Are you Dissatisfied? Or Unsatisfied?

I have a few grammar Nazi friends, and every time I’m around them, I get really stressed up about the English I use, so as to avoid any embarrassing corrections. I admit I MAY seem like a very well-spoken person, but if you ask me to write a really good essay, you’ll be greatly disappointed. So I usually warn my fellow friends/teachers/group mates to not expect too much from me.  

This lack of grammatical talent boils down to the fact that while growing up, I’ve always been in a Chinese medium school. This means that I studied my math, history, geography, science etc all in Chinese. I know it isn’t an excuse to not buck up in my written English, but back then it really didn’t occur to me as a crucial problem to score an A in English with my suboptimal level. I had a harder time coping with my other Chinese subjects which I’m way weaker in, and even struggling my third language – Malay well.

Now, I regret my foolishness back then and really do try to correct my grammar and improve the structuring of my sentences. Thus, I do apologize in advance if my blog has some errors here and there, but feel free to drop me a message about it, it’ll be a great help. =) 

So when I came across this video by Stephen Fry, it really cheered me up and helped me feel less guilty about myself. I personally have no right to judge other people’s grammar, but something that actually annoyed me is the IM spellings. I find all the “2molo”, “c u”, “bck” etc harder to read than actual proper spelling/sentences. I confess my younger innocent self used to type that way. Then I asked myself how hard is typing a few extra keys going to be?

Nevertheless, what Stephen said is really true, so what if we aren’t meticulous about the difference between “few” and “less”, or we didn’t add a apostrophe here and there? It won’t kill anyone now would it? It wouldn’t really make us any less intelligent, just….lazy. =)

However, I disagree about the degree of informality and proper grammar to be used in both formal and informal occasions. Certainly when you’re writing a cover letter to your future employer, how informal can you get? I’d say you have to be AS FORMAL as if you were in the 1800s and writing a letter to the Victorian Queen. You should be using words such as “in obedience to”, “with submission to your superior judgment”, practically kissing as much ass as you can would do the trick!

As for informal conversations with friends, I’d say a basic knowledge of the more commonly understood grammar should be sufficient. But an eagerness to find out which is the accurate grammar to be used is highly recommended.

So back to my question, are you dissatisfied or unsatisfied? I really didn’t know the difference, and often asked myself if either one was a word in the first place. Then I googled (noun turned verb :p) it up. The difference is that “unsatisfied” is usually more used for non-living nouns, such as ambition, claims etc.  As for “dissatisfied”, it is applied to humans, such as customer, landowners etc. TADA!

Ultimately, I believe in using proper English as much as possible, and if you aren’t sure, look it up. If you find a friend using incorrect grammar, let them know politely. =) You don’t have to be all pointy nose and call them “ignorant people” in your head, or behind their backs. If I’ve done so in the past, or made you feel that way, please do forgive me. I WAS the one who’s ignorant.