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Though there are many factors that contribute towards a person’s conversation, most are just paying attention to minor details. However, there are some points that one should pay more attention to, and they are the person’s background, the person’s history, and the connotation that the person might be using.

It is important, before you assume too much about a person, to put into factor a person’s background. Though you might find it insulting in a person who has lived here a long time, if someone who just came here from another country uses blunt language to speak to you, then you cannot fault them. As well, people who are immigrants may not realize that some of their everyday words, such as hate, and bad, maybe a little too blunt for certain people’s tastes. Though one might think that to use those words are perfectly normal, and that the receiver would just take them in stride and understand that that is how the world goes, sometimes people assume too much and think that everything is supposed to be diplomatic and grown up, and that every speech should give them a corner in which to retreat into, just in case they start to lose ground.

The second thing to pay attention to is the person’s history. Who is he? You cannot begrudge a little prank or a little annoyance if the person is a teenager, because, after all, they are not fully grown into the world yet and cannot be expected to have the same amount of self-control and dignity an older person might take for granted. As well, you must see that you cannot believe everything that you might, or might not, hear. Anything is possible, and people make mistakes all the time. If you stick your nose too deeply into other’s affairs over something that you only heard to be true, then there is a very real chance that you might be mistaken and, as a result, alienate that person forever, whether you were friends before or not, even though at most the best that could possibly happen would be that you get to have a talk with the person. All in all, to do something so rash is an uncertain gamble that puts the odds more on losing than winning.

Lastly, the third thing to pay attention to is connotation. Connotation, as anyone surely knows, is the hidden meaning that comes along with every sentence, be it a casual talk, or a full-length essay. That being said, what one person says could be easily mistaken if the receiver does not understand. Therefore, what could start out as an innocent suggestion, say, for example, “I wish Mr.******* would hurry up and teach me something new”, in which the person really means “The class is going a little too slow. Mr. ******* always takes a long time on the first few topics, and then just rushes the whole class through the rest of them a few days before a test, and I don’t think that is a very productive manner of studying,” could be, in fact, mistaken for this. “Mr. ******* is a foolish old man who does not know what he is doing, and I think I can do better than him.” You can see the remarkable difference between the two connotations, even though they are the same sentence.

When reading, hearing, or talking to someone, it is important to keep these three matters, the person’s background, the person’s history, and any connotations that they might have, in mind, and to be careful when replying, so that you don’t run the risk of making them your enemies over a little mistake.