When I was new, a couple members speaking at meetings in Sydney would say they thought that AA was the only good thing to come out of the United States, and I tended to take that personally as I'd also come out of the US. I asked an older member about it and he told me he thought they just meant they liked AA a lot and didn't have me in mind when they said it. I was advised to just listen to what people say and not be concerned about how they say it. Some things may be a bit harder to read because they are not written the way I would. And some get upset about profanity in meetings. When I was new, it was almost scandalous when someone dropped the F word in AA meetings and considered rather bad form if they didn't manage to get it into most sentences in NA. I just say or write what comes to mind and am grateful that I don't have to say it in Japanese as I had to in most of the meetings I went to there. When I went to meetings in other countries during my summer vacations, I would sometimes get confused and say that, if anyone thought this was bad, they should hear me trying to say it in Japanese. |