Here is what the French professionals say<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
For the past year, I have been teaching business English to many\nprofessionals in Normandy. They are all business owners or sales staff, with\nmany years of successful careers in industry, retail or e-commerce under their\nbelts. Some already work with international clients or suppliers, e.g. in\nGermany or Italy. They are all stunned when I show them British or American\nbusiness writing or play telephone conversations. Their typical reaction is:\n\u201cWhy do I have to thank people at the start AND at the end of the letter\n(conversation)? I have already done it!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yep, you got it: helpful, but proud.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, do we not thank people for their business, or for queries\nor enquiries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, we do, but\u2026 whilst we would say it once, it\u2019s not going to happen more than that in a phone call or a letter. In France, we serve customers for sure, but we do not grovel<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you complain to a French company, do not expect a response starting with \u201cDear Mrs Dubois, thank you for your letter about your compensation claim\u201d. A customer is being difficult? We respond to their query or complaint, but we do not thank them for being a pain in the backside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The priorities are somewhat different. In the so-called Anglo-Saxon countries, the customer is the king. Not so much in France. Status and dignity are more important than money. A professional you do business with (or a Parisian waiter, for that matter!) wants to be treated as an individual in an equal-playing field<\/strong>, not like a serf. Salespeople will not bend over backwards to you to get a sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The French culture is also more \u201chigh context\u201d than say, British or American. The meaning is more understated. We don\u2019t tend to repeat information or summarise action points at the end of a business meeting. The cues in communication tend to be more implicit<\/strong> (the famous sous-entendus<\/em>). If you repeat the same information or recap constantly, you may run a risk of offending your audience. They may think that you patronise them, or worse: that you don\u2019t trust them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have ever travelled around France, have you noticed how often in French we say \u00ab\u00a0thank you\u00a0\u00bb where an English speaker would say \u00ab\u00a0please\u00a0\u00bb? It makes an instruction sound more assertive. So, where an English sign would say \u00ab\u00a0Please do not park here\u00a0\u00bb, in French it will say \u00ab\u00a0Merci de ne pas stationner\u00a0\u00bb. The same rule applies in business writing. An English email would say: \u201cPlease confirm your availability.\u201d In French, we thank instead: \u201cMerci de confirmer\u201d. \u201cThank you\u201d is an assertive \u201cplease\u201d<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Here comes a side note, but I can\u2019t help it: You can see in France poor, but alas frequent translations like this one: \u00ab\u00a0Thank you for not parking here\u201d. I have seen many of these in Normandy and even in a well-known museum in Paris\ud83d\ude2e. It is high time that tourist boards or local authorities stopped using machine translation for tourist information, but that is another topic altogether. Rant over.)<\/p>\n\n\nLess is more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Status vs. money<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
High vs. low context culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The other meaning of \u201cthank you\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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