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Let me cut out one or two pieces I consider very important: |
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> We communicate in English but that doesn't mean we all the same cultural |
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> background. My native language doesn't do small talk and doesn't have a |
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> word for please. |
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Now of course this will cause friction. I've noticed it especially with |
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germanic and slavic languages that are more terse than english. |
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For example "Sit down!" is acceptable in all situations in german, but |
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is slightly rude in english and brutally rude in french. There you'd say |
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"Would you please sit down?" in most social situations, unless you want |
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to anger someone. |
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(German carries most of the difference in the inflection and doesn't |
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need multiple phrases to express the same thing) |
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|
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You can extrapolate the friction this can and will cause. So unless |
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someone actively personally insults me I'll just assume it got lost in |
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translation. And there's little we can do about it because many people |
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don't notice these translation issues or don't know english well enough |
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to express themselves with the needed refinement. |
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|
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> A short and to the point message is the easiest to understand. |
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... and the easiest to misunderstand. |
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|
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Either way we lose ;) |
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Personally I think the tone has improved a lot over the last $timeunit, |
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I also have my personal theory how that happened, but I don't want to be |
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burnt as a heretic. So let's not get too hung up on single words, stop |
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floodmailing and resume fixing bugs, mmmhkay? |
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All the best, |
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|
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Patrick |