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Interactions 1 Reading, 4e

Elaine Kirn, West Los Angeles College
Pamela Hartmann, Los Angeles Unified School District

Cultures of the World

Read

A lot of reading material on the topic of world cultures includes descriptions of cultural situations. These stories tell what happened to create cross-cultural misunderstanding or learning. Following are two short stories with the general title "Doing Business Across Cultures." Read the passages. Then, on the lines before two of the topics listed below, write the story letters A or B. Place an X before the topics that are not addressed.

Doing Business Across Cultures

A A young American businessman stepped out of negotiations with a Chinese company feeling confident about the meeting. After a little small talk, he came right to the point. He spelled out his objectives, and he was very clear about deadlines and expectations. He was sure that the outcome would be positive. Although the Chinese executives didn't promise anything outright, they said that they would consider the proposal, and that perhaps something would work out. The next day, however, he received a call saying that they would like to continue negotiations "with a more senior member of the firm." The American businessman was shocked and surprised. "I don't know what went wrong," he said to a colleague. "I was aggressive about my goals, I came to the point...and anyway, my supervisor doesn't know nearly as much about the project as I do." The next week, the businessman's supervisor continued the negotiations, and after three more meetings, they finally struck a deal with the Chinese firm.

B Soo-Yung Kim, a Korean businesswoman, went to Rio for a business trip. It was her first trip to Brazil. When she arrived, two colleagues from the Rio office of her firm greeted her at the airport. Although the three had spoken many times on the phone, and they had a good working relationship, they had never met before. The Brazilian woman gave Soo-Yung a kiss on the on the cheek, and the Brazilian man shook her hand firmly, touched her arm, and patted her on the back. Soo-Yung Kim smiled, bowed politely, and followed her hosts to the taxi. Her hosts were very excited to finally meet Soo-Yung and to show her the sights of Rio. They laughed as they pointed out the window to Corcovado and Pão de Açúcar. Soo-Yung continued smiling, but remained very quiet. Finally, when they arrived at the hotel, her hosts told her to hurry up and get ready—they had a big evening planned with dinner and dancing. Soo-Yung smiled and explained that she was very tired and would prefer to rest up and prepare for the next day's meeting. Later that night, Soo-Yung called a friend in Korea and expressed her concerns about the meeting. "I am very nervous," she explained. "It seems they don't really respect me as a businesswoman, and I'm afraid that the gentleman is being sexually inappropriate! I don't know what to do." Her friend explained to her that Brazilians were very outgoing, and that it is normal for conversations to be very animated and to involve a lot of physical contact.


1		concepts of time and punctuality—doing things in a certain order or at a particular time


2		greetings and meeting new people; acceptable public behavior and personal space


3		negotiating style; directness and indirectness in communication


4		ideas about individual and group responsibilities and rights


5		visiting a family at home; eating and drinking

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