Age & Gender Considerations

Hello again, and welcome to our second lesson on cultural considerations. In our last lesson you learned the difference between low context and high context cultures, and how that can influence the style of communication. In the lesson, we’re going to consider how age and gender might affect communication. Now, in my class, I have some students that are 18, 19 years old, but they still call me Jerry, and I prefer that. I would feel more uncomfortable if they called me Mr. Landers. This is also common in other classes here at the Language Institute. Most of the students will call their instructors by their first names, even though most of the students are younger than the instructors. In America, age does not play a crucial role in how you address someone. Here, other things influence how you may call someone. Their title or your relationship with them. With my current students, we’ve establish a relationship that allows them to just write, dear Jerry, as their email reading, and this is fine. But if a student had never met me before and was sending me an email for the first time, I may feel uncomfortable if he called me Jerry rather than Mr. Landers. So what about your culture? Does age affect how you address someone? Are there certain words you would use to address people older than you? Let’s look at this example of an email written by a German man to an American man.

Dear Mr. George Smith, I hereby would like to make the next event within the framework of the lecture series Introduction to Business Marketing. On Thursday, June 6th the admired Mr. Seth Cohen will talk with us about marketing basics, products, promotions Marketing strategies and E-marketing. With much further detail, Mr. Cohen will instruct us on executing marketing plans, the five P’s of marketing and the systematic strategies of marketing. Please find attached the flyer with more information about tomorrow’s presentation and to the other lectures in this series. Please do respond to this email and kindly let me know whether or not you will be able to attend this lecture. Best regards, Michael Odenwald, Account Executive.

Now German communication culture is usually categorized as a low context culture like America. But titles and attention to detail are sometimes much more important than typical American communication.

Some of this is so formal that it’s almost hard for me to understand. I feel a little awkward and uncomfortable responding to this email. He’ll probably think I’m too informal or think I don’t know how to write.

Because every culture is different, the best way to approach age considerations is to be respectful and polite whether the person you are writing is older or younger. Here are some do’s and some don’t’s. Do use respectful terms such as Mr., Ms., or Mrs. if you know the gender, or use official titles if you know them. Don’t use slang words, and limit references to popular culture. I got teased the other day by my students because I didn’t know who Kim Kardashian was.

[APPLAUSE]

Now, what about gender gender? In America, gender usually does not play a significant role in how we communicate with each other. However, in your culture or your reader’s culture, gender can make a huge difference in how you interact. If you don’t know enough about your reader’s culture, the best thing to do is keep things gender neutral by avoiding gender bias thoughts or expressions. And again, if you don’t know the gender of your reader, always use greetings with titles rather than Mr., Ms., or Mrs. Take a look at the following email. This email was sent by Michael, who is a 50 year old man, to Susan, who is a 22 year old woman.

Susan, can you swing by my desk when you have some time? I want to ask you if my proposal looks good. It might need a woman’s touch. I don’t want the boss to think I’m insensitive. Peace! Michael. Can you see any potential misunderstandings? How might a 22 year old female and a 50 year old male communicate in your country? To recap, we’ve considered age and gender as some other possible factors which might interrupt understanding with an email communication in this lesson. It’s always important to consider your audience when writing any type of email, but it is especially relevant in a business context. In module one, I asked you to read through your email before sending it out. When doing so, think about all possible factors that might effect the meaning of your email. Throughout the course, we’ve talked about the basic parts that need to be in an email, as well as some editing basics. We’ve also looked at key language for various types of emails, and now we’ve talked about cultural differences. All of those parts need to be considered before clicking that send button. I hope you’ve gained enough knowledge of professional email etiquette. And I hope you’ve had enough practice writing in English to have many successful business interactions through email. Good luck with the final assignment and in all of your future endeavors. It was great having you in my course, Writing Professional Emails in English.