Lost in Translation

Whenever you work with remote teams, there are bound to be at least 2 issues that you will have to deal with. One is the time zone... which can be a real fucker unto itself, and the other one is the language barrier. And I've already learned this when I worked with Thais before, but I guess I have to deal with it again now that I am working with bloody comrades.

Case in point, I sent the email below:

"Please change the URL of [client] in beta environment from “prototype” to “beta” so as not to confuse anyone. Let me know as soon as this change has been integrated so I can advice the client."

20 minutes later, I recieve this reply:

"Hi,
the URL was switching."

Now, if it werent for the 6 months or so of actual combat experience that I have working with Russians and Ukranians here in this company, I would've probably replied:

"Excuse me?"

But ever since enduring dozens of conference calls with these buggers arguing on the line, and moderating chat conferences that usually end up in arguments... I have become some what of an expert in reading between the lines. In fact, reading clearly enough to know that what he really means is that the URL has now been switched. Whew!

Of course, it probably helps to know that a big majority of them dont really speak english so well so much that they actually use babelfish translator whenever they chat or answer emails so you really have to cut them a bit of slack.