erinja:If you don't care at all about English, then I suggest you ignore any threads that are about English.

And I don't understand what you are trying to say about Arabs. The terms of this site do not permit offensive statements against any ethnic groups, nations, religions, etc.

We, Poles, are not Arabs - we live in different part of the world, we speak a different language and we have different customs, skin color, height and other attributes. What so unclear about that, is that sentence not true? Perhaps it is you, who think of Arabs in an offensive way. OK, if somehow "Arabs" is improper in English, replace it with "Chinese", "Polinesian" or what ever you like. It is your language, not mine, and you know better...

You implied that Arabs are warlike. To say that about them (or any other ethnic group) is extremely ignorant and disrespectful.

targanook:

razlem:

targanook:I am relaxed - we are not Arabs.

Pardon? ._.

Each English sentence can lead to war. The language is dangerous in mouth of an non-native

Come on, please. Every unproper word spoken at the wrong time using any language can push violence. Any/English language definitly is not the source of conflicts in Middle East. Furthermore I.e. English is also used by the United Nations to stop military conflicts. Language is a tool which can harm and create peace etc. Please stop blaming of English natives. Thanks.

The age of interlocutor always matters?

paulopolo:The age of interlocutor always matters?

No other argument left?

I would propose: "Peace"

qwertz:

paulopolo:The age of interlocutor always matters?

No other argument left?

I would propose: "Peace"

Hehe !
Cheers brother!

Ah, c'mon. Ĉu ĉiuj ni ne povas progresi? (Can't we all get along?... Or at least that's what I hope it says, not sure if I got it quite right )

I don't think anyone's trying to say anyone's language is better as a whole than another (though if we are, it's definitely Pig Latin; easiest to learn and achieve fluency (can one claim to have become fluent, even in Esperanto, in less than a week?), many well-known and respected people have dabbled in the tickling fancies of it's exotic sound, and internet giants like Facebook and Google even have their sites translated into Pig Latin. It's obviously the only decent choice for a world language. )

Targanook, your statement about Arabs seems like it implies that you are stereotyping them as inherently violent or hot tempered. When speaking about other ethnic groups, I can't say for sure about other English speaking countries, but at least in the US I know that even native English speakers tend to be careful when speaking about ethnic/racial groups outside their own, so as to not be misunderstood as being prejudiced (some even take it to extremes, but that's an issue for another discussion). It's best that when you say something like 'we are not Arabs' that you give the explanation of what you mean by it as soon as you say it.

BlackOtaku:Targanook, your statement about Arabs seems like it implies that you are stereotyping them as inherently violent or hot tempered. When speaking about other ethnic groups, I can't say for sure about other English speaking countries, but at least in the US I know that even native English speakers tend to be careful when speaking about ethnic/racial groups outside their own, so as to not be misunderstood as being prejudiced (some even take it to extremes, but that's an issue for another discussion). It's best that when you say something like 'we are not Arabs' that you give the explanation of what you mean by it as soon as you say it.

It is you who took all that meanings from one awkard sentence of a non-native. Not me. I only ment that we are different, not warlike. The problem is the language barrier, which many Americans seem not to see. It reminds me of a tragic story:

long ago during a russian ball one lady said to the daughter of a governor who had a red rose on the dress:

(Russian in esperanto spelling)

Kakaja u vas krasnaja roĵa! (what a red ugly face you have)

instead of

Kakaja u vas krasivaja roza! - (what a beautiful rose you have)

It was a big scandal, because the governor's daugther did not understand it was just a word mistake. The same is here.

targanook:

BlackOtaku:Targanook, your statement about Arabs seems like it implies that you are stereotyping them as inherently violent or hot tempered. When speaking about other ethnic groups, I can't say for sure about other English speaking countries, but at least in the US I know that even native English speakers tend to be careful when speaking about ethnic/racial groups outside their own, so as to not be misunderstood as being prejudiced (some even take it to extremes, but that's an issue for another discussion). It's best that when you say something like 'we are not Arabs' that you give the explanation of what you mean by it as soon as you say it.

It is you who took all that meanings from one awkard sentence of a non-native. Not me. I only ment that we are different, not warlike. The problem is the language barrier, which many Americans seem not to see. It reminds me of a tragic story:

long ago during a russian ball one lady said to the daughter of a governor who had a red rose on the dress:

(Russian in esperanto spelling)

Kakaja u vas krasnaja roĵa! (what a red ugly face you have)

instead of

Kakaja u vas krasivaja roza! - (what a beautiful rose you have)

It was a big scandal, because the governor's daugther did not understand it was just a word mistake. The same is here.

It's not so much a language issue, but a cultural difference, at least the way I percieve it. It's not that you said anything incorrectly, it just looks a certain way to some of us.

A better example I would think, is that of a man I knew. He was speaking to a pilot (I think he was Brazilian?), and at the end of their discussion, made a gesture that here in the US means 'that's good', or 'okay'. But where the pilot was from, that gesture meant something more like the Esperanto word... 'forfikiĝu'. Luckily, they were able to sort out the misunderstanding without fighting!

You could have said it in Polish, Esperanto, any language, and the reaction among us would likely be the same, even if a fellow Pole didn't see it as anything particularly strange. It's culture, not necessarily language.

even if a fellow Pole didn't see it as anything particularly strange

I see something strange in it. And I as Pole, understood his sentence actually the same as you.