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What is your response if the people from an agency don't write English well
Thread poster: jyuan_us
Preston Decker
Preston Decker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:22
Chinese to English
Sheila Mar 6, 2015

Sheila Wilson wrote:

To Nina and Preston, I would reply that there's definitely a place for wishing others a nice day/weekend/evening etc. When you get to the point of throwing some "chat" into your correspondence with a good client, then they're all perfectly natural, as are comments about the weather (though that can be awkward when you live on a sub-tropical island paradise, and you client most definitely doesn't). But even then I'd restrict the "nice day" wish to ones where the client isn't going to spend it bogged down in work, i.e. a day off.

What most Brits object to is when the phrase is used as a parting shot to a stranger or someone you only have a formal relationship with, when clearly the speaker neither knows nor particularly cares what the other person's day is going to be like.


Interesting! I really do hope that PMs have a good rest of their day when I use this, so it's more than just idle talk. And, the more I think about it, most of my usage of this phrase is with established clients, so I'm not sure we're even that different.

These little cultural differences make the world a much more interesting place, and I will certainly think twice before wishing UK-based clients a nice day in the future.

However, to get back to the original point of my post, my objection is not with individuals who don't like the phrase "have a nice day" (to each his/her own), but rather with the comment made that questioned where non-native English speakers learned this phrase. This forum is used by many beginning translators, many from non-native English speaking countries. Just as the rules of business success in the UK (apparently) include avoiding wishing some clients a nice day, the rules of the game in the US often involve quite the opposite.

I suspect quite a bit of the reaction to the comment stems from the blanket way in which it was made and the fact that it was aimed at the group of people least qualified to assess its accuracy. If I was a beginning non-native English speaking translator, stumbled across this thread, and read that comment, I'm not sure I would ever again write 'have a nice day' to a client. So what I think many of us are trying to tell these translators is that yes, there is definitely a place for using "have a nice day" in your business correspondence.


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:22
English to German
I thought it was an American habit? Mar 6, 2015

Although I am not an English native speaker I did find it a bit too personal in the beginning when an American client wished me a nice day in every e-mail he wrote, right from the start, so I thought it was an American thing to do, or not really?

 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:22
English to German
Cultural habits or communication issues Mar 6, 2015

But I thought this threat was about agency staff not speaking English well enough to communicate clearly?

 
Vladimir Pochinov
Vladimir Pochinov  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 17:22
English to Russian
Good response to the "How are you?" bit Mar 28, 2015

A fellow translator once told me about his 70-year-old boss in one of the Big Four consulting firms who had used to reply to the above as follows:

- How are you?
- I am fine, considering the alternative.

-------

I don't think people would expect a thorough account of everything that is going on in your professional and personal life in response to this question


 
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 16:22
English to Polish
+ ...
Agree with Tom Apr 30, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

..... to expect that many people whose mother tongue is not English will not be able to speak or write English perfectly, a problem may arise if a translation agency where they don't speak very good English try to proof-read or correct your translation.


Yup.

Otherwise I can't see that there's a problem.


Sometimes it can create a problem with communication (or the assumption that it has taken place).

It's particularly annoying when agencies based in London (not a pun on your nickname) use PMs who are B1-level non-native speakers.

[Edited at 2015-04-30 11:19 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:22
Member (2008)
Italian to English
London Apr 30, 2015

Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:

It's particularly annoying when agencies based in London (not a pun on your nickname) use PMs who are B1-level non-native speakers.

[Edited at 2015-04-30 11:19 GMT]


You'd be dismayed at the very poor standards of written and spoken English we are now seeing in the UK, by mother-tongue English speakers. The literacy level of many schoolteachers themselves is often quite low.


 
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 16:22
English to Polish
+ ...
Sadly, I know :( Apr 30, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:

It's particularly annoying when agencies based in London (not a pun on your nickname) use PMs who are B1-level non-native speakers.

[Edited at 2015-04-30 11:19 GMT]


You'd be dismayed at the very poor standards of written and spoken English we are now seeing in the UK, by mother-tongue English speakers. The literacy level of many schoolteachers themselves is often quite low.


Yes, unfortunately. I don't actually get too many sources from the UK, but those I do get sometimes make me want to cry out in pain.


 
Jeff Whittaker
Jeff Whittaker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:22
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
I understand what you are saying, but... Apr 30, 2015

in America, there is also the wonderful expression "[you] have a blessed day" (with stress on the "-ed" ending) that is frequently used as a veiled insult and often has the exact opposite of its literal meaning. It's a sneaky underhanded way of saying "F - you!", but couched in way that the victim can't be 100% sure what you mean.

Examples:

Driver 1: "A-hole, why don't you watch where you're going? Are you blind? What the heck were you thinking?...."

Driver
... See more
in America, there is also the wonderful expression "[you] have a blessed day" (with stress on the "-ed" ending) that is frequently used as a veiled insult and often has the exact opposite of its literal meaning. It's a sneaky underhanded way of saying "F - you!", but couched in way that the victim can't be 100% sure what you mean.

Examples:

Driver 1: "A-hole, why don't you watch where you're going? Are you blind? What the heck were you thinking?...."

Driver 2: "Have a blessed day sir!"

At the supermarket:

Customer: "Every time I come in here, you people overcharge me or bag my groceries wrong, products are out of stock, the store is filthy...:

Cashier (at the end of the transaction): "Thank you and have a blessed day" (instead of saying "have a nice day" or the expression I HATE: "Have a good one!"

Tom in London wrote:

I don't mind long as they don't say "have a nice day". I don't know where non-English speakers got the idea that that's a good thing to say.


[Edited at 2015-04-30 14:09 GMT]
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