Lilia Efimova believes her comfort with this language is the barrier. I would say it is others' thoughtless use of language that can cause barriers -- idioms, metaphors, similes, and analogies usually do not transfer well across cultures. Off-hand references can also be obscuring. I know, since I'm often guilty of abusing all of those things. Having a great deal of team-based coursework with students from other countries has made me more aware of it -- I'm not perfect, by any stretch, but I am willing to circle back around and try a different way of explaining what I meant.

As a whole, Americans often do not handle multi-culturalism well, since our idea of multi-culturalism is too often just a homogenizing melting pot, not a mosaic or a quilt. Do not hesitate to call us (gently) on it, either.

There is a couple of KM discussions I would like to participate, but I can't because of gap between their and my level of English. When it turns to a bit more philosophical, a bit more conceptual, a bit more "scientific" discussions, I'm lost with "shades of meaning". All my attention focuses on trying to grasp the meaning and to be sure about it, so I'm not able to join in.

I would suggest you jump in anyway, and ask for clarification where *you* believe it is needed. Enthusiasm and genuine interest are great at overcoming less-than-perfect composition. Plus, email is a forgiveness generating medium, in most forums. Do feel free to post questions you are not comfortable asking there into a new category on your blog (let me know about it, and I'll subscribe to it, too. If it would make you feel more comfortable about it, make it an RSS-only feed, to make it harder for others to stumble upon unintentionally.) I suspect more than a few native English speakers on the list might appreciate the information you seek, anyway.

And don't forget, having something spelled out in small words is often useful for making a pitch to a management-type person. ;-)

9:19:51 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [ blinked via Mathemagenic ]

Plus an insane deadline approaching, too. I'll try to find some time to update later tonite, so I'll just have to dash this off to create a placeholder -- while I'm still on the fat pipe at work, that is. Zooooooooommmmmmm!

5:02:32 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this