Why do immigrants overuse quotation marks?

[slackerinabox]

A friend of mine (and in-class partner) is a Taiwanese immigrant who is having a hard time writing papers for her college classes... She's a wonderfully sweet and kind person who's gone out of her way to help me in the film class that I'm taking with her so I try to return the favor by proofreading her papers - let's just say that it's not an easy task... For some reason she constantly overuses quotation marks- she ALWAYS puts adjectives in quotes and has a tendency to put nearly ever other sentence in a paragraph in quotes.. Why do immigrants do this? I feel like I should talk to her about this but feel that it may be considered rude... I noticed that the local chinese food place does this as well - they once put food in quotes in their menu - rather funny, actually. So what's the logic here? anyone else know what I'm talking about?

 

[MrAwesome]

Yeah.....immigrants tend to be zany people. Silly immigrants.

 

[murphy55d]

Just ask her why she uses so many.

 

[dighn]

chinese has different rules about punctuation. though the quotation thing maybe just a taiwanese thing.

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: MrAwesome
Yeah.....immigrants tend to be zany people. Silly immigrants.

Hey,
I wasn't making fun of immigrants..My parents are immigrants and my dad does the same thing (my mom doesn't because she was an english teacher).... I also think the world of this girl and want to help her but don't want to blurt out "so why do you use quotes all the time!?"

 

[murphy55d]

Then just say "you don't need to use quotations unless you're actually QUOTING someone"

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: MrAwesome
Yeah.....immigrants tend to be zany people. Silly immigrants.

Hey,
I wasn't making fun of immigrants..My parents are immigrants and my dad does the same thing (my mom doesn't because she was an english teacher).... I also think the world of this girl and want to help her but don't want to blurt out "so why do you use quotes all the time!?"

why not?

 

[Ameesh]

are you lumping all immigrants together because of your experience with just a few examples?

hey pol pot killed a bunch of people and he was cambodian, how come all cambodian's are mass murderers?

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: MrAwesome
Yeah.....immigrants tend to be zany people. Silly immigrants.

Hey,
I wasn't making fun of immigrants..My parents are immigrants and my dad does the same thing (my mom doesn't because she was an english teacher).... I also think the world of this girl and want to help her but don't want to blurt out "so why do you use quotes all the time!?"

why not?

Well, because I thought that would be rude.. I'd like to figure out her logic and think of something helpful to say before putting her on the spot.. I don't want her to feel that I'm belittling her or scolding her.. To clarify, we're not buddies but acquaintances slowly becoming friends.. if she was a bud I'd punch her in the arm and tell her to stop using quotes, but for now I'd rather just figure out her reasoning and then explain to her the correct usage...

 

[sillymofo]

Well, to my knowledge, our grammar makes us quote anything that's not of or originated from the story, passage. Entity also has to be in quotation marks, so do sayings of third persons, and some other that I can't remember.

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
are you lumping all immigrants together because of your experience with just a few examples?

hey pol pot killed a bunch of people and he was cambodian, how come all cambodian's are mass murderers?

Chill with the P.C. bullsh1t.. Should every post have a disclaimer? I've noticed that a few immigrants from many different lands- Russians, Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese (to be fair, she's the only Taiwanese person that I know) misuse quotation marks.. Am I saying that EVERY immigrant misuses quotation marks? Of course not! I even said that my father does while my mother does NOT... Some immigrants have a better grasp of the english language than mallrat punks who spout the word "like" 156 times an hour.. But.. sigh.. too tired to fulfill your quest for political correctness..

EDIT: I was going to edit my original post and the title to say "Why do SOME immigrants...." but why should I let the P.C. police win???

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Well, to my knowledge, our grammar makes us quote anything that's not of or originated from the story, passage. Entity also has to be in quotation marks, so do sayings of third persons, and some other that I can't remember.

Good to know.. Thanks!

 

[whaleskinrug]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: Ameesh
are you lumping all immigrants together because of your experience with just a few examples?

hey pol pot killed a bunch of people and he was cambodian, how come all cambodian's are mass murderers?

Chill with the P.C. bullsh1t.. Should every post have a disclaimer? I've noticed that a few immigrants from many different lands- Russians, Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese (to be fair, she's the only Taiwanese person that I know) misuse quotation marks.. Am I saying that EVERY immigrant misuses quotation marks? Of course not! I even said that my father does while my mother does NOT... Some immigrants have a better grasp of the english language than mallrat punks who spout the word "like" 156 times an hour.. But.. sigh.. too tired to fulfill your quest for political correctness..

well, it's certainly not an accurate generalization to say immingrants, or even Taiwanese immigrants, overuse quotation marks

 

[FelixDeCat]

I agree. Deportation.:wine:

 

[DaveSimmons]

Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

that was my point but i think it elludes him.

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

ahHH! You guys really need to calm down! I didn't say that all immigrants overuse quotes.. And, I mean, what if I did?!?!? Is that so very horrible!?? If you read my post you would see that I'm talking about one particular girl and then about a few other times when I've noticed immigrants (including my own family members) misusing quotations marks... I did not qualify the statement - I did not say "Immigrants SUCK because they have crappy grammar!"... I said that that this friend of mine, a girl that I respect a lot, has a tendency to misuse quotes.. The reason that I mentioned the term immigrants is because I would like to understand their point of view and the cultural aspects (local grammar, etc.) that may lead to such incorrect usage... PLEASE, before calling the P.C. police on me, pick up a local ethnic newspaper.. I've read a few chinese and indian newspapers that constantly misuse quotation marks in their articles (indian newspapers tend to be written in english since there are so many dialects, I'm guessing the same is true with chinese newspapers)...

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

that was my point but i think it elludes him.

You're a pompous one, aren't you?

 

[whaleskinrug]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

ahHH! You guys really need to calm down! I didn't say that all immigrants overuse quotes.. And, I mean, what if I did?!?!? Is that so very horrible!?? If you read my post you would see that I'm talking about one particular girl and then about a few other times when I've noticed immigrants (including my own family members) misusing quotations marks... I did not qualify the statement - I did not say "Immigrants SUCK because they have crappy grammar!"... I said that that this friend of mine, a girl that I respect a lot, has a tendency to misuse quotes.. The reason that I mentioned the term immigrants is because I would like to understand their point of view and the cultural aspects (local grammar, etc.) that may lead to such incorrect usage... PLEASE, before calling the P.C. police on me, pick up a local ethnic newspaper.. I've read a few chinese and indian newspapers that constantly misuse quotation marks in their articles (indian newspapers tend to be written in english since there are so many dialects, I'm guessing the same is true with chinese newspapers)...

Having read/edited literally *hundreds* of papersand dissertations from Asian students (virtually every country imaginable) I can honestly say I have never seen an instance where one of them consistently abused quoatation marks. There are other grammatical issues that can be generalized to ESL people from different regions, but I've never heard of the one you mention.

 

[da loser]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

i can't tell if you're being sarcastic or stupid.

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: whaleskinrug

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

ahHH! You guys really need to calm down! I didn't say that all immigrants overuse quotes.. And, I mean, what if I did?!?!? Is that so very horrible!?? If you read my post you would see that I'm talking about one particular girl and then about a few other times when I've noticed immigrants (including my own family members) misusing quotations marks... I did not qualify the statement - I did not say "Immigrants SUCK because they have crappy grammar!"... I said that that this friend of mine, a girl that I respect a lot, has a tendency to misuse quotes.. The reason that I mentioned the term immigrants is because I would like to understand their point of view and the cultural aspects (local grammar, etc.) that may lead to such incorrect usage... PLEASE, before calling the P.C. police on me, pick up a local ethnic newspaper.. I've read a few chinese and indian newspapers that constantly misuse quotation marks in their articles (indian newspapers tend to be written in english since there are so many dialects, I'm guessing the same is true with chinese newspapers)...

Having read/edited literally *hundreds* of papersand dissertations from Asian students (virtually every country imaginable) I can honestly say I have never seen an instance where one of them consistently abused quoatation marks. There are other grammatical issues that can be generalized to ESL people from different regions, but I've never heard of the one you mention.

Fair enough, perhaps it's not cultural then.. In that case I'll just punch her in the arm and tell her not to use so many quotation marks....

 

[whaleskinrug]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: whaleskinrug

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

ahHH! You guys really need to calm down! I didn't say that all immigrants overuse quotes.. And, I mean, what if I did?!?!? Is that so very horrible!?? If you read my post you would see that I'm talking about one particular girl and then about a few other times when I've noticed immigrants (including my own family members) misusing quotations marks... I did not qualify the statement - I did not say "Immigrants SUCK because they have crappy grammar!"... I said that that this friend of mine, a girl that I respect a lot, has a tendency to misuse quotes.. The reason that I mentioned the term immigrants is because I would like to understand their point of view and the cultural aspects (local grammar, etc.) that may lead to such incorrect usage... PLEASE, before calling the P.C. police on me, pick up a local ethnic newspaper.. I've read a few chinese and indian newspapers that constantly misuse quotation marks in their articles (indian newspapers tend to be written in english since there are so many dialects, I'm guessing the same is true with chinese newspapers)...

Having read/edited literally *hundreds* of papersand dissertations from Asian students (virtually every country imaginable) I can honestly say I have never seen an instance where one of them consistently abused quoatation marks. There are other grammatical issues that can be generalized to ESL people from different regions, but I've never heard of the one you mention.

Fair enough, perhaps it's not cultural then.. In that case I'll just punch her in the arm and tell her not to use so many quotation marks....

well, you can certainly help her by tactfully pointing it out

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

that was my point but i think it elludes him.

You're a pompous one, aren't you?

""yep", i a"m""

 

[dighn]

why would it be rude? it's obviously incorrect usage in english. since she's studying in an english-speaking country, she should fix the problem. you'd be doing her a favour. i don't know why a person would take offense to that.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Most people are too quick to generalize from a single example. At least that's my experience.

ahHH! You guys really need to calm down! I didn't say that all immigrants overuse quotes.. And, I mean, what if I did?!?!? ...

You need to notice that my statement was not entirely serious (I was myself generalizing.)

But when you say something like "Why do immigrants...." you are lumping together people from scores of countries based on your experience with people from 1-2 of them. It might make sense to say something like "why do German immigrants tend to put the verb at the end of the sentence -- is it because that's how German is written?" but your generalization was way too sweeping based on the samples you have.