Let’s start with a real life example:
M, a colleague of mine who I can best define as a kind and gentle soul sent out the following e-mail the other day (I give only our manager’s initial – P):
If you are still interested in participating in the above referenced group, please complete P's form and put a copy in my mailbox by 5pm. Thanks again.
Since I happened to have been at a different branch I responded with:
M,
I am in the XX branch today. Would it be okay if I mail you the form?
Daniel.
Being the accommodating person that she is, M told me that:
only for you ...
I felt the need to counter with an equally personal and personable response, so I said:
Ma dame, vous êtes trop gentil!
Curious as to what the response will look like, I did not have to wait long:
que simpatico
So it’s Spanish, eh? I think we can handle that:
Soy de la creencia firme ese conducto de profesional debe ser uno de bondad y respeto.
Once more, the response was quick to come, all kindness and good will:
verdad. Disfruta la tarde en XX.
Ciao
Of course, I could end it there and then, but I was in a conversational mood, so:
Gracias. ¿Con la luz que corre felizmente por las ventanas grandes y las ramas de árbol oscilando suavemente en el viento suave, cómo uno no lo puede gozar?
Clearly, we were potentially getting into a discussion of aesthetics, and I was truly curious as to the response this would evince:
que lindo. Pues, todavia no tengo tu listo. Me mando?
For a second there my amazing linguistic insight was failing me. Clarification was needed (just to allay suspicions, I decided to include a compliment as well):
¿Se refiere usted a forma de P? Yo lo tendré hecho para usted por el fin del día. ¿Por la manera, dónde usted obtuvo su español excelente?
Modest, as well as kind, M said that:
Pues, mi espanol no es muy bueno, per gracia. Yo vivi en Mexico por menos que un ano hace mucho tiempo. Y usted? Como lo aprendio expanol?
Naturally, this was my cue to get truly philosophical, and to perhaps insinuate as to the nature of my Syrano sumulacrum:
Veo. ¿Yo mismo? Soy un creyente magnífico en la cultura unificada de mundo -la existencia de un idioma de Meta que sobrepasa las fronteras lingüísticas (a la T.S. Eliot sin el catolicismo). Agradecidamente, hoy tenemos las herramientas técnicas para lograr esta visión…
No response followed.
The knowledge of Spanish is not among my virtues (too many to enumerate here). Being in a playful mood, I resorted to http://www.freetranslation.com/ to create the (I am certain) grammatically dubious Spanish sentences. The truly interesting thing about the entire exchange is that information was conveyed although if my interlocutor (interemailer?) truly did not speak English, information could not have been conveyed through speech.
This may be a good case against extreme subjectivism and its various Post Modern spawns of relativism, race/religion/gender politics, and the like. I guess in its ultimate form a though is a burst of electric energy generated in our brain. While similar types of thoughts and emotions may be generated in similar areas of the brain (I heard that even that is being disputed), the charge and path taken in my brain when the word “bread” is conjured up is different from anyone else’s “bread.” Nevertheless, when someone asks me, in English (and politely) to pass the bread, I do not offer a partrige – I give them bread. So while direct communication may not be possible (if your electrical charge that has been generated by “bread” were to be placed miraculously in my brain, it would probably come across as some sort of nonsense), the conveyance of information is possible indeed. It is clear to me, at any rate, that any sophomore philosophy student what might be making such a claim never had to read (let alone write ) instructions for anyone.
7:06:26 AM 
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