Random Confessions | Page 144 | Golden Skate

Random Confessions

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
The thing is these applicants are replying to our job ads. They know our name, address,... and their cover letter/email, most of time, covers areas of our research and how they can contribute to it (after all it is a postdoc application from someone who is already Dr. someone). It is just they arrange the title of their emails in a way that they are taught as being respectful. As simple as that. We don't think we should get offended or judge these applicants from a biased point of view :shrug:

As someone who has been a hiring manager, if my name has been given out and I still get a generic greeting such as "To Whom It May Concern" or "Dear Madam" in a cover letter I consider that a negative because it's demonstrating a lack of attention to detail and most likely a generic cover letter that doesn't demonstrate why this position at this company. Likewise, one of the biggest pet peeves my literary agent friends have is when an author sends a query letter that's either to "Dear Sir" or misgenders the recipient (say "Dear Mr. Fletcher" to an agent who prefers she/her pronouns and has it on her twitter bio) because it reads as lazy.

It's not that I would reject a job seeker outright for that, nor would any intern going through a slush pile automatically put a letter that made that infraction in the reject pile BUT it would prime me to perhaps be a little more critical of their resume or pitch.
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
I sometimes get "To Whom It May Concern" (an on a bad day have to fight the urge to write back with "Yours Sincerely, Not Concerned in the Least"

Problem is, whatever we use is possibly going to offend/irritate someone...

I thought of that one after I did my post. It's definitely the worst, and I'd much rather leave out the salutation altogether than use that.

I did think of another possible salutation: "Dear TELUS representative" because whoever reads my letter (from the President on down to a billing clerk) is doing it as a representative of TELUS.

And then I started worrying about the Dear; why use Dear for someone we've never met, probably never will meet, and are only dealing with now because we hope they will deal with our billing issue? Isn't it a bit ... overfamiliar?

Oh no, now you've done it; I will be paralyzed by indecision next time I attempt to write a formal letter.

Emails are OK: no "dearest daughter mine", no "love, Mum", just "check out this video of xxxxx" and the link. It works for us.
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
I thought of that one after I did my post. It's definitely the worst, and I'd much rather leave out the salutation altogether than use that.

I did think of another possible salutation: "Dear TELUS representative" because whoever reads my letter (from the President on down to a billing clerk) is doing it as a representative of TELUS.

And then I started worrying about the Dear; why use Dear for someone we've never met, probably never will meet, and are only dealing with now because we hope they will deal with our billing issue? Isn't it a bit ... overfamiliar?

Oh no, now you've done it; I will be paralyzed by indecision next time I attempt to write a formal letter.

Emails are OK: no "dearest daughter mine", no "love, Mum", just "check out this video of xxxxx" and the link. It works for us.

Maybe the applicants read our posts here (joking of course) and got baffled too and at the end decided to get rid of addressing altogether :laugh: I just received an application that starts with "I hope this email finds you at the best hour".
 

elbkup

Power without conscience is a savage weapon
Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Country
United-States
My favorite.. (from the Robertson Davies novel Rebel Angels)...

Salutation :

Dearest, Most Understanding of Created Beings,

Closing:

Your Crawling Slave,
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
My cat just stared at me until I sensed it and looked at him, then meowed loudly for scritches. I might or might not have to roll around on the ice at my next freestyle session in order to fully re-solidify. :luv17:

For the record, this is the cat who looked away from a tragic popped quad of Mikhail Kolyada's, then purred at a beautiful spin later on in the same program. He also has noticeably different facial expressions for when he's begging for food vs. begging to play. I have had a lot of cats, some very smart, but never one quite as communicative as this one.
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
As the Korean meme goes, it's only me who doesn't have a cat, really everybody has a cat and I'm the only one without a cat :sad4: :sad4: :sad21: Seriously, the day I achieve enough financial independence to move out I'm going to the nearest local shelter and getting a cat. I already have names picked out, if the cat who accepts me is a he I'm naming him Kumo (as in the Japanese word for cloud), and if it's a she I'm naming her Ame (as in the Japanese word for rain/candy). Ugh, all I've wanted since I was 5 was to have a cat. Well, and the status of a published author. And fitting boots for Junhwan. And then some. :biggrin:

On the topic, I finally wrote something last night. Only about 800 characters (roughly about 500 words), and it's probably awful, but at least it's something. Now I only need to finish it, wish me luck.

And finally, brief news from the English academy.

- Min, my favourite, hasn't shown up for about 2 months now. The manager says her mother had said she'll be back for vacation, well one can hope (sigh)

- Now with Ms. Natasha off to a different branch to oversee it (Oh, by the way, the boss is a different person from Ms. N. Sorry for the confusion) the no. 2 teacher, so to speak, is one M. Giles. He's great, efficient, good with the kids (especially the overly energetic boys), and speaks good English. I don't know why the boss and the manager call him 'jai-lus' though.

- So, to use English examples, there is a Sean, a Shawn, and a Shaun who all come on Friday. It's virtually impossible to make distinctions only using their first names. And now there is an Aaron who comes on the same time as Erin. Dear (insert deity)
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
- So, to use English examples, there is a Sean, a Shawn, and a Shaun who all comes on Friday. It's virtually impossible to make distinctions only using their first names. And now there is an Aaron who comes on the same time as Erin. Dear (insert deity)

You could always pretend you are from [insert your preferred name for the second city of Northern Ireland] and pronounce the first guy's name as "Shan" :p (i.e. like the Welsh girl's name "Siân")

I admit, it took me a while to work out what the problem was with the second set of names. But, I eventually remembered that I have heard Americans pronouncing "Aaron" in a way that sounds like "Erin". But, that pronounciation is totally unheard of here.

Here is a (specially selected) video which shows how "Aaron" is pronounced here (the Aaron in question being a guy who went to my school, and whose brother was in my class):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw6w6fyuTgs

Interestingly, I just checked and Max Aaron pronounces his surname the same way as I have always pronounced it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2cHKLFzT0Y

By the way, if you want to hear the pronounciation more clearly, I recommend you play both of those videos at 0.75 speed. Because in both cases the person saying the name is talking pretty fast! (Something that a lot of people from Northern Ireland are often guilty of).

CaroLiza_fan
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
I admit, it took me a while to work out what the problem was with the second set of names. But, I eventually remembered that I have heard Americans pronouncing "Aaron" in a way that sounds like "Erin". But, that pronounciation is totally unheard of here.

Here is a (specially selected) video which shows how "Aaron" is pronounced here (the Aaron in question being a guy who went to my school, and whose brother was in my class):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw6w6fyuTgs

Interestingly, I just checked and Max Aaron pronounces his surname the same way as I have always pronounced it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2cHKLFzT0Y

By the way, if you want to hear the pronounciation more clearly, I recommend you play both of those videos at 0.75 speed. Because in both cases the person saying the name is talking pretty fast! (Something that a lot of people from Northern Ireland are often guilty of).

CaroLiza_fan

I actually differentiate the two clearly (Erin has a distinct 'e' sound), but I couldn't think of any other English example where a male name and a female name are confused with one another. My English accent is a hybrid of midwest US, RP/English, Canadian, and a dash of my native tongue (not-quite-Busan Korean), and apparently my brain has no rules for which element comes in which situation :shrug: My spelling is also a mixture of American and, um, the rest of the Anglosphere :biggrin:, for instance I use 'grey' instead of 'gray' but 'color' not 'colour'. The reason why I get red lines for both 'en(US)' and 'en(UK)' when I use MS Word :laugh:
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
I actually differentiate the two clearly (Erin has a distinct 'e' sound), but I couldn't think of any other English example where a male name and a female name are confused with one another. My English accent is a hybrid of midwest US, RP/English, Canadian, and a dash of my native tongue (not-quite-Busan Korean), and apparently my brain has no rules for which element comes in which situation :shrug: My spelling is also a mixture of American and, um, the rest of the Anglosphere :biggrin:, for instance I use 'grey' instead of 'gray' but 'color' not 'colour'. The reason why I get red lines for both 'en(US)' and 'en(UK)' when I use MS Word :laugh:

As long as the pupils know who you are talking to, and aren't annoyed with the way you are saying their Anglicised names, then that's all that matters.

Funny you should mention the differences in spelling between American English and British English, because it reminded me of a confession I wanted to make last week.

As they were showing LIVE coverage of all the matches from the Netball World Cup, Sky Sports Mix (Sky's only sports channel that isn't a premium channel) was given over to netball for the duration of the tournament. And one of the filler pieces had an Aussie player from the Wasps club (which is based in Coventry, England) taking us through some training techniques.

During the piece, the graphics kept showing the words "practise" and "practising". And it really confused me, because I didn't know what this "practise" was. (I think the problem was that I was pronouncing it in my head along the same lines as "euthanise". So it took me a long time to twig that it was actually an alternative spelling for "practice").

When the penny did finally drop, I started wondering if this was yet another sign of the Aussies starting to drift towards American things rather than British things. So, I looked it up. And to my surprise I discovered that it was "practice" that was the American spelling, and that "practise" was the British spelling.

That was a real shock. To think that all my life I have been using an American spelling without even realising that it was an American spelling.

Boys, but the English language is a funny thing! :laugh:

And as for those red lines, I can tell you that it is quare craic when you are making out the Predictions Games posts in Word, and seeing just masses of red lines! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

CaroLiza_fan

P.S. I just noticed something. When I wrote the bit about how I was pronouncing "practise" in my head, I was struggling to think of another word to demonstrate what I was pronouncing it like. And the only word I could think of was "euthanise". But, I just read through the whole post, and spotted lots of other examples within what I wrote! ("Anglicise", "realise", "surprise") :laugh:
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
Ugh, all I've wanted since I was 5 was to have a cat. Well, and the status of a published author. And fitting boots for Junhwan. And then some. :biggrin:

I hope you get a cat and to be published soon!

I've had cats my entire life and don't want to be an author, so I'll settle for fitting boots for Junhwan. :cry:

As for the names, mine is one of the few remaining American accents that pronounces Aaron like the videos and Erin with the "e" in "bet". Incidentally, I've been told by people from the Midwest that I sound British, which was shocking, because my accent is quite unmistakably local to those familiar with the area of the US that I'm originally from.

Also, one of my elementary school classes really and truly did have a Sean, a Shawn, and a Shaun, if I remember correctly. :laugh: The teacher used last initials after the first name (Sean F., etc).
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
I just saw a link on the ISU's Facebook page to their statement about the Asian Open Classic in Taiwan losing it's staus as the Asian round of the Challenger Series, and this status instead being given to the Asian Open Trophy in China (which, to further complicate matters, is actually being organised by the Hong Kong Fed).

There are a whole pile of replies being posted on the link by people from Taiwan, all written to a set template. Here is the start and finish of the template:

"To whom it may concern,

This is XXXX from Taiwan.

...

Your attention to this message is sincerely appreciated. I look forward to your favorable response soon.

Best regards,

XXXX
Taiwan"

And when I saw this, I just burst out laughing. Because it made me think of what TallyT wrote in this thread a couple of days ago:

I sometimes get "To Whom It May Concern" (an on a bad day have to fight the urge to write back with "Yours Sincerely, Not Concerned in the Least"

All I could think was that this reply would perfectly sum up the attitude of the ISU to the opinions of any figure skating fans. But, the difference is, we know fine well that the ISU won't even bother reading the messages, never mind writing back to them.

So, I hope these Taiwanese people aren't holding their breath while waiting for their "favourable response".

CaroLiza_fan
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
I think some of my Nearest and Dearest have me worked out... my relative just gave me a present of a rather gorgeous, watercoloury laptop in shades of blue and white, and admitted she took a picture of Yuzu's Otonal and
Origin with her when shopping to try and match one of the costumes (which is no doubt easy in Japan, but not in my small Australian home town)
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
I have done something totally out of character and soon will be facing the consequences of said action: I will have to wake up at 8 am. (cue dramatic reaction music)

The reason is this: the English Academy I work in has changed open hours - because the elementary school literally 5 minutes' walk away (aka the school like 75% of the students go to) has started summer break - from 1 pm-8 pm to 10 am-6 pm. And originally my working hours, 3 pm-7 pm, were to be slightly readjusted to 2 pm-6 pm. But then I got the new schedule sheet, and to my horror I saw that all my remaining favourite students (Min was not on the list btw, I am still very much sad about that) had changed schedules for the early hours. And on top of that, M. Giles was to leave at 2:30, so I'd have to face all those overly energetic young de-I mean, male students :dev3: without much help. So I pondered for a while, gritted my teeth, and asked the manager if I could come early. She surprisedly said okay, and so now my working hours for August is 10 am-2 pm. It's about 40 minutes' ride from the subway to work (but you can't trust the bus to the station to be on time :mad:) and I need to look human, so I have to wake up at 8. Yay.

It's 1:47 am Monday here. Wish me luck in approx. 6 hours.
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
Good luck! On the bright side, your favorites might be more enthusiastic at an earlier time if some of them are early birds.
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
I bought some Asian fit glasses online, and now I'm sitting here with them on even though they don't have lenses yet, I'm wearing contacts, and I hate the way I look in glasses. Why? Because I can without getting a headache or having them slide halfway down my nose if a breeze hits them, and I can laugh and smile as big as I want without my cheeks hitting them. (For those who don't know, most American glasses fit very poorly if you have a larger/rounder head and smaller nose bridge and higher cheekbones.)

Genes sure are funny. I have no idea who my Asian ancestors were (they were waaay far back) or what exact ethnicity they were (I only know that they were Siberian and Central and East Asian), but they sure left me enough of their DNA to ensure that I can never find glasses, goggles, or helmets easily. :laugh:
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
I bought some Asian fit glasses online, and now I'm sitting here with them on even though they don't have lenses yet, I'm wearing contacts, and I hate the way I look in glasses. Why? Because I can without getting a headache or having them slide halfway down my nose if a breeze hits them, and I can laugh and smile as big as I want without my cheeks hitting them. (For those who don't know, most American glasses fit very poorly if you have a larger/rounder head and smaller nose bridge and higher cheekbones.)

Genes sure are funny. I have no idea who my Asian ancestors were (they were waaay far back) or what exact ethnicity they were (I only know that they were Siberian and Central and East Asian), but they sure left me enough of their DNA to ensure that I can never find glasses, goggles, or helmets easily. :laugh:

Hang on - you're Asian?! :shocked: In my mind, I always pictured you as Eastern European! :drama:

You see, I thought you were the member who posted an old photo of a relative from a few generations back who was practically a clone of Aljona Savchenko. And that you were the member who said one other time that, when you were growing up, your Russian ancestry and stereotypical Eastern European looks made you stand out from everybody else.

Or, am I getting you mixed up with another member (or even possibly a couple of other members)? If I am, I apologise profusely.

CaroLiza_fan
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
I bought some Asian fit glasses online, and now I'm sitting here with them on even though they don't have lenses yet, I'm wearing contacts, and I hate the way I look in glasses. Why? Because I can without getting a headache or having them slide halfway down my nose if a breeze hits them, and I can laugh and smile as big as I want without my cheeks hitting them. (For those who don't know, most American glasses fit very poorly if you have a larger/rounder head and smaller nose bridge and higher cheekbones.)

Genes sure are funny. I have no idea who my Asian ancestors were (they were waaay far back) or what exact ethnicity they were (I only know that they were Siberian and Central and East Asian), but they sure left me enough of their DNA to ensure that I can never find glasses, goggles, or helmets easily. :laugh:

Fascinating. I knew a man who said he'd wondered all his life why he looked like no one in his family. Finally in his 30s or so, he found one of those old outdoor family reunion pictures. There, in the back row on the farthest fringe, was a great-great uncle who looked like him. Yes, genes are so unpredictable.

Good luck with the Asian glasses. I didn't know about them, very interesting. I hope they work well for you, when you get lenses. I'm a 110% contact lens person, because glasses give me vertigo and interfere with my peripheral vision.
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
Hang on - you're Asian?! :shocked: In my mind, I always pictured you as Eastern European! :drama:

You see, I thought you were the member who posted an old photo of a relative from a few generations back who was practically a clone of Aljona Savchenko. And that you were the member who said one other time that, when you were growing up, your Russian ancestry and stereotypical Eastern European looks made you stand out from everybody else.

Or, am I getting you mixed up with another member (or even possibly a couple of other members)? If I am, I apologise profusely.

CaroLiza_fan

No, I'm Eastern European with some distant Asian ancestry, like 5-10% depending on the DNA test. I've had random people pick me out of a crowd and come up to me speaking Russian, and I've had people thinking I'm half Japanese, so I guess it's more or less noticeable depending on who's looking.

Fascinating. I knew a man who said he'd wondered all his life why he looked like no one in his family. Finally in his 30s or so, he found one of those old outdoor family reunion pictures. There, in the back row on the farthest fringe, was a great-great uncle who looked like him. Yes, genes are so unpredictable.

Good luck with the Asian glasses. I didn't know about them, very interesting. I hope they work well for you, when you get lenses. I'm a 110% contact lens person, because glasses give me vertigo and interfere with my peripheral vision.

Yeah, I figured from how I look and where in Siberia part of my family is from that I most likely have some Asian ancestry, but I could never prove it, and certain mean classmates accused me of lying if it ever came up in conversation. Turns out there's even more than I thought there was!

Same, I only wear glasses when I run out of contacts or am working with certain chemicals. :laugh: Hopefully I won't need to wear them much, but when I do, at least they won't give me a headache. (Well, from how they feel. They might give me a headache from being freaked out by how different I look in glasses. :laugh:)
 

nguyhm

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
I bought some Asian fit glasses online, and now I'm sitting here with them on even though they don't have lenses yet, I'm wearing contacts, and I hate the way I look in glasses. Why? Because I can without getting a headache or having them slide halfway down my nose if a breeze hits them, and I can laugh and smile as big as I want without my cheeks hitting them. (For those who don't know, most American glasses fit very poorly if you have a larger/rounder head and smaller nose bridge and higher cheekbones.)

I have the same problem finding sunglasses that don't leave marks on my cheekbones when I take them off - due to my flat nose - so embarrassing. But I heard that some brands ie. Chanel has started making sunglasses for Asian features aka flat nose.
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
So, to see it in a positive light, I get to sleep in. To see it as I normally do, I am about to do non-fulfilling, emotionally draining work for the following month. In other words, schedule changes got revoked. Reasons: a) the other part-time teacher (the one who was supposed to substitute me) isn't available for evenings and b)the manager can't trust only the most recently hired teacher to run things smoothly. Solid reasons. So solid that I can't even be mad. I need a drink.

Something unrelated: At the subway station where I get off to go home, there's always this guy who hands out flyers to passersby. I am somehow compelled not to ignore the guy's hand holding out some flyer about a newly opened gym or another, even when I'm dead tired and absolutely do not want to walk to the nearest trash can (about 5 minutes by foot in the opposite direction) to throw it away. I have a lot of questions for whoever did my inner programming.
 
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