Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 13 seconds
Person: you’re obnoxious
Me: what? Why? What’d I do?
Person: you’re laughing at a serious matter
Me: wait, I am not laughing. What serious matter?
Person: yes you are laughing
Me: hang on, you can’t see or hear me. How could you be sure I am laughing?
Person: you said “it” was funny, you sent me resources on it. How condescending and insensitive
Me: i said it was funny meaning “interesting” in one instance and “strange” in another instance. If i recall. I was multitasking so wasn’t putting a lot of thought into every single word. But “funny” takes up less space than “interesting”. Also why i use “gr8” more often than “awesome”…
Person: you’re changing the subject
Me: not really, but ok. About those resources
Person: condescending
Me: you started! I didn’t call you condescending. I assumed the best of intentions. That you just wanted to be clear, so i wanted to share resources i liked, too. Not to educate in a condescending way, but in what I thought was a spirit of sharing.
Person: harumph
Me: why are you mad?
Person: you’re calling me crazy now?
Me: nooooo i am calling you angry.
Me: you know we are operating across 6 cultures here, right?
Person: (silence)
Me: I am sorry I offended you. I truly didn’t mean to. Shall I shut up now?
Person: good idea
Me: you do know you said you wanted me to die, right?
Person: who? Me? When? How?
Me: exactly.
Wow . . .
Wow? As in, World of Warcraft? Hahaha deliberately referring to diff interpretations 😉 But also not sure what u mean by wow 🙂
This is strong. Not sure about your context for writing this, but I am reading it as a somewhat unpleasant online discussion about difference. The “die” comment at the end is especially sinister, given some of the online bullying I have recently been reading.
…and no, never played WoW.
I observed the Convo that you have interpreted and re-worded and whilst I certainly don’t want to engage in a word by word interpretation of what was said, I do feel moved to say that I don’t think anyone said they wanted you to die but rather that we all die eventually and so our journeys end.
It’s good to solicit support from your friends but I don’t think you have received a death wish here so that must be a good thing.
Hi Frances, I was making a point about misunderstandings. Much of what is in this post did not happen, but I was soliciting ideas for things that could get misunderstood. Meaning: I know no one wished me dead; I was making a point that someone could misunderstand something. Which is why I end the post with “exactly” – I know no one wished me dead – I was trying to say another person may do things that hurt me unintentionally (and I don’t mention those here and never did because I assume it’s not intended, and move on). My point here was not to solicit support from friends (I don’t need to blog to get that) but to make a point about misunderstandings. In all directions. About how a convo that seems to be going smoothly from one perspective could be seen completely differently from another perspective
Thanks for explaining -Maha. I didn’t realise that you were making a point about misunderstandings and I’m not sure that Jeffrey did either but that’s for him to say.
I explained privately that this was a fictional ethnography thing i was trying. Lots of this didn’t actually happen (so this isn’t an interpretation of real events) – I am imagining something different which *could* happen and create misunderstandings. Thanks for helping me make that explicit to anyone who reads these comments. Many ppl reading it felt it was entirely fiction which was my intention, actually, but 🙂
I realize now the death line alarmed some of you and it’s on me that I didn’t realize the impact of it. Might be a cultural thing? 😉 point re-made, even tho it wasn’t my intention
Thanks @francesbell. I do have an excellent track record at misunderstanding. Thankfully, @Maha also has a way of earning things across all media (like Twitter after my comment!) 😉