'Sometimes content is more important than grammar'

For most rules there are exceptions, a fact which came home to me yesterday when I attended a lecture by Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers and Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind.

Besides being an incredible survivor, Loung is also national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World. She addressed a standing-room-only audience yesterday in the Cleveland Public Library's Louis Stokes Wing as part of the library's Writers and Readers series.

Previously, I have advised against calling attention to one's hoarse voice or other imperfection that may create a negative in the listener's mind.

Loung began her remarks by apologizing for any mistakes of grammar she might make. "English isn't my first language -- it's my fourth," said Loung, who is also fluent in Cambodian, Chinese and French. She then spoke extemporaneously and answered questions for well over an hour -- flawlessly, as far as I could tell.

Rather than a negative, her apology only created one more reason for to admire her. Once an English teacher wrote on her essay - an essay on which she received an A++, "You'll learn to correct the (grammatical) mistakes. But sometimes content is more important than grammar. I heard you."

So did we.

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Having come so close to starvation in her life, Loung Ung even now is obsessive about food, always thinking about her next meal. When Y2K doomsayers warned that computer glitches would disrupt food distribition, among other necessities, she knew what to do.

"I went out and bought some sharp knives," she said. "And then I got a map of the zoo."

Loung Ung, as I said, is a survivor.