Cross-cultural meeting design LO10909

Bill Harris (billh@lsid.hp.com)
Fri, 8 Nov 96 8:18:32 PST

Replying to LO10890 --

Durval Muniz de Castro wrote:

>not noticed when he read them in portuguese. A different language, which
>was not so familiar to him, showed him the way out of old habits!

Thanks for the interesting anecdote! It reminded me of a problem (?) I
had when I started reading German seriously. I would find that the
stimulation of successfully reading something in German would encourage me
to view the subject matter as very insightful and important. Occasionally
I would have to remind myself to consider whether I would have found it so
original or truly mundane in English, but it has sometimes helped
emphasize an idea to me that I would otherwise have ignored. Perhaps it
was the extra concentration to make sure I was learning (there's the link
to a LO) from what I was hearing or reading that helped me see things.

Rick's suggestion that speaking in the language one finds most expressive
is still valid. For me, at least, my vocabulary in English is far richer
than my vocabulary in German, and so I would be able to express myself
more clearly and perhaps concisely in English on most topics. There are
perhaps a few in which I could have done as well or better in German,
simply because I had learned the vocabulary in German.

Bill

--
Bill Harris                             Hewlett-Packard Co. 
R&D Productivity Department             Lake Stevens Division 
domain: billh@lsid.hp.com               M/S 330
phone: (206) 335-2200                   8600 Soper Hill Road
fax: (206) 335-2828                     Everett, WA 98205-1298 
 

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