The Beautiful Ways Different Cultures Sign Emails
不同文化如何給電子郵件完美落款
Christine Ro 克裡斯蒂娜·羅
As an American living in the UK， I'm used to inadvertently offending Brits with my use of English. But while faux pas like referring to pants rather than trousers were quickly corrected， it took much longer to realise the subtler shadings of certain words.
One of these is 「Regards」， a word I never use in normal speech that has become a fixture in work-related emails. For years I was happily 「regards」-ing at the end of my emails， until it came up in conversation that 「Regards」 sounds cold in the UK. 「Kind regards」 or 「Best regards」 is warm and acceptable.
「When I lived in the UK I thought of 『Kind regards』 as fairly standard and if it got shortened to just 『Regards』 I would worry if I had offended the sender，」 says Leeanne Stoddart， a poet and a volunteer for several organisations in Norway. She was born in the UK but moved away as a child.
Stoddart experienced some culture shock after returning to the UK as a young adult and working in customer service， where it took time to calibrate the right tone and level of formality in the emails she sent. 「Something like『Regards』 could send me into a panic.」
It can be hard to strike exactly the right balance when closing an email. Louise Egan has seen this plenty of times. As the president of Soho Language Group， which helps businesspeople in New York to improve their English， she's encountered non-native speakers who literally translate the email sign-offs from their own languages，without paying attention to context. For instance， 「A thousand kisses」 – a direct translation of Mille baisers exchanged between friends in French – sounds alarmingly intimate in an English workplace email， she points out.
The few words at the end of an email can provide insight not just into social status， gender， relationship dynamics and workplace culture， but also the broader culture. In Nigeria， for example， it's common for emails to end on a religious note， such as variants of「Stay blessed」.
Occasionally email closings that draw on Nigerian English can be misinterpreted， to the point of influencing careers. Communication scholar Farooq Kperogi， who blogs frequently about Nigerian English and culture at Notes from Atlanta， gives the example of a Nigerian professor who ended an email to an American professor he hadn't met with 「I hope to read from you soon」.
But the American professor had only ever encountered this closing in the advance fee fraud email scams that often， notoriously， originate in Nigeria. She assumed that the Nigerian professor's email was fake and withdrew her offer to introduce him to other people in the field.
Meanwhile， the personalised closing of Kenyan chef Njathi Kabui， 「Eat well」， is both professional and political. Kabui says that while 「most Kenyans sign work-related emails in the typical colonial way」 with British-influenced expressions like 「Sincerely」 and 「All the best」， he's sought to decolonise even his emails.
Whatever you choose， you don't want to leave your email's recipient puzzled. This happened to me the first time I received an email that whimsically ended 「TTFN」. Those of you well-versed in Winnie the Pooh or British military-influenced communications would have been able to decode this right away. I， however， was left scratching my head for a while.
作為一個生活在英國的美國人，我已經習慣了不經意間就因為使用英語的方式不當而冒犯英國人。但是，把褲子說成短褲這種失言很快就被我改掉了，而明白一些特定詞語更微妙的差別花的時間就長得多了。
其中一個詞是「問候」，我在正式發言中從來不會使用這個詞，而在與工作相關的電子郵件中它已經成為一個固定用語。多年來，我在電子郵件的末尾都會高興地寫上「問候」，直到有一天聊天時才知道「問候」在英國聽上去不夠熱情。「親切問候」或者「最誠摯的問候」才是一種誠摯親切而且人們普遍接受的說法。
詩人利安妮·斯託達特是挪威幾家機構的志願者。她說：「我過去生活在英國時，覺得『親切問候』是相當標準的，如果縮短成了『問候』，我會擔心是不是得罪了發件人。」她出生於英國，但是孩提時代就搬走了。
斯託達特年輕時回到英國從事客服工作後，她經歷了一些文化衝擊，這個工作要她花了一些時間把握髮送電子郵件時的正確語氣和客套程度。「像『問候』這種說法會讓我感到慌張」。
在電子郵件的末尾做到恰如其分有時很難。路易斯·伊根遇到過無數次這種情況。作為幫助紐約的商界人士提高英語水平的索霍語言學校的總裁，她曾碰到一些非母語人士逐字把他們母語中的電子郵件結束語翻譯過來，根本不注意語境。例如「一千個吻」——就是直接把法語中朋友間通信時使用的「Mille baisers」直接翻譯過來，她指出這種說法在英語的職場電子郵件中聽起來親密得令人害怕。
從電子郵件末尾的幾個詞不僅可以洞悉社會地位、性別、關係狀態和職場文化，還可以深入了解更廣泛的文化。例如在奈及利亞，常見的做法是在電子郵件最後以一種宗教語氣結尾，比如各種形式的「願主保佑你」。
有時候，使用奈及利亞英語的電子郵件結束語可能會被誤解，甚至可能影響人的前程。傳播學者法魯克·克佩羅吉經常在他名為「來自亞特蘭大的筆記」的博客上撰寫有關奈及利亞英語和文化的博文。他舉例說，有一位奈及利亞教授寫信給一位素未謀面的美國教授，在電子郵件結尾寫了一句「希望很快收到您的回覆」。
但是，這位美國教授只在預付費詐騙的電子郵件騙局中碰到過這種結束語，而且眾所周知這種騙局通常來自奈及利亞。她斷定這位奈及利亞教授的電子郵件是假的，因而撤回了向業界其他人士推薦他的提議。
與此同時，肯亞廚師恩賈西·卡布伊的個性化結束語「祝有好胃口」既有專業特色，又有政治意味。卡布伊說，儘管「大多數肯亞人在與工作相關的電子郵件末尾都使用典型的殖民時期方式」，比如用「真誠的」和「祝一切順利」等受英國影響的表達方式，他一直試圖連在電子郵件中也去殖民化。
不管選擇用什麼，你都不希望讓收件人感到困惑。我第一次收到一封奇怪地以「TTFN」（英語俚語ta-ta for now的縮略語，表示「再見」——譯者注）結尾的電子郵件時就曾大惑不解。你們當中特別熟悉《小熊維尼》或者英國受軍隊影響的交流方式的人可能馬上就能破解這個縮寫。然而，我可是撓頭了好一陣子。（劉曉燕譯自英國廣播公司網站5月10日文章）