Languaging in beta
I've worked out that it takes me around three times longer to write something in Portuguese than in English. And I can't even begin to get close to representing myself as I would in English.
Lucky for me I have no shame. Pride, yes. But no shame.
I've often been told by well-meaning colleagues that it's better for me to stick to English. "You know how we are in Portugal" they say. If you write good English, then we'll look up to you. But if you are English making mistakes in Portuguese, then we'll look down on you."
Well, I don't have a very refined notion of what looking up or down at people means. And I've spent a lot of my life reading, listening and making sense of people writing in English as a second language. I reckon I've built up a lot of karma credits in linguistic tolerance and meaning-making. So I'll be cashing them in with this workshop.
I couldn't be luckier. It's the ideal place to make a fool of myself - and to learn - as people are exceptionally generous, tolerant and unpatronising.
Tags: POLEN2.0, languaginginbeta
Lucky for me I have no shame. Pride, yes. But no shame.
I've often been told by well-meaning colleagues that it's better for me to stick to English. "You know how we are in Portugal" they say. If you write good English, then we'll look up to you. But if you are English making mistakes in Portuguese, then we'll look down on you."
Well, I don't have a very refined notion of what looking up or down at people means. And I've spent a lot of my life reading, listening and making sense of people writing in English as a second language. I reckon I've built up a lot of karma credits in linguistic tolerance and meaning-making. So I'll be cashing them in with this workshop.
I couldn't be luckier. It's the ideal place to make a fool of myself - and to learn - as people are exceptionally generous, tolerant and unpatronising.
Tags: POLEN2.0, languaginginbeta
posted by bev trayner at 3/13/2006 03:08:00 PM
1 Comments:
Eduardo ... you only have a sense of humour if there are people to appreciate it! So, thanks for your comments :-)
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