Brett-

You are reminding me of the mystery of reading English as written by non-English speaking people. One of my favorite compliments as a teacher in Ethiopia was to be told by students that "I was a clever and my home was far!" As I thought about this compliment I decided that it implied that wisdom resided beyond the local community which was an unusual bias. In Maine we generally assume that people "from away" are screaming idiots and they frequently are!

I don't think you need at this point any intercultural mentoring but I wanted to share.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble