So this is what the kids are learning at school now? ...To persecute people

It’s Mr Potato Head’s mistress.

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It’s just a descriptive essay of China. Chill out, folks.

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Check their website. They are obviously pushing an agenda of some kind.

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Not that the kid’s views are unpopular in Taiwan (or anywhere else) among a quiet (possible majority) segment of the population. It was a poorly formulated writing task with no possible politically correct answer. Promoting that particular essay as a model, ignoring the ideas contained within, is a decision that is very difficult to understand. Who knows the dynamics at play (parents’ pressure, supervisor ignorance)?

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I’m guessing someone just misspelled “prosecute”. Even so, it’s not much improved.

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That kid should be persecuted for this outrage!

Could have been “prostituted.”

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There is a fair amount of truth to that statement.

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Had to judge an English speech contest once on the topic of “A Person You Admired Who Showed Persistence”. While most of the examples were the usual e.g. Abe Lincoln, Thomas Edison, or Sun Yat-sen, one was on some Japanese fighter pilot who made three runs over Pearl Harbor- the guy wasn’t being snarky; he had come across the incident and really admired the pilot.

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You would be surprised the number of Christian funded buxiban’s or anchingban’s are out there. And mostly the Pentecostal “money is more important than anything else” kind. Then they still do byi byi for the Taoist beliefs just in case. Cos the same thing. Money.

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The second pilot in the 9/11 attacks avoided the tower in order to come back and get a better hit. Brave, insane, or fanatical? Probably a combination of the three depending on one’s point of view.

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Definitely a Taiwanese wrote it. Started a sentence with “So, …”
That’s grammar cringeworthy.

So, you’re saying the Taiwanese aren’t accustomed to using grammatically correct English?

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The same goes with starting sentences with “And” and “But”.
I’d be a millionaire for the amount of times I’ve seen these elementary school grammar rules broken throughout Asia.

Nothing wrong with beginning sentences with coordinating conjunctions.

  • William Forrester: Paragraph three starts…with a conjunction, “and.” You should never start a sentence with a conjunction.
  • Jamal Wallace: Sure you can.
  • William Forrester: No, it’s a firmrule.
  • Jamal Wallace: No, it was a firmrule. Sometimes using a conjunction at the start of a sentence makes it stand out. And that may be what the writer’s trying to do.
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I’d probably have a fair bit of money, if not a million, for the number of times I’ve had to commiserate with students forced to follow non-existent rules.

Does OK mean grammatical or stylistically acceptable? This statement from an Oxford Dictionaries blog addresses the question:

[T]his is a stylistic preference rather than a grammatical “rule.” If your teachers or your organization are inflexible about this issue, then you should respect their opinion, but ultimately, it’s just a point of view and you’re not being ungrammatical. If you want to defend your position, you can say that it’s particularly useful to start a sentence with these conjunctions if you’re aiming to create a dramatic or forceful effect. (“Can You”)

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Style, not grammar.

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but, what is wrong with it?

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They make up all these crazy nonexistent English grammar rules in Taiwan so they have more shit to put on all the endless meaningless tests they give the poor kids.

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Eh, a lot of them are common misconceptions in North America as well. They’re just more damaging here because of the style of testing.

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What the hell would North Americans know about grammar? :grin:

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