Lecture 2

Communicating across cultures

Communicating across cultures
Need for Cross Cultural Awareness
Business has become more global and it is
essential to establish good communication
to improve productivity and promote good
working environment
Involves understanding cultural differences
and overcome language problems

Problems of culture differences:

-over generalize cultural practices
-improperly blamed for miscommunication
Communicating across cultures
Two types of cultural differences:
1. Difference in body position and
movements
-gestures, body movements, walking
manners
-eye contacts, hand movement
-touching and hand shakes, nose rubbing,
smiling, some see as sign of weakness
-receiving gift also can be seen as negative
Communicating across cultures
Factors of human relationship
-Time: some stress on punctuality, some do
not. Those who view time as important
tends to set rules and policies governing
the use of time.
-Space: the distance between two persons,
while in conversation to create ample space
for communication, in others it seem rude
and impolite/breach of personal space
-frankness: some prefer blunt and
straightforward, while some prefer
messages to be put in subtle way.
-intimacy: women are seen equal in some
cultures, some do not
Communicating across cultures
-values: whether your commitment is
lifetime or temporary. Respects earn
through supervisor-worker relationship,
some none applies

2. Expressions and emotions

-most people seen it as social behavior and
affection, while some others view it
offensive and crude
-death is expressed with tears but some
expressed it with joy, to celebrate the
passing and embraced new life
Communicating across cultures
How will cultures affect business
communication?
-whether to use a direct or indirect
approach, therefore it must be modified to
fit recipients
-meaning of terms and words use differ
across business, when and where to use
what words and jargon

Lack of language equivalency

-meaning of different words may used in
different levels, each may cause drastic
change or mood
Communicating across cultures
Some words may mean different, i.e. florist
is a person who sell flowers but in India, it
means a street vendor!

French is known as the language of

romance but it has no words to distinguish
‘house’ from ‘home’, ‘mind’ and ‘brain’, or
‘man’ and ‘gentleman’

Grammar differences also created the

barrier, i.e. if we are to clarify a matter, we
say ‘is this true?’ but for a French, he/she
will most likely to say ‘this is correct, false?’
Communicating across cultures
Cultural derived words also tend to create
miscommunication in business, i.e. ‘-lah’ for
Malaysians, or ending a sentence with
‘mate’ for New Zealanders, or a pretty girl
known as ‘sheila’ for Australians!

Words derived from sports, i.e. kick off,

touch base, knock out, keep the ball rolling
may also create confusion

Colloquialism also confuse communication,

such as fish out of the water meaning
someone in a foreign place
Communicating across cultures
Therefore, it is essential to:
-understand and embrace diversity, and
each other contributions to the organization
-recognise and celebrate differences which
exist in different cultures
-realise the value of each people and their
contribution
-avoid being judgmental and do not simply
assume or generalise