There are few native English speakers, or put it differently there are many more of us who have another mother tongue than English. Still we are working and communicating every day in English. We all use the grammar we've learnt in school, the words we've learnt from American movies and the technical terms from University books and by working. So far so good, but what do we really mean? What is a "good" and what does a deadline mean..? As the name suggests, the deadline should possibly be the last time to provide the information, but of course some deadlines are more flexible than other… :) Communication is cultural and I think the way we express ourselves in English is largely influenced by where we come from and our mother tongue. My favorite word is "however", it suits well my Swedish inspired way of communicating or is it just me?? :) :)
This picture I saw on facebook, check out what our native English friends really mean and what we understand..:)
Have a nice weekend!
Bodil