Yeah, some of them (like the ones before "that" and "when") are a negative transfer from German. Trivial to fix though, and something tells me they will. Definitely a beautifully put-together page.
Ahh, is this a translation thing? I was reading through this page gritting my teeth at the appalling misuse of commas---and I am certainly not one to skimp on commas.
I don't think it's a translation thing: I think this was written in English by a native German-speaker, who applied German comma-use habits to English. I'm American, but I spent many of my early years in Germany and attended German schools through the fifth grade. After that my family moved back to the states and I finished my education here. To this day, I still have to make a conscious effort not to over-use commas. After I finish a first draft, a big part of my first editing pass is cutting out extraneous commas. I instantly recognized the comma overuse in the bios page because it's how I'm naturally inclined to write.
A "negative transfer" is when you apply habits from one language to another and make usage choices that are not necessarily errors, but sound awkward to native speakers. It's not so much a translation thing as it is a non-native speaker thing.
Comments
Too many commas. But otherwise engaging.
Yeah, some of them (like the ones before "that" and "when") are a negative transfer from German. Trivial to fix though, and something tells me they will. Definitely a beautifully put-together page.
Ahh, is this a translation thing? I was reading through this page gritting my teeth at the appalling misuse of commas---and I am certainly not one to skimp on commas.
I don't think it's a translation thing: I think this was written in English by a native German-speaker, who applied German comma-use habits to English. I'm American, but I spent many of my early years in Germany and attended German schools through the fifth grade. After that my family moved back to the states and I finished my education here. To this day, I still have to make a conscious effort not to over-use commas. After I finish a first draft, a big part of my first editing pass is cutting out extraneous commas. I instantly recognized the comma overuse in the bios page because it's how I'm naturally inclined to write.
Yeah, what lucasjung said.
A "negative transfer" is when you apply habits from one language to another and make usage choices that are not necessarily errors, but sound awkward to native speakers. It's not so much a translation thing as it is a non-native speaker thing.
+1 for em-dash usage :-D