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I'm interested in attending this college and I have been trying to get answers to some questions and concerns. I was given an email address which I reach out to and I received a response from a different contact basically telling me that my information was forwarded to him and asking what it is I needed. Up to this point everything is good.

Then I responded with about 3 or 4 paragraphs of questions, so maybe 5-7 questions which some of them were about whether or not I will be able to start this semester. Quote, "I'm hoping what I heard about possibly being able to steal start this spring is true and not just false rumors. Do you know if this is possible?"

The response I received to my 3 or 4 paragraphs of questions was, "quick question: what does "steal start" mean? I haven't heard that before."

I'm all about having a sense of humor but I don't know, in this case I would at least answered the questions someone wanted me to answer. Also, what should have been still instead of steal was caused by google speech and all though I fixed most of them I obviously didn't fixed them all. More importantly I wasn't the only one needing the answers but also my counselor needed to know also being that I'm a veteran and was using VA benefits.

I wanted to responded with a tone of straight anger an disbelief but thought I should get some advice with this one as this is defiantly a first. Just to be clear this is the only response I received. There is not another email anywhere to be found.

SO please, if you could give some advice maybe even some examples and am I just looking at this wrong and maybe he's waiting for me to respond to his "joke" before he continues.

Scottie
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    do you really think that there's no chance that the person you asked couldn't figure out what you meant? – DaveG Dec 01 '22 at 21:06
  • In this case, no chance. However, I took the advice given here and ignored it while clearing up the confusion and well see what his response is and that will give me a defiant answer. – Scottie Dec 01 '22 at 22:47
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    To be fair to them, I also don't know what "steal start"/"still start" is. What is it? Google doesn't show any result, and doesn't seem to try to correct any typo (if any). [not a native speaker here] – justhalf Dec 02 '22 at 05:29
  • I’m voting to close this question because as the [help/on-topic] states, questions that ask to rewrite text or tell you what to say (your response would be, maybe advice and examples) are off-topic. It's up to you to decide what you want your response to be, we can help you with the interpersonal skills to successfully convey that response. Besides that, questions that ask whether there is a problem (whether you're looking at this wrong) are off-topic too. – Tinkeringbell Dec 02 '22 at 07:37
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    Also, while you may not have wanted to fix all the errors caused by using text-to-speech when sending an urgent e-mail to a college, please do so when you post on SE. – Tinkeringbell Dec 02 '22 at 07:41
  • I have no idea what "steal start" means. And I have a curious mind and would ask you about it. That way I learn. Fixing errors: There are many non-native speakers here. Where for a native speaker "their" and "they're" are the same word because they sound the same and they have zero problems if you use the wrong spelling, for a non-native reader they are totally different words. It's just as confusing as if you spelled "dog" as "cheese sandwich". – gnasher729 Dec 02 '22 at 11:45
  • @gnasher729 agreed. And after Kate explained in a comment before, apparently it's parsing issue. Having the typo from "still" to "steal" changes the natural parsing to have "steal start" as a phrase, so instead of the intended parsing "still being able to start", it becomes "being able to [still start]", which shifts the understanding to trying to find out what that phrase "still start" means (I took that as a phrase, thinking that it's analogous to words such as "stillborn"). – justhalf Dec 03 '22 at 11:39
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    They are asking you what "steal start" means because they are genuinely trying to give you an accurate answer. In such a case I think you should give the questioner the benefit of the doubt, rather than assume the question is sarcastic. – Brandin Dec 06 '22 at 11:10
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    @Scottie There are some other strange errors in your text as well that I would watch out about. For example "that will give me a defiant answer." - In this case, I can guess you meant "that will give me a definite answer." However, defiant is a real word, and "to give a defiant answer" is a real action that does come up sometimes with a completely different meaning. So I would keep this in mind when using your dictation software; sooner or later some misunderstandings are going to happen with the output text. With simple typing errors, such radical transormations (sic) don't normally happen. – Brandin Dec 06 '22 at 11:20
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    @justhalf: "Steal start" supposed to mean "still start" - I would never ever have thought of that. I assumed OP would come from a country with unusual choice of English words (like "I have a doubt" and "do the needful" which I have read often enough to figure out), and "steal start" was something like that which I hadn't known. – gnasher729 Dec 12 '22 at 15:51

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In a situation like this, my mantra is "keep your eyes on the prize". You want and need to get answers to your questions. Really, whether the guy doesn't understand you (which is quite possible) or is just using a typo as an excuse to not answer doesn't matter. In order to accomplish your goal, you need to clear up the confusion and explain that the original message has a typo. Keep the communication focused on accomplishing your goal. As a side benefit, if the guy honestly didn't understand, you haven't alienated him.

DaveG
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It may not be a joke. Your correspondent may genuinely not realize you meant "still start." Or they may be sarcastic and nasty, but since you want something from them, it's probably best to ignore that at the moment.

Reply quickly with the correct wording and saying again something pleasant and nice about how you want to attend their institution and are eagerly looking forward to it. Should you end up attending, you won't need to deal with this person regularly, so their possibly nasty email habits will be of no importance to you. And on the off chance they were not being mean but genuinely couldn't make the obvious substitution, you haven't caused a scene for nothing.

Kate Gregory
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  • In a serious note, what does "steal start" mean? Entering either "steal start" or "still start" to Google doesn't show good results in the first page. – justhalf Dec 02 '22 at 05:28
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    @justhalf: "being able to steal start this spring is true and not" means nothing but "being able to still* start this spring is true and not*" is understandable I believe (if it's your point) – OldPadawan Dec 02 '22 at 15:21
  • No, I mean I truly don't know the meaning of "still start". Not a native speaker here. I mentioned googling "still start" and not finding a good result in the first page. I've never heard that term before in university admission context. – justhalf Dec 02 '22 at 15:51
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    perhaps it would be clearer as "still being able to start" ? Actually the word still isn't carrying much - "being able to start" and "being able to still start" are not that different in this case. – Kate Gregory Dec 02 '22 at 15:54
  • Ahh, ok. "still being able to start" makes sense. I was fixed on seeing "still start" as a phrase. Like stillborn or something. – justhalf Dec 02 '22 at 16:47
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    I definitely couldn't figure out that "steal start" meant "still start", and someone was so misled that after correcting. they couldn't figure out what "still start" meant! – gnasher729 Dec 12 '22 at 15:55