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The international flavour of many people's jobs naturally means that there is greater interaction between people from different cultures. Within the business environment, understanding and coping with intercultural differences between people is critical to ensuring that interpersonal communication is successful. Intercultural awareness is necessary for two reasons. Firstly, it minimises the possibility of misunderstandings and/or the causing of offense through intercultural mishaps. Secondly, it is a means to maximising the potential of business relationships through the utilization of intercultural differences productively. One area within the business environment in which intercultural awareness is a necessity is in the business presentation. Directors, managers, salespeople, consultants and business personnel are regularly required to deliver presentations. However, when one is asked to give a presentation to an audience from a different culture there are intercultural factors that can hinder the success of a presentation. By way of illustrating some of the intercultural differences in presentations, these tips to effective cross cultural presentations are offered: Language: The language you use in a cross cultural presentation is important. Although the majority of the language that is used in a cross cultural presentation will be understood by an English speaking foreign audience, a speaker must be careful when it comes to slang, idioms or phrases. If an Englishman were to talk of being "knocked for six" or "bowled over" he may very well be met with puzzled expressions. More subtly, when an American talks of a 'billion' he means a thousand million, whereas in the UK this would mean a million million. Try and keep language simple. Body Language: Pay attention to your body language in a cross cultural presentation. Some cultures are quite animated and will appreciate hand gestures and the expression of emotion through the body. Others expect speakers to remain calm and would find such behaviour over the top. Similarly pay attention to the use of gestures. The thumbs up may mean 'good' in the USA but it means something very different in Iran. Eye contact can also be a major intercultural difference. Some cultures consider strong eye contact a sign of sincerity, others find it overbearing and an invasion of privacy. Do your cross cultural homework before a presentation. Time: Be aware of different approaches to time across cultures. Some cultures prefer a structured, timetabled approach to conducting business affairs, others are more casual. In countries where a start time is considered a guide rather than a definite, allow time for networking or engage in some chit chat until others arrive. Oppositely, if you arrive late to a meeting in a punctual culture, expect some negative feedback. Always show the appropriate stiffness or flexibility depending on the culture. Emotions: Some cross cultural presentations may be in front of a small number of people and deal with sensitive issues in a pressured environment. In such intercultural situations one should always keep their emotions

in check. In some cultures a certain amount of cross examination or scrutiny may occur. If this happens bear in mind the positive intentions behind such actions, i.e. the questions are only being posed to establish facts, not to undermine you. Never lose patience, show frustration or display anger. To do so will lead to a loss of credibility. Style of Presentation: Different cultures learn and take in information in varying ways. One should always try and tailor their presentation style to meet the needs of the target culture. Some cultures, such as Europeans, prefer information to be presented in detail and in a way that sets down foundations that act as the support to a final argument or point. In such a presentation the speaker should gradually lead the audience, using a logical succession of points, to a conclusion. On the other hand, some cultures, like the US, prefer a much faster paced presentation that is bottom-line orientated, meaning the presenter speaks from a point rather towards a point. Use of Technology: Power Point is not the default method of giving a presentation across the world. Some countries many not even have the technical capabilities to accommodate this so one would need to adapt to the resources at hand, whether it be an Over Head Projector or blackboard. Some cultures do not even like a visual element to presentations and find much more worth in words and personality. Content: In a cross cultural presentation, ensure you tailor the content of a presentation to the audience. Different cultures expect different things from a business presentation. Long term orientated cultures may be excited about future projections and figures, but others would rather learn more about the presenter's credentials, accomplishments and experience. A presenter needs to ask whether the target culture will appreciate factual, statistical information presented visually, or a more personal oratory approach. Audience Participation: Audiences react in different ways across cultures. Some are very engaging and are willing to participate in exercises and Q&A sessions, others are the opposite. Audiences also show respect in many ways. A Japanese audience may close their eyes while listening; a US one may clap when a good point is made and a Saudi one may do nothing at all. Although the number of areas where one could point to intercultural differences in presentations is vast, for the sake of brevity the above mentioned areas have been highlighted as a way of drawing attention to some of the major ones. It is hoped these can then act as a foundation to improving ones insight into the way intercultural differences manifest in the business environment. www.videojug.com/.../manners-and-verbal-expressions-across-culturesManners And Verbal Expressions Across Cultures Manners And Verbal Expressions Across Cultures When is it OK to call people by their first names? It's better not to call people by their first names unless you know them quite well. Air on the side of formality. In Asian cultures and in Middle Eastern cultures when you address someone you make known the relationship. There was a Chinese girl and her boyfriend was from Hong Kong and so was she, but she had forgotten all about it, and there was a dinner that she was invited to, to meet all the family and his family was very offended because she called Paul's sister by her first name, Christine, and she should

have said Paul's sister. And we go Auntie, everybody's Auntie. In many cultures that's always a safe title. Once my daughter had a friend who was Palestinian, and when she called here she would always call on the phone and say Hello Amy's mother, and I thought gosh she doesn't even know my name. I really had such a negative view of her, but she was being polite. She was describing the relationships and that's very commonplace in Asian cultures. How do naming traditions differ among cultures? Naming traditions are tricky. For example, a Latino child, particularly from Mexico, will have what we call the first name, the second name will be the name of his father's family and the third name will be the name of his mother's family. There's never enough room on the computer generated list, so they just cut directly to the last name, which is usually the mother's name. Where, in fact, they would rather be know by their father's name, but because there's no room, they assume like in American tradition that it's the first name and then the last name. Middle name you get rid of. In many Asian cultures, the name that appears first is the family name, not the last name, the one that's last in sequence, so it's quite confusing. And in many cultures the woman does not take her husband's name. Which words or phrases might be confusing to another culture? The whole thing about multi-culture manners is it has to do with assumptions. We just make wrong assumptions all the time, it's very hard for Americans to speak without using idiomatic expressions. We use them so common place, we don't realize how we are confusing non-native English speakers. One person was applying for a job and they said, "Can you work the graveyard shift? "The graveyard shift? No way!" We have to be very careful to remember, the honus is not just on us, it's really the biggest challenge to the non-native speaker. Sometimes we have to remember, "How's it going?" the student though, "My house is not going." "What's up?" "What are they referring to?" We have to be careful, I would say it's probably impossible to go through an entire day or half a day without utilizing an idiomatic expression. That's what's difficult about learning other languages too, they say something and you look it up in the dictionary and it's not there. Why should I be careful when complimenting or praising people of different cultures? I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and she wanted to promote a woman who was a Filipina to a higher position and the woman turned her down. And the reason was, although it was a compliment to her skills, if she would be promoted it would change the social dynamics among her peers. And so that ultimately would not work in her favour. Complimenting also calls attention to someone, and this is particularly applicable to Asian cultures. For us, we are very individualistic and very competitive but cultures that are more community oriented, it doesn't work out well. If a person is complimented for doing something well it may be that that person thinks, "Well, gee wasn't I doing well before?" There's a whole different take on it. One man was telling me that he was working in Indonesia and in front of everyone he complimented his assistant, who was an Indonesian and then the next day the young man quit because it made him lose face and he regarded it as an untenable position. Why should I be careful about complimenting babies? It's a pretty widespread notion that you don't compliment a baby, and to make sure that you don't compliment the baby in Indian cultures ... I'm talking about India ... they put a mark on the baby's forehead to remind you not to compliment the baby.

Why can it seem that people from other cultures don't say what they mean? Some people say yes when they really mean no and I found that out the hard way when I was a teacher. At the end of the class I would say Do you understand what I mean? and they would all nod their heads and say yes and then they'd turn in their papers and then it was very clear that they did not understand what I meant. And so I had to learn to change my style of asking questions. They're in our country now let them learn our ways. No, my main objective is to teach my students. So if it means that I have to phrase my question in another way in order to accomplish my goal of being an effective teacher, then instead of saying "does everybody understand?" I learned to say "tell me what you don't understand". All the hands went up. What confuses you? All the hands went up. Why was this? Because most of my students were from Asian and in Asian cultures and in some other places, but particularly in Asian cultures, people will say yes because they know that is what you want to hear. To say no, if I said to my students does everybody understand and they were to say no, then that would be casting a bad shadow on my reputation, it would mean I was not a good teacher. They said what they knew I wanted to hear. So open-ended questions were much better, you get the true answer. It's like if you're talking to Japanese, they go Hai, whatever you say, Hai. It doesn't mean yes, it means I hear you. Sometimes even nodding from other cultures does not means yes it just means I understand what you are saying, but it's not a yes and you have to be very careful about such things. In hospital situations, health care system, asking yes/no questions, which we tend to do, it's a very American direct way of communication will not always get us satisfactory answers, it will not really get us to the truth. We have to turn those questions into open-ended ones which is very hard to do, you have to think hard to avoid yes/no questions. Thanks for watching video Manners And Verbal Expressions Across Cultures For more how to videos, expert advice, instructional tips, tricks, guides and tutorials on this subject, visit the topic Multicultural Manners.

odvojeno 7. str. Hronemika ekspresija ( odnos prema vremenu ) ? ka ekspresija ( odnos prema vremenu ) ? ka ekspresija ( odnos prema vremenu ) ? ka ekspresija ( odnos prema vremenu ) ? Razliite kulture: zapadna (SAD) krut odnos prema vremenu, potuje se strogo satnica istone kulture poslovni sastanak i susret se ire shvataju kao izuzetan dogaaj gde se samo ne dogovara i pregovara, ve se smatra poslovni partner kao gost P.o.s.l.o.v.n.e K.o.m.u.n.i.k.a.c.i.j.e -- Pitanja i Odgovori Pitanja i Odgovori Pitanja i Odgovori Pitanja i Odgovor 27 March 2009 Poslovne Komunikacije www.scribd.com