Mind your own language

The above is the title/heading of an article written by a retired English teacher and published by The Star's Mind Our English column on February 5, 2010.

The writer is suggesting that someone in The Star look (should be 'looks') for flaws in the publication itself.

After reading the article, I have been thinking based on my personal experiences and come to the conclusion that such a suggestion will fall on deaf ears. I have on numerous occasions written in to point out grammatical mistakes in the publication. Some are published, some have answers directly sent to me and some are ignored.

The column is the result of a campaign launched in 2001 to promote the correct use of English; but one will see that quite a lot of articles nowadays published therein appear to teach/train its readers to be experts in the English language especially in etymology and pronunciation. How many of these articles are actually appreciated by readers?

Perhaps, the publication has thought that the column's original objective has been achieved; but judging from the aforesaid article, one will be able to perceive that this is far from it as can also be seen from another article Of goofs and gaffes.