tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 16 17:59:31 2002
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Re: to' nech, 019: {jev'a'meyna'.}
At 21:10 2002-04-16 +0000, [email protected] wrote:
>ghunchu'wI', a computer geek, and I, another computer geek, have a
>natural response involving veins sticking out in our necks when we deal
>with this cultural difference between outspoken members of these
>different groups.
Suzette Elgin (hey, a linguist, whattaya know!) once suggested this as part
of her "Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense":
«
"In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that
it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of." (George Miller;
1980.)
Our tendency when we hear someone say something that strikes us as
unacceptable is to assume that it is false and try to imagine what's wrong
with the person who said it. (As in: "That's ridiculous! He's only saying
that because he's stupid/biased/ignorant/trying to trick me/..." and so
on.) This guarantees communication breakdown; instead, use Miller's Law.
The proper response when someone says, "My toaster has been talking to me!"
is to give the speaker your full attention, ask, "What has it been
saying?", and then listen carefully.
»
So, instead of braying "SEAN IS NOT LEARNING" over and over (as if the
careful note takers missed it the first time?), how about /assuming/ that
I'm learning, but in a different way than you're used to seeing? Because
when Protagoras said that "Man is the measure of all things", he probably
wasn't talking about you specifically.
Or maybe assume that you're not /seeing/ improvement, only because you're
not very good at detecting such changes, especially when it cuts into your
rant time. But then, assessment /is/ always the hardest part of language
teaching. Oh no, did I just now accounce myself as a linguist!?
>Given that, we now have Sean who announces himself as a linguist, produces
>more messages in a day than we've seen on this list in quite some time,
>shows less interest in cleaning up his translations [...]
Similarly, instead of assuming that I've got no interest in cleaning my
translations, how about assuming that I /am/ cleaning them up, and at the
end will release a new corrected version?
Unless, of course, that mode of argumentation would deprive you of
cherished neck-vein-bulging. But hey, whatever gets you thru the day.
--
Sean M. Burke http://www.spinn.net/~sburke/