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WotD: Gaffe
If you have ever experienced social awkwardness, you can understand how it feels to make a public gaffe.
A gaffe is something you say or do which is socially inappropriate.
It’s a social mistake that offends people.
One stereotypical example would be asking a woman when her baby is due because you think she’s pregnant, only to realize that she is not pregnant.
Cutting cheese in an elevator will also get you in trouble.
If you’re the only one in there at the time, it’s not too bad, but if someone goes in immediately after you get out, you may have a problem.
Another social gaffe can be mistaking someone’s country of origin.
I never like it when someone asks me which part of America I’m from.
Yes, I’m white, and yes, I speak English, but that doesn’t make me American.
I am C-A-N-A-D-I-A-N and proud of it.
I have been on the other side of the fence, however.
When I first began my backpacking adventures, I was still wet behind the ears in terms of making international gaffes.
I once asked a Scotsman if he was English.
Scots have a reputation for being a wee bit ornery, and this guy matched that stereotype perfectly, even though he was in his mid-twenties.
He almost took my head off and then told me all the ways Scots and Englishmen are different.
Take my advice; never assume anyone is from anywhere.
If you don’t know, ask first.
You may save yourself some embarrassment.
Politicians are famous for making some fantastic and unbelievable gaffes.
In July 2018, the British Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, told the Chinese foreign minister that his wife was Japanese.
She’s Chinese.
With that gaffe, he upset his wife, lied to the Chinese foreign minister, made himself look like an idiot and made everyone wonder how he got the job.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 70.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.