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0 pointsflumpcakes3y ago0 comments

I work with a lot of people from abroad, where English isn't their first language. I also have a lot of friends who are foreign too. Trying to read into the "tone" is pointless. Simple sentences, with punctuation and grammar goes a long way. A benefit of not having tone imbued as some intangible quality of how a sentence is written down makes it very easy to communicate with them. If they are pissed off, they just say it. If they are not liking a project at work, they just say it. If you want them to do something, you just say it.

These "gen-Z" rules are great if you are 15 and have nothing more to do with your time than worry if Emily fancies you or not by how many chins she gave her ascii text art smile. I was there: when I was a teenager on IRC and MSN messenger I was on hooks at the smallest detail; how long was it taking someone to reply, have they received the message, oh-no they're replying now I better not type out a message, they signed off "ilyvm" not "ily" they must have really liked me today...

This sounds quite dismissive, and it is in a way. "Old" people don't need to understand the difference between "k" and "k.". Gen-Z need to communicate to their audience and there's nothing more embarrassing than old people learning young people lingo.

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6 comments · 1 top-level

csydas3y ago· 5 in thread

I work with the exact same setup and demographics across the globe, from Eastern Europe to China to India to Japan to the US to South America.

These aren't US specific Gen-Z rules, these are quite global. This is happening far outside the scope you're limiting it to, and it matters.

peoplefromibiza3y ago

> This is happening far outside the scope you're limiting it to, and it matters

Do you mean that you usually interact at work with people than cannot properly capitalize sentences, like we learned to do in primary school in practically any language that uses the Latin alphabet?

I capitalize English because capitalization in my language (and any other language I can write) follows the same exact rules.

It is a rule, it doesn't take much, capitalizing sentences at best proves that people know the basic grammar rules of the language and know when and how to use them, nothing more.

Not doing it proves that people either don't care or don't know the basic rules of the language, which says a lot more than doing it properly.

jklm3y ago

I think you hit the nail on the head - at a certain point caring about every single rule isn’t effective or is actually net less effective.

On HN I’ll use correct punctuation, grammar, and a wider set of vocabulary because there’s a good chance my message will come across more clearly.

For general emails, I’ll write with simpler language because it’s very much a get-in-get-out activity especially with more senior stakeholders.

For work comms, what’s the value in typing HN-style? Everyone already knows everyone else is smart. I believe communicating tone is more valuable than perfect punctuation and grammar, which make it much harder to get that across.

Or as my grandma used to say - you don’t treat people you want to be treated, you treat them the way they want to be treated.

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flumpcakesOP3y ago

I'm not sure what you are saying here, do people at your work write/communicate like Gen-Zers? Does Amber in HR get offended at your sharpness if you finish your sentence with a full stop?

> These aren't US specific Gen-Z rules, these are quite global.

These rules are specifically about English, and a younger generation. It's not as global as you think.

mlindner3y ago

> These aren't US specific Gen-Z rules, these are quite global. This is happening far outside the scope you're limiting it to, and it matters.

Given that almost all of these are English-specific or at least european language specific, no that is completely false.

mmis10003y ago

As someone who speak chinese. I can confirm this. If your boss or parent ever send message to you with your full name and properly closed sentence. You are running into something serious. It's not a English only rule.

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