LL-L "Gender" 2008.03.21 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 21 March 2008 - Volume 02
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From: Ivison dos Passos Martins <ipm7d at OI.COM.BR>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2008.02.06 (02) [E]

Dear Maria Elsie Zinsser,

  I'm really sorry I'd written "dear sirs". I did want to sound sexist.
Next time I'll pay attention to it. As my first language is Portuguese I
didn't notice it, because to me the word "sirs" refers to ladies and
gentlemen. But thanks for your comments. You're right.
  And please feel free, like anyone else,to email me on what language
subject you want.

       My apologies,

      Ívison.

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Gender

Hi, Ívison, Elsie, Lowlanders,

Over the years I've been dealing with a lot of Brazilians and Portuguese,
mostly students, in Australia also neighbors. This includes dealing with
students' and faculty members' English compositions. The greatest problem
seems to be this "collective gender" thing that Portuguese speakers (and
also Spanish speakers) want to translate directly from their language where
the masculine forms also stands for the collective (plural including both
genders). Among Portuguese speakers it sometimes goes as far as using (*seus
filhos* >) "their sons" for "their children/offspring," and (*seus pais* >)
"their fathers" for "their parents." Since this is second nature to them,
many have a hard time shaking it off when using other languages.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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