I have an older character looking to hire a modern-day version of the old-style "companion" - someone to help her out through the day and help maintain her independence. I want the older character to hire someone who doesn't know anything about a lot of her daily activities, including playing bridge, because she wants to train the person up from scratch rather than having to un-teach a bunch of bad habits. Does anyone know bridge well enough to give me an example of a bad habit a mid-level bridge player might have picked up? Something fairly game-specific, if possible. It's to fill in the line: "Yes, I know. I want someone without any bad habits. Imagine the frustration if I'd hired someone who blah blah blah bridge thing." Anyone?
Something about learning new conventions when they've already developed a load of their own with their previous partner is probably the way to go. A large chunk of bridge is talking in code to each other, so when you're used to a slightly different code, it can get confusing. A line like: "Imagine the frustration if I'd hired someone who played weak 2s and I had to beat that idiocy out of them." Would make sense. For context, in case you care, 'weak 2s' means opening 2 of a suit to indicate that you've got a lot of length but not many points. A lot of people prefer strong 2s, which is opening 2 of a hand to say pretty much the exact opposite. It's similar to planning/pantsing in writing - it's not so much wrong as different, but anyone who does it the opposite way to you is clearly a moron.