A Point of View: The foibles of four countries. 5 April 2013Last updated at 16:32 GMT American insularity, French insecurity, Canadian unexcitability, British embarrassment - Adam Gopnik on the inherent foibles of four countries close to his heart.
Not long ago, thinking in despair about the American inability to stop shooting its own children, I wrote that every nation has a core irrationality, some belief about itself that no amount of evidence or experience can alter - and a blindness about the need for gun control was ours. I began to wonder if I could identify the true hard core of irrationality in each of the four countries that I know best and have lived in longest.
Yes, I'm about to engage in national stereotyping - but without apologies, because it is the thrum of our normal talk about our experience of the world. The thing we learn when we travel, or ought to, is that each country is a different world, and so to describe the differences is to respect them even when they seem to us more than a little mad. It isn't just baseball. Common Language Doesn't Equal Common Culture - Andy Molinsky. By Andy Molinsky | 10:00 AM April 3, 2013 “Finally,” you think to yourself as you board the plane to London for a series of business meetings with the British subsidiary of your American corporation.
“I can finally travel somewhere without one of those cultural guidebooks for understanding how I’m supposed to behave in a new place.” In the last year alone, you’ve been to China, Korea, and India, and in each place, you’ve worked hard to learn the key differences in how people behave in each of these cultures and how business gets done. But on this final trip of the year to London, you’re pretty sure you can make it on your own. After all, how different could British and American people be in their behaviors and orientation at work? Turns out, quite different! Let’s start with self-promotion, which is one of the strongest differences I found in my research over the past year interviewing managers in the U.S. and the UK.
Preparing for Inevitable Cultural Faux Pas - Andy Molinsky. By Andy Molinsky | 8:00 AM March 21, 2013 Mohammed Abdullah fixed his tie, took a deep breath, and walked into the room.
This was his second interview, and he wanted to make it a good one. Across from him were two gentlemen, much older than he was, dressed very formally and sitting at a long wooden table. They motioned for Mohammed to take a seat, which he did, and they began peppering him with questions: Did he have any problems finding the office? How was the commute? Mohammed knew these small talk questions were coming, but he still felt uncomfortable answering them. You are expected to show this deference by listening carefully to what your elders have to say and by not saying too much yourself. When Crossing Cultures, Use Global Dexterity - Andy Molinsky.
By Andy Molinsky | 9:00 AM March 12, 2013 Picture the following: Greg O’Leary, a 32-year-old mid-level manager, is in Shanghai for the first time to negotiate a critical deal with a distributor.
To prepare himself for the trip, Greg has learned some key cultural differences between China and the U.S. — about how important deference and humility are in Chinese culture, and how Chinese tend to communicate more indirectly than Americans do. He also has learned about how important it is in China to respect a person’s public image or “face.” Finally, Greg also learned a few Chinese words, which he thought could be good potential icebreakers when starting a meeting. Greg quickly realizes, however, that learning cultural differences in theory does not always translate into successful behavior in practice. I’m sure that this isn’t news to any of you. Why? Now of course, not all situations are so difficult.
First, make the behavior your own. The Big Challenge of American Small Talk - Andy Molinsky. By Andy Molinsky | 8:00 AM February 27, 2013 You are a new expatriate manager at the American subsidiary of your German firm in Chicago.
With a few minutes to spare between meetings, you walk into the mail room to retrieve your mail and get a quick cup of coffee. “Hey, David, how are you?” One of the senior partners at the firm asks you. “Good, thank you, Dr. “So Arnold,” your colleague says to your boss, in such a casual manner that it makes your German soul cringe. The conversation moves on, and you slink back to your desk with your coffee. There’s nothing small about the role that small talk plays in American professional culture. When searching for a job, the ability to make effective small talk is essential for creating a quick sense of rapport with potential employers. This is certainly true in formal situations such as an interview or a meeting, where small talk is often used as a friendly, lighthearted precursor to the main, “serious” portion of the discussion.
5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we think.