To be put off by bad English?

[MrsSnape]

I am giving online dating another go. Anyway, one man sent me a short message and he seemed ok. I replied with an equally short message and he then sent me a long email which to be honest, looked like it had been written by a 12 year old.

An example is:

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yeah im good thanx just been sorting chritmas decs out and im knackered lol well wot you been upto what kind of bloke do you go for do you have much planned for weekend wot do you do for work lol look at me with all the questions well ill go now but hope you email back see you

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It really put me off. Am I being a snob? I know my English is far from perfect by the way but I don't know why, this really made me not want to reply anymore.

I am aware I am being "Overly careful" this time due to bad past experiences but would this put anyone else off?

(please don't reply highlighting all the English and grammar mistakes in my message!)

It would absolutely put me off. Poverty of written English is surely going to be a harbinger of poverty of spoken English, isn't it?

No - it's hard to read that sentence the way it's written.

I'd be tempted to send it back with his mistakes corrected .

This would absolutely put me off. I can't abide the so-called text speak used out of context (even winds me up when used in texts!)

It would put me off as I'd assume he was about 11.

It's not so much the bad English as the childish tone.

Thank god, I thought I'd get flamed!

I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if he'd put:

"Yeah, I'm good thanks. What have u been upto?"

etc, I hate text speak too but I can tolerate it in small ammounts. This however, wasn't just text speak, there was no punctuation, capital letters or anything. My 7 year old could write better.

deal breaker IMVHO

Would totally put me off too - I always imagine people speak like that too and must be manic and breathless!

is he on speed? deal breaker

I would be put off too - I dont like buying from websites/ebay with bad spelling/grammar either

pmsl I always imagine people who write like that to be really manic and OTT too

Just reading it makes you feel like you're on speed!

maybe it's a lack of keyboard skills [hopeful] my dh is useless with the computer and it takes him such a long time to type anything that what he writes often turns out a bit like that...

Definitely give him a wide berth. Just imagine the conversation whilst having a meal {shudder}.

But forkhandles, if you are trying to impress someone, you make the effort to sound interesting and coherent. He has attempted to do neither.

YANBU it would make me think he's either thick or 12 yrs old.

does he look like bobby davro?

I couldn't be attracted to someone I thought was thick..sounds terrible doesn't it?

YANBU. Text speak, especially, is just bloody annoying. Maybe he thinks he will come across as young and cool but he just seems a bit of a prat.

I do find that (lack of) grammar a bit cringey too, but I wouldn't abandon all contact on the basis of it. Writing isn't everyone's thing and it's certainly not the barometer of whether a man is decent or not. Why not exchange a few more e-mails and get a sense of what kind of person he is and whether that's attractive, unless nice grammer is a real deal-breaker for you. If so, that's not snobby, but for instance my dad is virtually illiterate whilst my mum was an english teacher and they've been happily married for almost 40 years, so you never know...

ggirlsbells, that was my initial thought too, it makes him sound really low on intelligence.

I don't want to be mean about the bloke, he might be really nice for all I know but such bad English does make a person look thick IMO. (If they are actually English, obviously!)

not terrible at all, what's attractive about being so obviously (ok, seemingly) poorly-educated and dim? I'd never go for a man like that, to be honest.

grammar

No, I could never date someone who wrote like that either, totaly off putting.

YANBU as this is personal to you (and I do think brains are the new muscles, so to speak - dp is scarily intelligent and I love it! . But, I do have friends who would write like this - generally people I knew from school - and I think it would be a shame if I'd discounted them, given what throroughly decent blokes they are. And I could imagine me with a bloke that was "good with his hands" (definitely at lunchtime visions of grimy blokes in overalls!), but if he was an insurance salesman or something which I (probably irrationally) see as a job for talentless people, then no, wouldn't work. And in this context i don't see that I would BU.

I think that bad English is a red flag to certain personal characteristics which would make me want to steer clear.

When I look at listings on eBay, if the English is crap, you take the risk that the items they sell would be in crap condition as well. You rarely go wrong if the seller has good English and clear concise descriptions.