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Pub Lyfe
I didn't get to the pub last night – spent it all getting a Patreon reward put together – but I did tonight, which was a good thing as I got to eavesdrop on a running club who arrived there shortly after I did. The first great thing about them was that they all had nicknames: Duracell, Fondue, Irish, Walkie-Talkie, Coppertone, and Bag Lady were the ones I jotted down. Also these exchanges:
"There are lots of good things about the Mormon church, though, for example they encourage exercise."
"So did the Nazis."
"Billy Graham must be pretty old now ..."
"Well ... he's younger than God."
Much later there was a small group picking sides in the football league tables. For a while the conversation was the usual numbing sports babble, but winnings came up, and someone asked "what would you do with £100m?" which started a lengthy discussion of debt ("I can't imagine what you'd do with that kind of money if mortgages weren't in the equation"), taxes (if you give money to someone they have to pay taxes on it, but if you buy something for them they don't, apparently), pensions, past experiences with gambling and not gambling, and simply the imaginative exercise of parceling out your hypothetical £100m. It was the sort of conversational flow I thought was normal, from living in Canada, but which I missed terribly in the States, and I keep trying to figure out why it should be so different – we all speak the same language and have many of the same cultural influences, but Americans tend to talk in straight lines using concrete ideas, whereas others wander all over the place and pull in material from any direction, and use imagination, abstraction, and analysis, just as much as recall or opinion. What's behind that? I can't help thinking it has something to do with roadmaps; American highways and grid systems vs older countries' web of organic lines. But that's probably unquantifiable, so a hunch it will have to stay.
Mr Keohane is proving to be very stubborn, by the way, even after a pint of cider.
"There are lots of good things about the Mormon church, though, for example they encourage exercise."
"So did the Nazis."
"Billy Graham must be pretty old now ..."
"Well ... he's younger than God."
Much later there was a small group picking sides in the football league tables. For a while the conversation was the usual numbing sports babble, but winnings came up, and someone asked "what would you do with £100m?" which started a lengthy discussion of debt ("I can't imagine what you'd do with that kind of money if mortgages weren't in the equation"), taxes (if you give money to someone they have to pay taxes on it, but if you buy something for them they don't, apparently), pensions, past experiences with gambling and not gambling, and simply the imaginative exercise of parceling out your hypothetical £100m. It was the sort of conversational flow I thought was normal, from living in Canada, but which I missed terribly in the States, and I keep trying to figure out why it should be so different – we all speak the same language and have many of the same cultural influences, but Americans tend to talk in straight lines using concrete ideas, whereas others wander all over the place and pull in material from any direction, and use imagination, abstraction, and analysis, just as much as recall or opinion. What's behind that? I can't help thinking it has something to do with roadmaps; American highways and grid systems vs older countries' web of organic lines. But that's probably unquantifiable, so a hunch it will have to stay.
Mr Keohane is proving to be very stubborn, by the way, even after a pint of cider.
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It doesn't take subcultures into account, of course, which is missing some important points.
I did some websearching on differences in US vs UK vs CAN conversational styles based on what you wrote, and I have to ask: where *are* these Americans who prefer direct talk? That's *got* to be a 'subcultures are different' thing ... maybe this was based more on observation of business dealings in the Northeast?
I have not known many Americans who were direct ... but most of my experience is based on a) the more passive-aggressive South, and b) life in K-12 education, first as student, then as teacher = K-12 ed is one of THE most passive-aggressive, indirect, 'nicey-nice' enviroments around. :P
Mr Keohane: cooperate plz! :)
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I can only assume the 'direct' Americans are the Northeasterners, as you propose, because I've never met any either – either that or the author is using a different definition of 'direct.' My Ex-Bostonian ex-housemate prided herself on her New England bluntness, but was still as prone to taking things personally and balking at my brand of bluntness as any other American. OTOH she was less afraid of being overtly abrasive than most Canadians I know. Maybe that's directness, in a way? Not caring about bothering others?
A funny difference I've noticed between Canadian and English business email styles: Canadians get right to the matter at hand, paragraph 1, line 1, then close with niceties ('Hope you have a nice weekend' etc), but it's the other way around in the UK. Everyone knows the opening paragraph is throwaway small talk but you've got to make the gesture anyway, even in a short email. Given how much else has been directly handed down from Britain to Canada this is a little surprising. OTOH maybe it's the Scottish way of doing things, and I've never worked at/with a Scottish company; generally if there's a divide between the Scottish and English way, Canada defaults to the former.