When Language Interferes and You Don't Understand a Comment/Reply....
By timetravel
@timetravel (1425)
United States
February 29, 2012 8:18am CST
Good day, fellow myLotters! Recently, I've started a few discussions and gotten some wonderful replies. A few replies, though, left me wondering....the words used were correctly spelled, a legitimate words. But the way in which a sentence was written was confusing and I wasn't quite sure what the respondent was saying.
for example (this is one I am making up as I do not wish to hurt anyone)
Me: That first cup of coffee everyday is so perfect! I like mine slightly strong, with a touch of sugar and some light table cream.
Response: It is darkness that matters most.
Now, I could interpret that to mean the person prefers his or her coffee black. Or the coffee flavour itself matters most. But you can see where I might not quite be sure.
Now, what do you do when this occurs? I usually thank someone for responding, then admit I don't quite get what the person is saying. Sometimes I get an answer back that clarifies things. I try to point out the area of the response where I am stuck. I don't know if a translate thingy is used here or not -does anyone know?
4 people like this
13 responses
@adnileb (5276)
• Philippines
29 Feb 12
Yikes... That's difficult thing to handle as you/we don not like to make someone feel embarrassed that their grammar is incorrect. I admit my grammar could go wrong anytime. It may be due to slip of the tongue that my fingers had skipped typing. 
But if that case happened to me, I usually same, "What do you mean?" or "What do you mean darkness?" 
Anyways, we should somehow or "we have to" understand "each of us" in our grammar.
But if that case happened to me, I usually same, "What do you mean?" or "What do you mean darkness?"
Anyways, we should somehow or "we have to" understand "each of us" in our grammar.2 people like this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
yes, that's cool. I definitely don't want to make someone feel bad, esp. someone who is really trying with English!
1 person likes this
@seriousnuts (508)
• Philippines
1 Mar 12
Hi timetravel! It's nice of you to reply to each and every comment you get in our discussion. Sometimes, I get those kinds of replies too in my discussion. I am sometimes guilty of not commenting back to those particular comments. Some comments seemed to be really out of place and there is nothing that I could think of to reply. Perhaps they didn't understand my discussion correctly. Other comments however are closely related to my discussion yet sound so vague. Most of the time, I would just try my best to reply to the comment according to how I understood it. Your strategy of asking them back to clarify things is a great idea.
@seriousnuts (508)
• Philippines
1 Mar 12
*It's nice of you to reply to each and every comment you get in YOUR discussion.
Sorry, typo error here! =)
1 person likes this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
1 Mar 12
thank you, seriousnuts! I believe it you start a discussion, it's important to respond back to your respondents. Otherwise, what's the points? Even if I don't get an answer when I ask for clarification, at least I've replied and haven't ignored those kind enough to respond.
2 people like this
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
29 Feb 12
Most of the time when this happens to me I try to ask them to clarify. Lately though, for myself, I've seen people who respond to me but only seemed to have read the title or part of the discussion and thus respond with somethign weird and / or off the wall. That is when I say please reread my discussion. Now if I feel they just misunderstood something I ask them to clarify what they mean and I'll clarify what I meant.
2 people like this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
I've seen that happen to others, too, SomeCowgirl, when someone starts a discussion and a few responses are totally off the wall! Like they read the first line or only the title and thought they knew where it was heading...in that case, I do as you do and ask them to please clarify once they've reread what I was trying to discuss.
1 person likes this
@amitpro (75)
• India
29 Feb 12
Hii friend . Clearly it's an awkward moment when everything is spelled correctly but we can not understand the answer. getting an answer back that clarifies all the doubts is very good. It is an attribute of the responsiveness of the person who clarifies your hurdles.
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
1 Mar 12
And at least words are spelled correctly! That's always a good start! You don't need to try to figure out the words you are reading - just the meaning of them together at times. And yes, when someone clarifies it for you when you ask them to, that is good.
1 person likes this
@giggles721 (275)
• Philippines
1 Mar 12
Hi timetravel,
I know what you mean about the difficulty in understanding grammatically wrong sentence, but we shouldn't be discriminating by having a translate option in here. I'm not sure if you've read the do's and don'ts of myLot but it did mention about some situations like this and I'd like myLot to keep this as a reminder to all myLotters.
The best way to understand is to get context clues from the comment/response and if the key words are similar to any other words. For example with the situation you had, the word darkness is similar to black.
It's nice that you do ask for some clarifications.
2 people like this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
1 Mar 12
Ah - so many t's and c's - too little time lol....I would never insult someone by telling him or her that the grammar sucked and made no sense. It's a lot nicer to just ask for more information, clarification, rather than doing that. And yes, often you can surmise from what is written the meaning another is trying to get across - and it never hurts to say, "Is that it? Am I reading you correctly?".
1 person likes this
@ecaron (678)
• Canada
29 Feb 12
I have problems sometimes understanding a person's response also. They don't seem to make sense. There was one person who I was a friend with and now deleted because they seem to have very long discussions and when I read it, it seems disorganized and sometimes doesn't make sense, anyway, they got to me and I just decided to delete them. I know there seems to be lots of people from different countries on MY lot and some people have trouble with english but I usually can figure out what they are trying to say, I just have to be patient, that's O.K. A translation thing, I don't know if there is one or not.
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
1 Mar 12
I'm like you in that long, rambling discussions are difficult for me to get in to. For one thing, I honestly do not have time for them. But someone who responds to me with a long, rambling, unintelligible response at least deserves a "could you be a little more clear on what you are saying?" or "could you help me understand what you are trying to get across?" - rather than just dismissing what is said. If worse comes to worse a simple, "Thank you for responding" will do.
1 person likes this
@kalav56 (11464)
• India
1 Mar 12
In most cases, we would be able to glean the meaning of the sentence however defectively written.As in the case you have given as an example I normally would say "I guess you are saying you prefer your coffee to be black" or some similar elaboration of my own[ which I also think the person has meant] this will get me a proper answer if I have misunderstood it.
1 person likes this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
2 Mar 12
Most definitely, kalav56. Those are good ways to be sure one understands what another is saying.
@beamer88 (4259)
• Philippines
29 Feb 12
I don't think there's a translate-thingy feature here. But when I do encounter responses which I can't really be to sure of what the person is trying to say, my response sort of has a disclaimer. I mean, I always start off by saying "If I understood you correctly..." and then continue on with my comment. But there are times where I'm really confused and I have to ask one or two questions just to help clarify the topic.
2 people like this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
I know exactly what you are saying! Yes, I use a disclaimer at times, such as, "Am I correct that you are saying..." or something similar to what you said. If the person doesn't respond, no bad. But if he or she does, usually it's cleared up. This also happens when I read discussions started, that I am not sure where the person is headed or what is meant.
1 person likes this
@jaiho2009 (39141)
• Philippines
29 Feb 12
Maybe the person likes to write in a shot-cut manner :p
I am not sure.
But your interpretation will be my interpretation too.
Basing from the word "darkness" (hehehe) which could meant "black coffee"
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
Now that is true! Esp. if the person is young and hip and knows all the short-cut slang that I am not privy to being 55 years old (that was directed at my youngest!). And yes, if that had been written I would have thought it meant "black coffee"!
1 person likes this
@humairaku (2038)
• Indonesia
29 Feb 12
I think no matter if we ask to Mylotters whose you don't understand the response. I'm not an English native so I got those trouble too sometimes. when I didn't understand at all I will say frankly to them what did they exactly mean. sometimes I was lucky cos they replied back, but sometimes not. I'm sure people here will understand our obstacles. some people here don't understand grammar at all so sometimes what they said are very confusing. So nothing we can do except asking to the writer what does she/he meant. I hope you don't be confused to what I write cos my English is not too good..
1 person likes this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
I understood fine! I think it important for those of us native English speakers/writers to write as clearly and concisely as possible to make it easier for those who aren't as familiar with English to better understand.
1 person likes this
@fantabulus (4000)
• India
29 Feb 12
Yes you are right some person like me English is weak and so if English is hard in discussions then it is hard for me to understand and reply. But I ask the discussion starter please explain me once again and the replied on it.
1 person likes this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
that is good, faantabulus (love your user name!). I guess we all do the best we can, right?
1 person likes this
@enelym001 (8322)
• Philippines
29 Feb 12
I normally would thank the person who replied and then point out or elaborate more things... if I totally have no idea on what they mean I would asked them.
I don't notice any translator here, I guess some might be translating it elsewhere and gives them a wrong word.
1 person likes this
@TheIrishClog (985)
• Ireland
29 Feb 12
I'm afraid I'm terrible for reading it, reading it again and then once more. If I don't understand it, it doesn't get a response. Sometimes some of the answers on here in no way relate to the discussion heading (not that I can see) and just get ignored to be honest. I don't ignore them for the sake of it, and it has to be pretty bad for me not to decipher it.
2 people like this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
29 Feb 12
That's true - and I'm not referring to those that appear totally mangled, just those that seem to make sense only I'm not quite sure exactly if I'm reading it right or not. A few words of clarification can make all the difference.
1 person likes this
