Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006 - 7:02 a.m.

For the language institute I am once again fielding student inquiries. They're coming form all over the globe this time. The funny thing is I just got one from this Nigerian student who wants to study Kiswahili, and it started DEAR MADAM and proceeded in all caps. I have exchanged 3 emails with him now, and all three have been this way. I guess this practice isn't restricted to would-be fraud perpetrators. Hmm. I wonder if the all cap thing is some sort of regionally-designated marker of formality. I keep hoping he'll notice that I'm not using all caps and change his typing style accordingly, but it hasn't happened yet. It's just that I keep having to repress the urge to delete his emails unread.

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