Cheers
One of the more useful things I picked up in England was learning how to use the word Cheers. (It's right up there with the idea that tea and cake should be eaten at least twice a day!) I first noticed it when I called my friend from the train station and she said cheers to sign off on the phone. Over the week I realized she and her fiance both always said cheers at the end of a phone call. Then I noticed they also used it when talking to a person working at a pub. So one night over dinner I asked them how to use the word.
I maintained that in America we said cheers when raising a glass and at no other time. My friend and her fiance said it was the same way in England, then I pointed out how many other occasions I'd heard them say cheers during the week. They admitted I was right they do use it on the phone and with people in pubs. It's sort of less final than saying goodbye, gives off a nicer feeling. Then my friend said it can also be used in e-mail. She uses it as a closing even at work, it ends things without being as formal as regards or sincerely.
In American business communication people often use thanks as a sign off even when they don't need to thank someone. Thanks is a polite way to end things and not overly formal, but it loses some sincerity when you're getting a lot of e-mails that say thanks and you know the person doesn't mean it. Most of the people I e-mail are people I communicate with regularly and the formality of something like regards is a bit stiff. We need a word in America to close things out and we just don't have one. Written communication in letter form had been a formal communication method then e-mail came along with it's professional informality. E-mail is wonderful but people don't know how to sign off. Cheers works in a lot of circumstances because you're wishing the person well with an air of respectful familiarity. It works equally well with friends as with business associates. I'm not sure cheers would ever catch on but I think we need to come up with something here in America to close out an e-mail succinctly. My guess is a lot of wasted time goes into unnecessarily long e-mails because people don't know how to close them out!
I maintained that in America we said cheers when raising a glass and at no other time. My friend and her fiance said it was the same way in England, then I pointed out how many other occasions I'd heard them say cheers during the week. They admitted I was right they do use it on the phone and with people in pubs. It's sort of less final than saying goodbye, gives off a nicer feeling. Then my friend said it can also be used in e-mail. She uses it as a closing even at work, it ends things without being as formal as regards or sincerely.
In American business communication people often use thanks as a sign off even when they don't need to thank someone. Thanks is a polite way to end things and not overly formal, but it loses some sincerity when you're getting a lot of e-mails that say thanks and you know the person doesn't mean it. Most of the people I e-mail are people I communicate with regularly and the formality of something like regards is a bit stiff. We need a word in America to close things out and we just don't have one. Written communication in letter form had been a formal communication method then e-mail came along with it's professional informality. E-mail is wonderful but people don't know how to sign off. Cheers works in a lot of circumstances because you're wishing the person well with an air of respectful familiarity. It works equally well with friends as with business associates. I'm not sure cheers would ever catch on but I think we need to come up with something here in America to close out an e-mail succinctly. My guess is a lot of wasted time goes into unnecessarily long e-mails because people don't know how to close them out!
| 21:32
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