Talking To Foreigners

If you take freelance work or remote work, sooner or later you will be on a video call with a person from a country you have never visited. They will speak fast. They will use phrases that mean nothing to you. They will laugh at jokes you do not get. The instinct is to nod and pretend, then panic later about what you agreed to. The cure is to know a few patterns that come up again and again, and to feel allowed to ask when something is unclear. Asking is not a weakness; pretending is.

British and American English differ in small but important ways. The same word for the eraser used at school is rubber in British and eraser in American; the British word means something else in America that you do not want to say in a meeting by accident. The British call the boot of the car the boot, the Americans call it the trunk. The British write colour, the Americans write color. None of these will make or break your career, but mixing them inside the same document looks careless. Pick the variant your client uses, set Microsoft Word's spell-check to that region, and stay consistent.

Some phrases that confuse Pakistani learners on first hearing, and what they actually mean. Let us circle back, means we will return to this topic later, today is not the day. Let us put a pin in it, also means later. Touch base, means a short check-in call. Ballpark, means a rough estimate, not a stadium. Apples to apples, means a fair comparison. Run it up the flagpole, means show it to a senior for approval. None of these are deep. They are professional clutter. Recognize them, then in your own writing prefer the plain version, follow up later.

What not to assume. Three things Pakistani learners often assume about Western clients that are wrong. First, that they are all Christian and care about Sunday off. Many are not religious at all. Second, that they all live in big cities. A lot of remote clients are in small towns and have the same internet trouble you have on a rainy day. Third, that they earn many times more than you. Many remote-working clients in the West earn close to what you would earn at a Lahore mid-tier firm; they are stretching their budget too. The right posture is curiosity, not awe. Ask about their day, their city, the weather in plain words. The relationship goes from vendor to peer the moment you talk like one.

Last thought. The diaspora client is its own category. A Pakistani-Canadian who hires you is half nostalgia and half judgment. He left in 1995 and his picture of Lahore is frozen at that year. He may romanticize you and lecture you in the same call. The professional move is to be neither the Pakistan he remembers nor the West he became. Be the Pakistani you actually are, in the year you actually live in. Speak about Karachi as it is now. Show him your portfolio with current screenshots. He hires you not to feel less guilty about leaving, but because the work is good. Make sure the work is the bigger half of every conversation.