\u201cI really hate emails that start with \u2018Hey\u2019,\u201d Park wrote online. Quotes of her comments are a translation from Korean.<\/p>\n
She said while New Zealand has a more relaxed culture, and she does not mind being referred to by her first name, starting an email to a lecturer with \u201chey\u201d was something she could not tolerate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them to write more formally next time and that I don\u2019t reply to emails that start with \u2018hey\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park defended her stance in response to a commenter who accused her of being too strict, saying \u201ceven in this culture, starting an email to a professor with \u2018hey\u2019 is considered rude\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, my faculty colleagues say that if a student begins an email with \u2018hey\u2019 they don\u2019t even read it and just delete it right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park\u2019s employer did not share the stance, with Victoria University of Wellington provost professor Bryony James saying \u201cso long as correspondence is not ill-mannered, then an informal tone can be quite acceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Victoria University lecturer Dr Seohee Ashley Park says emails starting with “hey” get ignored by academics.<\/p>\n
Some staff were comfortable with \u201cinformal chat-style communications\u201d, James said, but others preferred more traditional formal correspondence. <\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of how a message has been phrased, there is never a reason to ignore or delete an email from a student requesting assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
James said it was \u201cnot an appropriate post for one of our academics to share online\u201d and the matter was \u201cpromptly addressed\u201d. <\/p>\n
The posts appear to have been deleted.<\/p>\n
Park told the Herald that after studying in Japan, it was a culture shock to see New Zealand students\u2019 more casual approach.<\/p>\n
She stood by the idea that emails benefit from \u201ca certain level of formality, even for students\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reckon formality in email helps students in several ways to slow down their idea, adjust tone, think about recipients, proof read, and present themselves as credible and prepared,\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be beneficial for their future academic and career path as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said after her post went viral she was \u201ctraumatised\u201d by the word \u201chey\u201d and encouraged students to use te reo M\u0101ori phrases in their emails such as \u201ckia ora\u201d and \u201cng\u0101 mihi\u201d, which she said would be more professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think normalising this practice helps students participate in a professional register that reflects NZ\u2019s own cultural landscape rather than treating formality as something imported from elsewhere,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Victoria University of Wellington Student Association president Liban Ali said students communicate in a range of ways and \u201chey\u201d was a \u201ccompletely normal greeting for many young people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents reach out to lecturers because they need support with their learning. Ignoring those messages, especially over something as minor as a greeting, undermines trust and creates unnecessary barriers to education,\u201d Ali said.<\/p>\n
Victoria University of Wellington Students\u2019 Association president Liban Ali says lecturers need to meet students on their level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t believe it\u2019s appropriate for staff to disregard student correspondence when the student is acting in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the student association often hears from students who feel intimidated or uncertain about emailing their lecturers. <\/p>\n
Ali urged students to communicate respectfully and not be afraid of using their own tone or voice. <\/p>\n
As for staff, Ali said they should \u201cmeet students where they are\u201d and that a bit of empathy and flexibility goes a long way in supporting students to succeed.<\/p>\n
Coleen Trolove, a Wellington plain-language trainer, said \u201chey\u201d is \u201cdefinitely becoming a more popular greeting, particularly among younger workers\u201d.<\/p>\n
In this context, the student\u2019s greeting was \u201cabsolutely appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lecturer should be in touch enough with their students to know how they talk,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Wellington-based Colleen Trolove (centre) trains public and private sector organisations in internal communications and email etiquette. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Trolove, who trains public and private sector organisations in internal communications and email etiquette, said the way people communicate professionally is changing and traditional greetings and sign-offs are becoming a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeams and other messaging platforms are becoming such a huge part of workplaces that the natural, casual language we use on those is becoming more common in emails as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get lots of people who hire these young people saying they want me to teach them not to use \u2018hey\u2019, and I say, \u2018no, thank you\u2019, because I believe that best communication happens when people are able to show their real personalities,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Trolove believed if more casual communication helped people show their warmth and humanity, then it was a good thing.<\/p>\n
Her advice for people who wanted to err on the side of caution would be to start an email with a simple \u201chi\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re an older person who\u2019s being greeted with a \u2018hey\u2019, take it as a compliment that they feel comfortable with you.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI really hate emails that start with \u2018Hey\u2019,\u201d Park wrote online. Quotes of her comments are a translation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,8172,28246,81547,84246,3052,2082,71,42,109159,38018,109158,43,16413,2687,20863,4497,9631,3767,1361,40,38,41,39,1528,2821,52,102],"class_list":["post-167708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-backlash","tag-begin","tag-condemns","tag-emails","tag-faced","tag-for","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-hey","tag-ignores","tag-lecturer","tag-news","tag-professor","tag-saying","tag-she","tag-start","tag-student","tag-students","tag-that","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-university","tag-victoria","tag-wellington","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}