Subj : Misinterprestation
To   : Ardith Hinton
From : alexander koryagin
Date : Fri Mar 20 2020 09:36:03

Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 19.03.2020 20:26

  AK>> -- Anton, will you go to lunch with us?
  AK>> -- Yeah, directly, -- answer I,

  AK>> Directly???

  AH> I don't know many people who would say that, but according to both
  AH> of my Canadian dictionaries the word is used to mean "soon"
  AH> or "immediately". :-)

IMHO, the answer on that question should contain not a time adverb 
(soon/immediately) but the sign of consent or refusal ("yeah I will" and 
such).

  AK>> Taking aside "directly" I think that the question "will
  Ak>> you" demands the answer like "Yeah, I will".

  AH> I don't know many people nowadays who would say "anon", as Juliet
  AH> did more than four centuries ago. Either way I understand the
  AH> intent. But since I have no idea who Anton's colleagues are I'd
  AH> hesitate to suggest he use the word "yeah" or add "hang on a sec",
  AH> as I might do with family & friends.

Well, if you have good relations with your office colleges -- why not? 
The only thing, I think, you should not confuse them with very clever or 
tricky words. I believe the trauma the Anton's college had got was 
connected exactly with such a confusion. He thought so hard on the word 
"directly" that he struck the door jamb with his forehead. ;-)

  AH> I wouldn't want him to miss an opportunity to become a tenured
  AH> professor of linguistics if other such people disapprove of my free
  AH> & easy North American ways. One of the important lessons I learned
  AH> in my youth was that, although Miss Stickler turned a deaf ear when
  AH> I didn't speak formal English, many of the people I worked with in
  AH> the restaurant business seemed genuinely baffled when I did... [wry
  AH> grin].

Again it depends on the collective you work in. Once I lived in some 
hotel in Grenoble, France -- all the personal was always gloomy and they 
never smiled. And they didn't speak English. ;-)

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
fido.english_tutor 2020

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