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I still feel very much on the hook when a customer raises a support request. That means we have a bug. If we talk often, that means they are a very good custome

I still feel very much on the hook when a customer raises a support request. That means we have a bug. If we talk often, that means they are a very good customer but we have a lot of bugs… Therefore I stick to “Best regards” mechanically. Note that I’m French, not native in English, so I’m not mastering colloquialities. Would it be appropriate to be more relaxed?

noduerme 5y ago
I think "Best regards" is always acceptable. Inevitably though it comes from either a Brit or a non-native speaker. I really love the French and Spanish sign-offs... Cordialement or the very warm Un abrazo which I get from business associates in Spain. English "regards" seem very cold by comparison.
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  French sign-off for formal letters: "Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus agréeables" (Please be so good as to accept, Sir, the expression of my warmest feelings) Well, that's what they told me at school - they were trying to teach me how to write business letters. It has always cracked me up. /me not French.
  - laurent92 5y ago
    As a French person, two lines of valediction on paper letters is always funny, and yet required. Especially since the form should be adapted depending on whether you show respect for the person or not. I once wrote both an employee’s resignation and my acceptance for the conditions of it (on his request for both, he’s non-native), and it was awkward to try to find a valediction that doesn’t put him as inferior. Language is a treasure.
    - denton-scratch 5y ago
      I had no idea that the form was supposed to be adapted, based on the nature of the relationship. You can have a fairly good command of a foreign language, but still fail at communicating. You also need to understand cultural conventions and customs, and for that there's no substitute for living there. I've never written a formal letter in French. I don't know why they sent me to school at all, really. /me went to a French school, in France, for two years. When I was 4. I know French nursery rhymes.
  - WastingMyTime89 5y ago
    > "Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus agréeables" That would actually be somewhat familiar for a formal letter. You probably wouldn’t use "les plus agréable" here but rather "respectueux" or "les meilleurs". People just copy and paste them from the internet nowadays when they need to use one.
    - denton-scratch 5y ago
      Thank you for correcting me; I was taught this stuff 40 years ago, and memory is unreliable. I didn't know that actual French people had to google to find the right terminology for a formal sign-off; that just adds to the hilarity.

noduerme 5y ago

I think "Best regards" is always acceptable. Inevitably though it comes from either a Brit or a non-native speaker. I really love the French and Spanish sign-offs... Cordialement or the very warm Un abrazo which I get from business associates in Spain. English "regards" seem very cold by comparison.

denton-scratch 5y ago
French sign-off for formal letters: "Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus agréeables" (Please be so good as to accept, Sir, the expression of my warmest feelings) Well, that's what they told me at school - they were trying to teach me how to write business letters. It has always cracked me up. /me not French.
- laurent92 5y ago
  As a French person, two lines of valediction on paper letters is always funny, and yet required. Especially since the form should be adapted depending on whether you show respect for the person or not. I once wrote both an employee’s resignation and my acceptance for the conditions of it (on his request for both, he’s non-native), and it was awkward to try to find a valediction that doesn’t put him as inferior. Language is a treasure.
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    I had no idea that the form was supposed to be adapted, based on the nature of the relationship. You can have a fairly good command of a foreign language, but still fail at communicating. You also need to understand cultural conventions and customs, and for that there's no substitute for living there. I've never written a formal letter in French. I don't know why they sent me to school at all, really. /me went to a French school, in France, for two years. When I was 4. I know French nursery rhymes.
- WastingMyTime89 5y ago
  > "Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus agréeables" That would actually be somewhat familiar for a formal letter. You probably wouldn’t use "les plus agréable" here but rather "respectueux" or "les meilleurs". People just copy and paste them from the internet nowadays when they need to use one.
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    Thank you for correcting me; I was taught this stuff 40 years ago, and memory is unreliable. I didn't know that actual French people had to google to find the right terminology for a formal sign-off; that just adds to the hilarity.