math2 Posted October 31, 2011 Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) On my Spanish essay, my teacher marked me down for writing he venido, saying that I should use vine instead. She said that even though the first one is more frequent in Spain, I might get a grader from Latin America that would mark me down for that on my Paper 2.What determines the graders that I get on my exams (from Spain or Mexico)? How likely is the fact that I'll be marked down for saying he venido instead of vine? Will the graders be extremely picky, especially with the accents on solo, guion, este, ese, and aquel, as now Real Academia Española recommends to never use the accents on those words? Overall, how conservative are the graders? Edited November 1, 2011 by math2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted November 1, 2011 Report Share Posted November 1, 2011 It's pretty impossible to say, but personally I'd go for straight up Castellano and make sure that you're uniform throughout.Also, particular cultural/idiomatic things like he venido versus vine aren't really going to change your mark, so I also wouldn't stress out about it! You can't know or control who your paper goes to or what weird preferences they have. Just keep your use of language consistent (so if you're doing Spanish Spanish, don't slip in any S. American peculiarities and vice versa).Imagine a similar variance in English with English English versus American English. Do you really think they'd mark you down for saying 'sidewalk' instead of 'pavement'? Or "I'm going to write my Grandma" instead of "I'm going to write to my Grandma"? The answer in my opinion is no. Even though I think that saying you're going to literally write your own grandmother is a retarded phraseology, it is still nevertheless a peculiarity of US english to leave out the preposition there and you have to recognise it as acceptable within the context of a particular group. The examiner would have to be a high class of arsehole to penalise you for their own personal thoughts on the matter.In short, I think your teacher is being a bit over the top. But re: accents, be traditional and not progressive. Always play safe. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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