h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1: I have not insulted anyone,

Nevertheless someone may have been insulted. I was just trying to find out.

2: this morning wanted to talk about here, I know the difference between the links.

Fair enough


3 read the post by R. on my presumed heterosexuality which is not his affair,

I agree, your sexuality is not his affair.


4 read what you write that I have to sit on WELCOME-ENGLISH- FOR- BEGINNERS.

Me? I didn't say you have to be anywhere.


5 I have already said that I'm leaving

Ok, I missed that. You're welcome to stay though

Hi Barbara

It seems to me that you have come here for practise with your English, or more specifically you Amercian English maybe, as well as hopefully wanting to join in an interesting conversation.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand you, not so much your use of language, but in the sense it is unclear what point you are trying to make.

Your style is a little offputting, so in answer to to have I read Odyessa, I would say 'No, could you tell a little about it and how it throws light on the question we are discussing?'

When you follow it up with do you watch TV or listen to the radio, it's comes across as if you are implying I am ignorant. I don't think you intended that but I am saying it so you know why I felt confused and a bit offended before swl put in that link. I then may have not wanted to have a conversation with you or may have responded in a way that is not very positive because we don't understand each other.

I don't know if saying that is helpful to you, it is coming from a good place, in that I am trying to be helpful. It is not a criticism of you in anyway and I also hope I am not coming across as patronising in any way.

Where do you find the peace, I can't answer that tonight, I am tired and need to go to bed. Not that I am saying that after I have had a good nights sleep I can come up with a solution to finding world peace or anything

I hope your homework went well, keep up the good work, at times like this we often offer each other , so I am leaving some for you

All the best Peanut

simposts, took me ages to write that post, my written English is so bad I kept on checking and checking for typos and grammar

Please come back when you can Barbara but do your homework first

Barbara says she has a degree in Italy and is aiming to take a "PG in
Anthropology" at Aberdeen this September. This presumably means a
PG Diploma rather than an MSc or PhD. Unfortunately the standard of
her written English and her ability to follow an on-line discussion
(taking into account the quirky nature of H2G2 threads) as
demonstrated here would indicate she is unlikely to be successful in
meeting the course requirements for this year. She would need to be
generating academic level essays and passing examinations.

she must be very disappointed if that's the case, send more Tarantoes, and a and make sure she knows she is welcome here, if you don't mind

Dear Peanut, the post about Omero and the Peace was for Robert. Maybe I probably wrong, but I click on the button "reply to this post". Homer and the Peace was in response to Robert, who doesn't want me in this conversation.
I do not think that my examination will be fine, I needed to go to study in Scotland, but I do not care anymore about it, especially if all these fanatics come...
Now I feel stupidly offended and sad. Because: "especially if I am heterosexual as I am"!
Besides, it seemed I combined a virtual uproar!

Thank you for the sweets. I really like. It was really kind of you

>>she must be very disappointed if that's the case<< SWL provided a link to where she is posting on the English Language Community thread: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mble/NF2712585?thread=8265348&skip=0 which is open for comment from 9.00 to 22.00. I will try to make contact with her over there. I would for example be interested why she hasn't applied to take a postgraduate course in Italy. There is no point accepting students onto University courses in the UK if their English is not up to scratch. They will fail the course and waste their money. She plans to go to Aberdeen Scotland and so will have also to deal with the accent ...

I have never in my life seen a greater amount of misunderstanding. It's my fault. I should remember that a person with your English proficiency (in a negative sense) is incapable of reading between the lines and picking up on the nuances. It's incredible!

And what do you know of my academic level?
Before writing this you should make sure that I left. Were you talking about intolerance? So please don't give lessons about democracy.
I can continue to study in Italy. Don't care and don't worry about me.

Hi Barbara have some chocolate .

Life is too short to be offended by posts that appear from "anonymous" individuals on online fora. Your focus should be
to try to understand what is being said and to practise your written English.

Good Luck and I may try to contact you tomorrow.

ps You shouldn't consider that you will "fail" the TOEFL test.

You will do your best and will receive a mark. That mark will give
you feedback on your English language abilities at the time you took
the TOEFL test. It may be that the scores will be insufficient to
meet the minimum entry requirements for English language at
Aberdeen.

There is good reason why university's have minimum level entry
requirements for English. Students with lower standards of English
would simply be unable to keep up with the course and would not be
able to generate essays of sufficient quality to pass the coursework.

Okay I think I have said enough regarding Barbara. It is up to her
to contact me here if she wishes me to provide further advice or
comment.

Barbara, we usually mention the person by name or their intials if we are responding to one person specifically.

Don't let a few fanatics put you off coming to Scotland it is a wonderful place, it just has it's ups and downs like everywhere else.

I'm sorry that you feel sad and offended, that's not nice I hope that and makes you feel better though.

Don't worry about the virtual uproar, if you mean the one here, it was just a misunderstanding, we just want you know that you are welcome here and will write long posts trying to understand each other!

It's a good thing but it is a little overwhelming, I can see that, but h2g2 was for most of us when we were new, it takes time to find your feet but it's worth it

Glad you liked the

I must go to bed now but hopefully you will stay and explore h2g2 and I'll be seeing you again

Peanut

My dear Tarantoes,
I can go where I want to study in Italy. On the contrary: my teachers would not want me to go abroad, because we are few students, because I have a hupper degree with honors.
But I wanted try. If I can't because I'm an English invalids: patience: I will continue to study in Venice, are you happy now?!

I wouldn't worry too much about Robert either, he's being rude and deserves to be ignored.

One of your group has already contacted her there as you can see from the thread ---- the person who goes by "Merely a number".

You amuse me, keafied. I've known Barbara for quite some time. Try not to be so maudlin with respect to her.

Barbara, Tarantoes was trying to be helpful also, when he said he would be interested in why you you would perfer to study in Scotland rather than continue in Italy it was because he was just interested.

He would be concerned if he thought that your English would hold you back from reaching your full potential, if, say, you could delay coming this year and come next year perhaps?

He is both interested and concerned because he is a good person,that's all, if you don't want his help then no problem

>>I wouldn't worry too much about Robert either, he's being rude and
deserves to be ignored.<<

If you follow the link to the English Language Community thread you
will see that Robert has spent his time and effort in helping
Barbara and presumably others by responding to her posts and
correcting her English.

Dear Robert, I'm not the stupid 'you said, and the more I've never asked you to correct blunders like "if I were Reagan". I don't even wrong a tense like that, despite of my bad English. I never thought you could be so rude. Congratulations.

Robert perhaps you could take your aguements elsewhere then if you must and both form your own independent relationships with people here?