I had a very typical conversation with someone else that works in the English-language services industry in Sweden last week.
“I spoke to this PR company the other day,” my friend said, “and they told me they just aren’t that bothered about the quality of their English that much. They reckon as long as they get their message across they don’t mind making grammatical errors or using clumsy vocabulary.”
Both of us agreed that we had heard this kind of statement before. Too often, in fact. Usually, it’s along the lines of “My customers/business partners never complain about our English.”
As I’ve pointed out to customers in the past: “That’s often because people don’t complain about things like that. If communication is a problem, they just move on to someone else who communicates effectively.”
There is no doubt that Swedes ARE very capable communicators in English. Particularly when it comes to speaking. Emailing in English is a little more tricky.
Just today I’ve had business emails from Swedes wishing me a “God morning” (literally Gud morgon), or asked me to correct their “english” (“English” is always written with a capital “E”).
When we’re writing to friends it doesn’t usually matter if we make slips or typos when emailing each other; however, when it comes to formal business communications it is important to get things right. Not just because we want people to understand exactly what we saying. It’s also a matter of appearing as professional as possible. After all, just as you wouldn’t turn up to the office in your pajamas, you shouldn’t send an important business communication that hasn’t been checked for spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.
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