(11-07-2011, 04:57 PM)Oceania Wrote: Yossarian are you insulted by my lack of capitalization? cuz i tell ya, i don't even know how to cap anymore, it would just make every post i type a pain in the butt. why does it matter if someone likes to type their post their own way?
I sympathize with the cultural divide issue. If you pay close attention to native English speakers you'll notice that they use low caps when typing informally and off-the-cuff, when joking, when using colloquialisms like "cuz".
Our mass culture is all about style and types. So you have various archetypes of "the professional" "the hippie" "the stoner" "the new age chick" "yoga pants girl" etc
What I see people doing is using these archetypes online to modify the message they're sending. So when you type with lower caps you are communicating a non-chalence and informality, you are communicating an easy going personality. You're able to communicate this because you're well versed in the cultural archetypes and the styles of communication. Your message is received as non-chalence. When you present ideas you don't say "you are wrong." and stuff like that, you present ideas in a way that is essentially polite.
Unity may be trying to express the lazy slacker archetype but it doesnt work because his command of the language is just not good enough. His posts are cryptic with confusing grammar and the poor capitalization just makes them harder to read. The capitalization communicates sloppiness on his part, and at the same time he delivers what in English is seen as a harsh, personally threatening statement: "you are wrong".
ESLs who want to communicate complicated ideas and especially criticize others should probably go for the "professional" mode of speaking. This communicates respect for the reader and is optimized for clarity and a lack of misunderstanding.
Anyway I always thought unity's ESL-nature made him especially difficult to read but now I am even more convinced. It's not just ESL it's the whole way he communicates and the message this sends to English speakers.
I'm sure he only has the best intentions but the reality is that he's not speaking proper English, he's speaking "unity100 english" and this style of English is interpreted pretty offensively by native english speakers.
I've noticed that, in person, immigrants of certain ethnicities definitely come across as aggressive, hostile, combative, offensive and insulting. Pakistanis, Indians, Persians and Eastern Europeans who haven't adopted the English manners can come across as very hostile when they actually aren't and because of this they get ostracized and discriminated against by native Canadians. I'm guessing that these are the cultures where it is polite to speak more bluntly.
Most people in Canada try really hard not to discriminate against ESLs (we have so many of them) but it's not an easy habit to break when the entire culture has indoctrinated you that certain facial expressions, voice tones, and statements indicate hostility, aggressiveness, and communicate that you're inferior. Many ESLs learn to communicate effectively but plenty (especially engineer types like unity) basically seem to refuse to conform to the norms of politeness. Engineers in all cultures seem to think politeness is stupid, so maybe that explains it.