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• Rephrase your sentence when necessary. If someone doesn't seem to understand what you have said, choose simpler words; don't just repeat the sentence in a louder voice.
• Don't talk down to the other person. Americans tend to overenunciate and to "blame" the listener for lack of comprehension. It is preferable to use phrases such as "Am I going too fast?" rather than "Is this too difficult for you?"
• Use objective, accurate language. Americans tend to throw around adjectives such as fantastic and fabulous, which foreigners consider unreal and overly dramatic. Calling something a "disaster" will give rise to images of war and death; calling someone an "idiot" or a "prince" may be taken literally.
• Let other people finish what they have to say. If you interrupt, you may miss something important. And you'll show a lack of respect.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
As we know, misunderstandings are especially likely to occur when the people who are communicating have different backgrounds. Party A encodes a message in one context, using assumptions common to people in his or her culture; Party B decodes the message using a different set of assumptions. The result is confusion and, often, hard feelings. For example, take the case of the computer sales representative who was calling on a client in China. Hoping to make a good impression, the salesperson brought along a gift to break the ice, an expensive grandfather clock. Unfortunately, the Chinese client was deeply offended because, in China, giving clocks as gifts is considered bad luck for the recipient.
Such problems arise because of our unconscious assumptions and non-verbal communication patterns. We ignore the fact that people from other cultures differ from us in many ways: in their religion and values, their ideas of status, their decision-making habits, their attitude toward time, their use of space, their body language, and their manners. We assume, wrongly, that other people are like us. At Vons, management has spent a great deal of time learning about the cultural preferences of the store's Hispanic customers.
Religion and values
Although North America is a melting pot of people with different religions and values, the predominant influence in this culture is the Puritan ethic: If you work hard and achieve success, you will find favour in the eyes of God. They tend to assume that material comfort is a sign of superiority, that the rich are a little bit better than the poor, that people who work hard are better than those who don't. They believe that money solves many problems. They assume that people from other cultures share their view, that they dislike poverty and value hard work. In fact, many societies condemn materialism and prize a carefree life-style.
As a culture, they are goal-oriented. They want to get the work done in the most efficient manner, and they assume that everyone else does too. They think they are improving things if they can figure out a way for two people using modern methods to do the same work as four people using the "old way." But in countries like India and Pakistan, where unemployment is extremely high, creating jobs is more important than getting the work done efficiently. Executives in these countries would rather employ four workers than two.
Roles and status
Culture dictates the roles people play, including who communicates with whom, what they communicate, and in what way. In many countries, for example, women still do not play a very prominent role in business. As a result, female executives from American firms may find themselves sent off to eat in a separate room with the wives of Arab businessmen, while the men all eat dinner together.
Реферат опубликован: 15/07/2009