How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

[audioguru]

Electronics-Lab has stat's for its more than 36,000 members. Only a few of us chat there often. Maybe 100 of us are there nearly every day.
Thousands of members registered but never posted on the forum. Thousands posted only once or twice (a kid with a homework question?). Thousands sent me a PM and demanded that I do their homework.

Electronics-Lab has an English section and a Greek section. Some of the projects are Greek that are translated poorly into English by a machine.

 

[Krumlink]

I am a nice chap with my peers.
But the forums I chat on are for English speaking adults.

Some people come with horrible English (some use translating software that makes many mistakes) and are very difficult to understand. Sometimes others come from their country and they have a foreign conversation.
They cannot buy common parts and frequently their parts substitutions are obsolete or are foreign to us.
There are forums in their country that talk their language and use their common parts.
They can even tell a person which "market" to buy stuff.

I think there are only two school kids on this forum. On 5 other electronics chat forums there are none. I get many (too many) school kids and university students sending me PMs and demanding me to do their school work. A few say SIR and a few say PLZZZZ.

Whats wrong with them coming here as long as they speak proper English and have a somewhat decent grammatical structure.

 

[rjvh]

so far i know there is no obligation to answer posts

so if a post is not in somebody's expected quality framework than he/she should just not response to that post in my opinion

nobody would have a problem with that

Robert-Jan

 

[mvs sarma]

I am a nice chap with my peers.
But the forums I chat on are for English speaking adults.

Some people come with horrible English (some use translating software that makes many mistakes) and are very difficult to understand. .................... A few say SIR and a few say PLZZZZ.

Take my example. In Indian languages, have second person addressing with respect. Many people writing in English would obviously feel that you is not sufficient to indicate his respect. Naturally He / she tries to put 'sir' to match a respectful addressing in second person. Of course, there is a word thou. b I remember it is only found in historical novels and in biblical scripts. Many times I used this 'sir' while addressing and members used to joke as to when for example 'Nigel has been KNIGHTED!'

Let us be more subject minded till such time we are able to decipher an OPs post, If difficulty, we can always indicate him/her to use accepted General English than the SMS type codes.

I do accept that the typing like 'PLZZZZZ' or ;pleeeeeeeeese' or say 'sooooory' are not proper. and they should correct them while posting or immediately after posting, using the edit mode. the later is to avoid the possibility of correcting the keyboard behavior when it gets old anfd few keys become problematic.

the posters should more aim to internationally accepted standards while soliciting a solution to certain issues they can't otherwise solve.

The way of posting should not knowingly irritate the technical community.

Such self discipline really helps the prospective world scientists and Engineers, Doctors and Doctorates to be worthy and internationally acceptable.

those, who won't agree with me, please bear with my concepts, and if practised, and it would help building harmony among the International community.

 

[Pommie]

My view on this,

Anyone should be able to post here without fear of ridicule.

We shouldn't admonish posters when they ask a naive question.
Nor a badly worded question or a badly spelt question.

I always failed English test because I have a logical brain. I'm kinda proud of that. I would never dream of putting someone down because they can't do logic. Why do people that can do English put us logical people down?

Even now, I look at what I wrote above and know it's not good English.

I guess there are two types of people in this world (I only do binary ) Them that do English and Them that do logic.

I'm proud to state that I am a through and through logic guy.

Mike.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

I know it is for American, but just add aye to the end for Canadian.

The word you're thinking of is "eh," not "aye," but is pronounced "ay" as in "play." It's almost always used exclusively at the end of a phrase, eh? And similar, is always followed by a question mark.

Why we do it, or what we mean by it, is a much more complicated matter.

 

[jpanhalt]

Hi Sarma,

Actually, "sir" is used quite frequently to address a male person when you don't know his name. It is far better than "hey you," at least in American English. Unfortunately, there is not a completely equivalent word to address a female. "Madam" is in many respects similar, but some women take affront to that term, as well as "miss." So, one is often left with "M'am" (not sure how it is spelled correctly, maybe it should be ma'am). Thou and thee are also used in some legal writing as well, but rarely spoken. John

 

[dknguyen]

Take my example. In Indian languages, have second person addressing with respect. Many people writing in English would obviously feel that you is not sufficient to indicate his respect. Naturally He / she tries to put 'sir' to match a respectful addressing in second person. Of course, there is a word thou. b I remember it is only found in historical novels and in biblical scripts. Many times I used this 'sir' while addressing and members used to joke as to when for example 'Nigel has been KNIGHTED!'

Let us be more subject minded till such time we are able to decipher an OPs post, If difficulty, we can always indicate him/her to use accepted General English than the SMS type codes.

I do accept that the typing like 'PLZZZZZ' or ;pleeeeeeeeese' or say 'sooooory' are not proper. and they should correct them while posting or immediately after posting, using the edit mode. the later is to avoid the possibility of correcting the keyboard behavior when it gets old anfd few keys become problematic.

the posters should more aim to internationally accepted standards while soliciting a solution to certain issues they can't otherwise solve.

The way of posting should not knowingly irritate the technical community.

Such self discipline really helps the prospective world scientists and Engineers, Doctors and Doctorates to be worthy and internationally acceptable.

those, who won't agree with me, please bear with my concepts, and if practised, and it would help building harmony among the International community.

I have been somewhat conditioned against any post that starts with sir, simply because I can't remember a single post that started that way that was not a homework question. So the result is it it has become subconciously insincere to me (you know, they're only respectful and nice because they want something out of you).

 

[audioguru]

My son and daughter never addressed anybody with SIR.
I never did.
My father never did.
My grandfathers never did.
I think only people from India do. A different culture from mine.

 

[Pommie]

My son and daughter never addressed anybody with SIR.
I never did.
My father never did.
My grandfathers never did.
I think only people from India do. A different culture from mine.

Sir,

You are a narrow minded bigot.

Mike.

 

[audioguru]

Sir,

You are a narrow minded bigot.

Mike.

Most of us laugh when an Indian school kid calls us a Knight (SIR).
I am glad that they don't call us a Lord.

Wikipedia says that "SIR was once used ... about 800 years ago. SIR, on its own, is sometimes used by schoolchildren".

 

[ericgibbs]

hi,
South African younger people, black,white or coloured, address any person they do not know very well as 'Uncle' out of respect.

Even middle aged African people call me Uncle Eric, as a sign of respect.

Good manners are not the sole preserve of English speaking countries.

It still seems that scrooge does not realise where the forum is located and its a world wide web.

I will repeat, watch my lips.
Its located in New Zealand and its we who are those pesky foreigners.!

PS:

Most of us laugh when an Indian school kid calls us a Knight (SIR).
I am glad that they don't call us a Lord.

The term 'Sir' is not reserved for anyone with a Knighthood, its a common title of respect,
Addressing someone as Madam is also a term of respect.

 

[Pommie]

Most of us laugh when an Indian school kid calls us a Knight (SIR).
I am glad that they don't call us a Lord.

Wikipedia says that "SIR was once used ... about 800 years ago. SIR, on its own, is sometimes used by schoolchildren".

You just scored A++ in bigotry.

Mike.
Proud to have given AG REP--

 

[Torben]

My son and daughter never addressed anybody with SIR.
I never did.
My father never did.
My grandfathers never did.
I think only people from India do. A different culture from mine.

I was raised to take my hat off when entering the house, to hold the door for others, and to address my elders as "sir" and "ma'am". Strangely enough, I am also Canadian. Maybe I was just raised with good manners.


Torben

 

[audioguru]

I recall hearing soldiers addressing their commanding officer as SIR.
We are not soldiers and we are not Knights.

I also laugh when someone who is "down under" calls me a Bloke or a Mate.
Different culture again.

 

[Torben]

I recall hearing soldiers addressing their commanding officer as SIR.
We are not soldiers and we are not Knights.

I also laugh when someone who is "down under" calls me a Bloke or a Mate.
Different culture again.

When I was working in the school system (I used to do a lot of substitute teaching) the administration insisted that the kids refer to me as "sir". It felt weird.

In a weird inversion, cops like to call people "sir" and "ma'am", but they manage to say it in a way which makes it clear that it is *not* a term of respect. Weird.


Torben

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

When I was working in the school system (I used to do a lot of substitute teaching) the administration insisted that the kids refer to me as "sir". It felt weird.

It's commonplace to call your teacher Sir (or Miss) in the UK.

 

[Externet]

Hi.
I do address my boss or men I do not know as 'sir' with no problem, and I have no problem with mister and madam, instead of the stupid ma'am and get smiles about that. The funny part is the use of Mrs.; whatever the hell that means (-i know- )

The English language is very broken, and more has to be directed to fix it instead of complaining the customary/cultural 'misuse' (as English speaking people expects)
But there is barely an institution that controls-supervises this language and probably would be laughed upon, with people inventing and accepting 'software' and 'boot up' and zillion more as useable terms.
Anyway, this is the www which stands for world wide web and posts should not be expected to have the best of grammar; the world does not end in Canada, Méjico or the sea around the United Kingdom.
The best effort to express properly from foreigners should be encouraged for an English forum, but they encounter that the English speaking posters themselves do constantly run over their own language, and few point out the wrong writing.

Miguel - with English as a third language-

 

[Torben]

It's commonplace to call your teacher Sir (or Miss) in the UK.

Yeah, same here. The thing was that we had a really small school district, so I was suddenly working alongside the folks who had been my teachers for most of my life. I had to go from calling them Mr./Mrs. and sir/ma'am to using their first names, while getting used to suddenly being "sir" and "Mr. Wilson". Oh, poor me. It was terrible, I tells ya, simply terrible.

I'm one of those people who think "political correctness" is a concept which needs to be drowned in the river, and yet I bemoan the death of simple good manners.


Torben

 

[Torben]

Hi.
I do address my boss or men I do not know as 'sir' with no problem, and I have no problem with mister and madam, instead of the stupid ma'am and get smiles about that. The funny part is the use of Mrs.; whatever the hell that means (-i know- )

Ma'am isn't silly at all, and it's safer than "madam", which is a common term for the woman in charge of a brothel.


Torben