Speaking personally, I certainly agree. When I am silent it means that I don't really care about the topic at hand or am dismissing it as being silly. It *most definitely* doesn't mean consent. D ________________________________ From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org on behalf of Izumi AIZU Sent: Mon 2/18/2008 8:46 AM To: Veni Markovski Cc: At-Large Worldwide Subject: Re: [At-Large] Give it a break I would not say "American" - there are many pepple who's mother tongue is almost English outside the USA. So I would rather avoid making it "American", Veni, which may lead to misinterpretation and misunderstandings. I mean, Singapore, (some folks in India, but not all), Malaysia to some extent, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, oh and England, and some African countries... Anyway, how to interprete silence is a difficult task and we do not have consensus on that, that I can say for sure. izumi 2008/2/18, Veni Markovski <veni@veni.com>: As another non-native English speaker, I agree with Izumi. The US-centric perception that if someone is silent, then they agree with the American point of view is just that - a perception, but not a reality. In many cultures we'll stay quiet as a sign of disagreement. veni On Feb 18, 2008 3:53 AM, Izumi AIZU <iza@anr.org> wrote: as an old time at ALAC, and non-English speaking people, I don't think silence is agreement at all, and it never was the norm either unless it was called many times for consent. often, I ignore the things that do not make sense or worth to bother my precious time - and I know many of my colleagues have similar attitude. unfortunate, maybe, but we are busy in doing our own work in professional manners and those things go outside of our cotrol, let them be. we have no luxury of time to waste. izumi _______________________________________________ ALAC mailing list ALAC@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org At-Large Official Site: http://www.alac.icann.org <http://www.alac.icann.org/> ALAC Independent: http://www.icannalac.org <http://www.icannalac.org/> -- >> Izumi Aizu << Institute for HyperNetwork Society, Oita Kumon Center, Tama University, Tokyo Japan * * * * * << Writing the Future of the History >> www.anr.org <http://www.anr.org/>