Current comment count is past 300, and now the most common criticism has become “You’re condescending to us, how dare you act like we never try to be polite in our everyday lives.” What I would actually say is the biggest problem is that in this form of communication, what you’re communicating to the other person is completely distinct of and perhaps even the exact opposite of the exact meaning your sentence has. It becomes a “the wine before me” situation over and over. Examples that happen to me all the time:
English: “Oh, this story of yours isn’t that bad. I liked the part where they were talking in the meadow while it was raining. You’ve been making a lot of progress.”
Transmission: “I really don’t like your story that much. It had one good part in it, but I want to see you get better.”
English: “Uh, the twenty-first? That’s a Saturday, right? I think I’m going to have a lot of chemistry homework then… probably some other stuff too. Maybe another time?”
Transmission: “Did I hear you correctly? No, I don’t want to go at all, but I don’t want to socially reject you completely.”
The transmission many of us are receiving from you is “you’re being stupid jerks right now, you have to actually try the superior method of actual politeness and you’ll see immediately that it’ll be way better for you”. It’s one I’d rather not hear, and I’m a little ashamed of that, on multiple levels.
Current comment count is past 300, and now the most common criticism has become “You’re condescending to us, how dare you act like we never try to be polite in our everyday lives.” What I would actually say is the biggest problem is that in this form of communication, what you’re communicating to the other person is completely distinct of and perhaps even the exact opposite of the exact meaning your sentence has. It becomes a “the wine before me” situation over and over. Examples that happen to me all the time:
English: “Oh, this story of yours isn’t that bad. I liked the part where they were talking in the meadow while it was raining. You’ve been making a lot of progress.”
Transmission: “I really don’t like your story that much. It had one good part in it, but I want to see you get better.”
English: “Uh, the twenty-first? That’s a Saturday, right? I think I’m going to have a lot of chemistry homework then… probably some other stuff too. Maybe another time?”
Transmission: “Did I hear you correctly? No, I don’t want to go at all, but I don’t want to socially reject you completely.”
The transmission many of us are receiving from you is “you’re being stupid jerks right now, you have to actually try the superior method of actual politeness and you’ll see immediately that it’ll be way better for you”. It’s one I’d rather not hear, and I’m a little ashamed of that, on multiple levels.