The 7 Ways an Indian Programmer Says No made me chuckle because of its broad applicability.

Indirect communication is common in Asia, the Middle East, Latin / South America and many Mediterranean and African countries. Direct communication is the norm in Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other parts typically considered “The West”.

People from direct communication cultures strive to quickly relate information with great clarity when conversing, so as to not waste the listener’s time – a precious commodity valued by many direct communication cultures. Individuals from indirect communication cultures strive to maintain the honor and face of both the speaker and listener. Therefore, the speaker says what s/he thinks the listener wants to hear, even if this is not the unadulterated truth. Such face-saving is considered kind, polite and respectful.

This can be confusing for those of us who are direct communicators because we expect communication to be clear and precise, where what is said is what is meant. For direct communicators, their word is their bond.

Indirect communication relies on context, particularly eye contact, facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language rather than the spoken word. By paying attention to non-verbal language, listeners can decipher the true message. If you come from a direct culture, it may take time to understand the nuances of indirect communication where what is not said can be as important as what is said. People from direct cultures must learn to listen hard to avoid missing the subtleties. They may also need to temper their speech pattern to not appear overly blunt and rude.

Clues to help you decipher indirect communication:

• In Azerbaijan, people apologize for saying no to a request. They may add phrases such as “I wish it were possible”, “If it were possible I would do it” or “In the future it may be possible.”
• Be on the lookout for the word “maybe” because it can be used to make a direct statement indirect. Rather than tell me this blog needs to be edited, a Chinese publisher might say, “Maybe this blog should be edited.”
• If you hear phrases such as “I will see”, “I will try” or “It may be difficult,” you’ve probably been given a negative response.
• If there is a long pause or other non-verbal cues such as avoiding the eyes or evasive responses, you’ve probably just been told no.
• Rather than accept assurances or agreements on face value, ask for specifics. It can be difficult to get definite answers to questions if the response would be negative. Therefore, watch for evasions or half statements.

There are times when bad news must be given. That’s not a problem to the direct communicator, but presents a real challenge to the indirect communicator. In many Asian countries, bad news is handled by a third-party so that both sides can retain face. Negative questions are another interesting quirk of indirect communication since the response may differ depending upon which language is used.

• In response to the question “Isn’t this document ready?”, the English response would be “no”, meaning the document is not ready, while the Japanese response would be “yes”, meaning “yes, the document is not ready.”
• Russians often ask negative questions such as “Did you not know?”, so that the person responding may give a positive response to indicate a negative answer.

If you are from a culture with a more direct communication style, you may need to train your ear and mind to catch indirectness before responding to questions, or else your response may confuse the listener.

How do you ensure you’re getting the correct answer?

• Ask open-ended questions and ask the same question several ways (re-phrase) to make certain you understood the response.
• Learn to phrase questions so that the desired response is not obvious. Instead of asking, “Will the report be finished by Friday?” you might ask, “When will the report be finished?”

For those of us who have been raised in direct cultures, it is important that we learn to understand the signals we receive from indirect communicators. Otherwise, we create our own baffling towers of Babel.

Carrie
RW3 CultureWizard

Read Sean Dubberke’s MOBILITY magazine article by clicking here.

All employees of global organizations are candidates for intercultural training, and the article highlights the methods and strategies experts use today to build the global business skills required to perform internationally.

RW3 CultureWizard

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

84% of Global Employees Not Prepared for Today’s Work Requirements
Study shows virtual work poses significant challenges to a majority of corporate employees

NEW YORK, NY – According to a study conducted by RW3 CultureWizard, an intercultural communication training organization, 87% of white collar employees of multinational companies conduct at least part of their work virtually. The study went on to find that while the vast majority of these employees encountered challenges in virtual work, only 16% had any training to prepare them.

The study had a stunning response rate: 3,300 business people from 103 countries. ”It is clear that the survey struck a nerve,” says Charlene Solomon, president of RW3. “In fact, the huge response itself is one of the key findings. There is a pent-up demand for expressing the difficulty of working virtually across time zones, languages and cultures.”

The 2012 Virtual Teams Survey Report – Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams found that in the virtual workplace decisions take longer and are harder to make, the absence of visual cues makes it more difficult to collaborate and building team trust is difficult. The survey also found that working across time zones rivaled communication and other culturally based challenges as the biggest hurdle facing corporate employees.

“It appears that while nearly everyone in today’s workplace recognizes the need—and appreciates the value—of virtual work, it is not easy, especially when cultural differences, time zone challenges, accents and communication styles enter the equation,” says Solomon.

The survey unearthed some surprises:
– 41% of virtual team members never met their colleagues in a face-to-face setting.
– 87% of respondents indicated at least 25% of their productivity depended upon working virtually.
– 33% said at least half of their virtual teams were outside the home country.
– Respondents reported virtual teams were most different from face-to-face teams in managing conflict (70%), expressing opinions (55%), and making decisions (55%).
– The top five challenges during team meetings were: insufficient time to build relationships (79%), speed of decision making (73%), lack of participation (71%), different leadership styles (69%), and the method of decision making (55%).

“The rapid pace of globalization and the growing number of collaborative software solutions have enabled virtual work, and the demand for skills from around the world have made it a necessity, but virtual team work is not intuitive,” says Michael Schell, RW3’s CEO. “It’s about time we recognize the human side of the equation.”

For more information or an interview on the 2012 Virtual Teams Survey Report, contact sean.dubberke@rw-3.com or dial +1-212-691-8900.

RW3 CultureWizard is an intercultural training consultancy that specializes in creating online solutions and e-learning facilities for its multinational organizations. Founded in 2001 and with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and London, RW3 blends over 30 years of experience in teaching global culture with cutting edge technologies. The company’s services include instructor led cross-cultural training, global and virtual team building and international assignee support.

Avril Liu, 22, graduate student, Guangxi province. Photo by Adrian Frisk.

Read this New Yorker story on the confused, uncertain attitude youth in China have on life in a swiftly evolving period in their history.

Which picture from the China project stays with you most? How did you meet?

It is hard to pin down the one image that made the deepest impression on me—as many of them did. But if I had to pick one, I would say the photograph of Avril Lui (above) taken in Guangxi Province. Avril had recently graduated from university in Hunan Province, and I met her when my translator and I went to a place teaching English as a summer course. Her statement was: “We are the lost generation. I’m confused about the world.” This photograph seems to have struck a chord with many of the young Chinese who have viewed it. I think the pace of change has been so rapid in China in these last two decades that many of the young are in a spin which has left them somewhat confused. Their parents’ generation had a clear idea of what their identity was and the better life they were struggling for. Now that that better world has arrived it can be argued that life for the Chinese youth might have more opportunity but has in turn become more complicated with difficult career decisions, an increasingly materialistic society, and a complex relationship with the West. All this contributes to a sense of confusion. Avril is also referring to the fact that her parents generation rarely talks about or acknowledges the Cultural Revolution that had so much impact on Chinese society at the time—or for that matter any history, particularly, of more recent times. There is a sense amongst some young Chinese that they have arrived; but, where from, and has it been worth it? I also like this photograph because of the classic building in the background and the traditionally dressed man in blue on the bicycle. These visual keys are a nod to the world from which China has so recently arrived from.

The contradictions and intricacies of modern culture in China are enough to make anyone’s head spin. Simultaneous rebellion and conformity – modernity pulling minds in one direction and traditional values leading them in another. What do you make of this story?

Sean
RW3 CultureWizard

Lost in Translation

Do you ever reflexively spring to use a word in a foreign language when you can’t think of anything adequate in your mother tongue? Well, that may not happen to many of us, but this post on the Matador Network relates 20 words that do not have counterparts in the English language. They can only be described, which often diminishes the original sense of the word.

Here are a few I found particularly interesting:

Kyoikumama
Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.” (Altalang.com)

Tartle
Scottish – The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name. (Altalang.com)

Saudade
Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade. (Altalang.com)

Ya’aburnee
Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

What can you add to this list?

Sean
RW3 CultureWizard

Given centuries of turmoil in China, today’s leaders will do everything in their power to preserve stability. Whenever I have doubts about a potential Chinese policy shift, I examine the options through the stability lens. It has worked like a charm.

Stephen S. Roach tells us this in an article published on Project Syndicate. The economic history of China tells us the same story. Each dynasty was concerned with maintaining the status quo of the Middle Kingdom, preventing popular uprising and ensuring everyone had food to eat. Today, this same model has been analyzed by the intercultural field as a root value that informs behavior. George Renwick’s stability model illustrates the origins of this deeply embedded Chinese norm.

To avoid scarcity of resources and starvation, stability becomes the most important value.

With survival of the family unit as the most important value, maintaining stability takes shape in a number of ways, and everyone has a supporting role. The cultivation of rice, China’s staple, has historically been an especially labor-intensive form of agriculture that required an entire family’s participation.

The most successful path to providing one’s family with stability evolved around a good education, obtaining a good position of employment alongside perpetual reinforcement of face or honor for one’s family. This leads to a greater network of influential connections, otherwise known as guanxi. Many people who have done business in China know the word guanxi and how important it is to have relationships with people who can help you or your family in times of challenge and need.

In light of China’s economic and developmental trajectory, the central party continues to focus on stability and the momentum of its “harmonious” rise.

…Those at the top no longer want to concede anything when it comes to stability. By addressing economic instability through pro-consumption rebalancing, and political instability by removing Bo [Xilai], stability has gone from a risk factor to an ironclad commitment.

Will this relentless approach towards stability continue to define the motivation behind China political and economic behavior in the 21st century? Will this sociocultural and political value change considering the growing appetite for consumerism and material wealth, which is connected to the all important Chinese notion of status? This also makes me wonder how to conflate the Chinese penchant for gambling with stability. I wonder how many people use credit cards in China in the way they are often used (excessively) in the US.

Please share your thoughts on this matter. How do you envision China’s path to stable economic growth vis-a-vis its modern cultural drivers?

Sean
RW3 CultureWizard

I just read this Reuters article about how nearly half the workers around the world (varying a bit by country) would consider living and working abroad. The article in itself was fairly interesting, but for some reason – I don’t know, maybe my kid was watching Star Wars recently — I couldn’t help but see the article and the statistics it presented in something of a mythic scope. In many ways, for the times we’re living in, an international work assignment is a modern uptake of the classic Hero’s Journey. Behold and marvel!

From Wikipedia: “The hero begins in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unknown world of strange powers and events. The hero who accepts the call to enter this strange world must face tasks and trials, either alone or with assistance. In the most intense versions of the narrative, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help. If the hero survives, he may achieve a great gift or ‘boon.’ The hero must then decide whether to return to the ordinary world with this boon. If the hero does decide to return, he or she often faces challenges on the return journey. If the hero returns successfully, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world.”

DEPARTURE:
The boss calls and asks if you’re open to an international assignment, The Call to Adventure. Reflectively, you answer “Yes.” Selfish thoughts of adventure, promotions and increased pay are bubbling to the fore. As the excitement settles, reality sets in—leaving family, friends, the comfort of the known and familiar. A personal crisis ensues. You don’t think you have what it takes to accept the challenge, you contemplate a Refusal of the Call. Then, as if by divine providence you meet a Supernatural Aid, that wise elder, parent, friend or senior partner who offers up the golden nuggets of insight that compel you to answer the call to adventure. You pack your suitcase and laptop, brave the visa and immigration process, the long international flight and arrive in a new land, The Crossing of the First Threshold. Filled with high hopes, you step off the plane and immediately are cast into The Belly of the Whale, assaulted by new sights, smells and sounds. It’s pouring rain, you can’t get a taxi, and no one understands a word you’re saying. Your stomach suddenly drops with the feeling that this is going to be much harder than you imagined. Your adventure has officially begun!

INITIATION:
Your first few weeks on the job seem like a Road of Trials, as everywhere you turn, every moment offers up a new test or challenge. You persevere, but admittedly fail more than you have in years. You miss home. Struggling to adjust to a new culture, routine and workplace has you at your wits end. You’re close to calling it quits, when suddenly, this new culture offers you a truly inspiring insight into the nature of life and the depth of your own capacities. You experience the proverbial Meeting with the Goddess. You emerge focused and inspired, and you’ll need to be. At this point in the assignment your new found confidence opens you to the world of wonderment that the host country resembles – a Host of Temptations before you. You begin to love your adopted land too much and fall into a pattern of indulgence. One too many cups of sakes, pitchers of beers or glasses of wine become the norm. Who would have ever thought that karaoke could be this much fun and late night street food so delicious? Suddenly, you’re the life of the party, the most popular kid in school and you go overboard in your enthusiasm. Your boss, a long time expat, clearly sees what’s happening to you. He was once there himself. Now the wise elder, he asks you to lunch, shows you the error of your ways and offers you a chance of Atonement.

The not so subtle dress-down from your boss proves mortifying. He was right. You’d fallen into indulgence, took your eye off the goal, let the team and company down, and ultimately behaved in a selfish and immature fashion. You’re a bit ashamed and for the next several weeks you keep your nose to the grindstone. You’re going through a change. You start to think about what you really want from life, this assignment, and the kind of person you want to be. You’re going through an Apotheosis of sorts and the immature and selfish parts of you are beginning to die off. Over the course of the next few months, you rebuild your image from that of expat partygoer, to a person of real integrity and commitment. And it’s just in time as the culmination of a massive project is approaching and the single most important reason why you were given this opportunity. But you’re ready for the challenge, rise to the occasion, integrate all that you’ve learned about being effective in this foreign culture, lead your team with great skill and selflessness, and completely ace the job. All the potential your boss back home saw in you, and the entire reason you were chosen for this assignment has paid off. You have attained The Ultimate Boon.

RETURN:
That night, a great party ensues. You’re the hero of the day. Your mission accomplished. Yet, off in a corner of the restaurant, you are privately gripped by melancholy. The great focus that has driven your life for this past year is now over and the time to return home is at hand. You’ve made such good friends in this new land and have come to love it. Truly, as the adage suggests, life in pursuit of a great challenge is more fulfilling than its attainment. When your boss approaches with a new promotion and a first class ticket home you accept with gratitude, but little joy, and contemplate a Refusal of the Return. You are now an expat – a person not fully of one place or another, perhaps you’ve even identified as a truly multicultural individual. The time has come, you must return home to start your new life: the inevitable Crossing of the Return Threshold. The trick now, as you return to the world of the old and familiar, is to maintain all about you that is new and recreated, to be a Master of the Two Worlds. Who would of thought that taking that international assignment would have proved to be such a heroic endeavor and instilled you with the Freedom to Live?

Adam
RW3 CultureWizard

A compendium of current news and headlines with commentary providing unique cultural insight into global affairs, business and daily life around the world.

Interested in receiving the CultureWizard Digest every month? Click here to sign up.

Check out CultureWizard Digest #47 here!

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE:

* Umberto Eco and European Identity
* Best-Selling Cookie in China
* Telling Time Around the World
* Germans, Brits and Pygmies

CultureLinks
+ Rwanda’s Heart
+ Fluent in 11 Languages
+ Physical Appearance and Language

CultureTips
+ European Culture

RW-3.com

Read Charlene Solomon’s article in MOBILITY magazine, “International Assignments: Then & Now”.

RW3 CultureWizard

Geremie Sawadogo of the World Bank surveyed 200 international aid workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and found the top cultural challenges to be: 1) the way time is used and perceived, 2) hierarchy and family lineage, 3) relationship building, 4) deference to authority and 5) the concept of “face”.

These findings are presented in his recent MOBILITY article. Sawadogo highlights the challenge of defining general cultural concepts within the scope of “Africa” (the continent) and Sub-Saharan Africa as a region. Just as one can’t look at Europe or Asia as a general cultural region, although many always refer to the “West” and “East” for simplicity’s sake, Africa can’t accurately be understood in this context.

One of the article’s most interesting insights is an expression for losing face from Cote d’Ivoire, which is translated to “you poured my face down on the ground.” This descriptive saying expresses how losing face can severely damage a business relationship and a person’s stature within a business. Culture also informs the definition of risk, which “face” impacts: do you risk loss of face in order to reveal certain facts, or do you save face by avoiding mention of something that would be like “pouring someone’s face on the ground”?

What do you value: saving face or objectivity? What have your personal and professional experiences been in Africa?

Also, to learn more about doing business in Africa, watch this TED talk given by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Want to help Africa? Do business here.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

A compendium of current news and headlines with commentary providing unique cultural insight into global affairs, business and daily life around the world.

Interested in receiving the CultureWizard Digest every month? Click here to sign up.

Check out CultureWizard Digest #36 here!

* A Relationship with Disaster
* Cultural Reaction to Catastrophe in Japan
* McWeddings
* Culture of the Eyes

CultureLinks
+ Indians have a sense of humor, too
+ China’s First Nigerian Pop Star

CultureTips
+ Bahrain

RW-3.com

The impossible-to-imagine three-pronged catastrophe hitting Japan right now is almost too much to take in. Yet, we do try to take it in; to make sense of it, and in some ways we share this global disaster on a human level. I lived in Japan; I have always lived in earthquake country and I’ve witnessed powerful quake damage in Los Angeles and San Francisco several times. It is scary as your home moves around you and the ground underneath you has tantrums of varying degrees throughout the days that follow. Add a devastating tsunami and the post traumatic stress of shared recollections of radiation and it really is too much to conceive.

Yet, watching the televised images of Japanese reacting to the disaster reminds me again how different cultures are as they express their grief, fear and trauma. In an unprecedented event, Emperor Akihito gave a televised speech in which he comforted his people and applauded their ability to remain calm and respectful of each other.

Emperor Akihito's Speech

We are very interested in hearing your thoughts on what has happened and would especially value any accounts from individuals who have been in Japan or have heard stories from people in Japan. How would you react to the “keep calm and carry on” theme that many officials in Japan have exuded over the past few days? How is the stoic facade the Japanese have maintained connected to Japanese culture?

Click here to read a personal account of what’s happened from an intercultural consultant based in Tokyo, Japan.

Below are links to related articles:
Bangkok Post: “Stoic calm in the face of utter calamity“
Japan Times: A round-up of updates
Washington Post: “Emperor Akihito gives message of comfort in televised address“
Korea Herald: “Former ‘comfort women’ pray for Japan“

“Business schools like to tout their focus on globalization, but a new report from a b-school accrediting agency says most of their strategies don’t go far enough,” according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business published the report in question.

We’d like to ask who out there went to a graduate business program – either in the US or elsewhere – where the education provided was globally focused and required coursework abroad. Did the experience adequately emphasize the particulars of today’s very global business environment? Were there any courses focusing on intercultural business skills and competencies?

What about other global graduate school degrees? In late 2009, Sean Dubberke of RW3 wrote an article on global education for Mobility magazine. What do you feel it takes to be adequately prepared to engage in truly global, cross-cultural business?

Adam

RW3 CultureWizard

An impressive display of forward-thinking youths in Alexandria garnered the Wall Street Journal’s attention earlier this month during the height of anti-Mubarak protests.

According to the article, “…Egyptian youths held hands last week to form a human cordon around the massive [library of Alexandria]…”

According to the library’s director, Ismail Serageldin, the Bibliotheca Alexandria, its formal Latin name, “has proved to be a key tool in ‘a battle for the hearts and minds’ of Egyptians, and whose programs served as a catalyst for the current civic unrest. ‘We’re spreading the values of democracy, freedom of expression, tolerance, diversity and pluralism that…are taking root in the young generation.’”

The library is a bastion of the values the Egyptian youth embodies, values towards which the country has made great progress over the past few weeks. It’s unique collection of material is described below:

Young people, scholars and gaping foreign tourists frequent the building to gain access to materials that are hard to come by in Arab countries. The collection, though far from complete, includes volumes critical of Islam, others dealing with gays and lesbians, and books that offer contrasting views on Zionism and Israeli affairs. Even the works of Salman Rushdie are available, though these are kept on closed stacks to prevent them from being destroyed by vandals, as are art-history volumes containing nudes.

Egypt’s population structure, where 52.3% are under the age of 25 (according to this interactive map from The Economist), and the relative influence of its youth is another important topic to note from a cultural point of view. Their exposure to the internet and the growing popularity of social media has connected Egyptian youth in a way previous generations could never connect. Virtual networks facilitate more open exchange of ideas, commiseration over politics and friendships with people all over the world have surely contributed to the surge of support that eventually led to an organized protestation.

Protesters at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

The library, too had a role to play in this: “We taught a lot of these kids who are demonstrating how to use computers, how to use social media, and I’m glad to see it’s put to good use,” said Sohair Wastawy, a former chief librarian.

How else will the youth’s culture, vision and determination impact the trajectory of Egypt’s future? How is their world view changing Egyptian culture?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Illustration by Alex Gross

Fast Company’s spread on China’s plentitude of social networking sites designed in the image of Facebook is a foray into the culture of China’s online denizens born in the 1980′s and 1990′s.

Because Facebook is prohibited by the Great Firewall of China, dozens of sites have taken a share of the social media market over the past few years. The article contains some truly cultural insights, which I’ve posted below.

Liu Neng, a sociologist at Peking University, says that [the young] generation has come to see social networks as ‘a place of escape. Online, they find a sense of security and a sense of social worthiness. It’s a place where they can derive their own youth culture. These are things they cannot get from their real lives, where they feel pressure.’

…In a society where the collective has long been emphasized over the individual, first thanks to Confucian values and then because of communism, these sites have created fundamentally new platforms for self-expression. They allow for nonconformity and for opportunities to speak freely that would be unusual, if not impossible, offline. In fact, these platforms might even be the basis for a new culture. ‘A good culture is about equality, acceptance, and affection,’ says Han Taiyang, 19, a psychology major at Tsinghua University who uses Renren constantly. ‘Traditional thinking restrains one’s fundamental personality. One must escape.’

This tells us individuality is a new value youth culture is embracing more than ever before. This also alludes to important implications for the commercial applications of social media sites:

…According to Netpop Research in San Francisco, Chinese Internet users are twice as conversational as American users; in other words, they’re twice as likely to post to online forums, chat in chat rooms, or publish blogs. And to the joy of advertisers and marketers, social media is twice as likely to influence Chinese buying decisions as American ones, which explains why brands such as BMW, Estée Lauder, and Lay’s have flocked to China’s social networks.

Because so many social sites are nearly identical copies of their predecessors, the concept of intellectual property in China is an important theme of the article. Wang Xing, founder of one of China’s most successful social media sites – Renren, echoes the view that in a very group-oriented society, copying and re-producing ideas is not seen as stealing, but rather supporting the community through improvement:

When asked how [Wang Xing] could be so comfortable with copying, he says he has nothing to say about intellectual-property rights. In fact, many Chinese have remarkably lax views on IP. Copying usually isn’t seen as wrong as long as you’re making something better or cheaper.

This is a powerful case that illustrates a culturally-based view on IP. It reminds me of the stories I’ve heard in chatting with other intercultural consultants. During tests and examination, Chinese students will often whisper their thoughts on the correct answers (otherwise known as cheating in the West). When the Western instructor intervenes, the candid response of the students depicts their strong desire to help their teammates – not to compete with them.

Furthermore, ideas on the rule of law are commonly expressed by Chinese youth where they compare it to law in the West: “In the West, law is like an .exe file. In China, law is like a .txt file.”

Did you get that? “In other words, in the West, the law works. In China, it exists, but doesn’t operate…” according to the article. The loose enforcement of laws in China speaks to the more case-by-case approach most Chinese take to rules.

What else do these websites tell you about the culture of China’s future middle class? How can this cultural knowledge impact your decision to do business in China or with Chinese colleagues?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard