[Mageia-discuss] Cultural difference: "Let your yes be yes" <---> "It is rude to say no"

Fri Jul 13 09:31:48 CEST 2012

2012/7/13 Simon Parsons <gm4nzg at gmail.com>:
+>
+> Being English, I find all of this very interesting. Here, we say "Pleased to
+> meet you" when we probably are not.
+
+Same here (I'm German). We also ask "How are you" although we are not
+at all interested, and we answer "Fine, thank you" no matter how we
+really feel. And as a former husband I have learned that it is crucial
+to give the right (not necessarily correct) answer if your wife asks
+questions like "Am I too fat?". :) All these are words of no real
+matter, they are empty gestures and everybody knows that. But this is
+not the same as real questions and answers. When asked to do something
+I either say "yes" or "no" or "I'll see what I can do but pls do not
+count on it" as a polite "no".
+ .
+> I would not normally mention Germans in this context, but having German
+> relatives, they have told me that it is well-known in Germany that we
+> English say many things that we do not mean and this causes some
+> communication problems, but most importantly, that because of this the
+> English cannot be trusted. Of course, we think we are just being polite. ;-)
+
+I don't know where your relatives are living but I haven't heard that
+in all my life. :) Of course you should not visit with somebody just
+because he said something like "You must visit us over the weekend
+soon!" - or wait in front of the phone because somebody said he/she
+will call you one of these days. All these are empty gestures while
+socializing. I experienced that English people can be very straight
+with saying "no". :)
+
+But (again) I think that we should differ between such gestures and
+social interaction amd real questions like "will you do a re-packaging
+of foo?". In such questions there is no room for politeness, it asks
+for a straight "yes" or "no".
+
+-- 
+wobo
+