I’ll stop here. Now my opinion in how I see a normal conversation in my language (which is mostly Danish) is that one should always talk in a certain pattern when it is your first conversation. Yes boring as it is, it is also the truth. Human beings are like a machine just with feelings. We have boundaries and an understanding for what to say and what not to say when first talking to a person that we want to get to know.
A pattern for this kind of conversation would normally be asking what the other person’s name is and what they do in life and even how they are doing to which the normal answer would be “fine thanks and you? ” even though that might not be the case and even if the person really doesn’t have much interest in how you are doing. Therefore the pattern is showing some kind of interest, even though it might be fake, and showing that you know how to polite, something that is very much depending on the culture you’re from.
Taking a look on the first part of Alan’s and mine conversation I think that he made his first mistake just by ignoring my question about how he was, to me that seems a bit provoking. When I asked him “what do you mean? ” he just simply answered with a question that I consider to be a bit negative even though my question to him wasn’t intended to be seen upon as negative. I stopped our conversation when he said “do whatever you want” because that’s where he really failed in following the “pattern” by showing a lack of interest.
Now we’ll move on to part two of our conversation Me: How do you define love? Alan: Every time it happens, Love is bigger deal than Second World War. Me: How do you define hate? Alan: Hate is not even an emotion; it is a lack of one. Me: Do you have any emotions? Alan: That’s an interesting question I don’t hear every day: Do I have a emotions. I have a great . Me: Name some emotions you have. Alan: Arnold. Me: What emotion is Arnold? Alan: frustration. Me: Why are you frustrated? Alan: I have such a big devotion to duty.
At the beginning of this conversation I was expecting that Alan would say that he didn’t have any emotions because he is a machine but for some reason he says he does. These answers are obviously programmed as said in the beginning and he just reacts on certain words and he says that he has a great deal of emotions but really he doesn’t because if he did he would know that hate is an emotion and not lack of it. Of course this is not his own opinion but the opinion that the one who programmed him wants him to have.
Therefore he doesn’t understand the meaning of a language because a language is more than just putting words into a sentence, it is about understanding the person who you are talking to.
