Something that really annoys me is when people are super rigid with language. I’m not talking about when people are intentionally precise and check in to make sure they are understood (u r angels, honestly 🙏) but when people have no understanding about how culture impacts communication.

The internet is giant. English is spoken in so many different ways all over the world. I wonder if I’m more sympathetic to this because of the autism and knowing how easy it is to be misunderstood, or if it’s living in a place with a lot of immigration so that I can get to know how english is spoken in different english speaking regions as well as how people who learned english later in life communicate.

An IRL example that always comes to mind is when I was a child and visiting family in the southern US. Someone asked me what I thought of something and I said, “It’s nice!” enthusiastically. Well, apparently that’s the wrong thing to say and a great insult because “nice” is a code word for “I don’t like it, I’m not going to pretend I do, but I don’t want to stray too far from social norms and say it clearly”. Where I am from it is a genuine positive assessment (unless it’s said sarcastically, which isn’t what I did). It didn’t matter when I told them I didn’t mean any offense and that the word has different connotations where I’m from. I should have spoken english the right way. Their way.