[klibertp]

> It is sometimes possible that a young Indian employee might call you “Sir”

There's nothing wrong with that - it's awkward the first 3 times, a non-issue ever after.

My problem is with the use of flowery, deferential language to mask misunderstandings. My sample count is 3, so I'm not going to say anything about a 1bln+ nation (I somehow don't want to self-identify as the GP's friend) - I'm just noting it happened more often with those 3 guys. I have no idea, even, in what part, if any, it was intentional, so - again - just noting it happened.

What's interesting is that it somehow went away after ~1/2 to 1 years. My guess is that it takes people a while to internalize drastic changes in assumptions they make. I know it takes me around 2 weeks to start pronouncing people's names correctly (sorry!), which requires an effort looking like a rounding error compared to moving countries and cultures.

[quadrifoliate]

Yep, being a first generation person who moved cultures from India to the US, I am pretty sure I was a lot more deferential, if not flowery when I began working here. It took me a while to internalize the “No, I think you're wrong” or the “No, there's no way I can do that by Tuesday, sorry” confidence that seems to come naturally to even new grads at their first job in the US. I also suspect that this held me back a bit early in my career.