My last meeting with Divino was kind of funny. We had this
misunderstanding. I had had to tell him the same morning that I had to
reschedule, that I would have to meet with him a little later on the same day
if that would work for him. I wrote him an email message that said: “…I feel
bad, but I have to finish a huge project…” When I saw him later in the evening,
he said: “I’m sorry to hear that you were feeling bad! Do you feel better now?”
He had thought that the reason was a headache or a cold. And I said: “no, no, I
am fine, I just felt bad about the situation, telling you on short notice, that
I can’t make it…” It’s one of these things that are hard to explain. You can
say “I don’t feel good”, when you have a headache or you feel under the
weather, or something like that (I guess), but, of course, “I feel bad” means
something totally different. Any thoughts, anyone? Thanks J
This sounds like one of those situations where you have to step away from being completely natural in your speaking because the goal (reschedule agreement) can be lost in an overly detailed explanation. I have found this true several times when setting appointments with students through text and email, and now I simplify sentences or expand short text in my writing to be clear.
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