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Subtleties of Language

I was instant-messaging with one of the India members of my team, and we were discussing who would take responsibility for something. I thought he should, but he was reluctant. In the end, I relented with a statement of "Very well." If I were to say that to someone here in the US, I trust the person I was talking to would pick up on the nuance of that phrase that implies I am accepting, but doing so reluctantly. I'm not at all sure if my India colleague got the same message.

I almost said "OK" as my response, but that did not set the right tone. Even knowing that the tone may be lost in the IM-India exchange, I used what verbiage I thought best communicated my perspective. Perhaps he did pick up on that, or perhaps my using it in this context will help him build that awareness.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on April 6, 2007 8:50 AM.

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