A bit of fun today ?, though serious too.
I moved to the UK after nearly 28 years in the Caribbean and mostly focussed on the Americas. Yes, am a white male speaking English as a first language, and (normally!) with an English accent too. However, I found it quite jarring to look to understand and adapt to the British style of communication so prevalent here in London.
To summarise, people are often so afraid to cause offence that they are rarely direct and therefore passive or simply unclear in their communications. For someone used to (as examples) New Yorkers and Chicagoans, I have found myself offended by the very fact that people choose not to be direct with me. I like to think of myself as reasonably perceptive, but still, I like it when people “tell it like it is”.
A hint around me, then. If you like me / my idea / what I say, then please say so. Equally, if you don’t, tell me. I’d rather get direct feedback than “British” feedback.
So, from the table above, my personal (not) favourites are:
“with the greatest respect / with all due respect” = I’m about to call you a total idiot
“we must have coffee/lunch/dinner” = OMG, I never want to see you again
“oh by the way” = I’ve not been fully listening all meeting, but I didn’t want to cause offence by telling you what was really on my mind at the start.
This may all feel like I am picking on British business language, but at the same time, there are nuances in communications in English (let’s not start on other languages!) everywhere. I could write a similar one about Caribbean islands (actually there are real variances between each island nation!), Canada (and yup, West, East, Maritimes are all different), USA (oh, and please, my British friends, do consider that there are ‘UGE’ variations between California, Midwest, East Coast.. or even drill into the South, Atlanta, Memphis, Tallahassee, Miami.. ‘UGE’ differences.
Would love to hear your favourite business language translations!