If you don’t mince your words, you’re likely to be direct, if not downright ruthless. The message comes out in its raw, pure state, often making it hard to digest for the person/people it’s directed at. In German you’d say “kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen”, which literally means that you don’t place a leaf (or possibly a piece of paper) in front of your mouth – while talking, it’s implied.

At lunch the other day, we (that is to say some “colleagues” at the office and I) realised that if you don’t mince your words at all, one likely outcome is that the person on whose plate they land will retaliate with an: “ach, geh Dich doch gehackt legen” – oh, lie down to be made mince of.

It seems that mincing is the name of the game! My resolution for the Christmas season: to mince those words, to polish them nicely! To practise the art of diplomacy. So as to delve into the appropriate spirit, I’m set to bake some mince pie – merry Christmas to one and all …

… makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!

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