11–20 of 64 posts
Apparently this is also how the Brexit happened ;) Legend has it that David Cameron asked Merkel. She said "No". He thought it means he can get what he wants – only to find out later, that indeed a German "no" is a clear and tight "no". But by then he already fell over his rhetoric...
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Race condition, just edited :) > It will never not irk me when people say ”Please feel free to X” when they mean ”It is paramount that you do X” Another big one is when people say “Not my favorite”, but mean “I hate this”. And a cause of great confusion in the workplace: “Can we do X?” meaning “You should do X, I am delegating this task to you” And then there’s the whole genre of “corporate speak” memes like what “Pe…
I thought it was called the California No ? "Oh ya totally let's hang out!!" (you're never gonna hang out) I've lived in LA for over 25 years. I think part of the reason things are like this is that the sheer amount of people here make it hard to know if you are dealing with a person who is going to end up being a nut or not. This town is also full of narcissists and leeches who want to use you. I've let people into…
I believe this is a city thing. We have the same back home in Ljubljana.
The social contract in cities seems to be one of politely ignoring each others’ existence.
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Race condition, just edited :) > It will never not irk me when people say ”Please feel free to X” when they mean ”It is paramount that you do X” Another big one is when people say “Not my favorite”, but mean “I hate this”. And a cause of great confusion in the workplace: “Can we do X?” meaning “You should do X, I am delegating this task to you” And then there’s the whole genre of “corporate speak” memes like what “Pe…
> On a more personal note, the California Yes is super frustrating when making plans with people. Just because someone said Yes, does not mean they have any intention of actually showing up. They might get a headache an hour or so before the planned meeting time. Headaches are very popular in California it seems. The Californian 'Yes' sounds like the Japan one. British understatement gets me in trouble when communica…
“It’s okay!” => (reassuringly), it’s fine, perhaps even great.
“It’s okay” => (honestly), it’s neither good nor bad.
“It’s okay” => (politely) This is terrible.
For some reason non-native speakers and the occasional yank have problems with this.
What I'd generalize is that on technical matters, there are few communication issues across cultures. People are able to make themselves understood and collaborate, even in the face of language barriers. On the other hand, even simple business discussions within one's own culture can because quickly ridiculous, with big misunderstandings, nobody saying what they mean, politics, etc. Cynically I think it's because business is mostly bullshit so comes down to irrelevant political stuff.
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Do you have some examples of the language seeming boneheaded? Sounds interesting.
Race condition, just edited :) > It will never not irk me when people say ”Please feel free to X” when they mean ”It is paramount that you do X” Another big one is when people say “Not my favorite”, but mean “I hate this”. And a cause of great confusion in the workplace: “Can we do X?” meaning “You should do X, I am delegating this task to you” And then there’s the whole genre of “corporate speak” memes like what “Pe…
This is very similar, but somehow not the same as this "The Culture Map" [0], which I thought was great and would highly recommend. https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Map-INTL-ED-Decoding/dp/16103...
The article is literally a summary of this book.
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> On a more personal note, the California Yes is super frustrating when making plans with people. Just because someone said Yes, does not mean they have any intention of actually showing up. They might get a headache an hour or so before the planned meeting time. Headaches are very popular in California it seems. The Californian 'Yes' sounds like the Japan one. British understatement gets me in trouble when communica…
I realised that “It’s okay” can have three very different meanings: “It’s okay!” => (reassuringly), it’s fine, perhaps even great. “It’s okay” => (honestly), it’s neither good nor bad. “It’s okay ” => (politely) This is terrible. For some reason non-native speakers and the occasional yank have problems with this.
Here's where it gets even better as a slavic person – when I say "This is okay, but have you thought about flaws A, B, and C?" it means that your idea is so good that it's worthy of critique. To an American it sounds like I just started a scorched earth campaign against their ego.
As a French, I don't think I ever calculated pi, we were just handed the formulas and told to use it and I don't think I saw an exercise on how to calculate pi for a few years (or maybe I didn't saw it at school...)
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Race condition, just edited :) > It will never not irk me when people say ”Please feel free to X” when they mean ”It is paramount that you do X” Another big one is when people say “Not my favorite”, but mean “I hate this”. And a cause of great confusion in the workplace: “Can we do X?” meaning “You should do X, I am delegating this task to you” And then there’s the whole genre of “corporate speak” memes like what “Pe…
> On a more personal note, the California Yes is super frustrating when making plans with people. Just because someone said Yes, does not mean they have any intention of actually showing up. They might get a headache an hour or so before the planned meeting time. Headaches are very popular in California it seems. The Californian 'Yes' sounds like the Japan one. British understatement gets me in trouble when communica…
It seems quite a few of the Americans you speak to haven't read Melville's "Bartleby". You'll not find a more emphatic, "I would prefer not" in literature.