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As a native anglophone working in France, I appreciate the general lack of chit-chatty openings to emails (even if the trend may be negative, as you say) as I g
by _n_b_ 6y ago
As a native anglophone working in France, I appreciate the general lack of chit-chatty openings to emails (even if the trend may be negative, as you say) as I generally prefer to get to the point.
But I have noticed, since the start of COVID, the meaningless "j'espère que tu vas bien" ("I hope you are well") at the top of many emails, which feels like exactly the thing you are talking about--a lifting and translation of a meaningless English phase that feels appropriate but adds nothing of substance.
- moviuro 6y agoSee Crocker's Rules [0, 1]. The little part "hope you're well" though was a nice touch. During lockdown when there were hundreds of deaths a day, it made sense. Taking 30 seconds during calls just to make sure your correspondant doesn't mourn seems wise to me. [0] http://www.sl4.org/crocker.html http://www.sl4.org/crocker.html [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Daniel_Crocker https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Daniel_Crocker
- alex_duf 6y agoAs a French person living abroad (Canada then UK), I can say without a doubt that I've offended more than one person going straight to the point. I'm getting better at beating around the bush now.