Re: Cultural stereotyping and internationalization

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>]

Sarah Carroll <sarahc -at- INDIGO -dot- IE> wrote:

>Those of us outside of the US are quite used to
>seeing technical and other documentation
>with a "z" in a word which we would normally
>spell with an "s", and references to zip codes
>and mail box flags which are US specific entities.
>This does not normally offend.

Sarah:

Feeling about these things differ strongly from country to country.

In Canada, references to zip codes and states offend a good number of
people. Possibly, the reason for this feeling is that we're the mouse
next to the restless elephant.

At any rate, I suspect that the reason that many American companies have
started usign State/Province and Zip/Postal Code in documents is that
Canada is usually considered part of the North American market, and
manufacturers don't want to risk annoying a large part of the market.

--
Bruce Byfield
Freelance Technical Writer
(bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)  (604) 421-7189
Job Bank Team, STC Canada West Coast Chapter
http://www.stc.org/region7/cwc/www/job_bank.html

"I think you're hearing fine,
You're just choosing to ignore
All the hounds that wait outside your door;
I think you're keeping sane
By not keeping score
Of the hounds that wait outside your door."
--Spirit of the West

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