British niceties

Oh, I just love the British and their way to express themselves. They really have a way with words!

This Friday I for the first time met the consultant, who we recruited for the Afghanistan project and he is British. It was a very nice and constructive meeting and I felt very confident afterwards, as he seemed a very pleasant and competent person. Today I received an e-mail with some more information from him. In the mail he also thanked for the meeting and wrote some niceties about how nice it was to meet me and how much he looked forward to working with me. Added to that he wrote how impressed he was with my background and what strength that will be to the mission. Wow I was completely flabbergasted!! He impressed by my background!!! Says he, how really has all the background, competence and experience (working as a consultant for several international organisations and lecturing on three universities!!). I felt so inferior to him and really tried to say as little as possible about my previous (lack of) experience.

Of course I can see reasons for him to flatter me. He is an independent consultant, hired by “my” agency and as I am the representative for the agency he will be working most closely with and as he probably has an interest in working for us again he might see it fit to flatter me a little. But still, the way he expressed it felt as if he meant it and it felt good. I also need a boost to my confidence as this project will probably be the toughest thing I have ever done. I will have to act as if I am smart and know what I am doing…

I wish I could express myself that well in English too…