this is an area that often conflicts with political correctness

seems to me

I'd rather plant a gross thought into someone's mind to illustrate an abstract concept 'cos at least that way the audience are more likely to remember it

tricky balance though; you can make yourrself unpopular really quickly

eurgh, don’t use that expression

balance?

it’s like the first step into godwinning a discussion due to negative emotional charge

no, political correctness

You have a point in that people remembering gross/unpleasant things more easily

interesting in how it illustrates the multiple layers of human communications

the worst is to be dull

when trying to explain abstract stuff

but it’s hard to judge for universal sensibility unfortunately.

http://www.kanjidamage.com is a great example, I used it to learn kanji but there are people who find it too crude.

Cultural differences - you can’t speak the same language to everyone. Even when you do technically use the same language (English)

nice

I once worked in Switzerland in a bank with many nationalitites

listening to a native Italian speaker trying to explain something to a native German speaker in English was a real eye opener

yup

as a native English speaker I had an interesting vantage point to watch their miscommunications

what were the stumbling points?

wrongly inferred emotion mostly

different choices of words understood as aggression and/or defensiveness

which did not seem to me to be intended

oh yeah, that’s hard as well

words in English can have a different emotional charge than in the original language, so translation doesn’t always work.

I used to work with a team in Israel... very interesting.

then we were told the Israelly team would start working with a team in China.

A friend reported working for a company with mixed German/UK offices. UK employees felt their German managers were too bossy and direct. German employees never did what their UK managers asked them to do, because they thought these were only suggestions, not instructions.

I would have loved to have seen/hear those conversations.

@lady3janepl very true...

I once heard the story of some one asking a team in India if they could do something by the end of next week.

the end of the week came... end went...

ohhh. if they could, not if they would.

“Can I ask you a question?” “Sure, you can ask”

haha

excessive politeness can be a real problem

yup... they could do it by the end of the week.

"Can I ask you a question?" "You just did"

that for me by any chance? 😉

Nope, but I guess we know that you are looking for one now ;)

I assume the start date is asap?

@U79NZHC6A the company is hiring up to 10 contractors over time, so opportunities for a while. It is a startup, so speed of hiring will be dependent on growth of business

oh cool! any chance they’d entertain remote? I’m in Manchester so coming down every day would be a stretch. Probs gonna be taking on some contract stuff in Sept or so when my current project ends

Its not clear how remote friendly they are. I assume they want people located in the same place at least most of the time. James Dryden posted some more details in the #jobs channel

ahhh right I see

well, I might drop him an email in any case