Greeting Etiquette!
Post 1 of 3
It is true that native English speakers avoid using the greeting Best regards at the end of a letter/e-mail. Somebody told me that is old-fashioned and Id better use Best wishes or Kind regards instead. Ive used it many times and many non English speakers still use it a lot. I hope is not a big mistake.
27 Sep 2008 19:55
Post 2 of 3
Quoting from [eve]:
It is true that native English speakers avoid using the greeting Best regards at the end of a letter/e-mail. Somebody told me that is old-fashioned and Id better use Best wishes or Kind regards instead. Ive used it many times and many non English speakers still use it a lot. I hope is not a big mistake.
These closing phrases actually does nothing much to the letter, if sent by email.
More absurd, are the short forms: BRGD, or WBR, or Rgd. Generally it is accepted. There was one Marketing Manager of an American firm, who closes his mail with With Best Regards, in our first encounters. Then he gets more familiar with us, closes with Best Rgtds. And then came the test of his sincerity, we found this MBA guy used us to buy his products so he can show his boss, how much sales he closes. He started to appoint more distributors over the territories which we were appointed. We found this by accident, it was someone from the Sales Department writting a broadcast notice to all the agents, s/he put the C.C. under CC instead of B.C.C., where the other addresses will be hidden. We wrote a strong note of protest, and dropped out of the agency because of this. And his closing becomes. "Rgd."
I met a girl student on the flight back from Frankfurt on Friday overnight flight. She is German, speaks excellent English, because she went on student exchange in Canada, Toronto. She said she know only two words in Chinese, NI HOU.
That is Chinese greeting, literally meaning YOU GOOD? But this is the way the Oriental people greet one another, on the phone, it is "Wei, Ni How". But the Koreans would say "YEO BU SA EO" over the phone as Hello, and the rest are the same for good morning, afternoon, night."ANIO HA SEO"
We Singaporeans speak English, but we are somehow short of expression of greetings, unlike the British. However, I am surprised to note what a simple word "Thank You" can do to people who helped me. Here are the words of Thank you in the various languages that I know:
Danke shen. - German
Miierci Buku - French
Terima Kasih - Indonesian and Malaysian
Sia Sia - Chinese
Arigato - Japanese
Kamsa Hamida - Korean
Others
Street
More absurd, are the short forms: BRGD, or WBR, or Rgd. Generally it is accepted. There was one Marketing Manager of an American firm, who closes his mail with With Best Regards, in our first encounters. Then he gets more familiar with us, closes with Best Rgtds. And then came the test of his sincerity, we found this MBA guy used us to buy his products so he can show his boss, how much sales he closes. He started to appoint more distributors over the territories which we were appointed. We found this by accident, it was someone from the Sales Department writting a broadcast notice to all the agents, s/he put the C.C. under CC instead of B.C.C., where the other addresses will be hidden. We wrote a strong note of protest, and dropped out of the agency because of this. And his closing becomes. "Rgd."
I met a girl student on the flight back from Frankfurt on Friday overnight flight. She is German, speaks excellent English, because she went on student exchange in Canada, Toronto. She said she know only two words in Chinese, NI HOU.
That is Chinese greeting, literally meaning YOU GOOD? But this is the way the Oriental people greet one another, on the phone, it is "Wei, Ni How". But the Koreans would say "YEO BU SA EO" over the phone as Hello, and the rest are the same for good morning, afternoon, night."ANIO HA SEO"
We Singaporeans speak English, but we are somehow short of expression of greetings, unlike the British. However, I am surprised to note what a simple word "Thank You" can do to people who helped me. Here are the words of Thank you in the various languages that I know:
Danke shen. - German
Miierci Buku - French
Terima Kasih - Indonesian and Malaysian
Sia Sia - Chinese
Arigato - Japanese
Kamsa Hamida - Korean
Others
Street
SIGNATURE:
About Our Company
Tijit Pte Ltd
Motto: Digital is our name : Portable is our game
Tijit provides service and supply to Marine Shipping Industry both here in Singapore and abroad focused on portable instruments.
We provide Customer Service for...
More
28 Sep 2008 18:42
Post 3 of 3
Quoting from [eve]:
It is true that native English speakers avoid using the greeting Best regards at the end of a letter/e-mail. Somebody told me that is old-fashioned and Id better use Best wishes or Kind regards instead. Ive used it many times and many non English speakers still use it a lot. I hope is not a big mistake.
'with kind regards' or 'with kindest regards' are old fashioned but are excellent English and still the best ending phrases for a letter.
30 Sep 2008 11:08
Page 1 of 1