When I was living in China, I learned to make things hyper-explicit because often they were being read by people whose command of English kept them from picking up what I thought were obvious signals.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of clear communication, especially in a multicultural context where language barriers exist.
James Fallows reflects on his experience living in China, highlighting the need for hyper-explicit communication when speaking or writing in English to individuals who may not fully grasp the language. This underscores the idea that assumptions about shared understanding can lead to miscommunication, particularly when cultural and linguistic differences are present. By making messages clearer, one can ensure better comprehension and avoid misunderstandings.
In practice
In a multicultural team meeting, I used this quote to stress the importance of clear communication.
For the record, I am sticking with my claim that the simultaneous degradation of air quality, water quality, water supply, food safety, soil quality, and other environment-related variables is the main challenge to China's continued development.
I think it's a mistake to think, 'Am I going to write a young adult book, or do I desperately want to write a book for adults?' I think the better ambition is to try to write someone's favorite book, because those categorizations of adult, young adult, become kind of superfluous.
I'm read in the Caribbean with justice, with fairness. What I expect it to do is to encourage articulacy in the young.
I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.
A recluse without books and ink is already in life a dead man.
No university in the world has ever risen to greatness without a correspondingly great library... When this is no longer true, then will our civilization have come to an end.
Secretly, in studies and attics and schoolrooms all over America, people must be writing.
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