| Страниц в теме: < [1 2 3 4 5] | Have a nice day?? Автор темы: Jessica Noyes
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Balasubramaniam L. 
Индия
Local time: 05:08
Член ProZ.com c 2006
английский => хинди
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ЛОКАЛИЗАТОР САЙТА | Spreading to India too! | Jun 21, 2013 |
In most Indian cultures (and there are many) things like Good day, thank you, etc. are not said. It is not that Indians are uncouth, but that there are other cultural ways of expressing gratefulness, neighbourliness, friendliness, etc.
Recently, many large corporations, such as banks, have opened call centres to process service requests, and the people who man these call centres have been trained to adopt Western (now I realize it is American) practices of starting every conversatio... See more In most Indian cultures (and there are many) things like Good day, thank you, etc. are not said. It is not that Indians are uncouth, but that there are other cultural ways of expressing gratefulness, neighbourliness, friendliness, etc.
Recently, many large corporations, such as banks, have opened call centres to process service requests, and the people who man these call centres have been trained to adopt Western (now I realize it is American) practices of starting every conversation with these phrases, especially "thank you", all dutifully and literally translated into Hindi, which make it even more ludicrous. A typical conversation would go something like this:
Balasubramaniamji, XXX ko phone karne ke liye dhanyavad. Main apki kya seva kar sakta hun?
(Mr. Balasubramaniam, thank you for calling XXX. What service can I render to you?)
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Balasubramaniamji, ek bar phir XXX ko phone karne ke liye dhanyavad. Apka din shubh rahe.)
(Mr. Balasubramaniamji, thank you once again for calling XXX. May your day be a good one.)
In between too there would be a hundred thank you (or dhanyavad) in the conversation, on an average one per sentence.
No one in India talks like this though (that is, outside the call centres). I suspect these call centre employees have been trained by highly educated Westernized management gurus who have moved so far away from Indian realities as to find such stilted conversation quite normal.
[2013-06-21 02:19 GMT पर संपादन हुआ] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jessica Noyes
США
Local time: 18:38
Член ProZ.com
испанский => английский
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Автор темы
Thanks to all who helped me answer my original question, which is whether to avoid using "Have a nice day," with my British correspondents. Based on the responses, it would appear, as Ty pointed out, that the answer is 'probably'. -- My husband tells me that because my profession involves words at such a precise level, in my personal life I tend to focus on the literal meaning of what is being said, rather than the subtext. The strong (passionate?) feelings evoked by my original question make me... See more Thanks to all who helped me answer my original question, which is whether to avoid using "Have a nice day," with my British correspondents. Based on the responses, it would appear, as Ty pointed out, that the answer is 'probably'. -- My husband tells me that because my profession involves words at such a precise level, in my personal life I tend to focus on the literal meaning of what is being said, rather than the subtext. The strong (passionate?) feelings evoked by my original question make me think that I am not alone in this regard. Great conversation, everyone!
[Edited at 2013-06-21 02:21 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Norskpro
Норвегия
Local time: 00:38
Член ProZ.com
английский => норвежский
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Have a very nice day, Jessica.
| | | | Maaike van Vlijmen
Нидерланды
Local time: 00:38
Член ProZ.com c 2009
итальянский => голландский
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This thread is so interesting and funny!
I am Dutch and when I moved to Northern Ireland a couple of years ago, I was slightly disappointed nobody wished me a good day or a nice weekend in the shops. I remember, after having done my shopping at Tesco's one Friday afternoon, wishing the guy at the till a nice weekend, and he looked at me with a blank stare and didn't reply. They often say "cheerio!" here, but that soun... See more This thread is so interesting and funny!
I am Dutch and when I moved to Northern Ireland a couple of years ago, I was slightly disappointed nobody wished me a good day or a nice weekend in the shops. I remember, after having done my shopping at Tesco's one Friday afternoon, wishing the guy at the till a nice weekend, and he looked at me with a blank stare and didn't reply. They often say "cheerio!" here, but that sounds so silly (I mean it's just a very funny word to me) I can't say it back.
I have to admit that in the US it does sound a bit fake, but I guess that's because to me a lot of American sales people appear to be fake (also when you go to a restaurant and the waitress starts with the "I'm Tammy, I'm your waitress for tonight", it makes you feel uneasy). They just seem robots who utter standard phrases (never quite got the "Did you find everything okay?").
In general, I really like it when people wish me a nice/good/lovely day/evening/weekend. When I'm in the Netherlands, I feel so happy when they say "Prettig weekend!" I miss that! ▲ Collapse
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Rachel Fell
Великобритания
Local time: 23:38
французский => английский
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Maaike van Vlijmen wrote:
They often say "cheerio!" here, but that sounds so silly (I mean it's just a very funny word to me) I can't say it back.
"Cheerio" is a nice and friendly way of saying goodbye, though!
| | | | | Too much thinking/ analysing maybe... | Jun 24, 2013 |
SBlack wrote:
(I hope this doesn't drift too much from the original post). Here in France there seems to be yet another layer to leave-taking. When I (Canadian) first arrived, I would leave shops saying "Bonne journée" and then hear sales people call "Au revoir!" after me in a slightly annoyed tone of voice. When I noticed a pattern, I deduced that here, "bonne journée" is not sufficient to politely say "goodbye" to someone, as "have a nice day" is in Canada. Anyone else notice that?
I've never felt like "bonne journée" was not enough in France. However, I would surely say "au revoir, bonne journée". But then as Orrin Cummins perfectly quotes: "[h]ave we become so analytic that we can't accept these little niceties without asking ourselves: 'Did he really mean it? Does she really care if I have a nice day?'" and I would add "do we really have to analyse anything that is said or not said? I know we are linguists and as such are much more sensitive to words and prone to analyse the discourse of others (I personally do it all the time while struggling not to!). Going back to my point, I think that seeing an "annoyed tone of voice" after a mere "bonne journée" is maybe overemphasizing it. It's like when I was living in Spain and I couldn't understand why they would say "hasta luego" when I said "adios" and vice versa. Till I understood that both expressions are interchangeable.
As a general rule of thumb, going by the "when in Rome, do as the Roman do" rule is the safest behavior. And yes, the typical US "how are you today?" and "have a good day" is a bit too much for us Europeans. But that's why we love them and hate them at the same time.
[Edited at 2013-06-24 09:59 GMT]
| | | | mjbjosh
Local time: 00:38
английский => латышский
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| Times of the day | Oct 22, 2013 |
Christophe Delaunay wrote:
I've never felt like "bonne journée" was not enough in France.
Oh no, it is absolutely not enough. Even though I dont't live in France, i have to use a few more. Bon après-midi, bonne fin de l'après-midi, bonne fin de la journée, bon soir (and even bonne soirée). Very rarely "Bonne nuit", but never "Bonne nuitée".
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