Interactions with American clients - Useful tips

1. Do not write "the same" in an email - it makes little sense to them.

Example - I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you of the same when it is done

This is somewhat an Indian construct. It is better written simply as:

I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you when that is done

2. Do not write or say, "I have some doubts on this issue"

The term "Doubt" is used in the sense of doubting someone.

The correct usage (for clients) is: I have a few questions on this issue

3.The term "regard" is not used much in American English. They usually do not say "regarding this issue" or "with regard to this". Simply use, "about
this issue".

4.Do not say "Pardon" when you want someone to repeat what they said. The word "Pardon" is unusual for them and is somewhat formal.

5. Americans do not understand most of the Indian accent immediately - They only understand 75% of what we speak and then interpret the rest.
Therefore try not to use shortcut terms such as "Can't" or "Don't". Use
the expanded "Cannot" or "Do not".

6. Do not use the term "screwed up" liberally. If a situation is not good, it is better to say, "The situation is messed up". Do not use words
such as "shucks", or "pissed off".

7. DO NOT interrupt a client when they are speaking. Over the phone, there could be delays - but wait for a short time before responding.

8. When explaining some complex issue, stop occasionally and ask "Does that make sense?". This is preferrable than "Do you understand me?"

9. In email communications, use proper punctuation. To explain something, without breaking your flow, use semicolons, hyphens or paranthesis.

As an example:

You have entered a new bug (the popup not showing up) in the defect tracking system; we could not reproduce it - although, a screenshot
would help.

Notice that a reference to the actual bug is added in paranthesis so that the sentence flow is not broken. Break a long sentence using such punctuation.

10. In American English, a mail is a posted letter. An email is electronic mail. When you say

"I mailed the information to you", it means you sent an actual letter or package through the postal system.

The correct usage is: "I emailed the information to you"

11. To "prepone" an appointment is an Indian usage. There is no actual word called prepone. You can "advance" an appointment.

12. In the term "N-tier Architecture" or "3-tier Architecture", the word "tier" is NOT pronounced as "Tire". I have seen many people pronounce
it this way. The correct pronunciation is "tea-yar". The "ti" is
pronounced as "tea".

13. The usages "September End", "Month End", "Day End" are not understood well by Americans. They use these as "End of September", "End of Month"
or "End of Day".

14. Americans have weird conventions for time - when they say the time is "Quarter Of One", they mean the time is 1:15. Better to ask them the
exact time.

15. Indians commonly use the terms "Today Evening", "Today Night". These are not correct; "Today" means "This Day" where the Day stands for
Daytime. Therefore "Today Night" is confusing. The correct usages are:
"This Evening", "Tonight".

That applies for "Yesterday Night" and "Yesterday Evening". The correct usages are: "Last Night" and "Last Evening".

16. When Americans want to know the time, it is usual for them to say, "Do you have the time?". Which makes no sense to an indian.

17. There is no word called "Updation". You update somebody. You wait for updates to happen to the database. Avoid saying "Updation".

18. When you talk with someone for the first time, refer to them as they refer to you - in America, the first conversation usually starts by
using the first name. Therefore you can use the first name of a client.
Do not say "Sir". Do not call women "Madam".

19. It is usual convention in initial emails (particularly technical) to expand abbreviations, this way:

We are planning to use the Java API For Registry (JAXR).

After mentioning the expanded form once, subsequently you can use the abbreviation.

20. Make sure you always have a subject in your emails and that the subject is relevant. Do not use a subject line such as HI .

21.Avoid using "Back" instead of "Back" Use "ago".Back is the worst word for American.(for Days use "Ago",For hours use "before")

22.Avoid using "but" instead of "But" Use "However".

23.Avoid using "Yesterday" hereafter use "Last day".

24.Avoid using "Tomorrow"hereafter use "Next day".

Have A Great Time. Keep Smiling.

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Comment by Sujata Ambatkar on March 23, 2010 at 3:54pm: Nice blog ,thanks for showing this much patience to share your knowledge

Comment by Sahana C N on March 10, 2010 at 3:31pm: Thanks for posting an useful article about the usage of English vocabulary. This really gonna help many of us in implementing these phrases in our daily communications.

Cheers
Sahana

Comment by balur on March 3, 2010 at 2:01pm: Thanks for posting good article on American English.

Comment by Varun on March 3, 2010 at 6:09am: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/

Comment by Varun on March 3, 2010 at 5:28am: an awesome blog folks :)

Comment by Girisha surappa on March 2, 2010 at 5:08pm: Very nice article, I would say this is very usefull to every one.

Thanks very much Shakthi to share your knowladge.

Cheers,
Girisha

Comment by vamshi on March 2, 2010 at 4:20pm: Shakthi and kiran..thats really a Awesom article. Thanks for sharing with the Group.

Comment by Kiran on March 2, 2010 at 4:51am: American Spelling

The main differences between American and British English spellings are given below:

British English words that end in -re (e.g. centre, fibre, theatre) often end in -er in American English (center, fiber, theater).

British English words that end in -our (e.g. colour, humour) usually end with -or in American English (color, humor).

Verbs in British English that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end (e.g. recognize/recognise) are always spelled with -ize in American English.

Verbs in British English that end in -yse (e.g. analyse) are always spelled -yze in American English (analyze).

In British spelling, verbs ending in a vowel plus l double the l when adding endings that begin with a vowel (e.g. travel, travelled, traveller). In American English the l is not doubled (travel, traveled, traveler).

British English words that are spelled with the double vowels ae or oe (e.g. archaeology, manoeuvre) are just spelled with an e in American English (archeology, maneuver).

Some nouns that end with -ence in British English (e.g. licence, defence) are spelled -ense in American English (license, defense).

Some nouns that end with -ogue in British English (e.g. dialogue) end with -og in American English (dialog).

Comment by Kiran on March 2, 2010 at 3:36am: Hi,

Here are some additional pitfalls Indian English can fall in to:

1. When asking some one to wait while you get an update for them, say:

"Please bear with me/us while I find out for you"

or

"Work is in progress, please bear with me/us while we fix your issue"

2. There is no such word as "upgradation", just use the word "upgrade"

3. The phrase "do the needful" doesn't make much sense. Instead use the phrase:

"I will do what is needed"

or

"I will make sure it gets done.

Thanks,
Kiran.

Comment by Kiran on February 26, 2010 at 10:24pm: Hi,

Grammar And Vocabulary Of American And British English

Grammar And Vocabulary Of American And British English
View more presentations from Cupid Lucid.

Thanks,
Kiran