Category archives: Intercultural Awareness

Have you ever received an answer from a British person for something, and you weren’t quite sure whether it was a positive or negative response? They didn’t say no but somehow you had the feeling that they weren’t saying yes either? Or did you find out that the ‘yes’ wasn’t really a yes – it […]

I spent many years working in local government in the UK. Sometimes, the job was quite difficult. I often had to ask people to do things that I couldn’t do myself, and I wasn’t their manager. Directly asking for something to be done did not always get an immediate response and I could not expect […]

The status of e-mails, at least in the English language, has evolved over the past 15 years. I remember e-mails from 15 years ago being issued with text message speak and poor or no punctuation. However, today they are a valid form of communication by many in business – equivalent to a letter. Therefore, this […]

One of my first office-based jobs was as an Assistant Project Manager.   I was responsible for servicing meetings. I had to give business information in an English e-mail every day. For example, I sent out agendas, minutes, informed clients of future meetings etc. One time I sent out an e-mail explaining the reason for […]

Are you a peach or a coconut? During my last trip to the UK, I hired a car at the airport. Whilst I was waiting in the car hire showroom, the assistants began to make conversation with me. They asked me how my flight was, where I was travelling, whether I was on a business […]