[Mageia-discuss] Cultural difference: "Let your yes be yes" <---> "It is rude to say no"

[Wolfgang Bornath]

2012/7/13 Simon Parsons <gm4nzg at gmail.com>:
>
> Being English, I find all of this very interesting. Here, we say "Pleased to
> meet you" when we probably are not.

Same here (I'm German). We also ask "How are you" although we are not
at all interested, and we answer "Fine, thank you" no matter how we
really feel. And as a former husband I have learned that it is crucial
to give the right (not necessarily correct) answer if your wife asks
questions like "Am I too fat?". :) All these are words of no real
matter, they are empty gestures and everybody knows that. But this is
not the same as real questions and answers. When asked to do something
I either say "yes" or "no" or "I'll see what I can do but pls do not
count on it" as a polite "no".
 .
> I would not normally mention Germans in this context, but having German
> relatives, they have told me that it is well-known in Germany that we
> English say many things that we do not mean and this causes some
> communication problems, but most importantly, that because of this the
> English cannot be trusted. Of course, we think we are just being polite. ;-)

I don't know where your relatives are living but I haven't heard that
in all my life. :) Of course you should not visit with somebody just
because he said something like "You must visit us over the weekend
soon!" - or wait in front of the phone because somebody said he/she
will call you one of these days. All these are empty gestures while
socializing. I experienced that English people can be very straight
with saying "no". :)

But (again) I think that we should differ between such gestures and
social interaction amd real questions like "will you do a re-packaging
of foo?". In such questions there is no room for politeness, it asks
for a straight "yes" or "no".

-- 
wobo