Punctuation in Arabic speakers?

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Raymott

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Hello Arabic speakers.

This is a question I've been wondering about for a while.
Do English teachers in the Arab world teach English punctuation? Do they know it themselves? Are students expected to put the correct spacing around punctuation when they write an essay, or is it generally acceptable just to get the words right?

I'm genuinely interested in knowing whether English punctuation is actually taught.
 

muslim girl

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hii
nice to asked this question ..
and i ahve the answer because am arab girl specificly from saudi arabi ..
and the answer is yes .. we are learning the english puctiuation in our schools or universities ,,,
and we are must include then in our essay or paragraphes ..

and the other reason is m the punctiuation is a part of learning english so we must know something enough about it
 

muslim girl

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hii
nice to asked this question ..
and i have the answer because am arab girl specificly from saudi arabi ..
and the answer is yes .. we are learning the english puctiuation in our schools or universities ,,,
and we are must include then in our essay or paragraphes ..

and the other reason is m the punctiuation is a part of learning english so we must know something enough about it
 

Raymott

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hii
nice to asked this question ..
and i have the answer because am arab girl specificly from saudi arabi ..
and the answer is yes .. we are learning the english puctiuation in our schools or universities ,,,
and we are must include then in our essay or paragraphes ..

and the other reason is m the punctiuation is a part of learning english so we must know something enough about it
Interesting. Thank you very much for replying, muslim girl.
See, the problem I have is that you don't use it. Let's take your message. Your English is good enough to reply to me with an understandable post, yet the only punctuation you use (.. and ,,,) don't exist. There are no periods, commas or capital letters. Are you taught to use punctuation only in exams?
Can you see my problem in understanding this mystery?
 

Atchan

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Hello Arabic speakers.

This is a question I've been wondering about for a while.
Do English teachers in the Arab world teach English punctuation?
Yes they do, but Arab students don’t get attention to English punctuations because they think that it doesn’t necessary. The basic thing for Arab students is to get more English verbs. The reason that most Arab students don’t excel in English language is that they study half and ignore the other half. That is a disaster.

Do they know it themselves?
Yes they know it. The problem isn’t from teachers its from students.

Are students expected to put the correct spacing around punctuation when they write an essay, or is it generally acceptable just to get the words right?
About me, I didn’t study English punctuations yet. I will study it in the next days. Do you know that Arabs say “we must know something enough about English language but we will not be forced to study entirely”.


I'm genuinely interested in knowing whether English punctuation is actually taught.
*
 

Atchan

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Interesting. Thank you very much for replying, muslim girl.
See, the problem I have is that you don't use it. Let's take your message. Your English is good enough to reply to me with an understandable post, yet the only punctuation you use (.. and ,,,) don't exist. There are no periods, commas or capital letters. Are you taught to use punctuation only in exams?
Can you see my problem in understanding this mystery?
We use English punctuations only in Facebook specially these (,,, and ....) and that is funny :lol:. But I want to ask you the same question.
Do the punctuations are necessary?
 

Raymott

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We use English punctuations only in Facebook specially these (,,, and ....) and that is funny :lol:. But I want to ask you the same question.
[STRIKE]Do[/STRIKE] Are the punctuations [STRIKE]are[/STRIKE] necessary?
Yes, it is necessary, unless you want to irritate and annoy many of your correspondents. Sometimes, it's vital to understanding a text; other times, it's simply polite, and it makes you appear educated. I can see that you use basic punctuation properly. It's not hard, is it?

If I was learning Arabic, could I get away with using initial letter forms in the middle of words, or leaving out dots over or under letters? What would you think of my writing if I did this?
 

rx-f

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From Swan and Smith's Learner English:
"Arabic punctuation is now similar to western style punctuation... The use of full stops and commas is much freer than in English, and it is common to begin each new sentence with the equivalent of And or So. Connected writing in English therefore tends to contain long, loose sentences, linked by commas and ands."

I suspect there's an element of L1 interference in what you're seeing.
 

Rover_KE

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hii
nice to asked this question ..
and i have the answer because am arab girl specificly from saudi arabi ..
and the answer is yes .. we are learning the english puctiuation in our schools or universities ,,,
and we are must include then in our essay or paragraphes ..

and the other reason is m the punctiuation is a part of learning english so we must know something enough about it

Are you also taught about the use of capital letters, Muslim Girl?

Rover
 

Atchan

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Yes, it is necessary, unless you want to irritate and annoy many of your correspondents. Sometimes, it's vital to understanding a text; other times, it's simply polite, and it makes you appear educated. I can see that you use basic punctuation properly. It's not hard, is it? Absolutely NO, but what this punctuation “;” denotes? I didn’t get it in my English grammar.

If I was learning Arabic, could I get away with using initial letter forms in the middle of words, or leaving out dots over or under letters? What would you think of my writing if I did this? Really it will be awkward. But I want to tell you that Arabic is easier than English. Using dots in Arabic isn’t necessary you can use and instead of dot. That is what I did when I was translating an Arabic lesson to English language then English speakers said “a classic example of what is called a "run-on sentence." It keeps on going and going without a proper ending. In general in English, each sentence should convey one idea, one thought”. Look this link https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/126371-1-successful-2-look.html

The style of writing English is differs than Arabic so that is what I sign up to this website or forum to improve my English skills and to get English-speaker friends.

My own writing English wasn’t as good as it is before that. What do you think?

We like and study English language but why English speakers don’t study Arabic language? Are they hate Arabs and Arabic language? Really I wonder.
*
 
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Raymott

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My own writing English wasn’t as good as it is before that. What do you think?

We like and study English language but why English speakers don’t study Arabic language? Are they hate Arabs and Arabic language? Really I wonder.
I think your writing has improved since you started coming here, but I don't remember that it was that bad before.
Many English speakers study Arabic, but they probably wouldn't come to this site. So you wouldn't know about it. There are several good websites that teach Arabic to English-speaking people.
 

m7d !! shraty

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We like and study English language but why English speakers don’t study Arabic language? Are they hate Arabs and Arabic language? Really I wonder.

I asked myself this question hundred time
Mybe I found the answer. I think because English language is the uinversal language so why they learn Arabic language??? they don't need it ,except in one case if they lived in Arabic country, here I think it's useful. Arabic language is not necessary for foreign people. In contrast Arab people,English language is very, very and very necessary. We use it in the schools and university, work, scientific research and Tec ...... etc.

So Why They Learn Arabic Language AND They Will Not USE IT, because they will use their native language.
 

Atchan

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I asked myself this question hundred time
Mybe I found the answer. I think because English language is the uinversal language so why they learn Arabic language??? they don't need it ,except in one case if they lived in Arabic country, here I think it's useful. Arabic language is not necessary for foreign people. In contrast Arab people,English language is very, very and very necessary. We use it in the schools and university, work, scientific research and Tec ...... etc.

So Why They Learn Arabic Language AND They Will Not USE IT, because they will use their native language.
Really you are funny. Without English language we wouldn't live?!! :lol:
Arabs study English only for their future jobs otherwise they wouldn’t.
 
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Tdol

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I have banned him for 2 months- it's a straight red for that sort of calculated ignorant rubbish.
 

smaila

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Hello Arabic speakers.

This is a question I've been wondering about for a while.
Do English teachers in the Arab world teach English punctuation? Do they know it themselves? Are students expected to put the correct spacing around punctuation when they write an essay, or is it generally acceptable just to get the words right?

I'm genuinely interested in knowing whether English punctuation is actually taught.
Yes of course they do teach us English punctuation , but about the second question "do they know it themselves?" if I want to be honest i'm telling you that all of the teachers know the basics but they don't know the details.
- I have been in school since eight years and i've been lucky only once to have a good English teacher who can tell me and the other students every single thing about the punctuation.
- Yeah it's important to use punctuation in anything we write at English class but the students who do are very little ,so it's gonna be wierd to find some of them on websites.
That's how we are in Jordan but I don't know how the other countries are.
-Thanks for asking such thing and i'm sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes " I'm not that good".:)
 

Raymott

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Yes of course they do teach us English punctuation , but about the second question "do they know it themselves?" if I want to be honest i'm telling you that all of the teachers know the basics but they don't know the details.
- I have been in school since eight years and i've been lucky only once to have a good English teacher who can tell me and the other students every single thing about the punctuation.
- Yeah it's important to use punctuation in anything we write at English class but the students who do are very little ,so it's gonna be wierd to find some of them on websites.
That's how we are in Jordan but I don't know how the other countries are.
-Thanks for asking such thing and i'm sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes " I'm not that good".:)
Thank you for your honest reply. As a reward, I will give you an important tip. (Actually, I'm not even addressing the details of punctuation - only its form.)

The only correct way to use a period or comma is this:
"word, word". That is, the punctuation mark comes directly after the end of a word, then comes a space, then another word.
This has no effect on meaning; it just makes a text easier to read. As I mentioned before, it's invariable. Open any English book by any English publisher, and you will find it thus. This is not an optional issue of style.

This might appear to be an unnecessary cultural imposition, but it's like putting your pants on before you go outside - it's just something we do in Western society. :-D We put a space after a punctuation mark, not before it.

I'm beginning to think there is an element of cultural antagonism, even from teachers, who might know correct punctuation, but do not use it since it appears to be caving in to arbitrary Western standards of form for no apparent benefit of increased clarity. If this is true, I'm sure the point is lost on most native speakers, who simply see incorrect punctuation.

In any case, it's not true that the form of punctuation has no effect on meaning. And any cultural message you might want to send would be better received if it is written in good English. So a deliberate policy of not using Western punctuation properly is largely self-defeating.

As far as learning English for personal advancement, as someone mentioned, you will not get a job requiring English if you cannot use the correct form of punctuation.

You have generally done quite well. :)
 

IHIVG

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Am I the only one who's missing something here?

I've just looked through these pages and I'm left wondering what Atchan was banned for...
 

rx-f

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Interesting. Thank you very much for replying, muslim girl.
See, the problem I have is that you don't use it. Let's take your message. Your English is good enough to reply to me with an understandable post, yet the only punctuation you use (.. and ,,,) don't exist. There are no periods, commas or capital letters. Are you taught to use punctuation only in exams?
Can you see my problem in understanding this mystery?

I've been meaning to write in response to this for a few days. The reason is that the other day I received an email written in English from a Japanese friend. It was full of triple commas, just like the post from Muslim Girl that you commented on. Maybe my Japanese friend has done that in the past but I just didn't notice.

Anyway, it got me wondering if the triple comma was some kind of cell phone/text messaging phenomena, or if it's perhaps some sort of convention in messages on social networking websites.

I can tell you for sure that none of her English teachers would ever have taught such punctuation to her.
 
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