Thursday, July 13, 2006
I call my God "Jesus" and I call him "Christ". Of course I also call him "Lord".
Mr/Ms Seneca,
I am from Singapore, where today most people are educated in English, and learning Chinese as a Second Language.
May I give my comment to your ?
Mr/Ms Seneca: "I don't need to ber reminded where I am; I don't think this is "culture" when people show disrespect by deliberately ignoring my wish to be addressed correctly, get it?"
The "culture" so mentioned is that people generally are not bothered whether they are called by firstname or surname. Have you understood the culture?
If people are not bothered, then they are not showing disrespect by intention, "deliberately ignoring your wish". But if you have offended them by your judgemental attitude, that is another story.
Mr/Ms Seneca: "What are you "learning" in your "English" classes? 8000 English vocables? And nothing in terms of civilised behaviour?"
What is so civilised about about calling people "Mister/Ms Surname"? I call my God "Jesus" and I call him "Christ". Of course, I also call him "Lord". And I learned all these from Westerners. And I have learned to call the other biblical figures "Peter", "Paul", "Mary", "David", "Abraham", and so on... Thanks to the hundreds of Western preachers that came by, and to the dozens of Christian writers. At least the Catholics taught me "Saint Peter", "Saint Paul","Mother Mary", "Pope Benedict", "Pope John Paul". But I did not learn these from the Protestant preachers and writers.
Oh...yes...when I was a child learning English, I knew nothing of the "Ms" salutation. I knew only of "Miss" and "Madam". But somehow the "civilised behaviour" changed...
Enough said about "civilised behaviour".
In Singapore school systems, we learned a lot of things Western. But sorry to disappoint you Mr/Ms Seneca, we did not learn much about Western social manners -- although some enthusiastic Westernised teachers might try to teach sort of things. Guess what might happen? The bolder students would tell them to his face -- "But that's not our culture! We are Asians. The Japanese are not like that. Not the Vietnamese. Not the Koreans. Not the Malays, Indonesians, Thais, Indians.... "
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2ยข/min or less.
I am from Singapore, where today most people are educated in English, and learning Chinese as a Second Language.
May I give my comment to your ?
Mr/Ms Seneca: "I don't need to ber reminded where I am; I don't think this is "culture" when people show disrespect by deliberately ignoring my wish to be addressed correctly, get it?"
The "culture" so mentioned is that people generally are not bothered whether they are called by firstname or surname. Have you understood the culture?
If people are not bothered, then they are not showing disrespect by intention, "deliberately ignoring your wish". But if you have offended them by your judgemental attitude, that is another story.
Mr/Ms Seneca: "What are you "learning" in your "English" classes? 8000 English vocables? And nothing in terms of civilised behaviour?"
What is so civilised about about calling people "Mister/Ms Surname"? I call my God "Jesus" and I call him "Christ". Of course, I also call him "Lord". And I learned all these from Westerners. And I have learned to call the other biblical figures "Peter", "Paul", "Mary", "David", "Abraham", and so on... Thanks to the hundreds of Western preachers that came by, and to the dozens of Christian writers. At least the Catholics taught me "Saint Peter", "Saint Paul","Mother Mary", "Pope Benedict", "Pope John Paul". But I did not learn these from the Protestant preachers and writers.
Oh...yes...when I was a child learning English, I knew nothing of the "Ms" salutation. I knew only of "Miss" and "Madam". But somehow the "civilised behaviour" changed...
Enough said about "civilised behaviour".
In Singapore school systems, we learned a lot of things Western. But sorry to disappoint you Mr/Ms Seneca, we did not learn much about Western social manners -- although some enthusiastic Westernised teachers might try to teach sort of things. Guess what might happen? The bolder students would tell them to his face -- "But that's not our culture! We are Asians. The Japanese are not like that. Not the Vietnamese. Not the Koreans. Not the Malays, Indonesians, Thais, Indians.... "
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2ยข/min or less.
