[MD] The Quality of Equality

[John Carl]

Khaled,

My main exposure to foreign language has been Spanish and Russian - both
gender-oriented also.

In fact, it was fascinating to me how many cultural similarities there are
between those two peoples.  I discovered scores of such when the Russian
girls were staying with us through the summers and the one that springs most
quickly to mind was the equating of bigness with goodness.  Mexicans and
Russians like to build big and are most impressed by bigness.  The bigger
apple is seen as better at the fruit stand, it's quality judged by its
quantity.

It seems too, that cultures that assign gender to nouns, have a more
romantic and emotional aspect embedded in  discourse that can trip one up if
unaware.  I recall a story a guy told about a friendly discussion with a
Mexican in a bar, who'd been friends for a long time and suddenly over some
esoteric point, the Mexican said "if you truly believe that then we can no
longer be friends."  And they weren't after that.  Perhaps then, cultures
that assign gender differences aren't as "objective" in their outlook.

Not sure, but it is fascinating.


John the sadly monolingual