I have a good friend from Aix-en-Provence who moved to Detroit to invest in real estate.

When I first knew him, he asked me to translate a press release from the French he’d written it in, to good American English.

The task was formidable! While it read beautifully in French, it was far too purple to sound “professional” in English.

By the time I’d finished with it, I’d cut it practically in half and removed most of his adjectives and flowery quotes.

“But why?” Olivier asked me, looking sad. “You’ve taken all the beauty and elegance out of it!”

And that may sum up some of our cultural differences. That he would expect a press release to be beautiful and elegant. ;-)