Dear,All:
Any suggestions for overcoming culture difference? wherever you from,have you been thought about that matter? there is my friend always advise: hey..pls dont with chinese thinking? what is typical chinese thinking in foreigners mind?
BTW,i am chinese girl.thanks.
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overcoming cultural differences depends a lot on how you view these differences. You can concentrate on the differences or you can choose to concentrate on the similarities between people.
The greatest amount of things are similar, it is just the way different people from different regions in the world express them that makes up the "cultural difference".
For example the way of communication in China when something bothers you is rather indirect. People will not blatantly in your face tell you that they don't like you or that you made a mistake, they will just be harder to reach or avoid contact.
I think that if you are a foreigner in a country you should at least try to learn something about the culture after all you are there and it shows respect towards your host that you at least know something about the country you are residing. This is the first step in overcoming cultural differences. The second step is of course the understanding of the host for the sometimes difficult situation the foreigner is placed in when dealing with things outside the normal (home) context.
In short if we try to meet eachother half way we usually are very able to solve the difficulties.
Communication is the most important, what you do not know, you can never understand.
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Thanks,Chirs,i absolutely argeed with what you said,actually,i was very glad to adapt myself to learn different culture and history.my personalities made me optimistic and talktive,because i know commnunication is more important between the two person which from different countries.but if we have nothing in common,how to talk each other?would you like to ask some questions directly for overcoming culture difference?
when my customer visted us,i have to know whats they hobbies,favirate food n religion belief,otherwise i couldnt firgure out how to entertain them.normally chinese prefer having fun in KTV,DISCO,or somewhere like this,as i know,foreingers dislike such noisy place right?
May i give my customer poor excuse: "oh,sorry.culture difference"? my God,we would lost chance to do business.
Have a nice day.
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cutural differences are both simple and not so simple.
it depends on how the people think. im a filipina and my boyfriend is english. our cultures are miles apart.
and there is the steroetypes to overcome. as u may all know filipinas are stereotyped as either gold diggers or DH's.
some stereotypes are true but it doesnt mean that everyone from that culture or country behaves like the stereotypes indicate.
it took little and a lot to overcome those differences between us.
the key is find a common ground between the two of you to start on. once you have that its easy from there.
prepare youself for alot of misunderstandings coz they are a part of knowing a person.
learn from those mistakes and be open minded.
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Its better to do a quick background check if you are dealing with clients. It would be embarrassing if you go to a certain restaurants and they cant eat meat or say go to bars if they don't drink alcohol. You don't have to know their favorite food, just the basic infos will do ;)
Also, it wont hurt if you will ask them directly on the things that they like; right?
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yes.you are right,but i am afraid they will care why i ask too many questions about they hobbies or favorite?may i have any purpose or attention to do something? probably i think too much right? i always think foreigners businessman has good reputation in China? right?
Thanks very much.
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hkkm
17 yrs ago
You don't have to ask them too many personal questions. Just be quite honest and say something like "I'd like to take you out to a few places, is there anything in particular that you'd like to do or see". That way they know exactly why you are asking.
Also, many Western people tend to be quite independent and may like just going out on their own. They may not need (or want) you trying to entertain them all the time (although I'm sure they would appreciate you taking them around to some places). I know that when I'm in a strance city (whether for business or holiday), although it's nice to have a local showing me a few things, I also like to go out on my own too.
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Yes, I agree and recommend what was stated in the previous post. Before I moved to Asia, I was just a foreigner visiting for business. I would always appreciate when my hosts would just ask about my interests, for purposes of entertaining. This would allow me to make suggestions, or politely decline if I wanted to be on my own for that particular trip.
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As far as cultural differences in Business go, when it comes to entertaining. The first night you can take them out and they will expect it, use the first night to get to know them, but don't be too personal. You can do this over dinner and can after dinner ask if they are interested in a bar, the hotelbar is sometimes a very good place too, since they don't have to find their way back.
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i get it right now,i think i will handle this kind of problems in near furture.but another questions is that i found why most of chinese girls and foreigners couldnt get together in the end? is it something wrong with culture difference or something else? look,there are many chinese girl with foreigners strolling outside? unfortunatelly,they couldnt be coupled in near furture? confused
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OK...you're losing me now. I thought we were talking about entertaining business clients. Let me ask a question and I hope I'm not getting too personal. Are you interested in dating a foreigner? Is that the reason for the questions? When it comes to relationships, there can be multiple reasons why some work and some do not. It could be that the cultural gap became too large or it could be because one of them snores too loud. If two people enter a relationship for the right reasons then it will usually work, regardless of their culture. If they enter for the wrong reasons, then it probably will not work out, and it doesn't matter if they are the same culture or not. My suggestion is not to look at a few examples, and apply that to everyone. Sometimes we cna have more differences with people within our own cultures than with those outside. Don't spend too much time analyzing other people. Jsut trust your instincts.
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