On 07/15/2013 11:47 AM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
On Mon, 2013-07-15 at 06:27 +0200, lee wrote:
You need to realise that native speakers of English have a tendency to
be overly polite and to expect others to be just as overly polite as
they are, in ways non-native speakers of English mostly cannot fathom
(at least Germans cannot). At the same time, non-native speakers of
English (at least Germans) can come across to native speakers of
English
as utterly rude, without any intention to come across like that and
without knowing that they do. --- For example, what I just wrote is
probably somewhat rude, without me intending to be. It's because I'm
German, and the totally different mindsets of English and German
"collide", which would make it extremely complicated and requiring a
great deal of elaboration to put it in such a way that it doesn't seem
rude.
I think you're over-generalizing here.
No, I (German) disagree. There are many substantial differences between
German and other cultures, as well as in languages.
In my experience German speakers
are just as polite as English speakers, especially if their English is
as good as yours.
Well, normally, nobody is intentionally rude in face-to-face communications.
Possibly some may come across as rude when their
English is less good, as when one is learning a language one tends to
say things more bluntly due to feeling more restricted, but it can also
work the other way, when the beginner appears to be overly formal.
Idiomatic expression and fleeting cultural references account for a huge
proportion of everyday speech and a lot of that bleeds into written
communication.
This is only partially true. The German language tends to be a much more
direct language than (esp. American) English. This reflects in many
everyday situations and fixed expressions/terms/idioms.
Sometimes, these sneak through into foreign languages, which native
speakers of this language interpret as rudities rsp. (the converse view)
as "pretended politeness".
Just think about what you'd tell me, if I tell you: "You must do it this
way" ... You'd likely take it as a rudity.
However, this is the 1:1 translation of what Germans would use to
express what US Americans are likely to express as "You may want to
consider doing it this way" ... A phrase I would take as "pretended
politeness", when being used in German,
Ralf
--
users mailing list
users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe or change subscription options:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
