Recently, a young man from Vietnam asked me about my work: “What do you mean with cultural differences? What do people do differently?” I explained the differences in communication style, depending on your background. He still didn’t see what I meant, so I asked him: “If there’s a conflict, how do deal with that in your culture?” He responded: “Well, we socialize until the conflict goes away.”, looking at me as if I should know that. I wondered whether they would talk about the conflict while socializing. “Not really, you just socialize until the conflict goes away.”
A good example of implicit communication in a collectivist culture.
When I explained to him that people in the Netherlands deal with conflict in a very different way, he was clearly surprised. Here, people explicitly explain their point of view, especially if there is a difference of opinion. It seems that everybody has the right to an opinion and will voice that in a lengthy verbal exchange. This is an example of explicit communication in an individualistic culture.
That’s what I mean when I talk about cultural differences.
Photo: Start a journey in Vietnam (http://h00284191.wixsite.com)