Business Communication, Third Edition

SQ4 How can you improve your communication with people from different cultures?

You may have heard the saying, “We cannot escape our culture.” Culture describes the learned and shared patterns in a society. Differences in culture exist among countries, such as the United States and China, as well as subsets of a population, such as urban and rural. People are shaped by the cultures they come from, and they develop a set of assumptions about how to act based on these cultures. For example, for most Americans, the following statements are noncontroversial truths:

culture

 The learned and shared attitudes, values, and behaviors that characterize a group of people.

Photo courtesy of Winston Taira

• If you have a 10 am appointment, you should arrive ...