Where Cultural Miscommunication Happens

Cindy King — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:00:25 +0000

Improve Your Cross-Cultural Communication

It often seems as if cultural miscommunication crops up in the most unexpected place. If you take a closer look, misunderstandings happen due to the wide areas of cultural differences.

You can put most miscommunication between cultures into categories:

Different Values

Different cultures have different core beliefs and national traits. And this effects cross-cultural communication and international business across the board through different:

Attitudes
Reactions
Expectations

Different Habits And Styles In Communication

Some people just communicate differently. There is no meaning to it. This is just what they are used to.

Different styles in communication can be:

Direct and indirect communication – such as getting straight to business in your first meeting or only after a shared meal.
Expected or conventional niceties – such as wishing happy new year to everyone you meet for the first time between December 31st through January 31st
In speech – such as speaking loudly or not
Other actions while communicating – such as handshakes or kissing ladies on the cheeks

Different Concepts Of Time

Cultural differences in conventions and how things should be done. There are differences of what is usual, acceptable and polite… and what is not.

You need to adapt the length of your sales cycles to the local cultures.
In some cultures 7:00 am breakfast meetings and Friday meetings in late afternoon are barbarian.

Different Use Of Physical Space

Some cultures need to talk to each other at very different distances. People need more or less physical space between themselves and anyone else.

When you first start meeting people from different cultures this can be comical to observe. People take steps back and forth, naturally adjusting the space to what they are comfortable with.

And if one of the two people is not at his usual distance from the other, this can effect the whole conversation.

Avoiding Cultural Miscommunication

Knowing where cultural misunderstandings usually happen can help you adjust your communication when you notice a something out of place cropping up.

Practice using this knowledge to improve your cross-cultural communication skills.

Cindy King's International Business Blog » cultural habits