust in the reader. A writer is obligated to express things as clearly as he or she can but can't work in fear that some reader somewhere will mistake the meaning. Some reader probably will. Have a reasonable target audience in mind and have faith that they will somehow muddle their way through.
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>Here's a case I had on one of previous jobs. I had to solve server banking. Now knowing that our app works over a network, utilizes SQL server, is loaded from a file server, and uses a pool of VFP COM servers which handle a part of network communication, and knowing what banking means in computing - I had only one question: "how is that different from a server farm?"
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>Well, it was, and completely. The context wasn't where's the app running, but what: restaurant. The "server" is a waiter. And "banking" is actually the works of the virtual piggy bank where their tips are collected, borrowings charged and discharged, and the total divided into percentages (for the kitchen and other personnel).
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>Another one was early on when I came here. It was a medical education tracking app, and among the words which confused me utterly were "resident" and "fellow". I knew both words from long ago, and they didn't make much sense in the context of medical education. What does it matter if a doctor is residing or just temporarily assigned to the location - he'll do his job either way. And it shouldn't matter if he's a jolly good fellow or not; even if he's a she, it's none of app's business to track.
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>At least, with a word you don't know, you know that you don't know it. Words that you know seem so familiar - except that you need to notice that what you know doesn't make much sense.


First of all, my compliments on how well you speak in a second (Nth?) language. Most natives don't speak English nearly as well.

Sure, there are linguistic land mines in any language, English probably more than most. My advice is genuine: write as clearly as you can and then have faith in the reader. If you stop to dot every i and cross every t your reader will quickly fall asleep.

My younger daughter Emily showed an early flair for writing. (Not bragging, just saying). She showed me a story she had written at school and it was terrific. I said wow, Emmo, this is great. She said she was afraid she had not followed all the rules right. (My daughters are both adorable but very easy to tell apart: one needs to be kicked in the behind on a regular basis and the other can be devastated by an unkind word. Emily is by far her own harshest critic). Anyway, I told her the only real rule of writing is to keep the reader wanting to read more. You can break every rule in the book if you follow that one.

Doo doo doo doo .... cue the Twilight Zone theme song. She just called wanting to know what time I will pick them up tomorrow. I said usual time, 7:15 or 7:30, I'll call you from the cell phone when I'm half an hour away. I can't wait. They give me purpose.