Fountain Pen on Parchment Zen and the Art of Pen on Paper

Most of us know about, and we English types shudder at, the general demise of the English language from its pure and correct form. The causes are rampant and many, hailing from all ages and all segments of society, but the effect is the same: the “almost” acceptable use of the plural pronoun (they, them) with a singular antecedent (student, customer), use of big words and complex sentences to appear “important,” sentence fragments, run on sentences, and the list goes on.

But recently I’ve run into quite a conundrum. In my attempts to “market” using the many social networking vehicles out there, I’ve come across many English as a second language business folks trying to do business with US-based customers. Opportunity! I approached several such folks and offered my services as teacher and editor/writer. Understandably, many either did not reply or politely declined. However, one individual did respond and took me up on my offer to edit for him. Only ….

Without giving details, the problem in this instance, and in many others, is that some ESL people either are not aware of, or refuse to admit to, their inabilities to write correctly in English. Granted, English is a nasty language to learn — right up there with Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. But to do business in this culture requires an ongoing commitment to learn the language and write it well.