Joshua's Book

There were SO MANY mistakes in Joshua's book! I discussed it with him today for about a half hour. He didn't seem at all phased, and even talked about writing a teacher's book to accompany that book. Nearly everything I criticized he had an explanation for. Now I don't imagine that writing a grammar book is easy, and I realize that it's not his first language, but I think if someone is going to write a book then they should have some handle on what they're doing. Most Koreans are better at writing than at speaking, but he's the opposite. His speaking is quite understandable, but his writing……..

He's been working on the book basically full-time for 4~6 months. It's totally disorganized and almost completely plagiarized. He's had about 4 different grammar books that he's been pulling bits and pieces from to create a completely disjointed book. It has all the marks of a plagiarized paper—writing style drastically changes, some sections are surprisingly good while others are horrid, word choice goes from lots of slang and overused idioms to university-level writing. Sometimes it's "airplane" and sometimes it's "air plane." Many times he put two sentences together by using a comma splice. I'm not claiming to write perfectly, but if you're writing a grammar book you should make some attempt to write it correctly! One whole chapter didn't make any sense. It had phrases like this:

When I called him, I couldn't hear him clearly.
Calling him, I couldn't hear him clearly.

If you have CD player, you can borrow my CDs.
Having CD player, you can borrow my CDs.

As I answered the phone, I watched TV.
Answering the phone, I watched TV.

I understood the point—that in English you can change the order of phrases and have it mean the same thing. However, those are not correct! When I questioned those phrases, he pulled up a (Korean) webpage that had, word for word, what was in his book in that chapter.

There were so many errors that the spell check and grammar check would have caught (typos, subject-verb agreement, etc.). There are lots of things that a computer can't check, but be courteous and make it easier on the people editing it!!

Each unit started with a dialogue. Some dialogues sounded like two intellectuals were talking; some sounded like a 2-year-old. Use some consistency! The vocabulary was too difficult for children. American children don't even use words like "metropolitan!" This is perhaps the second-worst dialogue in terms of, who talks like this?! (The worst one was slightly longer and went from "boxers" (??) to "cookies" to "babies" to "travel" in the same short conversation! The only people I know who might talk like that are my two nearly-deaf great aunts when they're talking to each other!

Davis: Where are you, mom? Are you still at the bank?

Mom: I'm at uncle Jim's now. But I will go home soon.

Davis: Can you buy some milk on your way home?

Mom: No problem. Did you have any call for me?

Davis: Sorry, I don't know because I was in bed until now.

Mom: There's some chips in the cupboard. Get some. bye-

Besides what should be, "Were there any calls for me," why is Mom telling the kid that was already in bed to eat some chips? Shouldn't Mom be telling him to go back to bed, or at least eat something more healthy? Is the bank open at night? Who's watching Davis while Mom is gone?

Other interesting phrases:

Her name is Jeanne d'Arc who is the heroin of France.

Since this is an English book, perhaps use her English name. Either this is a typo or it's one of the few non-plagiarized sections, because on another page heroine was spelled correctly. Is she still the heroine of France, or she was the heroine?

Wow, you eat a horse.

No, not usually. I prefer cows, but a little bit at a time. The whole thing is a little much. If you're going to use idioms, use them correctly!

He is very kindness.

He is every kindness? He is very kind?

My mom wants to loose her weight.

Yes, she probably wants to loose her weight but she probably wants to lose it even more. And people don't think of weight as belonging to them.

I wake it up very early.

What? Your cat? Dog? Horse to take you to work?