Rhyme And Reason The title of the article I did earlier, “I Do Declare,” was a tongue-in-cheek salute to my childhood, and the culture I grew up in. “Well, I do declare,” was an expression of surprise or astonishment, used particularly, as I recall, by older women whose sensibilities were shocked by something said or done. One could also respond with, “The dickens you say!” The modern equivalent would be, “No way!” We had the luxury, you see, of using more words to say the same thing, because there wasnt as much rushing about. You will notice how many words it took me to explain something that, in my earlier days, required no explanation at all. Another reference that comes to mind was from the old Johnny Cash song, “The One on the Right Was on the Left,” which had to be understood in the light of the folk music and political protests of the 1960s. One line says, “And the guy in the rear, burned his drivers license.” That calls to mind news images of war protesters burning their draft cards, or feminists burning their bras. By the time you have to explain it, though, it ceases to be funny. Thats one reason why communication is such a problem, not only between generations, but between different cultures. Imagine trying to explain a computer to someone who has never even heard of electricity. Their vocabulary would not have any equivalents for the ideas you tried to express. Besides that, languages are full of idioms, word plays that those who dont know the language or culture wouldnt understand without explanation. For example, we have a phrase in English, “beating a dead horse.” Far from being an obsession with abusing animal corpses, it refers to a futile attempt to address a problem thats already been resolved or addressed. What people have trouble with, computers have even more. Some of the best belly laughs Ive had is to read machine translations from one language to another. Sometimes the result is not only hilarious, but makes absolutely no sense. The point of all of this manic meandering? Before you respond to someone from a different generation, culture, or nationality, make sure first of all you understand what theyre really saying. Oh, and that applies to everybody else you talk with also. :)
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 20:48:29 +0000
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