In intercultural contact, English is often used as the preferred language to enable cross-cultural communication. Nevertheless, the use of a common language harbors dangers of which one should at least be aware:
The culture of a nation is not only reflected in values, traditions, rituals and patterns of action, but also in the national language. The sound and phonology of a language have an influence on an individual's cultural identity, as does the sentence structure, which varies from culture to culture. For example, Chinese people always mention the context first before talking about themselves, whereas English or German sentences prefer to start with their own person. A German would explain his delay as follows: "I was late because the train was late", while a Chinese person might answer contextually: "Because of the construction work due to the storms last night, the train was late." Other differences can also be seen in non-verbal communication such as eye contact, body touch, distance and tone of voice.
However, these seemingly banal differences should not be underestimated. If people are unaware of such communication differences, intercultural cooperation can be permanently disrupted. It is often not obvious communication differences, but subtle differences that remain unrecognized and cause resentment. For example, in the interaction between "low-context" and "high-context" cultures. The former prefer clear and explicit communication in order to avoid misunderstandings, while the latter leave more room for interpretation and use non-verbal signals. In addition to Asian countries, southern European countries such as Italy, Spain and France also prefer high-context communication. Germans, on the other hand, prefer precise communication. This small difference in communication often goes undetected and leads to annoyance and resentment. For example, when Germans feel that they have not quite understood what their counterpart was trying to say or when a French colleague complains that Germans talk to him as if he were stupid.
These examples show that a good knowledge of the company's internal language alone is not enough to communicate successfully. Rather, the subtleties such as polite phrases and idiosyncrasies of the other language should be known so that misunderstandings can be recognized and insults avoided.
Comments