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Siri: She's No Miss Manners https://medium.com/@nicklum/siri-shes-no-miss-manners-600206...
I thought that Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" was about the profound culture-shaping power of "massively online education" -- like Khan Academy, Coursera, EdX, etc. But maybe on further reflection there is just as much influence on a society's culture from growing up with "virtual assistants" -- whether it's the widespread availability of a search engine or a ubiquitous voice-activated thing.
I think there's a massive difference between them in one aspect: assistants will only tell you what you ask them, while the diamond age book had a programmed purpose and partial syllabus of its own. Unfortunately few people ask complex questions that lead through non trivial topics on their own... Maybe the new assistant for kids that they write about will have better results here. But can it really push kids towards…
tldr: Jeff Bezo's newspaper framing Alexa as a beloved must have item, although challenges remain.
Interactions still work fine, we aren't sociopaths or anything, it's just a matter of codes and expectations.
In Spain, when you talk to people you know, the standard way to ask questions is bluntly, without "please" and "thank you". Even with people whom you don't know, it's still the normal usage in many situations, e.g. practically no one would say "please" when ordering at a restaurant, bar, shop, etc. You typically only say it when you are asking someone a favor outside their normal duties (e.g. asking a stranger in the…
First, though this may be stating the obvious, standards in culture are an important part of language; what is normal in one language is definitely not normal in another. Russian, for example, has words for "this", "that", etc, but you wouldn't commonly use it unless you were being really specific; a few of my Russian colleagues when coaching me in my Russian have reminded me not to be so specific with Russian since it could be perceived as insulting. Whereas in English there is no such judgement for casually using the references.
Second, and perhaps I'm misunderstanding the level of importance here, but I believe Spanish has a formal and informal form for verbs, similar to Russian Вы and Ты conjugation. How you talk to people indicates a level of formality baked into the language, so even if the literal translation is "Pass the butter", there is still some formality inferred. English has no such way of communicating this with the verbs alone, so we use other words to signal this.
I get what you're saying that not having it isn't a huge issue in other cultures, but that little part at the end is a pretty big caveat. Even between British and American english there are fairly big cultural differences, and it's supposedly the same darn language. Culture plays a huge impact in how language is interpreted, and if there is a lasting effect from Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and whatever Google's assistant is, it's worth noting I think.
tldr: Jeff Bezo's newspaper framing Alexa as a beloved must have item, although challenges remain.
In Spain, when you talk to people you know, the standard way to ask questions is bluntly, without "please" and "thank you". Even with people whom you don't know, it's still the normal usage in many situations, e.g. practically no one would say "please" when ordering at a restaurant, bar, shop, etc. You typically only say it when you are asking someone a favor outside their normal duties (e.g. asking a stranger in the…
Well, I think there are a few nuances that make the comparison a little tenuous. First, though this may be stating the obvious, standards in culture are an important part of language; what is normal in one language is definitely not normal in another. Russian, for example, has words for "this", "that", etc, but you wouldn't commonly use it unless you were being really specific; a few of my Russian colleagues when coa…
The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think the kids will become "raging a------", as a parent in the article says. The worst thing that can happen is an evolution of the language, such that ways of address that would label you as a "raging a------" today will be the new normal. There may be some awkward situations along the way but I'm sure people will adjust just fine (assuming that evolution really happens).
By the way, you are right about the formal and informal verb forms in Spanish, but in Spain the formal forms are used less and less in everyday conversation and are probably headed for extinction in a few decades (unlike Latin America, where they still seem to be going strong). 100 years ago they were used even for parents and older members of the family, 50 years ago only for superiors and strangers, and right now mostly for rather old strangers, with the threshold age slowly going up as the formal verb forms make many people "feel old" so they ask to be addressed informally. This gradual process has always been accompanied by a drip of opinion pieces in newspapers about how we are losing manners, but life goes on :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I think there are a few nuances that make the comparison a little tenuous. First, though this may be stating the obvious, standards in culture are an important part of language; what is normal in one language is definitely not normal in another. Russian, for example, has words for "this", "that", etc, but you wouldn't commonly use it unless you were being really specific; a few of my Russian colleagues when coa…
Yes, of course I'm not saying the whole article is pointless. And if I were a parent educating my kids in English, I would still tell them to say "please" and "thank you" as that's what is expected socially, at least at the moment. The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think the kids will become "raging a------", as a parent in the article says. The worst thing that can happen is an evolution of the language,…
Thanks for the info on the more local status of the formal/informal; it's different than it is here in Russia, where at least my colleagues and friends put emphasis on it, even if the form is the only formal thing about what they're saying. (My colleagues will get into pretty rude talk with our boss, for example, but it's always Вы with him even if they're talking about getting smashed and picking up girls for the weekend).