yeah, actually it took me a while to get to that point, with the "thanks in advance" :) I think generally my argument holds true (at least a little bit, but it

yeah, actually it took me a while to get to that point, with the "thanks in advance" :) I think generally my argument holds true (at least a little bit, but it probably also has a lot to do with not being familiar enough with the foreign language) but as with the example in the OP what's even truer is that emails can VERY easily be misunderstood as being unfriendly no matter the language. Which is why it's very important to use more social ways of communicating, e.g. telephone once in a while (and especially with delicate matters).