It's more important to be nice

Luky;

ARROGANCE and snobbery, both by-products of pride, the first of the seven deadly sins, are two traits I cannot abide.

Even at school I met arrogant girls; children who automatically assumed they were a cut above the others and the sad thing about them was that they quite often succeeded in making me feel inferior.

One day I complained to my mother, who explained to me that truly worthwhile people, those who are high achievers, are very seldom arrogant because so much effort goes into their achievements, leaving them no energy with which to look down their noses at others who may be less talented.

True enough. 

It's often a lot harder to deal with the wives and secretaries of great men than with the men themselves.

Reflected glory has turned many an underling's head, whereas the Great Man himself is sometimes just a good old three and fourpence.

One of my daughters once said of some children that they were snobs because they didn't want to play with her.

I told her not to speak in this way because by conceding that others look down upon one, one downgrades oneself, or so I viewed it.

"Oh no Mommy," she said.

"To me it is the greatest disgrace in the world to be arrogant.

Such people don't make me feel inferior at all.

Quite the reverse."

Sometimes a child sees more deeply than an adult.

This was one of those occasions when I learnt from my child.

Learning French

I always chuckle to recall another incident.

I had started studying French and in the early stages we were taught how to go shopping.

We were taught that beef in French is called boeuf, pronunced buff with the vowel sound lengthened.

Shortly afterwards a very patronizing woman I had never met phoned to give me a story about cordon bleu cookery.

She spoke of a French dish.

I asked her to repeat the name, which sounded like boof.

"It means beef in French dear," she said condescendingly.

"Oh, you mean boeuf," I replied tactlessly.

Wind out of her sails

Suddenly the wind went out of her sails and she started speaking in a normal tone of voice.

She must have believed I knew French.

How wrong she was.

But whether I did or I didn't, does a knowledge of a foreign language automatically raise another human being from the ranks of the ignoramus to those of the social equal?