Stream: social
Topic: Unnecessarily polite?? :-)
Dave deBronkart (Jul 21 2020 at 14:27):
I'll jump over here from the Pt Empowerment thread that degenerated into Karens and "Davids" :-)
Jose Costa Teixeira said:
Dave deBronkart said:
I'm not a native English speaker, but what doesunnecessarily politemean?...
Ha ha I looked away for a couple of days and this is what happens :-) ...
Jose, there is a cultural joke(?) that Canadians are very polite, especially compared to Americans. Example:
Q: How do you make 100 Canadians all get out of a swimming pool?
A: You ask them to.
As you may know, Karen is a recent stereotype for an obnoxious, rude, entitled woman (male version: Ken). I jokingly proposed that these polite Canadian and Kiwi "Davids" could be the opposite - more polite than anyone would ask someone to be. :slight_smile:
Jose Costa Teixeira (Jul 21 2020 at 14:52):
Dave deBronkart said/near/204553986):
Jose, there is a cultural joke(?) that Canadians are very polite, especially compared to Americans. Example:
Yep, my response was an attempt at saying that "unnecessarily polite" is from an american perspective, right? A Canadian would say "no, that's baseline civilized".
And it's all more relative when seen from outside of anglo-saxonic -
In many cultures (mediterranean) even a very canadian "no, sorry but I can't" is way too offensive. (M Gladwell shows this can take tragic proportions - i think it was in Outliers)
And I'm Portuguese - (small country, few opportunities) so I see that a lot - Some people say portuguese really like to help and welcome - it's not that we like, we NEED to...
Jose Costa Teixeira (Jul 21 2020 at 15:09):
Perhaps we could make a culturally diverse dialect of FHIR.
David Pyke (Jul 21 2020 at 15:49):
We would just change the error messages from impersonal numbers (403, etc.) to apologies and words of encouragement outside the US and pictures of obscene finger gestures inside the US.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Jul 21 2020 at 15:59):
-
Negation could be expressed nicer than "no/not"
** All negations have a .note which explains why the negation / what it means - and that is a modifier -
xxxPlan resources become xxxIntention resources
Mary Ann Boyle (Jul 21 2020 at 16:42):
David Pyke said/near/204565323):
We would just change the error messages from impersonal numbers (403, etc.) to apologies and words of encouragement outside the US and pictures of obscene finger gestures inside the US.
ouch.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Jul 21 2020 at 19:27):
steering away from that, here is some stuff for "comparing cultures"
https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries
David Pyke (Jul 21 2020 at 19:52):
Canada and New Zealand are almost the same on that site. Maybe David Hay and I are interchangeable?
Grahame Grieve (Jul 21 2020 at 21:07):
my favourite example of unnecessarily polite is in english trains:
"Please refrain from smoking"
Where as the same message in German trains:
"Rauchen ist streng verboten!" (Smoking it strictly forbidden)
The meaning is exactly the same
David Hay (Jul 21 2020 at 21:56):
Canada and New Zealand are almost the same on that site. Maybe David Hay and I are interchangeable?
Not entirely sure how best to respond to that (while remaining unnecessarily polite)
David Hay (Jul 21 2020 at 21:56):
... and let's not bring Australian into the mix... :)
Grahame Grieve (Jul 21 2020 at 21:57):
that probably wouldn't keep things unnecessarily polite
Richard Townley-O'Neill (Jul 22 2020 at 05:49):
Grahame Grieve said/near/204607542):
that probably wouldn't keep things unnecessarily polite
Only probably?
Jose Costa Teixeira (Jul 22 2020 at 08:42):
In a mediterranean dialect of FHIR, some resources would be much more advanced and absolutely normative and actually required in any implementation for a proper health system
Jose Costa Teixeira (Jul 22 2020 at 08:42):
obviously NutritionXXX. It just makes people communicate better
Dave deBronkart (Jul 22 2020 at 11:46):
Jose Costa Teixeira said/near/204557208):
Yep, my response was an attempt at saying that "unnecessarily polite" is from an american perspective, right? A Canadian would say "no, that's baseline civilized".
Ha! You're right; it's my view, too - my mother raised me right! I didn't intend otherwise, but thanks for calling me out for my blind spot :slight_smile:
Dave deBronkart (Jul 22 2020 at 11:47):
David Pyke said/near/204565323):
We would just change the error messages from impersonal numbers (403, etc.) to apologies and words of encouragement outside the US and pictures of obscene finger gestures inside the US.
I just want to be sure people don't get the wrong idea - the VAST majority of Americans are not of the "violent flag-waver" variety. We want to return to the era of civility!
Dave deBronkart (Jul 22 2020 at 11:58):
This luscious thread makes me rethink. What I really meant was more like "more polite than global standards would require."
And I suppose we could carry this over to the intent of politeness - a civilised society in which all agree there's value to ceding some of one's own liberty to the broader good. Like, hypothetically, if there's a public health emergency, one would gladly WEAR A DANGED FACE MASK even if it's a bit of an inconvenience.
But then, if that were true, countries like NZ and Canada would kick America's butt on said emergency.
(Again, remember that most of us favor these sensible restrictions - the noise and damage come from the idiot minority!)
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
