Re: NATLANG: English Homework - Keeping alive languages of minorities?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carsten Becker" <naranoieati@...>


> > > I hope you don't mind when I post this directly to the
> > > list?
> >
> > I guess I thought that since I sent it to you privately
> > that it would be understood in netiquette land that you
> > deal with it privately, and not publish it to the list
> > without my permission.
>
> Oh. So I'm sorry and apologize.
Oh don't worry about it, Carsten!  Just something to think about for the
future.  When I get a letter from someone privately, and I think they meant
to send it to the list, I write and ask them: "did you mean this to go to
the list?  I think there are some issues here that other listmembers might
be interested in."  And then they can say, oh, it's just for you, or sure,
or remain silent... :)

> > But what's done is done; I don't
> > think what I said was disgraceful but it was more aimed
> > at guiding you rhetorically than at discussing the issues
> > that the list is now discussing. Next time, Carsten,
> > please ask before you post.
>
> I will do so. And wanting to help, i.e. constructive
> critisism, is never disgraceful!
Indeed not... it just strayed, a bit, from the thread that you created, and
as a teacher myself, I didn't want to seem as though I'm giving you help
that your real teacher would disapprove of!  I hope you did well on your
essay.  Good luck with it!  Remember the "thesis statement," she said
pedantically. ;-)

> > > Heh, thank you. At least *one* glimpse of light ... can
> > > you acutally say that in English? "Wenigstens *ein*
> > > Lichtblick?"
>
> > We say "a ray of hope," or "light at the end of the
> > tunnel."  :)
>
> I *hate* idioms ... :-P
I do too, and there are so many of them in German!

Meanwhile, Carsten put at the head of his letter:

> On Sunday 06 March 2005 23:39 +0100, Sally Caves wrote:
>
> > > Hey Sally! <-- My non-English bias creeps in here again
> > > ;-)
This needs some explaining!   In a private exchange Carsten and I have been
having, I asked him if there was a precedent in German email, or even in
European email, to put some kind of salute at the beginning of the letter.
I've noticed that Carsten and other German speakers, or speakers of Germanic
languages, have "hey!" or "hej," or "hi!" or "hallo!" or something like
that, addressed to the list, whereas I rarely do that.  I just start right
on in, as I did above, or answer a remark between the lines, allowing the
list robot to provide "From Carsten Becker:"  Sometimes, I've said "vyko,"
or if I'm addressing a friend, I say "Hi, Carol," but often not.  In my
formal letters to "important people" in Germany that I don't know personally
and am requesting a favor of, I've been taught that even on email you must
use the salute

"Sehr geehrte(r) Herr/Frau Dr. X."

They always respond in kind.

So is the "hey!" a German custom or a general European one?  I suppose in
English, were I to ask a colleague for information about a program, I'd
write, "Dear Prof. X."  But here in the States, I've had colleagues who
don't know me either start right on in, or address me by my first name.

I suppose that I detect a difference between a public post which is
informational, a public post addressed to an individual, and a private post;
but I'm impressed at the friendliness of these public addresses.

So hey back at ya, Carsten!
Sally