On the up: Writing well
On the down: Bad Grammar

Ok so I'm biased. It was 7 years in an English school, then 5 years in a highly competitive international school. English for GCSEs, Higher English for IB, then 4 years in a very English university doing two degrees in English lit.

Yah, I'm biased and rather priviledged but I've become obsessive compulsive about grammar. Coming back to Malaysia has been a real challenge.

Oklah so I know not everyone's first language isn't English and they haven't had an all-English education. It doesn't bother me so much when it's someone's second language and they are making the effort even if it's incomprehensible. And anyway, their English is usually a gazillion times better than my Cantonese and Malay anyway so I can't complain.

BUT

what
really
shits
me

is when people who have a pretty good 80-99% grasp of the language say stupid dumbass things like

stuffs instead of stuff (as in "I bought lots of stuffs today")
staffs instead of staff (as in "Our staffs are on leave today")
gossips instead of gossip (as in "I heard some gossips about her")
feedbacks instead of feedback (as in "I got lots of feedbacks")

It drives me totally insane. It's like one of those uncontrollable ticks that you can feel rising up from your belly, about to explode in a rage. "IT'S STUFFFFFFFFFFFFF NOT STUFFS! NO S! NO S! WHERE DID YOU GET THE S FROM?!"

GAHHHH

And and and

people who don't write emails properly. Fine if their English isn't good, but couldn't they just put in that tiny little effort to write "You" instead of "u" or "don't" instead of "dun" and spell properly instead of doing that lame 90s chatroom abbreviation thing??

It looks better and it's just common decency to write something legible instead of putting the other person out trying to figure out your heiroglyphics.

You know the sort. People who write like this:

"Hello. how ru? long time no c. wut u bin up2? sori i bin bz so dn hv time2rite. we shud mt up soon."

Actually, all the people who do write to me like that speak English as their first language, so there's no excuse.

GAAAHHHHH