Английский для социологов. Астафурова Т.Н. - 4 стр.

     UNIT 1. COMMUNICATION IN CROSSCULTURAL




                   PROFESSIONAL INTERACTION
       In intercultural communication people meet with a lot of problems
across culture nature. Understanding what the aspirations of people in
different cultures are is important. It’s very important to be as open-
minded as you possibly can. You come across different kinds of cultures
and they affect business in different ways. You should be aware of a
number of things: there are different attitudes towards work, time,
towards resolving problems, working in teams and so on. In an Anglo-
American culture, they emphasise action, doing things and achieving
things. But when you’re dealing with people who are much more
comfortable with consensus, in discussion, then you shouldn’t dismiss
that as time-wasting. You should have a very open attitude to how
people approach work. The simple things like inappropriate food, alcohol,
etc. are much easier to deal with than these more subtle things.
       To be more marketable in today’s economy you have to develop
cross-cultural awareness and ‘your attitude’ (ability to see things through
your partner’s eyes). Every country has its own customs. Also you
shouldn’t assume that because you understand the culture of the capital
city you also understand the culture in the provinces and other areas
in the country. For example, in Colombia where you have a very
sophisticated group of people working in Bogota, their lifestyle, their
way of life, their culture if you like is quite different from, for
example, one of the provinces a long way from the city where the
Government and the Government culture in the capital has had very
little chance to spread.
       When speaking about different nations we use stereotyped
definitions. Do you agree with the definitions given below? What
definitions could you add? How could you define your nationality?
         The Germans — hardworking, ambitious, successful,
                           aggressive, arrogant, etc.
          The Japanese — successful, ambitious, clever, hardworking, etc.
        The Americans — successful, ambitious, aggressive, modern, etc.

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