Just last Sunday, I posted our Save-the-Date card on facebook. I chose that day to post it because that marked our 200-day countdown. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, the filter didn't work. So for a very long 2 minutes, my artwork was out there for all my friends to see. And believe it or not, in that short span of time, it has managed to attract 2 likes and 1 comment. All from people I do not plan to invite! Yay! And with a silent sweep, I deleted it.
But the curious cat in me got puzzled by one comment. It said: '122 Sino gumawa nito? May comment po ako.' I was so thirsty for comments that time because first and foremost, it was my first time to edit a picture using HDR style. I'm not very comfortable in it, but I wanted to give it a try. I didn't know much about the sender, so I thought maybe he is a photographer and he wanted to tell me that my editing sucks. But boy I'm sooo wrong. He made a criticism alright, but not on the picture. He commented on the wordings I used.
BTW, my wordings went like this - WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER **th, AT HALF PAST *****? blah blah blah
Honestly, I was stunned. I truly appreciate the comment but I was in denial. I personally did not see anything wrong with it. He continued on giving his points why I was wrong. He said something about Present Progressive should have future tenses. I researched right at that moment to prove that I may be right also. But he blocked me with 'Soooo wrong! San mo nakuha yan? hahaha Ang tanong mo kasi ay.. "What are you doing...?' yun ay present progressive na interrogative. Formal invitation kasi eh, so dapat formal din. Tsaka mas maganda na ako ang nakasita kesa yung mga magiging bisita mo. Ganito lang yan eh, kagaya nating filipino, mali tayo gumamit ng sariling wika. Same din sa kanila, dahil language nila yun, they usually don't care about sa grammar nila. Pero kasi tayo, bilang mas pinag-aaralan nating ang english kesa filipino, mas technical tayo kesa sa kanila pagdating sa grammar.'
I let him know that what I'm aiming at was just conversational english not formal english. But anyway, I saw how confident he was with his point so I thanked him before letting go.
But I won't give up without a fight! Specially when it comes to written english. I was so worried about it, people knew that I always find wrong grammar annoying. So how could someone like me do that? NO WAY! I messaged a few people, specially the ones I looked up to in terms of english language. I messaged Paul, our highschool valedictorian. But when I shown him my issue, he said that I was right. I also texted my MOH, she said I'm right also. And if ever I'm really technically wrong, it is always socially acceptable. I posted it also in w@w so I can get more comments from my sisters. Some said it's right while most said maybe I should improve the sentence construction but the grammar is correct. They suggested I put it this way: 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON DECEMBER **th, FRIDAY AT **:**pm? To make the focus be on the date and not on friday, which most people will think it's this coming Friday. Or better: 'WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING ON DECEMBER **th, FRIDAY AT **:** pm?' That made sense for me.
So I guess I found my solution - either I reconstruct my sentence or just put less words in it. The 200-day essense was gone, so I have more time to redo it till the 150 maybe?
And so for everyone's reference, here is the picture I posted in facebook. Just blurred a few details here. But i'm gladly accepting comments. :)
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