Interactions with American clients - Useful tips

1. Do not write "the same" in an email - it makes little sense to them.*
Example - I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you of the same when it is done
This is somewhat an Indian construct. It is better written simply as: I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you when that is done *

2. Do not write or say, "I have some doubts on this issue"* The term "Doubt" is used in the sense of doubting someone - we use this term because in Indian languages (such as Tamil), the word for a "doubt" and a "question" is the same. The correct usage (for clients) is: I have a few questions on this issue

3.* The term "regard" is not used much in American English.* They usually do not say "regarding this issue" or "with regard to this". *Simply use, "about this issue".*

4.* Do not say "Pardon" when you want someone to repeat what they said *. The word "Pardon" is unusual for them and is somewhat formal.

5. Americans do not understand most of the Indian accent immediately - They only understand 75% of what we speak and then interpret the rest. Therefore *try not to use shortcut terms such as "Can't" or "Don't"*. Use the expanded "Cannot" or "Do not".

6. *Do not use the term "screwed up" liberally.* If a situation is not good, it is better to say, "The situation is messed up". Do not use words such as "shucks", or "pissed off".

7. As a general matter of form, Indians interrupt each other constantly in meetings - *DO NOT interrupt a client when they are speaking*. Over the phone, there could be delays - but wait for a short time before responding.

8. When explaining some complex issue, *stop occasionally and ask "Does that make sense?*". This is preferrable than "Do you understand me?"

9. In email communications, use proper punctuation. To explain something, without breaking your flow, use semicolons, hyphens or paranthesis. As an example: You have entered a new bug (the popup not showing up) in the defect tracking system; we could not reproduce it - although, a screenshot would help.
Notice that a reference to the actual bug is added in paranthesis so that the sentence flow is not broken. Break a long sentence using such punctuation.

10. In American English, a *mail* is a posted letter. An *email* is electronic mail. When you say "I mailed the information to you" , it means you sent an actual letter or package through the postal system. *The correct usage is: "I emailed the information to you"*

11. To "prepone" an appointment is an Indian usage. *There is no actual word called prepone*. You can "advance" an appointment.

12. In the term "N-*tier* Architecture" or "3-tier Architecture", the word "tier" is NOT pronounced as "Tire". I have seen many people pronounce it this way. *The correct pronunciation is "tea-yar".* The "ti" is pronounced as "tea".

13. The usages "September End", "Month End", "Day End" are not understood well by Americans. *They use these as "End of September", "End of Month" or "End of Day". *

14. Americans have weird conventions for time - when they say the time is "Quarter Of One", they mean the time is 1:15. *Better to ask them the exact time.*

15. Indians commonly use the terms "Today Evening", "Today Night". These are not correct; "Today" means "This Day" where the Day stands for Daytime. Therefore "Today Night" is confusing. *The correct usages are: "This Evening", "Tonight". * That applies for "Yesterday Night" and "Yesterday Evening". *The correct usages are: "Last Night" and "Last Evening".*

16. *When Americans want to know the time, *it is usual for them to say, "*Do you have the time? *". Which makes no sense to an indian.

17. There is no word called "Updation". You update somebody. You wait for updates to happen to the database. *Avoid saying "Updation".*

18. When you talk with someone for the first time, refer to them as they refer to you - in America, the *first conversation usually starts by using the first name*. Therefore you can use the first name of a client. *Do not say "Sir". Do not call women "Madam". *

19. It is usual convention in initial emails (particularly technical) to expand abbreviations, this way: We are planning to use the Java API For Registry (JAXR). *
After mentioning the expanded form once, subsequently you can use the abbreviation.*

20. *Make sure you always have a subject in your emails and that the subject is relevant *. Do not use a subject line such as HI .

21*.Avoid using "Back"* instead of "Back" Use "ago".Back is the worst word for American. *(for Days use "Ago",For hours use "before")*

22.*Avoid using "but"* instead of "But" *Use "However"*.

23.*Avoid using "Yesterday"* hereafter *use "Last day". *

24.*Avoid using "Tomorrow"* hereafter *use "Next day".*

What is the difference between men and women?

1. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

2. Men wake up as good-looking as when they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

3. A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't want.

4. A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.

5. There are two times when a man doesn't understand a woman- before and after marriage.

6. A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

7. To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

8. Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing!

9. A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

10. Women look at a wedding as the beginning of romance, while men look at a wedding as the ending of romance.
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The 7 Dangerous Acts after meal

Don't smoke- *Experiment from experts proves that smoking a cigarette after meal is comparable to smoking 10 cigarettes (chances of cancer is higher).

Don't eat fruits immediately - *Immediately eating fruits after meals will cause stomach to be bloated with air. Therefore take fruit 1-2 hr after meal or 1hr before meal.

Don't drink tea -* Because tea leaves contain a high content of acid. This substance will cause the Protein content in the food we consume to be hardened thus difficult to digest.

Don't loosen your belt -* Loosening the belt after a meal will easily cause the intestine to be twisted & blocked.

Don't bathe - *Bathing after meal will cause the increase of blood flow to the hands, legs & body thus the amount of blood around the stomach will therefore decrease. This will weaken the digestive system in our stomach.

Don't walk about - *People always say that after a meal walk a hundred steps and you will live till 99. In actual fact this is not true. Walking will cause the digestive system to be unable to absorb the nutrition from the food we intake.

Don't sleep immediately - *The food we intake will not be able to digest properly. Thus will lead to gastric & infection in our intestine.
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Happy Valentines day

wish all coupes and lovers a wonderful Valentines day. Story goes like this:
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Mr.Valentine is a priest in roman era. During some war/conquest all the soldiers refused to go war (they were not willing to leave their newly wedded wifes). Then emperor abolished marriages in roman empires.

Mr.Valentine secretly supported/administered marriages of all the lovers. Knowing this emperor orders for arresting and decapitating Mr.Valentine on February 14th.

Mean while, in the prison Mr.Valentine falls in love with a blind women, and send her message/valentine (which reaches her on Feb14th, same day he was executed).

Through out ages it was believed that:
1. Who ever sees for the first time this day will fall in love.
2. Who ever takes batch, wear new clothes would get good mate.
3. Few species of birds start their mating season on this day.

There are different versions of same story. I do not know the origin.