This weekend's Financial Times includes a short discussion about the faux pas that follow from using a common language in foreign settings. The first example is about the America intolerance for British irreverence: "On evenings out eating, drinking and laughing with corporate types, I have occasionally extended the jokes to their own organisations and bosses. Stony silence. Once I appeared on panel at a New York conference on corporate social responsibility. During the discussion someone asked how we could get across that responsibility was good for the bottom line. I said much as I was in favour of corporate responsibility, there was no consistent evidence that it was good for the bottom line. As I stepped from the stage it became clear that this had not gone well. The organiser mouthed a frosty "thank you", and everyone else avoided my gaze. I had expressed disbelief to a community of believers."
It reminds me of the time when I attempted to run a workshop on documenting Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks to the assembled believers in the value of the quality standard ISO9000. There's an interview with Jennifer Saunders I saw once where she reminisces about the faux pas she almost committed attending a conference in New York with Joanna Lumley to honour them for their support in Absolutely Fabulous for gay people - despite the manic disrespect for everything that AbFab stood for, she was expected to be serious
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