A short YouTube monologue by Sandi L Boucher on maintaining consistent communication tone in professional relationships. She contrasts formal academic email styles with conversational English, emphasizes authenticity (staying in your personal style), warns against switching to an unexpectedly formal or cold tone during conflicts—especially in cross-cultural relationships—and suggests calling instead of changing tone. Ends with a call to comment and a friendly sign-off.
Chapters
If we have a formal academic working relationship, then we have a formal academic working relationship. If we have a casual, conversational English type working relationship, then that's the type of working relationship we have. The problems come in when the tone changes. Today, let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And I don't know about you, but like, does tone come across loud and clear in your emails? I have colleagues that are very academic, that love what my mom would call the 15 words. You know, there's really big words that very few people can spell and even less people can pronounce or use properly. But some of my colleagues love those words and that's the relationship we have. They send me those emails and they know they're getting an email back in conversational English because I'm me no matter where I stand or who I stand beside. That's authenticity. And the people I work with understand that. And then the colleagues and co workers that I really super love are the ones that we're doing really important, serious work. In conversational English. We're going to take the second to ask how you're doing to say good morning. Okay, I admit it, I'm bad for that. I jump right into the body. I go back and type good morning. I'm getting better. But those people that can, we can have the serious discussions and we can also comfort and joke around with each other. I value those relationships so much. The problem is when the tone changes. And this is what I see way too often, which is why I had to comment on it. Imagine you have a relationship, a working relationship with someone. You've done the conversational emails back and forth. But then there's a problem. Something comes up that doesn't work for you and you share that, and then you get a very formal academic email in response. How do you feel? Don't change the tone just because we now have a challenge in our communication. Better yet, pick up the phone and let's talk about it to make sure it stays conversational English. But when I get that sudden, very cold phone, formal email from someone I've been bantering with, that makes me want to burn a bridge. Honestly, totally transparency here, transparent. That doesn't fly. That's not our relationship. So what it actually sounds comes across as very condescending. Why are you suddenly doing this formal response with me? I thought we were friends, so I don't care what your style is. Your style is your style. But stay in your style. If you have something uncomfortable to say, don't change your style. The relationship shouldn't change. It's just another conversation. And if you do change your tone, you might end up paying a bigger price than you thought. Especially. Especially when it's a cross cultural relationship. Something for you to think about. Love to hear your thoughts. Comment below. One more video for this week. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you. Bye bye.
