The world today is characterized by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This communication takes place because of contacts within the areas of business, education, entertainment, tourism but also because of immigration brought about by labor shortage or political conflicts.
In all these contacts, there is communication which needs to be as constructive as possible, without misunderstandings and breakdowns. It is our belief that research on the nature of linguistic and cultural similarities and differences can play a positive and constructive role.
I still remember this incident which happened while I was working in some high-end boutiques where I managed to meet lots of tourist coming from different countries. Somehow, i have difficulty communicating with them especially those customers come from Japan and Korea. I need to make lots of hand signals to them so that they know how to claim their tax refund in the airport. I did tried once before. I had been explaining to one of my customers, a Japanese lady, for sometime on how to go about the tax refund, but she still don't quite understand, till i draw out the picture of the airport.
Moreover, there are two groups of customers who will keep asking for discount, they are people from China and India. While they asking for discount, they will speak very loudly. Some of them even demand for a discount. If asking discount of items failed, they will ask for free gifts. They are one group of customers who are hard to entertain. They can just come in and complain about how bad is this bag or that, and just walk off.
However, people who come from USA, Europe and Austraila, they are very friendly and easy-going when purchasing things. Smile will just spread across their faces while they shop and purchase items till they step out of the store. Sometimes, we can even have some small chats with them.
I believe that language is a survival tool that facilitates our adjustment to our surroundings. Different people who come from different country will portray themselves differently. For example, if one Singaporean went overseas, the "kiasu" attitude will be shown out too.
Humans display universal behaviors regardless of their race or cultural heritage. Moreover, parochial behaviors are bound to particular cultures. Thus, human behavior is the result of inherited pre-programmed behavior, and learned behavior from our social and physical environments. It should be no surprise that the interaction of diverse parochial behaviors may lead to misunderstanding or even conflict. From the insights gained in the view of universal and parochial behavior, some practical communication techniques, that enhance and create effective intercultural communication, were used.
Some examples that illustrate parochial language reflects the type of adaptation necessary for survival in the physical and social surroundings of each culture:
- English people: When they speak, they will continually use the words please and thank you in their conversations, and often avoid direct statements. Thus English language and behavior tends to be periphrastic to avoid offending or alienating the other person.
- Japanese: They can speak to another using a selection of many different address forms to indicate explicitly any one of a whole range of relationships - for example: intimate, familiar, polite, authoritative. This illustrates the hierarchy and ceremony of interpersonal relationships in the society.
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5 comments:
Hi Shao Bin,
I read from some interview that it is actually the chinese culture that they speak loudly while conversing with others. China is a country with a huge population which result in a very competitive society. Thus, in order to gain attention and portrait themselves as being the stronger party, they will try to speak as loud as possible. So when they travel overseas, they bring with them their habitual practice and these may seem to be a rude gesture in foreign countries.
In some countries like Thailand, it is also a practice to ask for discounts since the shop owners usually raise their prices to about 150% of the original price. As a result, foreigners might have insecurities about buying overpriced products which results in them asking for discounts.
Hi Sze Min,
Thanks for your comments which make me aware that is the Chinese culture that they speak loudly. But not all Chinese do that. People from Taiwan will not speak as loud as people from China, so far as i come across with Taiwanese either in Singapore or Taiwan. I totally agree with you that the people from China will try to portrait themselves as being the stronger party.
Anyway, I agree with you on asking discount in Thailand, as i do so often too in night markets whenever I am there. But, i definitely wont do so in high-end boutiques. In my case, they are asking discount in high-end boutiques like how i ask for discount in night markets. Moreover, the high-end boutiques will not anyhow mark up the price. (",)
hi shao bin,
I believe that it is the culture of the Chinese that they should always show that they are superior by flaunting wealth and covering their bad sides up, as the chinese saying goes, "家丑不可外扬". Therefore they probably speak loudly, and are demanding to show that they are superior. Also, it has been noticed that Chinese tourists are demanding and uncouth. The article below gives some insight about the situation.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/21/business/tourists.php
However, i believe that with increasing education and self awareness that they are creating a bad image for their country, they will eventually change their attitudes and become more gracious.
Regarding the part on tourists from Thailand, I guess that the tourists are used to their culture of haggling such that they cannot change, even when shopping at high-end boutiques. As such, maybe it would be good to tell them that the goods are at fixed prices or even place a notice there to prevent them from haggling.
Dear Shao Min,
I would feel very embarrassed if I were you when you were facing those difficult customers at the boutique. Talking loudly and openly demanding for privileges is definitely not what we would expect from our customers. Furthermore, raised voices from customers are usually perceived as incompetent services rendered by the salesperson. I empathize with the experience which you had to endure. I do not know why some Chinese or Indians do that when they buy things but I agree that with you in your comments to Sze Min that not all Chinese do that. And interestingly, some Singaporeans do that too.
In this case, I really think that it is an issue of education instead of the clash of cultures.
Hey girl,
I understand how you felt when you were not able to communicate effectively with the customers. I was once working as a sale girl and to me, language barrier had always been an issue. As my working area was quite near to the port, I often had to serve customers from near by countries. Many times, I would end up using hand signal or drawing to bring my message across to them. Sometimes I felt very frustrated because both parties just could not understand what each other was saying. This often led to many unnecessary misunderstandings. Even though I had worked as a sale for a period of time, this problem still persists.
In my point of view, it is not possible for us to understand all the languages used as there are thousands different forms languages world wide. The best we could do especially in sale line is to be more patience and tolerant when meeting customers who are not able to speak a common language. At the same time, we should learn to appreciate the difference in languages and culture from these customers.
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