UK is Cringing

I received an e-mail from a kind gentleman overseas in the UK yesterday asking:

“How can I stop people beginning emails with the ghastly American word ‘hi’ and get them to use a less phoney form of address, such as ‘Dear Sir’”?

To which I responded that I really didn’t see anything wrong with having “Hi” as a greeting in an informal e-mail. I didn’t know the word “Hi” was American; nor do I consider it ghastly.

In my view it is better than nothing, friendly and certainly you don’t go to the other extreme and Dear Sir or Madame everyone as he suggests. Especially folks you are on a first name basis with. So I am assuming he means in business communications where just a “Hi” may be too informal depending on the e-mail and contacts involved.

To which his response on this issue was:

“You’ve no idea how “Hi” makes lots of British people cringe…”

I guess I didn’t. This goes to show kind readers that there are “enuances” we all need to be aware of and pay attention to. For some reason those in the UK cringe and don’t like an e-mail starting with “Hi”.

When communicating with new contacts in the UK use your highest level of formality (as I recommend for all e-mails and new contacts) until which time those on the other side (in this case on the other side of the pond) give you an indication you can relax and become more informal.

To those other kind readers out there, outside the USA, why not pipe in with some of the issues that are specific to your region or country that we are not yet aware of. I am always interested in learning how those outside the USA feel about e-mail, formality, addressing, sign-offs and the like.

Let’s all work together to make sure that we are not making anyone cringe!