I am glad you changed your mind Kara! You give great advice and are always really friendly and helpful.

That`s sociological interesting Bilbo, the kids of the same school, spending together most of the day, go home and chat and argue on the Internet to the point they may fight physically the next day!

Our societies are getting increasingly crazy and Internet plays a big role in this. It remains to know if the balance of this role is positive or negative.

rumsurfer,

I did not understand your comment and fear I have said something inappropriate. But you sign with a positive emoticon, so it should not be so. Just clarify in case you think I should correct or apologise for something.

Kara only logged on now. In the space of about two minutes I went through saddness, happiness and then a bit of confusion but anyways I`m glad to hear your staying.
There are many people on this forum (me included) that do not have degrees in music and do not play professionally. We give advice if we can because of experiences good and bad, and our opions wether they are against something/someone or not.
They play the flute because they love it. It is apart of their lives and it becomes impossible to live a day without playing it. Life would become a nightmare if someone was to say I could never play again.
So long as you have a passion for what you do, you can and should be apart of this forum. Because some people are more opinionated than others is no reason why they should be excluded.

Leprachaun

p.s **SMILE**

jose luis - I was supporting what you were saying. It is a good thing.



Another thing, many of the best and most respected musicians in the world do not have academic degrees.

jose_luis

Someone else (rumsurfer)wrote:
"What he said!
"

This basically means he/she agrees with that you wrote and echos your sentiment.
It`s a good thing.

I`m not so sure that the rudeness is a U. S. thing along. I have seen kids from other countries here in the U.S. and I think that some of the rudest experiences that I`ve had are at niagara falls where foreigners seem to congregate. I`m not blaming foreigners because I think that some people will always have problems relating to others in a respectful way when they are away from home. I think that there is a air of anonymity on the net that lets people do what they can get away with. Or what they think that they can get away with. I think that these situations of more freedom just show some people`s true colors though. It`s like the driving syndrome. When people drive in congested areas they can be more rude. Maybe out of necessity sometimes. Sometimes being too nice on the road is rude to the people behind you. I also think that to some extent, all countries/peoples have changed a bit in the past ten years and this is partly from the internet and partly from globalization in the information age.

~Bilbo
Hoping I`m not hijacking this thread from Kara who gets my vote of respect today

If I didn`t say it before...THANK YOU EVERYONE!! It means the world to me! I am glad that I came back to check the post.

Thank you rumsurfer for supporting my concepts and also you and Bilbo for explaining the comment to me.

Bilbo, you are completely right. Rudness is universal and sometimes it jumps in front of us in situations or coming from people that one would never expect. I live now in a country where people are not particularly polite, and I have travelled a lot in Europe, always to find more or less the same behavior.

Surprisingly, one of the most polite people I have ever met were Bolivian Indians. However, is difficult to know if they are saying what you understand or just all the contrary.

And that can be a problem. For example, initially they would never accept a present from me, sometimes not even a payment, but the intention is only to have me insisting at least twice (or three times) before accepting it "reluctantly". That`s their way of being polite, but it is very confusing for outsiders.

The problem is really when the opinions or assessments are expressed in written. Many (and me first) should take courses on how to do it properly. Seriously, it should be part of High school and even Universities Curriculums (or maybe it is, already?)

The recent tendency of being (and writing) "politically correct" in the USA is probably a step forward, although it has been critiqued as being hypocrite and superficial. I do not agree with these disqualifications.

In any case I was not referring to a tendency in the US to being rude. In my personal experience it is all the contrary, at least in cult circles. And because of my impossibility to master all the details of the English language, I find sometimes that I was rudder to others than I believed to be.

So I tried to be extremely careful in what I wrote, considering the sensibility of the subject and the situation. I mentioned a possible tendency to be "direct", I meant with that expressing one`s opinions directly and without turning around them for a reasonable while.

In most cases I appreciate this way of (direct) acting, most particularly in business. If you ever tried to do that in some Asian countries, you know what I mean.

My idea was to take out importance from someone`s comment that had undoubtedly hurt Kara. But my own comment was probably unfortunate, at least in that situation. I apologize.

jose_luis

I think that I understand about the Asians and the Bolivians. Sometimes it`s better to be very careful that to be the proverbial bull in a china shop.
One thing to be careful about with a polite person is that they can be sticking a knife in your back or picking your pocket just as easily as a rude one. Although, if I`m going to have my pocket picked, I`ll take the poilite person anyday.
I think that when talking in person, it is often easier to read someone`s meanings than in reading what they`ve written. You don`t sem to have any problem in how you are conveying message in a foreign language here.

~Bilbo

Kara, I think there is far too much emphasis placed on academic achievements when it comes to the practical side of performance. Im in my final year of my performance degree and you know alot more revelant and usefull knowledge than some of the students in my class. there are times when those who have been "classically" trained think that there opinion is final and those who dont have a degree don`t know what they are talking about. This opinion is one which should be laid to rest as those with a degree can often have a bit of an ego problems i.e im right you`re wrong so there. I believe everyones opinion should be valued no matter how "qualified" they are. it is only up to the reciever whether they act on this knowledge. you also have a fiar bit of mechanical knowledge of the flute and many people with a degree have no clue when it comes to the workings of a flute. basically what im saying is dont leave the forum your opinion is too valued by everyone.

Kara, I understand how you feel, I don`t post as much as I used to due to the fact that there is no point in getting caught up in arguments that are based purely on opinion.
However, those of us with experience, with degree or no degree, can contribute greatly to the young people visiting this forum for advice

Kara, I understand how you feel, I don`t post as much as I used to due to the fact that there is no point in getting caught up in arguments that are based purely on opinion.
However, those of us with experience, with degree or no degree, can contribute greatly to the young people visiting this forum for advice

jose luis, you claim your writing is not up to par, yet you manage to write better and show emotion better than many people. well said.

and kara, i`m a simple striving teen, yet I still manage to give advice on alot of things in the sax forum. So while of course I am certainly no pro yet, I can help, so you certainly shouldn`t feel like you are not good enough to give advice.

Kara are you seriously leaving? *sniff* I don`t know you that much but you helped me sooooo much. I`m so young and of course I don`t know a lot of things^^, but you gave such GOOD advices. THANK YOU! I`ll always remember all the things you said because it helped me so much. I hope the new flute I`m getting is good, and thanks for all the advices. You sound like an AMAZING musician and..FLUTE ROCKS!^^heeehee
I hope I can be like you and help others with good advices. Ahh.. man, I feel bad you`re leaving and I bet everyone does too.

Thanks, you are such a sweetheart! No, I have decided to stay thanks to all my friends who wrote such enduring responses. I was going through a bad patch and my low self esteem kicked in again. My husband has to give me the pep talk when I get like that and then I usually feel better. What would I ever do with out that man!