In his study of the two billion-word Oxford EnglishCorpus, Professor Jonathan Culpeper found that the most likely subject complements of the word rude were: doorman, bouncer, bartender, waitress,waiter, New Yorker, staff and (the) French!
Interpreting the behaviour of others as rudeness often leads us to resort to stereotypes and turn a cold shoulder of our own. In the business world, an ill chosen word or phrase can result in a breakdown of negotiation, turn a warm first encounter into a frosty meeting or bring a phonecall to an abrupt end.
On the other hand, impoliteness can be used to establish rapport and clinch an important deal!
In this workshop Andreas Grundtvig looked at the differences between these makers and breakers, to see how offence happens and recognise the relevance of impoliteness to teaching business English.
Warning – some participants may find the language of this workshop offensive, but hopefully not the presenting!
| Andreas Grundtvig lives and teaches in Hamburg, Germany where he is also local CambridgeESOL Centre Manager. In his free time he presents regularly, writes teaching resources and is the HELTA Chair. He is passionate about learner autonomy, pragmatics and imaginative learning. Beginning his career in Spain in 1994, Andreas has since worked in several European countries (including Lithuania, Portugal and Switzerland). His former students range from politicians, and cardiologists to six-year-olds..
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This workshop took place on Sunday, 2 September 2012. You can check view the recording by clicking here: