In one sense, this is a moot question since diyAudio is principally an English-language site. But we do occasionally break into another language or three...
My question regards the touchy subject of etiquette in forms of address. We all tend to first-name one another, without regard to differences in age or experience. But how are address forms in other languages handled?
If I were addressing someone in German on this forum, would it be too cold to use "Sie" or too forward to use "du"? Or the same question in French- there's maybe two answers from Canadians (who seem to call everyone "tu") and French (who are sometimes hesitant to even call their spouses anything but "vous"). Should all Spanish phrases be "usted" or is that too formal? How do people feel about forms like this in an informal, hobby, first-names, among-peers forum?
Damn, English is easy. You never worry about stuff like this. or about noun gender and adjective inflection. Just all the goofy spellings.
Veuillez reponder.
My question regards the touchy subject of etiquette in forms of address. We all tend to first-name one another, without regard to differences in age or experience. But how are address forms in other languages handled?
If I were addressing someone in German on this forum, would it be too cold to use "Sie" or too forward to use "du"? Or the same question in French- there's maybe two answers from Canadians (who seem to call everyone "tu") and French (who are sometimes hesitant to even call their spouses anything but "vous"). Should all Spanish phrases be "usted" or is that too formal? How do people feel about forms like this in an informal, hobby, first-names, among-peers forum?
Damn, English is easy. You never worry about stuff like this. or about noun gender and adjective inflection. Just all the goofy spellings.
Veuillez reponder.
after all my english is far from perfect but everybody seems to understand me(i hope) 
SY said:
Although I thought most phones had predictive spelling these days?Yup, same here, and looking at the nationalities represented in Video, it seems to be the same all over the world!
It does make it difficult to understand their posts though, I find I sometimes have to read them through several times to get the meaning therein.
It's a sign of the Cranky Old Fart that I've become that I just won't even bother reading this kind of stuff. It's one thing if a guy from (say) Croatia fractures English while trying to express himself; I have sympathy and not a little admiration. The only word of Croation I know is.... well, I don't know ANY words in Croatian.
But when a kid from Birmingham or Los Angeles writes like that, he's showing symptoms of sloppy thought and careless communication, not to mention a selfish disregard for the problems others may have understanding him/her.
But when a kid from Birmingham or Los Angeles writes like that, he's showing symptoms of sloppy thought and careless communication, not to mention a selfish disregard for the problems others may have understanding him/her.
ETIQUETTE ET FORMES DE POLITESSE...
Hi,
Basically what you do is you adapt the politest form to address anyone remotely European until they invite you kindly to resort to the use of the less formal forms.
Nobody will ever show disrespect for adhering to this basic rules of polite conduct, be that in a business relation or merely socially.
Most non English speaking people will already think highly of you for making an effort to speak/write in their native tongue, if you can do it in a polite, formal way, you can hardly go wrong.
To them it can make or break a business decision...as silly as it may seem to you, it's true IME.
Small detail: the verb is repondre, hence one should say in its most formal form in French:
Messieurs, dames,
Veuillez avoir la gentillesse de repondre a ma requete.
(Blablabli, blablabla...I know.)
Only trying to help,
Hi,
Basically what you do is you adapt the politest form to address anyone remotely European until they invite you kindly to resort to the use of the less formal forms.
Nobody will ever show disrespect for adhering to this basic rules of polite conduct, be that in a business relation or merely socially.
Most non English speaking people will already think highly of you for making an effort to speak/write in their native tongue, if you can do it in a polite, formal way, you can hardly go wrong.
To them it can make or break a business decision...as silly as it may seem to you, it's true IME.
Small detail: the verb is repondre, hence one should say in its most formal form in French:
Messieurs, dames,
Veuillez avoir la gentillesse de repondre a ma requete.
(Blablabli, blablabla...I know.)
Only trying to help,
Hi,
Correct, please be so kind as 'to" answer me.
Netiquette is quite different in that both parties communicate anonymously.
Not really my cup of tea, I always like to have personal contact in which case I keep it as polite as possible at least from within the context of that exchange.
Now, if you correspond over the net with business associates, the same rules of conduct would apply as they do for written correspondence, which seems perfectly logical to my mind.
Here, on the forum, we pretty much call each other by the name we're known to one another: I'd call you SY ( even when I know your full name) , people call me Frank or fdegrove because I expressly made it known to the forum that I don't mind being called by my first name and so on.
Makes sense to me.
Now, if we'd met in person and we'd called eachother by our first name for whatever reason and afterwards we'd communicate on a netboard in public again I would still stick with to old etiquette and address you just like any other member would out of respect for your privacy and expect you to do the same.
I haven't subscribed to any frenchspeaking/germanspeaking fora as yet but I can well imagine they all use the du, tu form same as we do in Belgium or Holland in fact I never came across anything different from what is around except that here we try to be polite and helpful...not always the case elsewhere as you may well be aware of.
It's all pretty much anonymous to most participants anyway...
I'm not sure if that has answered it for you but be my guest,
Correct, please be so kind as 'to" answer me.
Netiquette is quite different in that both parties communicate anonymously.
Not really my cup of tea, I always like to have personal contact in which case I keep it as polite as possible at least from within the context of that exchange.
Now, if you correspond over the net with business associates, the same rules of conduct would apply as they do for written correspondence, which seems perfectly logical to my mind.
Here, on the forum, we pretty much call each other by the name we're known to one another: I'd call you SY ( even when I know your full name) , people call me Frank or fdegrove because I expressly made it known to the forum that I don't mind being called by my first name and so on.
Makes sense to me.
Now, if we'd met in person and we'd called eachother by our first name for whatever reason and afterwards we'd communicate on a netboard in public again I would still stick with to old etiquette and address you just like any other member would out of respect for your privacy and expect you to do the same.
I haven't subscribed to any frenchspeaking/germanspeaking fora as yet but I can well imagine they all use the du, tu form same as we do in Belgium or Holland in fact I never came across anything different from what is around except that here we try to be polite and helpful...not always the case elsewhere as you may well be aware of.
It's all pretty much anonymous to most participants anyway...
I'm not sure if that has answered it for you but be my guest,
Bok,
Kako se zovete?
Do vidjanja,
Croatian language.
P.S. I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping those people didn't make too many mistakes.
Kako se zovete?
Do vidjanja,
Croatian language.
P.S. I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping those people didn't make too many mistakes.
SY said:
Nope, but this is: "Bok" (meaning 'Hi' or 'Bye', very informal).
BTW, I've never formally learnt any English (only some German)... my English 'fractures' are largely self-inflicted
On a more serious note, it sometimes bugs me when native English speakers disregard and/or ridicule my opinion or an idea just because it's a bit awkwardly put or slightly misspelt or I didn't get an obscure cultural reference... My language or cultural mistakes hardly ever get corrected or explained to me because people are too busy having their little fun, picking on my mistakes, sharing their private little jokes ... you know, the grade school stuff. Puts me off a little.
Anyway, an interesting topic.
Bok SY
Moamps:
I have read several of your posts and I think your English is perfectly fine.
Also, if you re-read SY's post I think you will realize that SY was trying to say that he is willing to make allowances for people who do not speak English as their native language. He merely used Croatian as an example-it could have been any language. It is the people who are born in English speaking countries who speak badly who bother him. SY was not trying to put down Croatian speakers at all.
I have read several of your posts and I think your English is perfectly fine.
Also, if you re-read SY's post I think you will realize that SY was trying to say that he is willing to make allowances for people who do not speak English as their native language. He merely used Croatian as an example-it could have been any language. It is the people who are born in English speaking countries who speak badly who bother him. SY was not trying to put down Croatian speakers at all.
To correct, or not to correct..
Well this is sometimes a difficult decision, even for the most well-meaning native English speaker.
Correcting anyone can be construed as critisism. Normally, if I can understand the meaning, I don't correct someone, unless we are actually discussing language.
We come to this forum to mostly discuss technical issues, and to my mind, language corrections are just a distraction. Of course what I'd not considered is the possibility that discussions may serve a dual purpose: technical and language practice.
I do agree that a multinational discussion group such as ours is not the place for obscure idioms, except perhaps between individuals purely as banter.
Cheers,
moamps said:
Well this is sometimes a difficult decision, even for the most well-meaning native English speaker.
Correcting anyone can be construed as critisism. Normally, if I can understand the meaning, I don't correct someone, unless we are actually discussing language.
We come to this forum to mostly discuss technical issues, and to my mind, language corrections are just a distraction. Of course what I'd not considered is the possibility that discussions may serve a dual purpose: technical and language practice.
I do agree that a multinational discussion group such as ours is not the place for obscure idioms, except perhaps between individuals purely as banter.
Cheers,
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