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> You don't sound like you've had much experience with these variations and their impacts.

Lol... I have had tons. In more than one language. My point was, that despite your best efforts, you will still offend someone eventually and that that's the point at which you can't take responsibility for how they feel.

For a time I did competitive speech and one of the precepts I operated on (and still do to this day) is "know your audience". It's always beneficial to frame your message to the intended recipients.

But what happens when an unintended recipient receives it?

Or, due to local differences (and this specifically happened to me), the use of a word was received differently than you intended - than it was elsewhere in the same language?

There's only so much control you have. Thus, what you truly control is your intentions, and people must make an effort to expect you are acting in good faith. So much of good communication simply comes down to that simple point. An expectation of good faith.

I expect that in the modern world this is where much of the breakdown in communication is coming from, really: everyone seems to be expecting "HAHA GOTCHA!" rather than a good faith conversation, and more worryingly, are more recently probably right.



> rather than a good faith conversation

"[when] there's an assumption of competency, the faults born of ignorance are seen as faults born of malice."

And/or what's being sought is conflict, not conversation.

> Lol... I have had tons.

Yeah ;) Notice that that paragraph has an "I"-statement, a "You"-statement, and a neither?




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