Hi Djakut; there's no way for us to really know that. But for...

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Reply to Msg 5057

Hi Djakut; there's no way for us to really know that. But for now I'm going to assume that it is the same person.

By the way, could you two stop fighting?

You guys are not that different.

Djakut, sometimes people misunderstand what you say because you love to play with words.

On the other hand, sometimes Rubens, who has many good points, does not seem to reflect enough on what people say, and so he does not realize that the other person and he share common ground.

Overall, you have both--in your own ways--brought a lot to the discussion.

So maybe, now that you have knocked each other around enough (sort of), you can continue the debate without calling each other names, or being condescending in the way you approach each other's point of view. I for one am enjoying the exchange between the two of you, but I would rather not have to read between the distracting negative inputs.

Let me give you an example of how easy it is to ignore a post or part of it:
One time some guy responded to my critical post about the current government.

The individual ranted and called me all sorts of names.

I looked at the post and thought it would feel really good to respond in kind. But I didn't. Instead, I dug through the post to find if there were any analytical points outside of the rant and rave. I responded to the few points that were relevant to Haiti, and I completely ignored the rest of the insult.

Then I moved on.
Another time, a woman(?) named Lenide J. posted something in French about the country's despair.

I empathized with her and wrote her back in French.

I had no problem mentioning to her that writing French is not as easy for me as writing English.

Now this woman responds to me with a nasty attitude, telling me that I should feel guilty because I am not as proficient in French as I am in English.

Now, here's the interesting thing about that. The woman's French was horrible.

I mean it was sad and sorry.

What I had written to her was not my mother's excellent French, but it was standard.

But what she wrote was laughable.

So, I could easily have written her back and pointed that out to her; I could have told her that because of my family background, although I grew-up in the US I speak French fluently; that although I sometimes question how proficient I am in French, I certainly know how to recognize someone like her who does not speak or write the language at all; I might have mentioned that it is because my English exceeds in quality that my French writing suffers.

That when you spend more than half of your childhood writing another language, get a Bachelors, a Masters, and a Ph.D in that other language, than that language will dominate your communication skills--even when the language spoken at home is different.

I could have told her that I just spent nearly 15 years of my life having very little social contact with anyone who speak French or Creole.

Lastly, I could have told her that even with my limited use of French I still could sit her down and teach it to her because her writing showed that she just didn't know the language at all. I DIDN'T DO THAT because it would have been an exercise in futility, and I hate waisting my time. I never answered her. I kept the irony of the situation to myself and the whole thing ended right there.

So, maybe you guys can do the same. Ignore the nasty aspect of the other's argument and focus on the points worth discussing.

It's just a suggestion.

Linda, December 7 2007, 1:42 PM

Topic: Comment ca marche dans le pays?

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