I've not posted here because this subject is extremely sensitive for me. You see all my life I have been found wanting in this area. To me English is schizophrenic. How it is pronounced doesn't follow the spelling, spelling has so many exceptions I can not remember them all. Grammar, that too is full of bizarre rules. Being profoundly hearing impaired since age 3 and taught in a regular school with no accommodations except one on one speech and a number of teachers who believed I should be institutionalized has done a number on my self esteem.

I don't mind those who correct my speech in a helpful way but those who act like valley girls, judgmental, hurt to the quick. Those that assume I'm deficit in intelligentsia because of my grammar or spelling also cuts me down.

In grade school where you learn the basics of grammar I was regulated to the side of the classroom and given books to read. I have tried so many times to learn those things that to others are more important than the content of a message. I've come to the conclusion I have an emotional block that filters my ability to learn based on how I was treated as a child in school where I wanted to learn as was told I was too stupid. Not by my peers, not at first, but by the teachers. The did not always say this in words but it was quite clear in how they treated me. I was a waste of there time. It was not expected that I would graduate from high school much less go on to college. Nevertheless I have internalized the message that I am not worth anyone's time.

Getting constantly judged when I have something to say has left me with the feeling that I have no worth or purpose in existing. The message that is received is that if you are not perfect in your elocution or writing abilities you have nothing worth while to say, no reason for living.

Yes, many say they have exceptions for those who have disabilities or typing flaws, but do they really? How are you to know of those disabilities when the majority of them are hidden? People do not know of my hearing problem apron meeting me. Most often I'm met with disbelief, but you talk so well. You understand me so well. Well the first is less than perfect and the result of 10 years of one-on-one speech therapy, the second is the result of constant vigilance. Reading lips is an imperfect skill since so many words look the same, it is also the ability to read body language and make cognitive jumps to connect the parts that were understood. I do not "hear" so much as I deduce what is being said.

Policing another persons attempt at communication is filled with judgment, intolerance, and arrogance. Perhaps those that do so are perfect in this area but I'm quite sure they have weaknesses in others and should perhaps be Leary of throwing rocks in glass houses. But mostly I think the grammar police are insecure, why else must they 'correct' others except to boost their own self esteem but putting others down? It is not in the interest of communication, most of them are not offering to show the correct way to say what was meant, just insulting the person who wrote it. Like many here have said, it distracts from the conversation.

I'm not trying to be judgmental of those who really have a hard time with the language of others, just trying to put my perspective of this subject. If someone's grammar offends, just ignore it. Please.