LogFAQs > #953785251

harley2280 posted...

It's correct only in the most technical of terms.

ESL though shouldn't be teaching people to be technically correct. A native speaker wouldn't talk or write like that.

Think of it in terms of translating. If you directly translate something from Japanese to English if your translation is 1:1 it's technically correct as a translation, but that doesn't mean it's going to be understandable to an English reader. So even though it's a correct it's a bad translation.

This is a very good answer. I used to have to work on policy documents in languages I didn't speak and sometimes I'd get a translation and sometimes an interpreter's statement. As I became more senior I requested the interpreter's statement every time. The translation gives equivalence. The interpreter's statement gives the meaning as a native speaker would put it.

To my mind, a language learner should be seeking to speak as a native speaker and their instruction should help them achieve that.


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Not everyone is suitable to kill a lion - Maasai proverb.