Dolly Potter MD

I saw a television show recently, where an animal shelter's operator (in Sth Africa: specialty was nursing orphaned Rhinos back to health) was interviewed. He drew an illustration of how ruthless & time effecient the industry and it's players are. The timeframe is just two days: from the moment a tracker/villager spots a Rhino and relays his position (via GPS) to the shooters, to the moment when that horn hits the market back in China. It's a billion dollar industry, and this ruthless effeciency clearly illustrates this. The Asian population boom, and the strength of it's economy (China primarily) has fuelled demand, and the associated strength of the black-market trade. This Asian Boom, particu larly the emergance of China as economic superpower, has seen a dramatic fall-off in wildlife (exotic species) population numbers over the same period ie. Tigers especially. Of course there is also the physical punishment handed out to live subjects ie. bile milking of caged Black Bears. And the Chinese government's 'Tiger Breeding/Inbreeding Programme for the Farming of Tiger Part' was exposed and supposedly shut down a number of years ago. It got me thinking of something else, along similar lines ie. these zip-eyed arseholes and their brutal adherence to tradition, their relentless of global domination no matter what the field of play is . It was about at the turn of the century that the Chinese women athletes were setting the running track on fire, in middle-long distance track events. They were running all over the African lasses. There was one zip-eyed lass who appeared out of nowhere, who was dominating the 5 and 1O thousand metre disciplines - she was smashing records all over the place. I don't remember her name (somebody can iirc me) but it was probably something like Quang Dung Chung, or Lee Bong Song. But speculation was rife that she was doped up. But at the end of the day she tested negative, and she explained that her rapid rate of improvement was down to a heavily regimented useage of traditional Asian medicine. One thing I've read (and this relates to particular tiger parts, there are probably others) there are medicinal benefits such as increased stamina, acts as lactic acid inhibitor due to the increased production &flow of red blood cells into muscle tissue. This equates to a natural equivalent of EPO, which is a performance enhancer for distance events. The other advantage being they are difficult to test for, in comparison with their synthetic/lab produced counterparts. Makes you wonder if &how much money (and how many exotic animals are being bumped off) is being invested in the pursuit of athletic excellence & Olympic gold medals............. particular by a economic superpower such as China, given their programme of the farming of tiger parts has already being exposed.

Be astonished to see a full back go for £21 million but I suppose it's not entirely impossible. Ultimately, if/when he goes I think it'll simply be because he's offered more wages. The Carroll transfer and refusal to replace him still looms large (and is an absolute disgrace), but I think we're getting a bit unrealistic in supposing that every foreign recruit that comes good will become a £15-20 million Ashley transfer dividend. That seems to be the assumption, but Enrique his predecessor ultimately went for nish in terms of net gain. One has to go by the premise that Santon is a mega-talent who has really lost his way, due to a combination of poor management and his own temperament. That seems to be the consensus about the lad. In the event of us retaining our PL status over the next two years, if the lad can live up to the hype previously bestowed on him, i think you're looking at that sort of resale value ie. Moved on for a 15-2Om sort of figure. Especially for a player, in the early phase of a five year contract, who displays rapid development on the pitch in the early going. This didn't happen in Enrique's case hereby his resale value (or windfall) is in stark contrast. His first three years were a virtual write-off, if you look at it from a 'feeder club' viewpoint. Poor management (Big Sam) in the form of his anti-football tactics, and B.Sam used to blast him for playing his way out of defense. Enrique's confidence, amidst the aforementioned man-management and playing style (and he could've turned it around sooner if KK survived the politics at the top) over a large chunk of his first two years here, was shot. Factor relegation into the equation, where he spent another year in the wilderness as his contract ticked on further, and it's easy to draw a line between both scenarios. By that i mean Enrique 'the late bloomer' whom the club's ownership would eventually make bugger all from when he was offloaded, versus that of a 'mega-talent come good' in the form of Santon. For a feeder/selling club, in terms of maximizing resale value, Enrique's pathway here (and related progression) painted that of a nightmare scenario for Ashley. From a purely business perspective where the long-term football brand runs a distant second to the state of the balance sheets (the debt payback) this is what Ashley is banking on ie. wayward talents coming good and quickly. IMO the purchase of HBA, or the motive behind, falls into the same bracket as Santon. Anyway, apart from one brief soundbite in the OP, it was a football related, purely aimed at whether the lad would make it or not. My intention wasn't to fire off another broadside attack against the club's ownership, while taking another thread into familiar 'Ashley Territory'. If it wasn't my prehistoric/shite-house phone, where the forum's control panel is pretty much unusable, I'd post a 'raspberry' like.

Hannah: enjoyed it more than any of the "Bourne" films. 4 out of 5.

From a defensive standpoint they are imo ie. Serie A & Italian representatives/I.N.T.s. Structurally Serie A and I.N.T. outfields (from the first defensive line to back four) play to a very compressed shape. They play 'wide', from left-to-right but they cut the length of the pitch considerably more than other national teams. This difference also applies to Serie A outfits. It's a trait, or football ideology, which is infused within Italian football. Particularly from a player & team perspective, where little defensive tinkering is required (especially for an new/incoming manager) during the early stages of their own team building, even for a noted defensive genius & foreign manager in Mourinho. Serie A outfits are forever cautious in attack, they generally don't commit extra numbers going forward. On a turn-over the transition from attack to defensive duties is swift. Very rarely do you see an Italian side exposed (with exploitable space behind the backtracking & defending forwards/attackers) themselves to the counter. This plays a big part in what you could describe as the atypical Italian-style & patient build-up play ie. long sequences of pin-point where they are forced to precisely forge their way through each settled defensive line. When you take into account the aforementioned team shape & attacking tempo, as significant factors in open play, fullbacks have a comparatively easier ride than that of their peers. Especially over (in England) where counter attacking sides will utilise the wide spaces early in transitional phase play, where fullbacks are most vulnerable to one-on-one pressure. English league, due to a combination of football culture and depth 'wide attacking talent', are exposed to relentless one-on-one pressure on a weekly or match-to-match basis. That said the trade of an EPL fullback is the toughest gig in European football, as defensive jobs go. This is in stark contrast to Italian/Serie A football. The attacking threats posed to each counterpart couldn't be any more different. The biggest threat posed to a Serie A f/back lies in a central-midfield playmaker's (with vision, to match technical excellence/passing range) ability to spot a hole in an otherwise compressed defensive phalanx & being able to kill the fullback with the switch-up 'killer ball' in behind the ball. Take the attacking execution out of the equation this threat comes down to a f/back contributing to his downfall ie. drifting inside. Within the confines of an Italian defensive phalanx, providing they maintain their positional discipline, there's little exploitable space for the widemen and it's smooth sailing for the F/back. This, the vast chasm in our respective football cultures, is notable intangible in terms of whether Santon can adapt. C.Ronaldo, who has faced him, was impressed, but the defensive set-up faced by Ronaldo (compared with English league) is an altogether different beast & playing field. A match-up versus C.Ronaldo (or any ball-carrying wideman close to his ability) within the confines of EPL football (without the aforementioned security blanket provided, as per Italian football) is the ultimate yardstick for any promising f/back looking to forge a reputation in the game. Pistone likewise arrived here with the reputation of a supremely promising and elegant ball-playing f/back. It's a while ago now, wasn't there fan fare like 'the next Maldini'. Ultimately though Piston was unable bridge that football gap, away from Italy, without his accustomed defensive security blanket. Elegant looking defender he looked, but his newfound defensive responsibilities were an entirely different kettle of fish, and he crumbled under the pressure of having his opposite number constantly going for his jugular in open space. The same applies to his days at Everton. A key Santon bridging this significant gap is that he needs to hit the ground running. He needs to be comfortable in his play, in both defense and attacking aspects. The lad has a reputation for being mentally fragile, a bit of a bi-polar footballer of sorts ie. he either looks a world beater and has a supremely confident swagger about him, or he is unsure of himself and falls apart. The last thing you want is a lad with sort of psychological make-up being unsure of their in the team. This exactly what happened under Mourinho, where the lad won the RB slot but the The Special One (normally a great developer of defensive talent) refined his role as a utility man within his defensive ranks. Pardew reinstating him to his natural position, where the lad is confident where it is said that he has a swagger about him when employed there, will go halfway to having the kid adapt. The other half being whether the kid has heart & mental backbone, to accompany his physical attributes, needed to cope with what is imo one of toughest football-based playing transitions in European club football. Italian football to the 'open expanses of English football where you are much more accountable & exposed one-on-one' is the football equivalent of a juvenile lion having to leave the safety of his mother's pride, to fight his own battles on the open plains. If the lad isn't cut from the same cloth as Pistone, in that he develops some mental toughness to his repertoire, then Wor Mike has a 15m cash windfall waiting in the wings.

An oversight on my part, not mentioning Iran/Wasim in the same breath as other strike duos listed. The reliance on statistical rankings, to determine the top-ranked test playing nation is killing the long version of the game. The fixture structure, and saturation of the fixture list, where it's all about the 'rolling over & defending of points' has an ATP tennis feel about it. This implementation of a ranking system has nearly been as destructive as other factors mentioned ie. one bouncer per over rule, batsmen friendly pitches etc. Back in that aforementioned era points weren't needed to decide who stood atop of the pile. Players and learned judges knew what the true testing grounds were, and a team was appropriately labelled the world's best if they proved their worth. There was none of this 'every major test playing nation must play each other twice over a four year window' stuff, where roll-over points are in danger of being won & lost ATP style. Match-ups which should otherwise be defining series have now lost their sense of occasion.

I'm assuming that g-ropes have been included in the product list.

Grizzly Man: i remember a scene where they could only play a small portion of the audio that captured the Grizzly Man's, along with his girlfriend, final moments up in the Bear Maze. Chilling stuff, the description of the kill site. That snippet just showed how removed from reality he was, in that he felt that he had developed a sort of true kinship with these top-tier predators, and they could've snuffed him at a time that was at their convenience.

"The Cove" is deserving of a slot in that list.

It is these days ie. wank. Nowadays the sport is producing bugger all in the way of players that have aura/charisma/swagger about them, to go with superstar ability. Take an aging Sachin out of the equation, and there's not alot out there which matches that criteria. Back in the 80's, and early 90's, you had these sort of players by the bucketload - types whom the casual observer would pay to go and see. Richards, Chappell, Greenidge, Botham to name just a few, among the batsman. And this aforementioned period was the era of the intimidatory paceman. There's wasn't a better way to open a test than having one of either Lillee/Thompson or Holding/Roberts, as a opening strike duo, going for the opposition jugular. Holding and Marshall were more naturally gifted pacemen, athletically definitely, but of those quickies mentioned Roberts was the bloke i enjoyed watching the most. Roberts was the leader of the Windies hunting pack, and in the mind-games stakes was probably the best of the lot - he was a cold, hard bastard back in the day... he had a haunting & cold stare to go with his faster paced bouncer. Qadir was also worth watching, he was more erratic than Warne but he was just as enthralling to watch as his modern day counterpart/leg spinning maestro. Very few characters now.

It wasn't that long ago that you/the club resorted to a call-to-arms (to try and get fellow clubs to join your cause) in what was at the time a strong stance taken against the tabloids and the transfer market rumour mill re: plucking speculation out of thin air, and publishing it. It was all about defending a club's so-called right to carry out it's business behind a veil of secrecy. Given your claims of 'foul play', against the press, how do you respond to claims of phantom bids for players during the last transfer window. Given your position, and the fact that your credibility is at stake on this front, will the club vigorously defend itself against these claims. In this case the accusation that the club, through an inside source, has been dropping false exclusives (or bids that were never submitted) to media outlets, and hereby using the press as a vehicle to cast the illusion of demonstrating ambition in the player market. Could this be deemed as a hypocritical course of action, based on the club's aforementioned stance, it's previous correspondence to one particular publication, and it's associated rallycry to other clubs. In addition does this behavior (if true) further expose a pattern which is consistent with the tribunal's ruling that the club has been guilty of attempting to misle the public via manipulating the press.

As abrasive as he is, and he isn't everybody's favourite cup of tea, but Whelan was spot on - in his assessment that Wor Mike would (if not already) would strip away the class of a proud club.* Not many people saw beyond the bitter feud between the two*, and actually appreciated the wisdom that lay to the rear of his straight shooting/verbal tyrade directed against Ashley. There are not many better placed and experienced judges beyond football than Whelan, in terms of being able to deliver an assessment based on the man's/Ashley's operational methods & character. * i remember a strong sentiment along the lines of 'fuck off Whelan............ Fuck off & stick to commenting on your little club............ He's just got an axe to grind etc etc'

I'd prefer silence tbh. Patronizing statements like this must be the in-house joke within the halls of SJP. It's real 'rub their noses in it' sort of stuff. Just like Whelan is, and has been for 10+ years, we are his/Ashley's bitch. His running of the club is of course business, but it has become personal ie. kicking the supporters' a kick in the bollocks in any way, shape, or form. Antagonising the supporter base has become the side-project. The best thing Ashley has going for him (and Dekka to a lesser extent) is that he isn't an accessible or a 'local figure'. There's bugger all chance of either two being rounded up, courtesy of an opportunistic moment in public. The McKeags, Seymours (whose 'sell-a-star-a-year' policy wasn't as brutal & offensive, and efficient, as the current one being played under this lot), and you can put Sugar into the same bracket, were so much more accessible to the general public back then. This is Ashley's saving grace, coupled with the fact that the stadium attendances are still running at eighty percent capacity, and in general (compared to the 80's, and early 90's) the matchday going public as a collective has become a much more sanitised one.

I wonder if Mr Ryder, the club's resident arselicker down at T.House, has given the club a bit of a heads-up. If so, Ashley's legal eagles could be lurking among those two hundred odd guests. There's an obvious reason as to why the likes of McNally put in the investigative hard yards first before putting it on record, in the public domain. There's no harm, or little financial consequence to Ashley/Dekka to have their legal team scour through pages of forum thread, basically looking for anything that goes beyond glass houses type of claims, or anything that may be deemed as libel. It doesn't paint a rosy picture for Ashley's image when a prominent journo says that the ins & outs of the club's buy-out were legit & legal, yet in the same thread there references such as "bent cunt" based on how the readership has interpreted the points as raised originally ie. the club buy-out and loan repayment structure, all found to be legal, as morally corrupt as it is by the way of execution. A spiteful, petty arsehole like Ashley would use any sort of ammunition to shut somebody down, especially a critic, in this case an internet site (with some credibility in the form it's topical/informative discussion, with the readership to match) which is probably the most anti-Ashley site on the net, certainly from a supporters' voice perspective. And Ashley loves a shit-fight as well. Ashley's reputation, both as a club & retail business entrepreneur, is black as mud - certainly in the way of ethics but at the end of day the relevant ombudsman have cleared him of any wrong doing - on more than one occasion as well. If i was Ashley, with an obvious and deep-set hatred for the media, I'd be looking bring the heat down on any offending media source.

Chan Marshall/Cat Power - "Metal Heart". Florence and the Machine - "Blinding". The best track on her album.

Bolt is a freak. You don't see long striders, with that higher centre of gravity like Bolt, explode out of the blocks and hit top speed as quickly as that. On to a different benchmark time. The 100m WR belonging to Flo Jo, who was juiced up to her eyeballs with performance enhancers, will never be bettered - nor will it ever be remotely threatened.

I'd rather base my expectations on the fact he can get a game for one of the best international teams in the world, rather than someone who didn't blink an eyelid when I said Paul Sweeney was class. He was poor yesterday though, but he'll take time to settle. To be fair the French (for the next couple of years at least) are a team in transition, due to the WC fallout and a period of generational change. value of a French cap, apart from the emerging top-tier talent, has somewhat diminished now. Standouts coming through the ranks, like Eden Hazard and you can throw HBA into the mix if the latter is able regain his durability, swagger/confidence & form, will become fixtures in that side. But some 'dead ordinary' (to borrow another poster's tagline) types, one who happened to accompanied by two top-drawer creative talents in Hazard & Gervinho - with Sow as a late bloomer - in a championship winning outfit in a weak top-to-bottom league, will earn a few token caps as well along the way as well, as management continues to tinker & experiment with the 1st team. Cabaye's performance - and it's more to do with what is needed to compliment Tiote given that we virtually having nothing in the form of hold-up play from our frontmen (rendering the direct stuff/delivery from the back useless) and therefore more ball-carry/attacking drive is needed through the middle as a means glueing everything together from end-to-end though middle corridor - basically confirms a few things i have heard about him. This relates particularly to his largely anonymous role in a Lille outfit which pissed all over a weak league, largely thanks to the attacking chemistry in the final third of the park ie. the trio mentioned in the previous paragraph, who provided major headaches for just about everybody in France last year. If you actually knew much about Ligue 1/the French national team, you would at the very least be aware that Hazard is Belgian and has 20 caps for his country. Not France. And again - you saw one match. You've written him off playing for us after one match. On top of that, one moment you're making it that you've seen a lot of Lille and then the next you're telling us that "I've heard a few things about him". What's your obsession with overly long sentences anyway? On the basis of that game, i saw parts of his repertoire that were very comparable to Emre ie. neat & tidy on the ball (pretty was my original wording) but is lacking an incisive edge going forward. The central midfield balance has Parker/Emre feel about it. Tiote, obviously an infinitely better version than Parker the provider of defensive steel (with the efficient link-play to match, which was astray off on Sat), with Cabaye being saddled with the responsibility of unlocking defense lines through the middle of the park, during second phase play. Emre didn't really have the necessary forward drive, that aforementioned incisiveness going forward hence the balance (as central midfield units go) wasn't right. One doesn't need that long a timeframe to measure up the units' collective mix attributes (especially if there are only two to measure up), to get a feel as to how a unit stacks against previous versions, for better or worse. I'll repeat what i said earlier, his lack of 'forward drive' fits into what i know of his style of play was in France, what his role was in a Lille outfit that killed teams on the back of the attacking exploits of three players. It may no longer be the case now, due to the influx of Arab money at PSG as they have the financial means to build a strong goal-to-goal team quickly, but it's always been possible snare a league title (a bolter-from-the-blue of sorts) in France with an otherwise workmanlike outfield sprinkled with less than a handful of attackers which are a cut above what's on offer throughout the rest of the league. One doesn't have to watch hours of satellite sport coverage, that being the French 1st div, to know this. It's a characteristic of the league, and Lyon have done well to stonewall that trend, in recent years. Lille fit into that surprise packet category. It's easy for a role-player type to have their reputation enhanced, because they were simply part of a league winning outfit, despite not being a vital cog in that team's title winning play in a bolt-from-the-blue type of campaign. BTW find a reference, and quote it, where i have insinuated that i'm some sort of Lille Football devotee. The answer is you won't. From what I've seen so far, he looks like an ok role-player type (when combined with what I've heard & read about him), but not somebody who is capable of carrying the team's attacking drive through the middle of the park, to provide balance and a central threat thus alleviating the pressure & attention HBA will attract in the advanced attacking areas. I've seen similarly zip-eyed footballers, even smaller but with equal technical prowess on the ball, footballers from Japan & Sth Korea provide more attacking intent & grunt through the middle of the park. Anyway two can play at your game. Why don't you take a trip back to dreamland, on your often ridden high-horse, where you can once again & conveniently cast off an opinion in the guise of a 'hypothetical question'. Something once again along the lines of, or that envisions a better performing club without Dekka as Ashley's 2nd-in-charge. Maybe you should simply revert to type, and pop up with a few more Jesus Wepts, and take a few more pop-shot at those assumption making Mystic Megs out there who have based their deserved level of criticism, and accompanying level of cynicism where the current regime's running of the club is concerned, based on four years of devaluation of the club's football brand.

I'd rather base my expectations on the fact he can get a game for one of the best international teams in the world, rather than someone who didn't blink an eyelid when I said Paul Sweeney was class. He was poor yesterday though, but he'll take time to settle. To be fair the French (for the next couple of years at least) are a team in transition, due to the WC fallout and a period of generational change. value of a French cap, apart from the emerging top-tier talent, has somewhat diminished now. Standouts coming through the ranks, like Eden Hazard and you can throw HBA into the mix if the latter is able regain his durability, swagger/confidence & form, will become fixtures in that side. But some 'dead ordinary' (to borrow another poster's tagline) types, one who happened to accompanied by two top-drawer creative talents in Hazard & Gervinho - with Sow as a late bloomer - in a championship winning outfit in a weak top-to-bottom league, will earn a few token caps as well along the way as well, as management continues to tinker & experiment with the 1st team. Cabaye's performance - and it's more to do with what is needed to compliment Tiote given that we virtually having nothing in the form of hold-up play from our frontmen (rendering the direct stuff/delivery from the back useless) and therefore more ball-carry/attacking drive is needed through the middle as a means glueing everything together from end-to-end though middle corridor - basically confirms a few things i have heard about him. This relates particularly to his largely anonymous role in a Lille outfit which pissed all over a weak league, largely thanks to the attacking chemistry in the final third of the park ie. the trio mentioned in the previous paragraph, who provided major headaches for just about everybody in France last year.

He's had one match in the premier league and yet you've already written him off? Gosling's only had 20 odd league appearances in 3 seasons, the vast majority of which have been with Everton. He's also missed an entire season injured. Not sure why he's considered a superior option to someone who was a first teamer with Lyon? In the context of what is expected of him, as a direct compliment to the defensive steel Tiote provides (ie. An attack-minded creator through the middle corridor in open play, to provide fluency in attacking half, otherwise too much is expected from HBA: a factor used by some when defending Nolan's sale for the overall good of the team, highlighting the latter's weakness' to balance out what he actually brought to the team as an instinctive goal sneak inside the box) in open play............ yes i have written him off. He looks like the atypical role player in midfield (a serviceable jack of all trades, but overall a master of nothing) and in France has been surrounded by a steady supply of attacking talent, a bloke who just happened to have a release clause in his contract. From 'role player' to being the 'main man, to provide drive between the defensive & attacking thirds' here, at least in the engine room'. It's a big step-up, both in responsibility & ability. I don't see enough of the mindset (or forward drive) required to release some the pressure that will no doubt be humped on HBA's fragile frame, as opposition managers and their respective outfield units will see little need to shelter their rearguard with a balanced sideline-to-sideline defensive shape.

Cabaye: Looks like Emre Version 2, and like the little Turk looks more suited to Serie A football. Pretty on the ball, but provides little in the way of incisive/creative drive through the middle, a role player to have when surrounded with superior & natural attackers. As it stands right now, with a pairing of Tiote & Cabaye, our central midfield is lacking defensive & attacking balance. I'd start Gosling (who would at least provide more drive, more of an attacking mindset) ahead of him, especially at home.

Going by quite a few accounts, Gervinho has looked good in his pre-season hit-outs for them, with the consensus being they've picked up someone ideally suited to the physical nature of the prem. Going by his showing at the WC, he looked very strong on the ball, and he can ride a bump in a one-on-one. A bloody shame that Ashley/Dekka weren't impressed with his attitude when he asked 'how much would i be earning?' during that ill-fated sit-down. Looking forward to seeing how Chamberlain progresses as well.

Sons of Anarchy, and Generation Kill.

I read a press release issued by Paramount yesterday, concerning the film adaption of Max Brooks' World War Z, which is in production as i speak. Disappointed by what i learned. The plot synopsis follows the trail of a United Nations official's (Brad Pitt in the central role) globetrotting race against time to save the world from a zombie pandemic, which has already crushed armies worldwide. In true Hollywood tradition the producers/money men have destroyed another canny book. For those who have read the book , the revised plot is a severe diversion from the book's story telling format and original premise which is more of a 'review in the aftermath of, or after the fact. Even worse, according to a couple of snippets i have read, the producers are hoping to cash-in on Pitt's marketability, therefore the film is being geared more towards a PG type of audience ie. The Transformers crowd. With that in mind the book is heavy handed & confronting when the issue of pandemic containment is discussed, so i expect this element of the book to be radically 'dumbed down' so to speak. Brooks was apparently pretty excited by an early screenplay (a version he was consulted on apparently) which was faithful to the spirit of the book. It appears as though the studio bigwigs have won the battle though and the aforementioned screenplay has been retired to the 'too adventurous' scrapheap, and it's a disappointment.

Sucker Punch: Imagine a ninety minute music video, produced & directed by Pink & Lady Gaga. Sums up this atrocity. 1 out of 5.

In midfield (with a leaning to the attacking areas of the pitch) understanding among players revolves around timing of runs, passing and moving into space, knowledge of your teammates strengths and tendencies on the ball & using that knowledge as yardstick for a player's own movement off the ball, so the language barrier isn't such a big issue imo. Different kettle of fish in defense though, where it's about maintaining shape and a cohesive/discliplined last line, so communication is paramount. The great attacking & successful teams may have a cosmopolitan feel about them in attack, but in defense they seem to built around the premise of having a dominant nationality (and obviously a dialect that comes with) from book-end to book-end ie. some of the great Spanish league sides of recent years. I think you can be too cosmopolitan at the back, if there is a lack of understanding re:the language barrier.