Mistake Monday Launch

Of course, one of the interesting things about doing business abroad is the opportunity to discover different cultures, and try new things. That’s all well and good, but that also means making mistakes. On random Mondays we’ll run some of the more amusing anecdotes we receive about doing business in a foreign culture, so we’re calling it Mistake Monday.

We’ll start right here in the USA, because for many of our readers (and at least one of the authors of this blog), that is overseas!

A British lawyer came and worked for my old lawfirm and utilized my secretary while I was out of the country. My secretary was a very sweet lady born and raised in Philadelphia with little international experience. I first knew that she was having difficulty when she e-mailed me to tell me that she thought the lawyer might be gay. When I asked why she thought that, she said that he exclaimed one day in frustration “God, I’d kill for a fag.” She was taken aback by his exclamation of desire for a new male friend but I explained that a “fag” was a UK term for a cigarette. As if that had not scandalized her enough, I was lucky enough to see the look on her face when this lawyer later went up to her and asked if she had a “rubber” he could use. A rubber is of course an eraser in UK parlance.

Name withheld for the sake of the secretary! But thanks to the contributor anyway.

Feel free to send in your own!