Good Morning !

Today We are here to conduct a presentation on The Effect of Culture on Global Communication.
This will be presented by Bhavin Shah, Gaurav Shrimali, Himanshu Gajwani, Rahul Bafna, Sajeed Shaikh, Vishakha Vakte & Vivek Parsani.

We Will Start with What Communication is

As you probably know Communication is a process involving transmission of meaningful information from one party to another, through the use of shared symbols or common language.

The party that wants to share the information is called the sender

The party that the sender sends or wants to send the information to is called the Receiver

Communication specialists estimate that about three-fourth of our communication takes place nonverbally through behavior. Behavior itself is learned from our culture and (all behavior communicates. (Since we cannot stop behaving in one way or another, we cannot stop communicating.)

Which is why they say that during all waking hours that we spend with other human beings we communicate volumes through the behaviour that our culture has drilled into us

What is Culture

It is the way of life of a particular society or group of people, including Patterns of thought, Beliefs, Behaviour, Customs, Traditions, Rituals, Dress, and Language, as well as Art, Music and Literature.

Simply said Culture is Shared Values & Beliefs in a given group.

Culture is just like an Iceberg, only 10 % of it is visible , the remaining 90 % is usually hidden under-water.

The things that are easy to see are religious rituals, eating habits, customs, facial expressions, gestures etc. The things that are not easy to see are concept of self, general world view, religious beliefs, work ethics, values etc.

As my friend said, Culture is just like an Iceberg. the remaining 90 % that is hidden, can cause a confusion. Most of assume that our own behaviour is the natural way of behaving. When we see others behaving differently , we tend to assume that their behaviour is un-acceptable.

We may become irritated when a person appears to be uncooperative or rude. We are frustrated when a person with whom we are having a conversation just doesnt get something that seems simple, and we feel a sense of disconnection.

Cultural differences might also arise in the manner we communicate with each other.

Cultural communication is described as either explicit or implicit.

Verbal communication in an explicit culture, like Germany, the US, Canada and Great Britain focuses on being straight-forward, frank, to the point, where a yes means yes, and a no means no.

Those cultures that practice more indirect communication, such as France, Italy, Spain, and Arab, Latin-American and Asian countries believe the precise meaning of what is said depends on the context, not just the words. The listener is expected to interpret the meaning, often based heavily on nonverbal cues. A yes can mean Yes, I heard you, not Yes, Im in agreement.

The Japanese often shake hands with westerners as a sign of respect and appreciate when westerners bow out of respect to their culture.

Chinese may bow or shake hands. (In Taiwan, western males should not initiate a hand shake with Chinese females.)

In Saudi Arabia always shake hands with the right hand as left hands are considered unclean. Never extend your hand to a Saudi woman.

Another thing that you must avoid is the casual handing over of business cards.

In some cultures it is very rude to hand over a business card as shown in the photograph.

Handle business cards in China with respect by reading it and then carefully placing it in a card case. Never place it in a shirt pocket or wallet immediately without examining it first. When distributing cards there, do so with two hands.

Here is another way business cards may be exchanged, just like accepting a formal gift.

Lets Study A Case: An American Based International Business Owner Mr. Davis had invited a few of his senior managers to celebrate the opening of his new office at Boston, USA. He decided to present all the new senior international managers with a welcome gift.

After the gifts were presented, Mr. Davis had the strangest feeling that something had gone wrong.
Here are some of the presents he gave to his staff:

Employee from Egypt was given a bottle of Rum.

Japanese Manager was given a Clock.

Supervisor from India was given a Cow-hide Wallet. (Supervisor from India was given a wallet made from Cow-Hide)

The French Employee was given a bottle of American Wine.

Egypt being an Islamic country i.e majority residents are Muslims, they do not consume Alcohol.

In Japan, a clock signifies death, to gift Japanese people a clock is not acceptable.

In India Cows are considered to be sacred and they are worshipped. To gift an Indian Supervisor a cow-hide wallet is not in good taste.

The French are very particular about their Wines & consider French Wine to be the best. They will never appreciate Wine made in other Countries.

Now lets talk about Our Smile.

We all smile in the same way,

but the situations where we smile are different in different cultures.

In America, a smile can be a sign of happiness or friendly afifrmation and is usually used with great regularity.

In the German culture, a smile is used with far more discretion, generally only with those persons one knows and really likes.

In the Japanese culture, the smile can also mask an emotion or be used to avoid answering a question.

In the Korean culture, too much smiling is often perceived as a sign of a shallow person. It is noted that this lack of smiling by Koreans has often been misinterpreted as a sign of hostility.

Thais, on the other hand, smile much of the time.

In fact, Thailand has been called the Land of Smiles.

Gestures are also a very important part of our behaviour and we may also communicate a lot with our Gestures knowingly or unknowingly.

For Example the gesture in this picture has different meanings in different cultures

In USA & UK this gesture means OK.

The same gesture in Russia means Zero

In Japan this gesture means Money

In Brazil this gesture is considered an insult.

Therefore you have seen in this presentation, that our culture affects the way we communicate with people and this has an effect when we interact globally.