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1、Culture and communication styles2004-5-31 Tosomeextent,thewaywecommunicatedependsonourculture.Lookatthetwoquotationsbelow.Theyarefictitious(notreal),butIthinktheyillustratethedifferentstylesofcommunicationthatexistbetweenwesternersandChinese.WhichonedoyouthinkismorelikelytobetheChinesespeaker?Exampl
2、eone:IsuggestthatwedelayourdecisionsuntilafterPegcomaketheirs.OurproductionisnowdoneinChina,anditsnotreallycertainhowtheWTOwillaffectthemarkets.Also,weshouldbecautiousaboutcommittingtolarge-scaleTVadvertising,sinceitissoexpensive.Exampletwo:BecauseourproductionisnowdoneinChina,andbecauseitsnotreally
3、certainhowtheWTOwillaffectthemarkets,andalso,becauseweshouldbecautiousaboutcommittingtolarge-scaleTVadvertising(sinceitissoexpensive).IsuggestthatwedelayourdecisionsuntilafterPegcomaketheirs.Thefirstspeakerismoredirectandpossiblymoreassertive.Ithinkheismorelikelytobeawesterner.ThesecondspeakerusesaC
4、hinesestyleofcommunication-hetendstoexplainthereasonsforhisthinkingbeforemakinghispoint.Culturedeterminesthewayweorganizeourconversations.Linguistshavedescribedthesedifferencesbyusingdiscourseanalysis.Letsusediscourseanalysistolookatthequotationsaboveinmoredetail.TheChinesespeakeruseswhatwemightcall
5、atopic-commentapproach:hegivesbackgroundtothetopicbeforemakinghiscommentonit.Effectivelyhesays,Because,because,because,therefore.(Thisdiffersfromthewesternstyle,whichisoftencomment-topicinformat.)Whenawesternerencountersthetopic-commentapproachforthefirsttimehemayfinditstrange.Abusywesternmanager,fo
6、rexample,mightinterprettheitasfailingtogettothepoint.Hemighteventhinkthatthespeakerwastryingtoavoidsomething.(Ipersonallybelievethatthiskindofthinghasbeenthecauseofmanyanunderstandinginofficesaroundthecity.)Butconsidertheotherwayround.Thewesternspeakersapproachisasfollows:Weshoulddothis,becauseofX,Y
7、,andZ.ImagineaseniorChinesemanagermeetingforthefirsttimewithayoungwesternexecutivewhousedthisapproach.Hemightfindthisassertivenesstooaggressive,ordisrespectful.Onceagain,thiscouldcausemisunderstandingsifbothsideswereunawareofthedifferentstyles.Isuggestyoutrytobecomemoreawareofthedifferencestylesofcommunication,sothatyoucanchoosetheappropriateonesforthesituationsyoufindyourselfin.Illbewritingmoreonthistopicoverthenextfewweeks.By Kai En | Comments 5 | 441 views
