BUSINESS ENGLISH ADVANCE

INSTRUCTOR: HARBI BARKAD ADEN

MODULE 3: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND
SOCIALISING
Unit 1

Building A Relationship

Aims: Cross-cultural Understanding

Welcoming Visitors
Small talk: keeping the conversation going on
 Briefing

This module looks at issues relating to working with

professionals from other countries where cultural
misunderstandings may cause embarrassment. It relates
closely to the later module on Meetings.

This unit focuses on developing personal relationships

and mutual understanding between business partners

understanding is essential in order to get on well with

one's partners from other countries. Socialising is
instrumental in this: it is about making relations.
Cross-cultural understanding (1)

Working with professionals may inculcate the following

points :

Where partners are from?

Why are they here?
What kind of relationships are represented?
Topics of conversation
What they won’t be talking about?
For example: you have a British and a German
business partners. During your discussion, you make
a playful and humorous approach.

How likely your partners will react?

 Cont…

In some countries, such as Britain, joking is often

used to relieve tension.

In others, such as Germany, that might be

regarded as flippant or unprofessional
Understanding other people’s culture in business
necessitates:

1. To be familiar with their behaviours; eyes contact. For

example: Americans signal interest and comprehension by
bobbing their heads or grunting.

2. While British pay strict attention to a speaker, listen

carefully, and blink their eyes to let the speaker know he /
she has been heard and understood
Tip
Do not stare oddly at people. It is considered rude to stare.
What to be considered

Think about possibly taboo subjects, such as:

Democracy has a
Politics in countries where open varied meanings
political diversity is not across countries,
tolerated. so be careful
about it.

Talking about Discussing

Alcohol and
family
certain foods business too
relationships early.
Exercise

Read the typescript of a recording between the

interviewer and Peter (Page 3). Peter suggests seven areas
that are important for someone planning to do business
across a cultural frontier. Identify what are these seven.
Preparation for Contact

It is a question
of courtesy

Goodwill and
Tact and
good Culture consideration
manners

Save from
embarrassment
2. Welcoming Visitors

Welcoming visitors involves making people feel

relaxed and comfortable in a new environment.

An essential part of this is small talk.

What happens when a visitor arrives with

an appointment to visit a company?
 Typical Stages of the First Meeting

Stages of a meeting

1. Welcome and 2. Small

introduction talk/Settling in

3.
4. Begin
Preliminaries/Pla
discussions
n for the visit

What conversations take place (in stage two above)?

• offer of refreshments
• questions about trip
• first visit / previous visits
• length of stay / hotel, etc.
• special interests / needs
• reference to previous contact / other small talk.
3. Small talk: keeping the conversation going

Small talk is always useful:

• at the beginning of a meeting, welcoming a

Visitor.

At other moments in a business relationship.

Elicit suggestions for:
• during breaks
• meals
• social occasions
• evenings
• moving from one place to another.
Cont…

Effective conversation requires:

That speakers recognise and pick up the right

questions and answers .
Conversation proceeds on the basis of clues in
previous sentences or in the immediate context.
Additional points you may wish to mention:

small talk helps develop good relations and a

good atmosphere.

Small talk happens between People who meet in the

casual acquaintances. course of their work.

Or maybe engaged in
different fields, or staying in
the same hotel or travelling
on the same plane.
Keynotes of Unit 1

1. Understanding your partner’s cultural background is

very crucial.
2. Socialise yourself in the workplace by developing good
relationships.
3. Avoid embarrassment during your meeting.
4. Before receiving your business partner, check where do
they come from, why are they here, what will not they be
talking about.
5. Maintain small talk as it is very important at ease of
your partner. Do not talk closed topics which will make
them uncomfortable.
Unit 2
Culture an entertainment

Cultural diversity scopes the following features:

1. conventions and customs
2. language
3. history
4. religion
5. historical experience
6. social systems
7. geography
8. regional influences and other features.
Inviting, and accepting or declining

Study the language use for invitation, accepting and

declining in page 12-13.
Eating out

There is scope for some discussion and teaching of

food and cooking vocabulary which can be very
useful to business people who eat out with partners.

Study the tapescript in page 17.

 END

THANK YOU!