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I suspect that 'Jack' might be a non-native speaker of English. I get the feeling that the first language of 'Jack' is probably highly idiomatic and frequently
by tankenmate 13y ago
I suspect that 'Jack' might be a non-native speaker of English. I get the feeling that the first language of 'Jack' is probably highly idiomatic and frequently uses allusion and/or euphamisms. Also using the threat of the government power, rather than direct force (mafia et alia who more frequently carry out blackmail), while simultaneously engaging in clearly illegal behaviour. I would suspect this means this person's origins would be a country with high levels of government corruption and/or dictatorship. All together I would hedge that this person came from China (linguistical match, corruption match, huge population, national interest in Bitcoin), Vietnam, or maybe Laos or Cambodia. Obviously this is all conjecture of the highest order.
- gwern 13y ago> I suspect that 'Jack' might be a non-native speaker of English. If he is, he's done a hell of a job learning English. I think I'm a very good writer, but in some respects I don't match Jack, which is impressive for a native but astounding if he's ESL. Plus he makes references to US things like referring to MA as being 'east', which suggests he's physically located i the US, which is more likely if he's a native speaker.
- tankenmate 13y agoThe reason I think he isn't a native speaker is that the nuance of his words miss the mark way too often (hence the purple prose); almost like he is choosing words from a thesaurus rather than from his day to day repertoire. I say this from the background of having attended a number of international schools around the globe as a teenager.
- StavrosK 13y agoThe pattern of his errors suggests a native English speaker to me.