Reply To: A Couple of Questions About National Characteristics

[grizzlymc]

John
Your comments about language seem very true. I have achieved a working proficiency in three diverse languages in my life and have found that there are concepts which are easy to express in some languages which can be nesr impossible in others. Native Spanish and Bahasa speakers, when they know you well enough to be so rude, will often criticise English for the crudeness of its expression. Further inquiry will show that they think that sophistication in this case means the ability to make a statement which you can later reinterpret as having meant something totally different.

Now, whereas spin doctors have been able to achieve this in English, mere mortals tend to see this weakness as an advantage in technical and legal specification of objectives or procedures because you can make what you say mean only one thing. It is often quite diverting watching the frustration and outrage which occurs on both sides of this cultural divide as people try to use a language in which they are competent to do things which are simply outside its capabilities.