NO: cultural diffs

[Olafur Gardarsson]

In fact I agree. I just needed to bitch about it and could not do that with
the customer ;o)

Oli



2010/12/29 Fred Brinkman <fred.brinkman at euromnis.com>

> 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
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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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