Being polite
My business English course is doing your language test on politeness (“To put it politely...”, Business Spotlight 5/2018). Exercise 3−F (“Good manners”) started a big discussion. One of the men found it impolite to tell a colleague who is struggling with a machine that you will show them how it works. All the men in the group agreed. Apparently, men would rather figure out for themselves how to operate a machine.
There was a very different response from the ladies in the group. It seems that women are used to being helped by other people — often men — when they struggle with a machine. It was interesting to see that the test was put together by a woman (Hildegard Rudolph). And everyone in the group really enjoyed doing it. Susan Weiß, Freudenstadt- Grüntal