Do/will Standard AE and BE speakers adapt their usage?

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:50 pm

Well, I wouldn't presume to tell people what is and isn't allowed to be discussed, I just ask the question

Personally, I'm not convinced but am open to a persuasive argument. Whether or not it's AL, some Business English books do have sections dedicated to cultural differences, so I think it would be appropriate to cover it in some classes, though whether the language teacher is the best placed person to do that is another matter. Training in cultural sensitivity isn't the same as language teaching, though I suppose a well travelled ESL teacher could do both.

As for whether or not the style as "atrocious", I certainly think it could have been written better. And talking of a "European" style, as though French, Spanish, German and British meetings were essentially the same, is hopelessly simplistic.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:59 pm

Code: Select all

Personally, I'm not convinced but am open to a persuasive argument. Whether or not it's AL, some Business English books do have sections dedicated to cultural differences, so I think it would be appropriate to cover it in some classes,

This is strange. Would you not include information on use of "may" and "can" for permission and how the two are seen by different social groups in the same English speaking country?

As for whether or not the style as "atrocious", I certainly think it could have been written better.

Well, that's an improvement on "atrocious" at least.

I think I need to post the thread question again. It was about usage and adapting one's own to another person's.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 6:04 pm

<<Do you think that native AE and BE speakers, when working in or with Indian English speaking business circles in India, should also adapt their usage to suit that context?>>

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:45 pm

Usage is trickier. I was answering your sidetrack:

"Should Indians, Americans, and others with a, supposed, casual approach to business communication, respect German business etiquette when doing business in/with Germany?"

On which subject I imagine it is in fact the big buyers like IBM, Telefonica and Coca -Cola who don't give a hoot about local niceties.

On to usage. There obviously is a cross-over or overlap between usage and "manners" in terms of showing deference through language, being sufficiently formal for the situation, interruption techniques and so on.

Any international version of business etiquette in English would happen as a Global English happened if you ask me. I don't see how a linguistic consensus could be reached without some simplification and/or regularisation of other norms as well. There is the old saying that you become a bit French/English etc when you learn the language, after all.

Who would decide what these Global Manners are? It'd be the same organic bottom-up process.

Unless anybody wants to make a fortune by publishing "Globehaviour, International Business Etiquette for the 21st Century" ?
We'll split the profits fairly, ie more for me because it's my idea.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:43 am

On which subject I imagine it is in fact the big buyers like IBM, Telefonica and Coca -Cola who don't give a hoot about local niceties.

You don't know Telefonica SL. It's one big dinosaur.

There is the old saying that you become a bit French/English etc when you learn the language, after all.

I've been learning and speaking Spanish for 5 years now and haven't become Spanish - thank God.