Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

American Phrase Book

alumni.media.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 177 posts

Re: American Phrase Book

#61

Post by newsbinator »

Jolter wrote: post #31
newsbinator wrote: post #9

I often wonder if part of America's productivity can be attributed to the shortness of this list. It's just a handful of expressions that are mildly misleading. In other cultures, you have to get together with friends over dinner to discuss the hidden meaning of a single suspect word your boss had used that day. High context cultures take a lot of mental effort.

Examples?

One story comes to mind, though it's not so much about productivity.

A friend in South Korea was running late to the office (I think it was Samsung?). He made it in by his start time and went into the office bathroom for a quick shave.

His direct superior happened to walk in. As the boss was washing his hands next to my friend, he said something like, "make sure you do a thorough job of shaving" (though obviously not as awkwardly).

Other Koreans who heard the story confirmed this probably meant: "I see what you're doing: get yourself in order this one time, and if I ever catch you shaving at work again you're toast".

(Note this was about 15 years ago, and I hear Samsung and most of the other Chaebol have mellowed out a great deal since then)

Re: American Phrase Book

#62

Post by xg15 »

Might be worth noting that this is a private page from MIT alumni.

I saw the "mit.edu" next to the link and thought it was a study or official publication first.

Re: American Phrase Book

#64

Post by newsbinator »

bjornsteffanson wrote: post #32
newsbinator wrote: post #9

I often wonder if part of America's productivity can be attributed to the shortness of this list. It's just a handful of expressions that are mildly misleading. In other cultures, you have to get together with friends over dinner to discuss the hidden meaning of a single suspect word your boss had used that day. High context cultures take a lot of mental effort.

Which cultures would be considered high-context? (Genuinely curious)

Not sure if everybody would agree, but here's one chart I found: https://online.seu.edu/wp-content/uploads/795x400-Internatio...

> In high-context communication, a message cannot be understood without a great deal of background information. Asian, African, Arab, central European and Latin American cultures are generally considered to be high-context cultures.

https://online.seu.edu/articles/high-and-low-context-culture...

Re: American Phrase Book

#65

Post by virgilp »

emmelaich wrote: post #22

Some are too cynical but pretty funny. As a recent inductee to silicon-valley-ese I found it odd and funny how often people were "excited" about something.

As a Romanian that worked a lot with US companies, I find this to be pretty spot-on: https://medium.com/octavians-thoughts/what-does-its-a-good-s...

Re: American Phrase Book

#66

Post by klaasn »

shifto wrote: post #43
sn41 wrote: post #6

This is great. I think we need phrasebooks for all cultures. I'm Indian, and a Chinese friend was pissed that Indians say "yes" and never do it. I think it's a cultural no-no in India to say "no" to someone's face. I finally realised that a short "yes" most probably means "yes", and a long-drawn out "yes" probably means "no".

This is not helpful for a Dutch person like me (who are usually very direct) when the IT has been outsourced to India. You ask them to do something, they say yes and when time comes it hasn't been done. This got me so annoyed.

I am a Dutch person outsourcing as well.

I normally ask for a probability to complete by a certain date. That works well enough.

Re: American Phrase Book

#67

Post by timkam »

xg15 wrote: post #62

Might be worth noting that this is a private page from MIT alumni. I saw the "mit.edu" next to the link and thought it was a study or official publication first.

As a European, I assume the page is presenting a stereotype and not the (more nuanced) truth. Personally, I've experienced problems communicating with US folks that reflect this stereotype, but at least in Tech/Science, I assume (and hope) people are somewhat more straight-forward in their communications.

Re: American Phrase Book

#68

Post by cco »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #23

I'd love to see one of these for Australian English, although I don't think it would be possible. Aussies have a love of metaphor a simile that's unmatched in any other dialect of English, especially if you hang out with bogans (basically Australian Rednecks, for lack of a better description). It's basically the opposite of America, where instead of trying to be excessively polite, we try to be excessively offensive.…

All of these strike me as being very similar to Southern American phrases.

"Cuter than a bug's ear", "Madder than a stuck pig", "Don't piss on my shoes and tell me its raining" etc are all examples of sayings that sound very similar from the South.

Re: American Phrase Book

#69

Post by jamil7 »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #23

I'd love to see one of these for Australian English, although I don't think it would be possible. Aussies have a love of metaphor a simile that's unmatched in any other dialect of English, especially if you hang out with bogans (basically Australian Rednecks, for lack of a better description). It's basically the opposite of America, where instead of trying to be excessively polite, we try to be excessively offensive.…

Very good list, I hear my dad's voice when I read these.

Re: American Phrase Book

#70

Post by jaimebuelta »

wenderen wrote: post #16

I got bit by "How's it going / How are you?" when I first came to the USA. Turns out you're not actually supposed to answer with how you really are, and if you do so, they look at you like you've said something weird.

It was liberating when someone told me so, because I was always unsure on what to answer. There's still acceptable canned answers like "great, thanks, how about you?" or "not too bad".

I'm from Spain, and there canned answers as well, but you risk someone can answer genuinely: "Today it's being a shitty day, I slipped this morning and my leg is still aching", even in situations where you don't have a close relationship...

Post reply on HN