Sigh..

I have no lack of empathy. I wish I had the time to help all those struggling to express their ideas in English.

I also wish I had the patience to read what they are writing now.

This morning I marked 63 articles to read. That's a fairly typical quantity for me to pick out. If each has 700 words or so, that's perhaps 45,000 words for me to read. At my normal reading speed that will take me about forty five minutes. If I have comments to add, I'll be tied up longer, but I only have about an hour to spare for this all together. There are days where I can afford more, but many other things demand my time.

I can only read that quickly if the English is proficient.

If words are used incorrectly, if the grammar is off, my reading is abruptly stopped while I puzzle out what the author meant. It's frustrating, not just because of my inconvenience, but often because I see that the author had interesting thoughts, thoughts well worth reading if I had more time and patience. Sometimes I have offered minor corrections through the private notes function, but I don't have time to do much of that.

I have sometimes thought that I might carve out an hour a week and offer to help one writer in that time. I couldn't do more without charging for my time and I suspect few of you could afford that. But who would I help? One out of many thousands, a teaspoon against an incoming tide!

I don't have an answer for you. You have an excellent understanding of English; I can read you at my normal pace. There are not many who can do that, unfortunately.