Salam and hello everyone!
Part three of 'On Behalf of Amateur Writers'
Chapter four:
"GRAMMAR"
Well, about this chapter, I have a few things to mention. First of all, the writing style was utterly humiliating, no matter how much you apologize or explain yourself in the end of the chapter. If we are writing something publicly, we should be considerate in our choices of words and the phrases we make.
Secondly, she mentioned something on which I really want to speak my mind.
The spelling of Islamic words and names.
The pronunciation and writing style of words comes from the birth place of that language. So, Islamic names or words could never be written with a particular rule in any language which don't have the Arabic fonts. For example, the name MAC will be written in Arabic fonts as Me-ak. Same goes with the name of Prophet Adam (A.S). In English, it is written as 'Adam', whereas in Arabic, it is written as 'Aa-dam'.
I can give you thousands of other such examples, so in my opinion, it's a matter of language difference. It cannot be called a grammatical mistake.
And about the elementary education...
As we all know, English has become an international medium of communication, but it doesn't mean that English education is taught in all countries. Most people learn it after passing elementary school. So, blaming a person for having weak grammar who isn't a native speaker is quite inappropriate.
I am a Pakistani, if I make grammatical error in Urdu, then others have the right to point fingers on me because it is my native language. I cannot raise my finger on a Chinese or American for Urdu grammar mistakes as it's not their native language.
But since we are talking about writing stories, a question would likely be raised that sounds something like, "Why don't you write in your own language?"
But if that person writes in his/her own native language, then what will be the purpose of using an international platform like Wattpad?
The thought which made me write this was because before reading the book, I was under the impression that a Muslim would easily understand the struggles other Muslims face related to language. Because no matter where we live, we must learn Arabic to read the Quran.
In certain countries aside from English speaking societies, Muslims would often have to deal with three languages at a time. Most Asians and African would agree with me here. They speak their native language at home and school, they read the Quran in Arabic, and on job they would have to face English. It's quite difficult to handle various languages.
But if someone thinks it's easy, then I will offer an open challenge to them. I will write a story in Urdu after the completion of the Mine series, OMDT and MFEH. Till then,learn Urdu and give a review on my writing later on. Mention each grammatical mistake and highlight it however you please and if you cannot be up to this challenge, then you have no right to make fun of others on something like this.
Don't forget to give your response!
Take Care :)
