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By Marian Dougan
Today I attended my first ever coffee morning, a virtual one organised by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI). I was asked by Ann
Don’t worry, I don’t plan to write many posts about the COVID-19 crisis, but I thought I’d take a look at the words we’re using
I had a nice surprise the other day, but a surprise that made me feel a bit sheepish. I discovered that Luke Spear had included
First of all, apologies for posting something political, especially after an absence of more than a year (which I’ll explain in a later post). But I
2 Responses
Great blogs Marian. You were right about the sales call one – it not only made me shudder, but also made me angry. The company which employed the young man, presumably without giving him any training, is at fault and hopefully their lack of investment and insight will result in poor sales. Unfortunately this will probably reflect in the young guy’s pay packet. I have often been taken for Bruce Webber on the phone – Ruth can sound like Bruce, but there is also the assumption that I am making the call on behalf of a man.
I really like your examples of how people have used language and their ability to speak another language as a USP. When will we realise that, while businesspeople and others from other countries learn English, it is only courteous, if we hope to do business with them, to be able to conduct some basic conversations in their language?
Vive les langues etrangeres!
Thanks, Ruth! I though that sales call might touch a marketing nerve with you! And on the subject of languages, I so agree – it’s not just a matter of skills for our kids, it’s a question of courtesy to the people we do business with. And of putting ourselves, now and again, in their shoes – ie not being afraid to make the odd vocabulary or grammatical mistake, or of speaking their language with an atrocious accent (like mine in Italian – fluent but with definitely Glaswegian tones!).