E(uro) Mail

Great article on Slate today.

Euromail
What Germans can teach us about e-mail.
By Eric Weiner
Posted Friday, March 25, 2005, at 4:17 AM PT
http://slate.com/id/2115223/


Cool little article on the cultural differences between European and American email styles.

Essentially Americans compose like Kerouac, Cassidy, Thompson and the like, bursting with ideas, and leaving formalities in the wake of their content. Its one of the few times function trumps form.

“Amerimail is informal and chatty. It's likely to begin with a breezy "Hi" and
end with a "Bye." The chances of Amerimail containing a smiley face or an "xoxo"
are disturbingly high.”

He contrasts it wih Europan email:

“Euromail is stiff and cold, often beginning with a formal "Dear Mr. X" and
ending with a brusque "Sincerely." You won't find any mention of kids or the
weather or jellyfish in Euromail. It's all business. It's also slow.”

I agree with his observations, we need to add a bit more formality back into our correspondence. On one assignment the company I worked for reminded us that emails could be admissible in court.

It’s one thing to instant message someone contracted text, but email gives you time to pause reflect and most importantly compose your thoughts.

History has shown that when one type of media is supplanted by another, the replaced assumes an air of respectability. Look at theater, when replaced by the cinema. It’s come a long way from the participatory days of Vaudeville.

The same thing should be applied to email. It is the elder of online communications.

I once worked at a startup where my boss was ADHD, and we would communicate primarily via email. It worked because we both had record of what was going on.

I have seen some great discussions on Lists that all too easily could have devolved into flame wars, but all parties involved maintained a sense of decorum and everyone stayed civil. I haven’t been civil in many of my lists, so I’m not claiming to be above it all.

I am not one of those Ms. Manners Acolytes that feels we should all hold our pinkies up when politely composing essays to our circle of acquaintances. I do feel every message you send should be spell-checked and proofread before being sent out.

My wife started her own business three years ago, and we actually won clients because of our correspondence. It helped that our point of contact was an English major in college and had her own menagerie of pet peeves.

When I was in the Air Force, someone said to me “The way you speak reflects the way you think.” I think the corollary of that is also true. The way you speak affects the way you think.

I could be wrong.

But I doubt it.