Re: Not Writing for Translation (was RE: Re(2): Number/Figure)

["Margaret Secara" <margaret -dot- secara -at- alphather -dot- com>]

Hmm, uhm, so what do they say in Japan, then, when they mean they need some time to think about it?


Maggie Secara

>>> Peter <pnewman1 -at- optonline -dot- net> Wednesday, May 22, 2002 >>>


 
> Absolutely! In international standards meetings that I have to attend, where
> the majority of people usually do not have English as their first language,
> I take great care to avoid idiom when I am speaking, for exactly this
> reason. 

Sometimes you do not even reach the idiom stage. A few years ago I was
asked to price out a job for a Japanese owned company. I replied that I
would have to think about it, meaning that I could not make a realistic
quote off the top of my head. My statement was interpreted as meaning
that I was not interested in quoting. It seems that to a Japanese
person, saying I will think about it, is a polite way of saying no.

-- 
Peter



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