Dear Nada:

Given that you regularly form coherent thoughts and express them in complete sentences, you may be eligible for a position at the head of our national government.

Regards, Mark

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Kanagasabai Nadarajah Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 3:29 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Programmer Skill Set

Mary & Kumar and others,

Reading and writing skills in English may of may not help someone to be a good communicator! Communication skills are a gift. Like Kumar, I am an Asian came to USA almost 30 yrs back, completed two degrees a (MS & PhD). Now I am a researcher and an academic, perhaps may be able to write well, using good grammar and appropriate words to formulate elegant sentences. I would say, my communication skills in English is average and wouldn't claim to be on the top though I do far better than many others. However, I have seen a few of the "top researchers and academics" from the English speaking counties (USA, UK) who are very smart but are very poor communicators. Here in the Southern USA people have a very distinct accent such that the people in the Northen USA never could follow what they are talking!

I still remember, about 30 yrs back for first time when I landed in Washington D.C, I want to get some cheap supper. The choice was the McDonald's just in front of my hotel. Walked in, confused with what to order for and also concerned with the price (didn't have much money), before ordering anything the teller asked me, in a very fast manner, [hi-here-to-eat-or-togo] , that killed me. I repeated twice,"I beg your pardon". The African-American girl got very angry and slowly in a mean way said " Sir, are you going to eat here or you want to take the food with you", along with some form of a "hand sign language". Yap, I understood very well then!. So is it my weakness in communication skills?

Though not related to SAS, just to add a 0.5 cents into the pool of discussion.

Nada