{"id":572,"date":"2013-06-08T20:44:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-09T03:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/?p=572"},"modified":"2013-06-08T20:44:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-09T03:44:25","slug":"the-art-of-scolding-contd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/2013\/06\/08\/the-art-of-scolding-contd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Scolding, cont’d."},"content":{"rendered":"

“We have somehow not successfully received your professional-development documentation,” a Dean’s Office colleague wrote me in an email early in my career at Kwantlen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sentence both charmed and alarmed me, especially the phrase somehow not successfully received<\/em>, which seemed so artfully composed. Why had such care been taken in writing this simple request?<\/p>\n

Because I had been habitually late and\/or sloppy with my paperwork. Because I always needed guidance and reminding. And because now my colleague was *mad*.<\/em><\/p>\n

I had to remember where I was: British Columbia, Canada. People here really are<\/em> polite, just like the Americans say. My colleagues back in New York might have made such a request with explicit impatience, or even invective, to make sure I understood what they needed and what I had been doing wrong.<\/p>\n

The language used for disapproval where I now worked was identical, it seemed, to the language of approval, in terms of vocabulary and tone. What gave the game away was the inordinate amount of care given to a simple writing task.<\/p>\n

One could infer that this care came from irritation rather than pleasure.<\/p>\n

Thereafter I have always wondered whether I am able – whether I am Canadian enough<\/em> – to hearken to the subtle ways my colleagues and neighbors can scold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We have somehow not successfully received your professional-development documentation,” a Dean’s Office colleague wrote me in an email early in my career at Kwantlen. The sentence both charmed and alarmed me, especially the phrase somehow not successfully received, which seemed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[19,57,107,108],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roberts-posts","tag-clarity","tag-language","tag-words","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}