I tried to find something on GD rules and here, but found nothing about this situation.
English is not My first language. My first language isn’t even related to any western Europe languages. It has totally different way to construct sentences and even resembling vocabulary is about zero. I read and write English pretty well, I guess ( with occasional help of a dictionary ), but sometimes I see phrases and wordings that make absolutely no sense.
So a few days ago in a GD thread I used a word ‘meltdown’ about another doper’s posting ( which was in an old pit thread ), resulting that a moderator chastised both of Us. Now I have this disturbing feeling that I have made a major ‘faux pas’.
I remember seeing a YouTube commentator using a word ‘douchebag’ in a situation where, I think, he meant something like ‘silly’, and he was totally surprised when everybody jumped on him. I know it’s a pretty bad insult, but I have no idea why, literal translation makes no sense. I don’t know what his ( her? ) first language is, but it can happen to everybody ( You all remember cases like Princess Consuela Bananahammock… )
My previous understanding was that ‘meltdown’ was just a case where someone merely lost the leading thought and got confused and perhaps contradicted himself. I really didn’t think it would’ve been a personal insult, let alone a serious one.
So what is the policy in these cases? How much a person can get leeway based on translation issues? Or claiming ignorance on a particular term or the harshness of it? I don’t think I make much lingual errors, so one might expect that I understand English perfectly, so a moderator could take all I write in the worst way. OTOH if I’d make misspellings in every sentence, would that lower a chance of getting warned - or would it make Me look like a troll? Should I have a tag ‘English is not My first language!’?
I think this is very important issue in a board where people are from about every country in the world and it should be addressed in the rules.
Disclaimer: English is not My first language!
You have no formal warnings, so I assume that this was a moderator note instead. As such, it doesn’t have much impact.
We have no formal policy on this, since we can’t really be sure how much a foreign language speaker understands of how insulting a term is.
I would simply suggest, if you run afoul of the rules again, email or PM a moderator with an explanation. If they have issued a warning, they may reverse it if they believe it was an honest mistake. (I just reversed a warning because I misunderstood a joke by a native English speaker.)
I can’t help with the rules issue, but a “meltdown” generally connotes that someone is acting irrationally, losing their temper over a minor thing, and basically acting like a total idiot out of all proportion to the actual trigger.
So, yes, it can be insulting in that it suggests that a person has lost control of his/her own emotions. It’s likely to be perceived as very insulting if you say it to/about the person in the midst of the meltdown, since they’re already in a heightened emotional state.
I would never suggest to my boss that he was “having a meltdown”, for example. I might say, “You seem frustrated,” instead.
Just so you know.
(And your English is very, very good, by the way.)
Thanks, but it’s writing only. Finnish is so totally different phonetically that We sound horrible. There’s actually a term ‘rally driver English’ ( because rally drivers We’re the first Finns to do international interviews that people saw in TV )
Douchebag is more like calling someone a contemptible jerk than silly. Sort of like asshole (if you understand that term), maybe a little less harsh, but not much.
WhyNot already covered what meltdown means. Sounds like you used meltdown where brainfart would’ve been a much better choice.
BTW, your English is a lot better than my Finnish (none) so don’t worry so much. Unless you go around acting like a douchebag or have a total meltdown you’re not going to get in too much trouble around here.
If it helps understand the idiom, “meltdown” originally describes what happens when a nuclear reaction gets out of control, causing a reactor to overheat. Think “Chernobyl.”. Saying that someone had a meltdown isn’t just referring to a momentary lose of temper, but rather, over reacting so catastrophically that the persons reputation or relationships never entirely recover. In messageboard terms, a meltdown usually leads to a banning.
O.K., that makes sense. I was thinking more like snowflakes or something ( or is that thawing - in Finnish melting and thawing are the same word ‘sulaa’ ).
Something “melts” when it goes from a solid state to a liquid state – like ice and snow, but also candles or butter in a hot pan. It’s usually caused by an increase in temperature, but it doesn’t necessarily start cold.
Something “thaws” when it becomes unfrozen, like when you take food out of the freezer to cook later or when the ground softens up when spring comes. In fact whenever the temperature rises above freezing after a long winter it’s referred to as a “thaw.” So it implies starting out at a very cold temperature and getting warmer, but not necessarily changing states.
Metaphorically, if someone really dislikes everyone, we say their heart is frozen. If you show them kindness, you might get them to thaw. If you’re very kind and caring, they might fall quickly in love and we would say “their heart melted.”
I have travelled to Finland several times for work, All my colleagues there speak excellent English, with no more of an accent than any other nationality speaking English as a 2nd language.
Thing are getting clearer now, ignorance fought etc.
( And of course I made a mistake when I tried to teach You some Finnish. I should’ve written ‘sulaminen’ - ‘sulaa’ means ‘melts’ or ‘thaws’. )
That’s because they keep the regular guys out of sight. I know that everybody who speaks, has an accent, but it’s one of Our national neuroses. We’re always afraid that others see Us some kind of rubes and boors *.
My accent is actually a lot worse than the guy’s in the video. I can overcome it with singing, but that costs some prestige in scientific debate. You can’t beat even flat-earthers with Duran Duran…
( *And if You want to startle those colleagues, next time You see them in black suits, ask are they surely Finns, because no-one is wearing white tennis socks. )
Here’s a link to the post where Freakenstein made the “meltdown” comment. Other posters have done a good job of explaining why I moderated it. The general rule in Great Debates is that you’re allowed to disparage a poster’s arguments and but can’t insult the poster directly. And in this case the entire username discussion (and you reference to the Australia/KFC thread) were not on topic. You didn’t make a major faux pas here, but in the future, please don’t make comments like these. I’m sure you can understand where people don’t appreciate it when others suggest they’ve become irrational and lost control.
So would it been O.K if I would’ve said something like ‘…provided Your assertion in that other thread was valid…’
And I don’t think it was all that off-topic, because he kept insisting in that thread that there was characteristics of a conspiracy.
Ok.
Sorry for seeing more in Your username than there is
Sorry for joking that You have antipathy towards people based on their nationality
Sorry for unwittingly suggesting that You had an unstable moment
Sorry for dragging in an old thread
I’m new here and I really don’t want an enemy of Your status here, so I’m ready to step back and never again respond to You or quote You.
However if You are not satisfied and still insist I’m a liar, You can always pit Me and I’ll provide more quotes from that thread than You care people to see.
Finally My apologies to The Straight Dope itself.
I acknowledge that this is Your site with Your rules, and I’m just an uninvited guest.
I’ll try to watch My step more careful from now on.
I hope everybody’s happy now and this thread can finally fall into oblivion.
