I find that here at ET, especially reading Jerome, that I really need to sit back and suppress all those assumptions one places on ordinary conversation. The reason appears to be simple: Jerome and I operate from different complexes of values. Though he has a wonderful command of English, his viewpoint, based on an entirely alien set of expectations, is something I must "translate" as if he wrote in French.

It can be disconcerting, and I wonder what is lost in my translation.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire