Yesterday, I received a somewhat rude 1-line email response to a work-related question from someone whom I am not acquainted with, but who works in my organization in a different country. I was rather unpleasantly surprised at the reply and without going into any details, it implied that I was stupid, and it didn't answer my question at all. In fact, the response showed that the writer was ignorant of the facts.
As I thought about how best to respond in order to clarify things (and don't worry, I didn't even address the rudeness issue), I thought about how often I receive unwarranted rude or harsh emails out of the blue from particular cultures (most often Germanic or American) or sub-cultures (most often IT or elderly).
Now, while it is certainly true that what is polite in one culture may be rude in another culture and visa versa, I wonder just how much of a global communication culture (especially email) we actually have acquired and what is generally considered universally rude...
Anyway, without having satisfied that particular question, at least I can try to write in a culturally-sensitive, polite manner (to the best of my knowledge) and not use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS (which is considered yelling in email) and not imply that someone is stupid.
Gotta love this world... ;-)
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