Grammar

Shortly after I encountered the medical student with an impressive hair colour, a friend rang me up in frustration.

He showed me a document he wrote - and asked if I could double check the grammar.

"What an idea !" I said to myself. To me, there is only one rule of English grammar that I could handle: Does it sound right ?

After all, even Shakespeare failed to observe the rules of grammar all the time - and I have not heard of any grammar expert writing pieces close to the quality of Hamlet.

(Well, yes, some are close to Les Miserables - they achieve the second word.)

By the way, being challenged on grammar is not only the problem of myself. Many of my colleagues have the same experience of being asked to revise a manuscript by some native English speaker.

On one occasion, one of my previous colleagues - who is a head-to-toe English - told me that he was asked to do so for his manuscript submitted to an international journal.

"They must have thought that the paper comes from Hong Kong and we could not be fluent in English." He complained.

"Well, how did you reply ?" I asked.

"Oh, I didn't revise anything. I just asked them to look at my name - that says everything." He could not help smiling.

PS. Although most Hong Kong people are native Chinese speakers, I believe if we are asked to give an expert opinion on the Chinese grammar of a document, the result would be catastrophic.