On another American friend’s birthday party, Jerry found out the way her distribute the cake is very different. Before she gave out the cake, she would ask ‘you want a big slide or a small slide?’ Being polite, Jerry said he would like a small one. And she did give him a very small one. This makes Jerry very unhappy, ‘she is so mean’. Later he also noticed that most of her friends and her took small slides, and she put the rest cake in the fridge.
From the story that he told me, we can see the way American thinking is so different form Chinese thinking. American talks and thought more simply and directly, while Chinese likes to express themselves in a more implicit way with many innuendos. Therefore, to communicate effectively with people from a different country, understanding each others’ cultural norms and values is very essential.
3 comments:
People from different cultures tend to have different ways of doing things and thinking. For most of the birthday parties I had attended in Singapore, the birthday boy or girl normally gets the biggest piece of cake. I think that if a person is living in a foreign country, he or she should try to gather information about the country's culture as it is important to try to understand them to prevent misunderstandings and help in effective communication.
haha. It's true. This is the way Americans lead their lives - simply and directly. They are very realistic. It can be completely reflected from the recent financial crisis in the US. It is their culture and custom that pushes the whole country into trouble...
I would think it is more of Asian's behaviour to be polite. Chinese are brought up to be polite and more polite. As such, we may seem to appear superficial to Americans who are more direct in their handling of relationships. It is not easy to realise such differences do exist, we definitely can't find out via the internet. The only way is through the hard way like your friend, or hearing from another person. We may try to glimpse this through the media from the respective country, but we have to be very perceptive to detect these inconspicuous idiosyncrasies.
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