This is not an English teaching question, so I didn’t want to post it there. If anyone has a better place for it, then by all means, move it.
I have a question for anyone that REALLY knows the language well, I mean like someone with a degree in English or something closely related.
I work for a publishing company and we’ve recently sent a copy of a new children’s book series to the government for approval. These books will be used in elementary schools here in Taiwan. I’m unsure what the full reviewal process is, but I know it’s reviewed by Taiwanese academics; not by a single native speakers, to my knowledge. When the review was returned to us, one problem really stuck out. This sentence:
“Where are you going?”
“We’re going to school.”
…was changed to…
“Where are you going?”
“We’re going to the school.”
In this context, I believe that their change is incorrect. I’m curious if anyone can back me up on this, or if in fact, I am wrong.
Either way, this whole process of reviewal and acceptance has really got me thinking. My chief editor told me that regardless if this is a mistake or not, they will make the change because they don’t want to “make waves” with the government. Meaning, the government gets mad and won’t accept the book which = loss of LOTS of money.
Ok, so let’s assume us or another company gets a report sent back that says there’s some kind of mistake, and let’s assume the government is wrong. So that company doesn’t want to cause problems and makes the change to something incorrect. Now, children all over Taiwan are learning incorrect English. Granted, this isn’t something new. But wouldn’t it be better if this review board had at least one native speaker? I mean, these Taiwanese PhD’s are certainly good at what they do, but they’re not native speakers. Through my work here I’ve met many English PhD’s who are so called experts in their field. Some of the things they’ve said or written were definately incorrect. My company won’t even let me edit their writings because “even if it’s wrong, they’re a PhD, and it would embarrass them to be corrected”. WOW!
Enough said. Just looking for an answer.
Thanks,
oZzo