This may also be a matter of nuance, Ruby. I was stationed in Seoul, ROK in 1988, so I got a chance to absorb some of the differences between Korean and American culture. A civilian who worked on the Army base (I was Navy, but in a joint Army/Navy/Air Force unit) told me Koreans do not like to say “No” — it’s rude! So an American group would make a business proposal to a Korean group, and they thought it was well received, until some time later, when everything fell apart; the Koreans, meanwhile, could not understand why the Americans kept pestering them when they had clearly implied the proposal was total crap.
So an American might think that “We are achieving results not fully up to all our expectations, sadly” is weak weasel-wording, whereas a Korean would hear “I can’t begin to tell you how FUBAR this whole this is.” Similarly, “This whole thing was a total failure” might be heard as “Your idea completely sucked, sh*t for brains.” Americans: “We’re just being honest!” Koreans: “You people are so rude! This is why nobody likes to work with you!”
It was easier working with Koreans on the base, since most of them either had worked with Americans for years and gotten used to us, or just smiled and nodded and pretended not to know English. They also appreciated when I would try my limited Korean with them, although most of them asked if we could help them practice their English (by which I inferred my accent was so bad it hurt their ears).