NO: cultural diffs

[Fred Brinkman]

Personally I do not consider email as a channel for formal  
communications but I do have some people I always address, even in  
email, as 'Dear Mr. So and So'...
and I have to agree with Scotte here... if that's what the customer  
wants, then that's what the customer gets... ;-)



Fred Brinkman
www.euromnis.com

**********************************************
Fred Brinkman Consultancy
B-1000 Brussels

Tel. +32-474-83 80 80
Fax +32-2-330 10 31 (on request)
Email fred.brinkman at euromnis.com
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Op 29 dec 2010, om 03:14 heeft Olafur Gardarsson het volgende  
geschreven:

> Hi Fred,
> Others being formal does not bother me. Sometimes I even like being  
> sir'd.
> It got on my nerves when these people insisted that I be formal in a  
> silly
> email where I am giving some info or explanation to a technical  
> question. I
> just don't have time for formalities in every situation. It's just  
> seems
> silly. Sometimes email is convenient in giving quickly short raw
> information. I just can't view email as a channel for formal  
> communications.
> It seems silly. Would you for example use formal address in an  
> online chat
> session?
>
> I have been using email now for over 17 years. This was the first time
> anyone has mentioned formalities to me in an email. I'm hardly ever
> addressed formally in emails and people stop it after one or two  
> messages. I
> have worked with people from all over the world. This has never been  
> an
> issue until now with this one customer.
>
> Oli
> Ice barbarian
>
>
>
>
> 2010/12/28 Fred Brinkman <fred.brinkman at euromnis.com>
>
>> Here in general being eloquent is appreciated... it is nice, and it  
>> creates
>> a certain comfortable distance when necessary...
>> You really should not take this the wrong way, normally people just  
>> try to
>> be polite towards you...
>>
>> When you really want to experience polite you should go to  
>> Germany... very
>> polite, very correct, what you can experience in 'informal'  
>> situations, like
>> EurOmnis, is that you have 2 Germans talking the informal way with  
>> you
>> (using first names), even talking informal to each other as long as  
>> you're
>> around (using first names) and switching back to their formal way
>> (absolutely not using first names) when you're gone... ;-)
>>
>> I do the same, when the family is around, everybody speaks 'the  
>> formal way'
>> to the parents (I would never, never call my mother by her first  
>> name f.i.)
>> and 'the informal way' between ourselves... ;-) All a matter of  
>> what you're
>> used to...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Fred Brinkman
>> www.euromnis.com
>>
>> **********************************************
>> Fred Brinkman Consultancy
>> B-1000 Brussels
>>
>> Tel. +32-474-83 80 80
>> Fax +32-2-330 10 31 (on request)
>> Email fred.brinkman at euromnis.com
>> *********************************************
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Op 28 dec 2010, om 13:10 heeft Olafur Gardarsson het volgende  
>> geschreven:
>>
>>
>> Dear Mr. Brinkman and Mr. Azerad :o),
>>> Thanks for clarifying this to me. Iceland is a country born of of
>>> fishermen,
>>> sailors and farmers. My father was a fisherman and I went to sea  
>>> with him
>>> and got to know how the crew talks. Pretty crude by most  
>>> standards. At sea
>>> it is actually dangerous to not be as direct as possible. Your  
>>> voice has
>>> to
>>> be heard over the wind and other sounds and it can be a matter of  
>>> life and
>>> death to be heard clearly and understood. I think this may partly  
>>> be the
>>> reason for how the language and culture developed. One does not  
>>> have time
>>> for formalities in high winds at sea. Icelandic may be a sort of C  
>>> in the
>>> world of human languages. Informal, cryptic and unforgiving.  
>>> French would
>>> be
>>> like Pascal I would guess.
>>>
>>> Farmers in Iceland are considered the old guardians of the language
>>> though,
>>> not the aristocrats. Aristocrats and bureaucrats and their ways are
>>> distrusted. Language that reminds us of them evokes such feelings.  
>>> What
>>> are
>>> referred to as Vikings are probably the ancient chieftains. The  
>>> were our
>>> aristocrats and they were in endless feuds with each other that  
>>> resulted
>>> in
>>> widespread death and destruction. That may be our deep rooted  
>>> cultural
>>> source of distrust for formalities. They could be associated with  
>>> power
>>> and
>>> status by force, not social harmony.
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>>
>>> Oli
>>> --
>>> Olafur Gardarsson
>>> Ikon ehf - Edalnet
>>> Web hosting - Application Servers - Software development
>>> Nybylavegur 6, 200 Kopavogur
>>> Web: www.ikon.is  / www.edal.net
>>> Phone (+354) 555-1693 email: oli(a)ikon.is
>>>
>>>
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