Replying to LO24315 --
Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to you all, especially those who still want to respond.
I began by writing:
>I am asking this question "Why employ a person?" because
>the answer is not so obvious to me any more.
and ended by writing:
>Perhaps employment is far more complex than what we
>suspect.
The diversity and sincerity of the reponses so far astounded me. I am
becoming aware of a common pattern in them, but I will refrain from
articulating it so that the "brain storming" can go on! Perhaps, at the
end, we will all see it without having to articulate it in words.
A dear colleague of mine in a language department of our university often
complains that university education has become so mediocre that lecturers
are compelled to "bash the brains of the students with a feather". Even
the textbooks seem to have followed suite.
I was thinking of what will happen when binding all these delightful
replies together and then give the bundle to students in a course of
Management Science so that they can make sense out of it. It will
definitely be far heavier than "brain bashing with a feather" ;-)
Here is another angle. Yesterday evening when I arrived at home, my
daughter Jeanette was preparing dinner. My granddaughter Jessica asked
her: "Jeannette, can I do that WORKY for you?" Jeanette, sometimes very
straight like artists usually are, asked: "Why?" Jessica replied in
excitement: "Because it is so LEKKER."
[The discourse was actually in our mother tongue Afrikaans.
I gave you the closest literal translation. But two things I could
not do.
The first is to use the diminutive as a sign of endearment. In our
language it happens by adding the suffix sounding like "y" when
the word ends on a consonant.
The second is the word "lekker". Even the English speaking
people here in South Africa use it as the Banthu and Indian
people also do. English words like nice, fine, enjoy, sweet,
pleasure simply cannot express what this "lekker" word "lekker"
express. Should I say "bliss in the thrill", it is perhaps the
closest I will come to it. It is, for example, the "lekker" in a
hug which makes it worthwhile.]
It is LEKKER to read your responses.
With care and best wishes.
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.