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231 points rntn | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.441s | source
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raspo ◴[] No.35413421[source]
As an Italian now living abroad, every time I go back I am horrified by the way Italians mis-use all sorts of English words in many contexts of life...

One example: "smart-working". At the beginning of the pandemic, when we all started to "work remotely" or "work from home", Italians decided to call it "Smart Working". The first time I heard this term from a relative I was very confused, I thought it was just young people trying to "be fancy" as usual, with their fancy english words, but no, it actually had become the official way to refer to "working from home"... people had it in their contracts.

IMO this usage of the English language doesn't benefit anybody. Italians are not getting any better at English in general, language purists keep getting angrier and it's just adding a lot of confusion.

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1. mmarq ◴[] No.35413905[source]
It happens in all languages, I’ve never heard people talking about eating “al fresco” before moving to the UK.

In theory “smart working” doesn’t mean just working remotely, but it implies flexible working patterns as well. Also, it has been used in British English (even though it didn’t become very popular): https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2016/01/21/smart-working-th...

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2. mercurialuser ◴[] No.35414878[source]
Unfortunately smart is just a name, 90% of smart working contracts are standard wfh with fixed hours