dear internet,
our office secretary doesn't speak english very well. every time she delivers our letters she tells us in turn, "you've got mails" or "you've got a lot of mails". it's really beginning to grate but i don't want to embarass her by correcting her. also, i can be businesslike to the point of being impatient sometimes and i don't mean to be. what to do?
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What difference does it really make?
Well you don't have to correct, you can just start talking about mail and emphasise the lack of "s" a lot, this is what I do. Usually it doesn't work though, but it's always worth a try.
I don't think there's any polite way to address the issue with her. If you feel like being impolite, you can casually answer her annoucement of, "you're got mails," with "oh, you mean I have mail!" with a big smile. But that's rude. And you didn't hear it from me.
I am a non-native speaker, and I have been exasperated by people bearing my language mistakes. If you don't tell me, how will I know where tro improve? I don't want to be ated as the bloke whose English is flaky - it suggests that there is no hope? Sadly the closer you get to people, the less they are likely to correct you. I implore anyone to correct my English (or anything else in my manner that irritates them) so that at least I can make a conscious decision on whether to do something about it.
Also, it needs repeated reminders. Some bad habits are very hard to un-learn!
Obviously you need to ask her whether she sees it the way I see it. But don't be all British about it and think "well, I told her, she ought to know" if it happens again. A smile, and a friendly word to remind her is the best approach, I am sure!
i worked for a guy, as in he was my direct boss and militarily he outranked me by a good deal, who grew up speaking korean. he had a habit of saying "informations" and omitting common articles such as "a" and "the." so it became "we go to gym."
he and i got along well enough that fairly early on i started pointing these things out. but first we built up a kind of friendship so that he knew i wasnt just being my usual rude, bossy self. and he really appreciated it... and it became a bit of a running joke after awhile, which helped. dont do it in front of people to embarass her... thats bad.
so it can be put well... just make sure she knows that you are doing it for her benefit. be friendly.
I also think you should just say it correctly yourself. As in, oh, two letterS today? Not a lot of mail then. Or, Is the mail there yet?, Thanks for the mail...
I agree with withlime.. even if it maybe doesn't work...
It will not work, though. I have been corrected on several mistakes by several native speakers, and I was okay with most of it (although there was one person who habitually corrected my American vocabulary, which I found kind of arrogant). Just try to be nice and sensitive and don't do it in public.