What are common mistakes in Chinese-English email communication

Common mistakes in Chinese-English email communication often arise from language differences, cultural misunderstandings, and pragmatic failures. These mistakes include:

• Grammar errors: Chinese speakers frequently make tense, verb form, singular/plural, and article usage mistakes because these grammar features don’t always exist in Chinese. Sentence structures can also be influenced by Chinese syntax, leading to awkward phrasing in English emails. ^{1, 2}
• Literal translation: Directly translating from Chinese to English without adapting to English idiomatic or cultural conventions creates unnatural or unclear expressions. This includes word-for-word translation that ignores English collocational norms and pragmatic appropriateness. ^{3, 4}
• Politeness and tone issues: Chinese email writers may unintentionally violate English politeness norms, either by sounding too direct or formal compared to native English speaker expectations, leading to pragmatic failures in communication. ^{5, 6, 7, 8}
• Lack of clarity and coherence: Problems with logical flow and redundancy can make emails difficult to understand. This arises from differences in discourse organization between Chinese and English. ⁹
• Overreliance on machine translation: Machine-translated emails may cause misunderstandings as social intentions and tone are often misinterpreted by recipients, leading to negative evaluations of the email content and sender. ⁵

Overall, these issues stem both from linguistic structural differences and cross-cultural communication norms that affect the effectiveness and professionalism of Chinese-English email communication. ^{6, 3, 5}

References

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