I am enjoying the book, but.....
I think the book is about the right level for me. The math makes it more understandable, if you are willing to plod through it. It really is nothing much more than algebra and a little trig. I think it is a good addition to the literature, if a bit expensive. But... why can't non-english authors at least get a native speaker to do a final read-through. The author may be a fluent english speaker, but the book sounds foreign, and many of the idioms are messed up. My favorite one is his plea to the reader to be careful, stating "you only live once!". This is usually something said to a person to encourage more risk-taking.Announcement - I'll clean up the english for any writer - for free.
I think the book is about the right level for me. The math makes it more understandable, if you are willing to plod through it. It really is nothing much more than algebra and a little trig. I think it is a good addition to the literature, if a bit expensive. But... why can't non-english authors at least get a native speaker to do a final read-through. The author may be a fluent english speaker, but the book sounds foreign, and many of the idioms are messed up. My favorite one is his plea to the reader to be careful, stating "you only live once!". This is usually something said to a person to encourage more risk-taking.Announcement - I'll clean up the english for any writer - for free.
Euro English
Copied from DIYTube for your possible amusement.
"The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas."
Cheers,
Ian
Copied from DIYTube for your possible amusement.
"The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas."
Cheers,
Ian
I thought the point under discussion was lack of translation from Dutch? Using literally translated English words in a Dutch sentence is not translation into English. This book should have had a technically competent native-English-speaking sub-editor, so that it ended up in some reasonable approximation to either US or British technical English.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.