Learning English as a second language is hard. Or rather, it isn't, but a lot of my compatriots feel that way. And at the same time, it's sold as a necessary effort. "You need to speak English to travel the world!" How dare be born [sic] in a country where English is the vernacular? It's unfair!
--
Riccardo Orsini's comment on Frederick Bartlett's answer to Why do a lot of English-speaking French and Italians want us, as tourists, to speak their language when we visit their countries? --
So I've been told several times by my Chinese friends that my usage of Chinese commas are wrong. I used '、' instead of '，' on my
other blog.
Pictured left: wrong. Pictured right: riight.
Some of them, when I asked, told me the usage of '、' (or dùn hào, 顿号, as they called it) is creme de la creme, which is a way to preserve face. Either they don't know the answer or don't know how to explain it to me in English. Others laid it out in the open that they don't know. Only a few bothered to explain it to me, which I appreciated deeply.
'、' is not your usual comma. It is only used when you list some things, for example: His mother sent him fruits in boxes: oranges, peaches, grapes. This type of Chinese comma can be used between oranges and peaches, also between peaches and grapes.
'，' however, can be used for listing things and other things. So it is safer to use. Hearing that, I planned to correct my writings accordingly.
The problem is, I've been using the incorrect '、' for as many as 75 posts. One post can contain multiple incorrect Chinese comma, too!
That's where
Adam Lewis come to the rescue!
By a simple click here and there, all my posts now contain the correct commas. Imagine the relief from having to replace them one by one! :D
But with a poor color choice for user interface.
