I remember a couple or years ago I spent an entire class arguing with
three people about the spelling of the word
tomorrow. They thought it was spelled
tommorow. All three of them had been living in Canada for at least two years then, and one of them was even an American (and English was her first language), while I was living in Canada for only about six months at the time (maybe I did have an advantage because I had my ESL teacher drill correct spelling into my head everyday
).
When I took out a dictionary and showed them that it was spelled 'tomorrow' they said it must have been a mistake, or a typo, or something. And that was when I gave up my argument and started laughing (even though I should have been crying).
Some of my worst experiences with grammar have come when I am forced to participate in peer editing.
With the kind of people I find myself sharing a class with, I totally agree (see above).
When I came to Canada, I was stuck in an ESL class for little less than a year, and my English was pretty horrible at the beginning, though I could get by. My spelling was even more appalling. For about a whole term, my teacher would have to constantly remind me to capitalize proper nouns and beginning of sentences. I also quickly learned there was an 'e' on the end of 'because'.
Maybe because I had a tough teacher is why I watch my grammar so much.
I remember though in Israel, in grade 2, my teacher would give us spelling tests every week, and I'd get a perfect mark on each of them. Maybe my spelling was perfect already then because I read so much (My nick name was 'the bookworm').
Julie (feeling very sorry for the girls mentioned above)
