Of the last 13 Notebook corrections I have made, only 3 have been acknowledged by the author, and of these one wrote 'thanks anyway' ! Those concerned come from a number of East Asian and European countries.
Has anyone else noticed a decline recently in the customary courtesy of thanking those who have taken the trouble to help them with their writing ?
I have stopped correcting because of the general lack of even a simple "thanks."
Well, I think "thanks anyway" could be counted as a proper "thank you" in some cases— I doubt the student meant to comment on your correction in a negative way, it looks like an ordinary mistake :)
If by "recently" you mean "last month or two", then no, I haven't noticed such a decline in the Russian language section. I would say the ratio of "thank you" / no "thank you" has never been higher than 70/30, and it's about 60/40 now, I think. [When I joined itаlki, I was young and naïve: I honestly thought that if there's no "thanks" under the correction, it probably just means that the student said "thank you" in a personal message. Lol!] 3 out of 13 sounds a bit sad, but you know, some people just do not understand how to comment on a correction, some consider pressing the thumb up button the same as writing "thank you", some do not even know someone corrected their notebook entry because they had turned notifications off, and some probably do not even realise that there is a real person on the other side who would be glad to know it wasn't all for nothing, etc... Hopefully at least 8 out of 13 did find your corrections helpful, and it's already something!
Thanks, Ruslan, for your comment about people only feeling the need to express gratitude for something that goes beyond normal duty. It's interesting that you believe they feel that this also applies to the situation here, even if such acts are voluntary and relatively few feel inclined to undertake them. Do Russian speakers feel an obligation to do this ?
Kseniia, you're probably right about 'thanks anyway' - that's what I think too - and I suggested this below her comment. On the general issue, 70:30 has probably been fairly typical in my experience, until fairly recently. I accept your point about the various reasons why people may not acknowledge corrections but, if you write an entry, surely you would check to see if it had been corrected ?
Chris, you may not have been the only one ; I seem to recall similar comments a while ago, and it's depressing to hear that help given freely and generously is not appreciated.
I agree, Eleonora, that correcting Notebook entries is one of the most useful forms of help that we can give to serious learners, and sometimes we just have to assume that it is valued.
Ishtar, I agree that corrections deserve to be recognised, and particularly so for long or difficult ones ! You may be right that some people do not like detailed explanations, and I notice that many correctors here do not give these.
Yes, Doug, 'c'est la vie', mais doit-il en être ainsi ? I'm not aware of a recent decline of manners in general, and I live in London !
Thank you, Terecia, for your kind comments. Discounting all the possible legitimate reasons for failure to acknowledge does bring the proportion down to a more typical level, around the 60:40 referred to by Kseniia.
