It's like the old gag where someone uses a thesaurus on every word in their letter to make it sound cleverer, but just ends up demonstrating their own lack of k

It's like the old gag where someone uses a thesaurus on every word in their letter to make it sound cleverer, but just ends up demonstrating their own lack of knowledge. I've worked in the UK and in Germany. In the UK there's much more of a tendency to use roundabout phrases to get across what you mean, much like many of this site's suggestions. In Germany, people tend to be more abrupt. Both registers can be just as kind and supportive, and just as cutting and destructive. But either way, there's no magic politeness spell you can cast that stops you from appearing to be, like the parent commenter says, an asshole.