# Unhelpful responses



## El escoces

Am I alone in thinking that when a non-native speaker asks a question in which, although their attempt is clearly incorrect, it is fairly obvious from the context what they were trying to say, it is unhelpful for members to simply reply that the suggested phrase makes no sense to them?


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## Revontuli

Hello El escoces,

That wouldn't be a right thing to do,I agree.

As long as what they try to say is obvious,we should first make it clear or correct the original text, so that the person who asks can see his own mistakes too.And next, we can go on answering their question.


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## Paulfromitaly

El escoces said:


> Am I alone in thinking that when a non-native speaker asks a question in which, although their attempt is clearly incorrect, it is fairly obvious from the context what they were trying to say, it is unhelpful for members to simply reply that the suggested phrase makes no sense to them?


Well, if  it is fairly obvious from the context what they are trying to say I believe you are right, however it happens to see translation attempts which make no sense at all.
That's why we always ask the posters to write both the original sentence and their translation attempt in the English - Italian forum.


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## jinti

Sometimes when we think what someone meant to say is obvious, it's just that we don't see the other possibilities that exist.  It may be that the members that you're referring to can see more than one, and that's why they've commented the way that they have.

I think I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.


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## ewie

Well, Scottie, if I see a question that's badly worded but it's _obvious_ what the person's asking, I try to answer the question first ... and _then_ point out what was wrong with the question, but _trying_ not to sound overbearing about it


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## cubaMania

Based upon my experience of the forums, I think the opposite error is more frequent, namely that an answer (guess) is given to an unclear question by someone who has failed to perceive the various possible interpretations.  So when a post contains only a translation attempt and not the original, and someone responds with a request for the original text, it is likely, in my experience, that there are alternatives beyond a single supposedly obvious one.


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## El escoces

Interesting.

I fully accept that there are borderline cases where guessing as to the intended meaning might simply muddy the waters further.

I leave it on the basis that we should each do what feels appropriate to us.  That seems fair.


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## johndot

Anyone who has been unhelpful may have been so unwittingly.
 
That person may also have been unwittingly helpful by being ‘unhelpful’.
 
If you see what I mean.
 
Apart from that, surely cubaMania is right: well-intentioned help is too often unhelpful because the original posting has been misinterpreted or, for whatever reason, not understood. Language is a difficult tightrope: it is not an exact science (witness the number of disagreements between knowledgeable people purporting to speak the same tongue), so clarity of expression is paramount.


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## cycloneviv

My opinion is along the same lines as those of cubaMania and johndot.

I think there are often grounds to err on the side of caution, and to ask whether the person posting can tell us in a different way what it is they were trying to say.

I have seen threads fairly often where people have made what would have seemed an obvious guess as to the meaning of a slightly odd question or sentence, only to find that the person posting was actually trying to say something quite different.

I would avoid saying "This makes no sense" and instead would politely ask exactly what was meant. Unless, of course, it actually DID make no sense at all to me, in which case I would try to put that politely: "I'm sorry, but it is unfortunately not possible for me to understand what you are trying to say with this sentence. Could you please try to express it in other words?"

Edit: On second, third and fourth thoughts, I'm not THAT polite!  I think I was going overboard a bit there...


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## Nunty

The longer I work in translation the more I realize that there is seldom just one right answer. There was an incident recently in EO when someone posted a sentence and said "Is that right?" and I asked for more information. I got an indignant PM from someone else (not the original poster) suggesting that I was being fussy and abusing the poster and that the answer was obvious. Well, he is welcome to post his guesses, but I disagree with his assertion that it was so clear cut.

On the other hand, I have also fallen into the trap of writing a detailed and well-argued response, only to discover that I was totally off the track because I misunderstood what the original poster wanted to say.

When I post in one of my less familiar languages, I am very grateful if someone says "What is it you're trying to say here?" That is helpful information in itself; it tells me that I used wrong vocabulary or an unclear sentence structure. I don't find it unhelpful in the least.


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