Last week, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) published their world rank of education across the world. Argentina ranked 72nd overall out of 91 countries.
It doesn't come as a surprise to me. I cannot help but notice how 90% of the population can't understand a written message properly. Even among educated people, sometimes it is baffling to notice how poor they can manage written comprehension and math (I am referring to my clients). Perhaps, it is a downside of social media and IT developments, as you can see without doubt the shortcomings that get somehow masked in spoken conversation.
When I was still giving Italian classes, I used to offer poetry and songs as authentic material. Some of those were metaphors and my pupils were graduated adults. Still, they were not able to grasp the metaphors even after explaining them. They couldn't appreciate the lyrics or the poem, as a consequence. I had to stick to more down-to-earth stuff like food and folklore.
My husband is in charge of selling online our used stuff.
He published the 4 used chairs we had in the STR for 40,000 ARS each, knowing that the prospect purchaser will try to juggle the price down. He wrote "Selling 4 chairs at 40,000 ARS/each". He got about 10 inquiries asking if 40,000 ARS is the price for all chairs (and these were the only inquiries he received!).
He wrote "selling 2 new and unopened Simmons sommiers for 400,000 pesos". He was enthusiastic to know there was someone seriously interested so early this morning. Then it fell through as the person didn't understand that it doesn't include the mattress. It is not only a linguistic pitfall (one may ignore what a sommier is - it is a bed base) but also a math/logic deficiency to believe unrealistic prices. Can you really believe that 4 chairs are on sale for 40,000 ARS? Or that a whole queen bed (base and mattress) by Simmons, the most expensive brand sold in Argentina, only cost 400,000? Not even Calm (the cheapest Ikea-like brand in Argentina) would be that inexpensive. Wouldn't such low an amount fall into the "red flags" category for an online ad?
No wonder that get scammed all the time and then are incredibly wary and suspicious at each and every transaction.
Even in my work, most Latinos are the hardest clients. Sending a quote feels like a job interview. Since AI, I get long emails asking me to confirm I am who I am and I can do what I can do, and that what I do is what they need, and then... they either refuse to pay in advance, or send a partial payment I never agreed upon, or try to mock my work saying "I could have done it / I should be doing it".
There is also a steep difference between their first AI-generated inquiry, very lengthy, detailed, with impeccable grammar and punctuation, and the subsequent human-generated replies that are short, agrammatical and with no coherence or cohesion.
