The exact meaning would depend on the context.Do you hear it where you live? What does it mean?
The exact meaning would depend on the context.
If my house goes up in smoke, it is completely burnt out. If my career plans go up in smoke, they disappear/are destroyedCould you elaborate please?
Could you elaborate please?
Probus caught me at one of those incredibly rare moments when I was feeling sweet-natured and tolerant. Treasure it.I'm surprised that 5jj let this pass. The point of his first answer was to say that no word has a single and unchanging meaning without a context; and it's the job of someone who wants to understand a word to explain the context where s/he has met it. 5jj was saying 'We can't tell you without knowing more.' To respond to that with 'Could you elaborate please?' might be interpreted as disrespectful.
I am sure you didn't, and it's not a problem.I sincerely apologize. I intended no disrespect at all.
It is not, in itself, disrespectful. Read BobK's first paragraph again. Note the he wrote that it "might be interpreted as disrespectful", not that it was disrespectful.Asking someone to elaborate, complete with the word "please", is disrespectful? What's this forum for?
Asking someone to elaborate, complete with the word "please", is disrespectful? What's this forum for?
I did not say it was disrespectful to ask a question politely (although using polite words is far from being the basis of politeness). What I said was it 'might be interpreted as disrespectful'.
The implication, when a senior adviser has told you you need to say more, of asking briefly what he means, is 'My time [in framing the question in an answerable fashion, as requested] is more valuable than yours. Go ahead and explain every conceivable nuance; I'm not going to spend any more time on this until you've done some real work.'
Obviously, the OP didn't mean this - which is why I said it might be seen as disrespectful. I'm sorry if my language was too sophisticated to avoid giving offence. ;-)
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I think that Bob was referring to me when he used the term 'senior adviser'. He was using the word 'senior' not in the sense of 'superior', but in the way it is used in 'senior citizen' - 'older', 'someone who has been around longer'. As, at the time, I had posted over 3,000 answers in this forum, it was not an unreasonable choice of words.And to be perfectly candid, you aren't a "senior advisor", you are someone using a message board. This is not a teacher-student setting and the people who come here are not in a subordinate relationship to you.
If you look above the top right-hand corner of the posts, you will see our home country, native language, and the type of member we claim to be - teacher, academic, etc.Am I correct to assume that you are all native English speakers?
Words fail me. This forum is called Ask a Teacher: that context establishes the relative seniority of questioners and teachers. This is where I bow out. :-|It's a message board. People talk to each other. I remain, to use a British term, gobsmacked that someone could imagine a request to answer at further length to be disrepectful. And to be perfectly candid, you aren't a "senior advisor", you are someone using a message board. This is not a teacher-student setting and the people who come here are not in a subordinate relationship to you. Their time is not more valuable than yours, but it is also not less valuable. I can't begin to imagine how a request to elaborate on a message board posting could ever be interpreted as disrespectful.
Finally, your language wasn't too precise, and I didn't fail to understand you. I don't agree, which is different.
Words fail me. This forum is called Ask a Teacher: that context establishes the relative seniority of questioners and teachers. This is where I bow out. :-|
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