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".*