Les personnes insensibles m’énervent
(I realize that most of the people who watch this journal will have no idea what I am saying, but sometimes I need to let things out in a language other than English. I don’t want to offend anybody.)
Il y a des temps dont j’ai de la difficulté à comprendre les personnes qui parlent mon lange natal. Je suis anglophone, mais parfois… :(
Peut-être c’ ( Read more... )
Il y a des temps dont j’ai de la difficulté à comprendre les personnes qui parlent mon lange natal. Je suis anglophone, mais parfois… :(
Peut-être c’ ( Read more... )
Could it be this post is about English-speaking people being somehow more rude (ruder?) than non-English speaking people?
I seem to have caught something about people writing the same way they think: quickly and without much deliberation... and you ask people to think how their messages could be interpreted before clicking on "send"...
Then you say something about how it's easy to misinterpret things in the Internet because it's hard to tell what the intention behind the words are, and that people may forget they are talking to actual people with feelings while on the net, and thus be lax in how rude they sound when posting things...
You are fine with constructive criticism, but you ask for basic respect for others. Impoliteness is not very conductive to good criticism, so think before you write... or something like that?
And this post stemmed from a certain person being rude to you...
Uh... if I'm wrecking things by posting this in English, feel free to delete it. If the entire purpose of posting this in French was so that that person wouldn't understand, then my comment defeats that purpose. I apologise if that's the case. ^^U
If I understood correctly, then I definitely agree with you. One of the things I can't stand about people is when they are rude, to me, or to other people. There are ways and ways in which to say things, and when you're trying to point out something which you think is wrong, that's when you need politeness the most, as criticism is hard to take even in the best of cases and from people you know well; in the net, we're all kind of strangers and it's easier to sound perhaps harsher that one meant (which is not to say there aren't people who may actually have wanted to sound that harsh in the first place).
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Yep, think before you write. It's easy to me misinterpreted. Don't be short with me, you know? ;_;
Well, part of it is that I hope that the person doesn't read this... but I wouldn't be adverse if people did understand. Even if you're not the person I have in mind, it's something that all people should follow, right? Be considerate!
...besides, I didn't mention them by name, so...?
All I ask is that people be considerate and respectful. If you have a suggestion, by all means, make it! ... Just be polite about it, don't sound write like you're sneering at me for being stupid, etc. Be careful about what you write, because without tone of voice and body language, it's really, really easy to come across as rude or angry, even if that wasn't your intention. That's why I rely on emoticons as a form of punctuation. ;)
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Yay! XD
(It would have been a different matter if this had been spoken instead of written, but let's not go there, ok? XD)
Plus there are some things that aren't similar to Spanish but are similar to English, so I have that to help, too (oh, Norman Conquest. There is so much I have to thank you for...).
It'd be interesting to read a translation of this text, to see how much I really understood... there were quite a few words that puzzled me ("'chaque'? 'maladroites'? 'trouve'? 'dernière'? is that something edible?" XD).
Even if you're not the person I have in mind, it's something that all people should follow, right? Be considerate!
Yup, yup. I sometimes get criticized in RL for being too formal... I address people older than me by more than five years or people with a social standing higher than mine (teachers or police officers, for example) with "usted", ("usted tiene" instead of "vos tenés") which is the most polite form Spanish has in my country... it can cause confusion, as the verbs are conjugated in the same way as the second person singular, and since Spanish often makes use of the "sujeto tácito" and relies on the verb to understand who we are talking to/about... (one of the hardest things to teach Spanish speakers is that you can't skip the subject in sentences, because the verbs don't have enough inflections for people to understand who we are talking about... we are so used to skipping the subject because it's understood, that we find adding it every time extremely tedious).
Anyway, the thing is, I prefer to be taken as too formal than risk being rude... unfortunately, it seems not many people share this point of view. -_-
Just be polite about it, don't sound write like you're sneering at me for being stupid, etc.
Oh, I hate it when people do that. >_<
Fine, you don't agree with me on some point... perhaps you're right, perhaps I am in the wrong... but that doesn't mean I'm any less intelligent or any less deserving of respect than you are.
Emoticons are a life saviour for me... but I've also learned that they don't do everything for you, either. Things can still be misinterpreted if you don't choose your words carefully, and the emoticons will only make it sound as if you're making fun of them. It's actually happened to me a couple fo times. Not everybody will understand that I'm not being serious when I include a winking emoticon. Now I only joke around in written form with people I know for a while and who are likely to understand what I mean, just in case. Better safe than sorry. :P
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chaque = each, maladroites = tactless (coming from "mal" = bad and "adroit", meaning "clever"), trouve = find, dernière = last (as opposed to "premier", which is first)
Hmm... interesting! I like learning about formalities in other languages. :) Japanese is crazy for formalities. I think that I'm the same way; when in doubt, I speak politely. Of course, in English, it's mostly in the respectful tone, using "sir" or "madam" to address the person you're speaking to, using fewer conjunctions, and preferring some words over others.
I try to use emoticons sparingly, and only when it's absolutely necessary, like, the sentence would otherwise come across as far to serious or critical. :)
I could translate it. Gimme a minute, and I'll send it to you privately.
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We studied them briefly in History of the English Language, and it sure clarified a few things for me... now I can cheerfully blame the Normans every time my students complain of English not being written phonetically. XD
(honestly, Spanish spoils us. except for the letter "h", which is mute, and for "b" and "v" and "c", "s" and "z" being pronounced exactly the same way (in Argentinean Spanish. In Spain there's actually differences), we really do write words the same way we speak them. We even have a very consistent way of stressing words in written form, unlike English, where it's basically guesswork for us. I've been studying English for fifteen years now, and I still can't stress words properly in connected speech. ^^U
Argentinean Spanish has a very clear structure for polite speech. Compare:
Voceo: "Má, me compraste el libro que te pedí?"
Usted: "Madre, me compró el libro que le pedí?"
Both mean "Mum/mother, did you buy me the book I asked you for?" but are in different levels of formality. Of course, nowadays you wouldn't speak that formally to your mother (though two geenrations ago we certainly did) unless you were joking. I tend to do that to my dad. It's a private joke between us because I was a singer in his choir and it somehow seemed wrong to adress him as "pá" ("dad") in fron of the other singers and I couldn't bring myself to call him by his name instead, so I went in an extremely opposite direction and started calling him ridiculously formal things like "mi progenitor", or "amado padre" ("progenitor of mine", "beloved father"), and using "usted" all the time. After I left the choir, I somehow never dropped the habit. XD
I should probably mention that when I said it's hard to teach students not to skip the subject, I meant when teaching them English. I forgot to add that part. In Spanish, it's bad form to add the subject every time.
Thanks for the translation! And you're right, I did get it right most of the time!! The finer points of your prose, though, were lost on me... I particularly liked the way you talked about "thinking the English word that is very similar to the French word for a female deer" bit. As a fellow writer and reader who appreciates word choice and saying things in ingenious ways, this made me grin. XD
And I wonder how many female Argentineans you know...? ;D
(But remember I'm more polite and careful about my grammar than your average Argentinean. Don't be too disappointed if you meet others who are not... we Argentineans have an unfortunate reputation - not entirely unfounded - for being rash, boisterous, rude and self-centered, particularly when out of our own country. I guess it's a defence mechanism? :P)
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I remember one high school English teacher telling us that for a whole year, she called her parents her "'rental units", which made them sound like cars. ;)
Ah, I see! That bit about subjects make sense. Yeah, in English, you have to spell it out to people. ;)
Yeah, I thought of that pun when I was thinking - what how DO I say the "b" word in French? And I knew that "biche" was a word in French, but it doesn't have insulting connotations and in fact is rather innocent - compare with the description "doe-eyed" in English.
Oh, I just have female Argentineans popping out of the wordwork, everywhere... ;)
Canadians are stereotypically soft-spoken and polite... and on a whole, we ARE more polite than some people, I would personally say (although we have a bad habit of not meaning it when we say "sorry" - it's really just reflex, so is it even polite at all...?), but some people are in for a rude shock when they meet some Canadians for the first time. ;) We can be just as loud and obnoxious as Americans if the mood strikes us.
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