Re: Grammar, language change, & phobia

[Pat Madea <madea -at- MMSI -dot- COM>]

Margaret Knox addresses many issues in her post regarding grammar,
language change, and phobia.  I concur with her comment on computer
phobia.

< massive snip >

   >A final thought about helping people overcome computer phobia
   >(not related to grammar): I have found over the years that phobic
   >types respond very badly to being told it is "really very simple."
   >(That increases the fear of failure--if they fail now, they must be
   >_really_ stupid...). Also, if one can't even understand the words in the
   >documentation, it doesn't seem simple, and so calling things simple
   >can create hostility and increase resistance. It's better to find some
   >other way to describe what you are trying to teach. Let them discover
   >for themselves that it is simple.

She is dead on right about fastidiously avoiding the words and
concepts that "... it's really very simple ... " or "... it's easy
..." or other variations in relation to learning computers or anything
else for that matter.  I've come to regard these phrases as
marketing-speak and have no place in training or learning something
new.

Something to always remember is that "It's always easy if you know how
to do it."  But if you're learning, it ain't easy and it ain't simple.

madea  //  madea -at- mmsi -dot- com