Just the other day I was on Skype catching
up with a friend from Playa del Carmen I hadn’t spoken with in months. At one
point she mentioned that a mutual friend recently confided to her that she will
not comment on my Facebook posts out of embarrassment. Apparently, she told her I write so nicely
and correctly that she feels bad about her poor grammar/spelling. My first
reaction was to laugh about it, of course, but then it actually made me think.
The fact is I am a stickler when it
comes to writing, especially in Spanish. I am such a purist when it comes to my
native language that I am probably one of the few people left in the world who
still include tildes over the vowels (á,
é, í, ó, ú), diéresis on a u (ü) and virgulillas on ñ (~) when the words
require it.
As a result, now that I live in
the US, I demanded that my last name on my business card be written correctly
with the respect tilde: Gómez. After all, it would be pronounced
differently without it…not sure anyone else cares, but I do!
And I am just as strict when
writing texts. Yes, believe it or not, I do that when I text too. On my scale
of values writing correctly definitely has a higher priority than responding
quickly. By the way, does anyone know what SMS stand for?
This also took me back to the time
when I had moved to Miami to study at Florida International University, leaving
behind the friends I had made during the three semesters I attended Universidad
del Pacífico in Lima. Back then, there were no e-mails or texts so I exchanged letters
with my friends. In one of my first responses to them, I dared to point out their
grammar/spelling mistakes. I know, I had the nerve to do it!
Of course they got offended and
threatened not to write again so I stopped doing it, for good…I have to admit this
is something I still have a difficult time with! I am so tempted to act like the
Spanish Inquisition and correct people when I see grammar/spelling mistakes. However,
friendships are ultimately more important than language rules so I’ve decided I
won’t lose any over it and I’ll stick to that!