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I LOVED your golfing
story. Read every word. You're a wonderful writer.
(Peter Bowerman, the Well-Fed Writer)
Big Things rule! ... and the video
of the Airbus is great. (Jim McDonald,
Birmingham, UK)
Having enjoyed reading your
biographical, They
can't take that away from me... I
would love to post your article (for my) course for
seniors entitled Autobiography and Journaling ... and
let them read your article as a good example of what
I call the reader's writer, clearly expressed and easy
to read. (Howell)
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The French language has
always appealed to me ... so I enjoyed Lavinia's
experiences en
France! (Di Sullivan, Perth, Australia)
I am an American and an
expat here since 1990. I have been a subscriber to Writing
Tip for a few years now and look forward to the Friday
editions. I archive by creating topics of the tips
relevant to me and often refer. (Mary, Lagos, Nigeria)
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WRITERS!
Write
Your Own Best Seller!
This
year, don't just read a best-seller ... Write
your own using the software program that works
in the same way J K Rowling writes her Harry
Potter novels!
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Who said Aussies would
bet on two flies crawling up a wall? Now I know
better! (Bill Denham, Chicago, USA)
I enjoy reading your page
every week, Jennifer, it's never boring and there's always
something to bring a smile to my face! (Kenny Dima,
Tenerife, Spain)
Thanks for pitching in to
help clarify
the English Language for and with us. (Paul, Portland,
USA)
Your story about the evil
glasses made my day :) (Edith, Derbyshire, UK)
I enjoy your
letter and use it in my advanced writing class here in
China. (Bugs, Shenzhen, CHINA)
I always look forward to
your Latin
quote of the week. (Paul, Mexico City, Mexico)
Aah! Those evil
marionettes are everywhere! Thanks for another great
laugh! (Jim Fraser, Vancouver, Canada)
Your remarks regarding the alien
contact had me in stitches, figuratively speaking, of
course. (Dave Wagner, Sacramento, US)
The best part of the
missive is the introduction to Australian
humour and expressions. (Chaska, Prince Edward
County, CANADA)
Like your
site...very inspirational when you get writer's
block like me! (Peter, Seoul, South Korea)
Nice letter, I
was using google for once, twice, thrice
and quince, and found this page, great ;) (Marv, Zwolle,
NETHERLANDS)
One of the most
amusing and erudite newsletters that makes my day.
Keep going. (David Vasnaik, Bangalore, INDIA)
Read
more testimonials ...
Great newsletter -
originally found this site after searching for
clarification on a contentious
point amongst work colleagues. Just had to look at old
issues and now look forward to Fridays (Juliet Wallace,
Manchester, ENGLAND)
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Celebrating Our
Differences ... Life Down Under
by Jennifer Stewart
One of the things I like most about
the Internet is that it's shown me that it doesn't matter where we come from,
the majority of us are friendly, generous and helpful.
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From my first tentative steps into
this unbelievable techno-world, I've been amazed by this ever-present
willingness of complete strangers to help - regardless of the simplicity or
complexity of my problems.
My family groan every time I start a sentence with,
"I met this terrific person today ...." because they know I'm going to
launch into yet another long story about my travels around the globe. For them,
it's a bit like slide nights of someone else's holiday, but without even the
distraction of the slides! (Read more about Life
in Australia here.)
Never before have we been able to
contact so many people from so many places, so easily.
It never ceases to astound me that I
can sit at my desk here in Queensland, on a lovely 20 C winter's day, and be
reading a message from a friend in North America who is caught in the sauna of
summer. (Or, I can be sweltering through a heatwave, while communicating with
someone who's caught under a couple of metres of snow!)
How fortunate are we - to be alive
at this particular time in history?
It doesn't matter what you want to
find out or do, you're sure to be able to find someone, somewhere to help -
usually for free or for a small charge. You can even call ordinary phones anywhere in the world from your computer for the price of a
local
call
When I started to send out my
Writing
Tips, I was struck by another feature of the Internet - that until then, I
had never really considered. When we meet people face to face, we're able to
take a rough guess at their origins - from their accent and so on - but when
we're communicating through the written word, it's more difficult to detect
regional differences. And that means that we run the risk of losing all that
wonderful variety that makes us so interesting as a species!
We don't collectively spend billions
of dollars each year on travel because we want to meet people who are exactly
the same as ourselves, we do it because we want to learn about different
cultures, and we want to experience other ways of living.
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(Would you like
to work in Australia? Click here for Australian Visa advice and free assessment online.)
What made me think about this was
the number of people who interpreted my Australian expressions and spelling, as
errors. I was amazed, yet again, by the people who took the time to gently point
out I might like to have a quick look at some word or other that I'd apparently
"overlooked" in my proof reading. It was, without exception, done in
the spirit of wanting to help.
I considered changing all my future
work to make it fit into these new patterns - but then realised that if I did, I
would be contributing to the "greying" of the world!
It's a bit like children's paintings
- little tots start out with their beautiful bright colours - green, red, blue,
yellow - but after a while, all they have is dark browny-grey!
Who wants to live in a grey world?
Let's celebrate our small
differences while we still have them. I'll continue to colour my little part of
the world with my favourite way of spelling and hope that you realise I'm doing
it because I'm from Australia - and not because I can't spell!
Read about my
little corner of the world here by clicking the logo below
Want to know more about
Queensland where it's beautiful one day and perfect the
next?
Click on the links below:
The Redcliffe
Peninsula - "smiles away" from care!
A flying visit Down
Under
Brisbane
on a budget - free and inexpensive ways to discover beautiful
Brisbane.
A little bit of Greece in Queensland
- the Blessing
of the Waters.
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