Draft

Thousands people leave the familiar behind, heading to new environments. Students study abroad, employees transfer offices and work oversea, people have conference or travel to a different country. People start challenging themselves to experience in a totally unfamiliar place, where almost everything seems not to make sense at first. As same as me, I decided to study abroad, and then will back to my home country after graduation, using knowledge I learned here to help my parents’ business. Several cultural transitions will be made throughout my life, and obviously, I will encounter cultural conflicts and language barrier for sure. Between different regions, or even between individuals, always have infinite differences, and of course, individual cannot use one’s own standpoint to judge on another culture. In a position of an internationally-educated businesswoman, what possible difficulties will I encounter with and how should I solve those conflicts to satisfy both cultures without being in any bias position? Thesis statement

As a result of global boom, the world is becoming more cosmopolitan with the thriving of international business. These international relationships can work as a springboard for the prospect of expanding the business, but also bring the risks that may harm the negotiation with partners if the business does not know how to deal with cross-culture conflicts. So for business that want to expand to other countries, the more skills that one company’s employees have in intercultural competence, the more chances that company successfully expand business in foreign country. Being as an import distributor, my parents’ business already established some connections with foreign countries. They contact with foreign customers by using email, so they already have some kind of experience working with other cultures, other countries. Thanks for the developments and advances in telecommunication and transportation, the geographical isolation has broken down, and communication with other in distance becomes much easier. Being internationally-educated in America, the ability to communicate with countries that speak English isn’t a problem for me, but there are still a lot of countries prefer using other languages such Mandarin or Spanish. So using interpreters and translator is one of the possible solutions. But it can affect the business both positively and negatively. Even though one can be more careful to state the message concisely while waiting for the first message to be translated, the translator and interpreter may convey the wrong message because the limitation of words of one language to fully translate the intended message in the original language or as because of nuances of the languages involved. As Afred G. Smith has wrote in his preface to Communication and Culture: “Culture is a code we learn and share, and learning and sharing require communication.” We can understand that culture and language are intertwined, so translating one language to another sometimes cannot bring the whole meaning that lead to misinterpretation. I can learn other language, which commonly use such as Mandarin, but there are still a lot of linguistic and cultural differences that I cannot understand thoroughly as clear as people who lived and experience with it.

Another concern is the differences in the way people communicate with each other. Between regions, or even individuals, have infinite cultural differences, which mean they have several alterative ways to communicate. However, I can recognize some dissimilarity between social customs if I pay attention in the way people communicate with each other. By using both verbal and nonverbal way, communication shows the cultures and beliefs of that specific culture. For example, according to the research of Canning, a company whose expertise lies in intercultural communication, find out that people from a culture such as Switzerland, German believe that personal relationship for every single partner is not necessary, while there are many cultures (such as Asian, Africa) prefer building personal relationship first in order to make a good business relationship. Even though everyone properly responds positively to “human warmth and empathy,” the need for personal relationship varies between different cultures. (Carte, 151) By learning other cultures, I know what appropriate actions should be used with people from different culture and avoid the misunderstandings that can harm the relationship with my foreign partners. No culture is better than the other, and individual’s perceptions can never be accepted as a universal standard. But there is a lot of people still do not think this way, both in conscious and unconscious way, then later lead to ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s own culture is better than others. In order to understand other culture, we should put ourselves “in their shoes (position) at every stage (91),” even though it seems to be impossible to erase all the perceptions from one’s childhood.

For me, when I go back to my home country, Vietnam, there are several problems I need to watch out for. Things I studied here can be seen differently in Vietnam, governmental regulations for example. As I have learned from my business class in America and read from “International journal of project management,” written by Rodney Turner, the countries such as Sweden and Ireland, people believe more in the use of Laissez-faire, an environment in which the intervene of government is limited as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs, while in Vietnam, a communist country, the intervene of government is almost everywhere. Specifying and learning the target clients and market I want to take part in is really important, and I cannot understand thoroughly by only reading books or learn it from school. I grew up in Vietnam, so I know most of the national characters and tradition customs, but during the time I leave, there will be changes. Five years is not much compare to the process of development of a country, but it is long enough for some alterations to be made, especially in culture. If I want to work in Vietnam, I should know about the customers’ present needs from my products and these needs vary between different regions.

[Annotation blog post #8] . "International Trade” and "The Do’s and Taboos of international trade"

1) This time, I will choose two different sources but they talk about similar topics. First book is “International Trade”, the second one is “The DO’s and TABOOS of international trade.” I read few chapters from these two sources, and found some interesting matters around international trade. First one is the cultural barrier, which language and cultural background in particular.
2) Quotes:
• “Communication in international business is both a skill and an art requiring special, new sensitivities.”
• “…mis-communication can be the enemy.”
3) For language, if one business intends to expand business internationally, they should concern about the cost of information transfer (such as using translator, interpreter.) The different in language can cause to humorous situations, worst case is misinterpret/misunderstand with your business partners. For culture background, business should think about the differences in “national characters” and “traditional customs” that affect the customer’s preference.
4) Learning how to communicate appropriately is a process that requires the sensitivities and eager to learn new cultures. As this source gives some specific examples about the situation that a company/individual encounters with culture conflicts (some results are humorous, some cause the relationships to be damaged, messages are misunderstanding or misinterpreting.)
5) The author of “The Do’s and Taboos of international Trade” is Roger, who started to approach international trade at first as a student of culture and tradition, and later worked as a company representative. And for “International Trade”, the authors are the specialized in international trade and spends years working and studying about culture factors.
6) Few topics I have so far is: intercultural communications, cross-culture understanding, the ethnic minority business (women in particular.) I think these issues somehow can give me the answers for my concern about the difficulties that an internally educated business woman can encounter if she comes back to her home country.

Work cited:

Axtell, Roger E., and Tommy G. Thompson. The Do's and Taboos of International Trade: a Small Business Primer. New York, NY: Wiley, 1994. Print.

Jepma, C. J., and André Rhoen. International Trade: a Business Perspective. London: Longman, 1996. Print.  

[Annotation blog post #7] Silent Contributors: Asian Female Entrepreneurs and Women in Business - Spinder Dhaliwal

1) The author talks about the growth of Asian female entrepreneurs in business, particularly in British. The author brings up the possible reasons that may cause women to enter self-employment, and one of them is discrimination, the stereotypes about women working in as a businesswomen. Children, family are few things women should concern about when they decide to be self-employment. Finally, the author mentions the important of the policy makers to recognize the diversity within businesses and take into account the female role, create equal both in race and gender.
2) Quotes:
a. “She feels that being an Asian woman can be a liability, with many clients wanting to deal with men when it comes to business and financial matters.” (468)
b. “One of the main reasons given in writings on the subject is that many South Asians go into self-employment as a response to “blocked upward mobility.” (465)
c. “The businesses were initiated as more of a pastime and challenge, a hobby, to occupy them once their children were at school or had left home, rather than a financial and economic necessity.” (467)
3) There are lots of distributions from the minority group, women in particular. I think in Vietnam, people start to be more open-minded, especially people from the big cities, the big trading centers, but for the rural areas, there are still thousands and thousands of women have to stay home, take care the kids, the house, family, and live inside the house most of the time with few connection with outside world, or even don’t have education. We, who have chance to connect with outside world, should do something to help them realize what the best is for them, for their family. If both wife and husband have jobs, no one will have overwhelming pressure; the matter is they need to have time for their family, and their kids too.
4) I am going to comeback and maintain the business from my parents and I am really curious about how people in Vietnam think about a businesswoman, a female leader/manager. Both of my parents own the business, and my mom is the director, I would assume that people start to avoid the stereotypes about women, whose job is only staying home, taking care of the kids. As what I know from surrounding environment, most of people have some kinds of belief that women aren’t as mentally strong as men, the women solve problems depend too much on personal feeling, women are so sensitive, soft-heart, which cannot do big things, cannot do business with others, especially against men. Is it true, or is it because men are afraid of increasing competitors in work place?
5) The source is from “Women's Studies International Forum” Vol. 21 Issue 5. The author, Spinder Dhaliwal, who is from centre for Asian Entrepreneurial Research, School of Business. Moreover, the author researched and cited from several articles around ethnic minority business topic, so I believe he made a careful research on the topic.
6) Different from other previous sources, this one I change my concern to women. However, these topics are my worries about my future job, worries about the issues I can encounter. When I come back to Vietnam, how people will judge me? On my gender? Internationally educated? Or because that I inherit the business, therefore I am not as good as other workers and not as serious in studying as them?

Works Cited
Silent Contributors: Asian Female Entrepreneurs and Women in Business." Women's
Studies International Forum 21.5 (1998): 463. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO.
Web. 28 Oct. 2010.

[Annotation blog post #6] Knowing yourself - Penny Carte and Chris Fox

1. This time I continue on the source that I previously posted for the first post. As people aren’t willing to abandon their cultural identities to fit into the organization mainstream, it is important for business to know and understand the cultures of the custom and deal with the cultural conflicts with appropriate respond. Each culture may expect different things from the business partner.
2. Quotes:
a. “No two cultures, or indeed individuals, are exactly the same. The number of variables is infinite.”
b. “Most of the misunderstandings…because the people involved assumed that their own beliefs, attitudes and behavior were normal…As a result, negative stereotypes were reinforced, motives were misinterpreted, goodwill was damaged and, on some occasions, communications broke down altogether.”
3. This chapter discusses on the tips of how we should interact with different culture. No one or culture is exactly the same with other. As one of the readings in our course about mature students, even they try to be the same as other college students, but they still feel something that make them different and want to define their identities in writing. By knowing yourself, and understand that business partner has culture gap with you, will help the business to avoid some misunderstandings.
4. I want to apply the tips to my life experiences. Because my topic is about intercultural and diversity, learning how people should interact is necessary. In this chapter, the author creates a scale that interprets between cultures. For example, on the scale, one should be on “individualist” side or “group-oriented” side. One culture/individual can be stay closer one side than the other, or some place in between. There is no totally accurate, I think, but having some kinds of model, it helps me to define where I stand, where others stand, and then I can find ways to communicate with others appropriately.
5. The authors are from a UK-based company whose lies in international communication. One is Penny Carte, the director the company, and other is Chris Fox, who is also a member of the company and published papers and article on cultural theories. I really feel this source is reliable and one of the reasons is because Penny Carte, one of the authors, has a fascinating background on intercultural communication. She one-to-one coaches and helps board directors, senior managers to prepare for international projects, published wide range of cross-cultural, managements skills for business training materials.
6. This source gives specific possible reactions of one culture and compares it with the others on the scale that I mentioned earlier. Different from other sources, this one is more on practical understanding, and more real life situations. This can be a good support for my ideas about cross-culture interactions.

Work cited:

Carté, Penny, and Chris J. Fox. Bridging the Culture Gap: a Practical Guide to Business Communication. London: Kogan Page, 2004. Print.

[Annotation blog post #5] Journal of communication

1) As a belief in ethnocentrism, the consumers may prefer the domestic brands to imported products that lead to the animosity, which show the antipathy toward another country/culture. Moreover, both animosity and ethnocentrism isolate the people from understanding the other culture, and limit the prospect of international trade.
2) Quotes:
a. By definition, consumer ethnocentrism represents a preference for the in group (in the form of domestic brands), while animosity represents a rejection of a particular out-group (in the form of antipathy toward another country).
b. They suggest that one way to reduce problems stemming from in-group bias is by creating a strong identification with an overarching social category.
c. Symbols used in international mass communications would serve as a visual cue to aid consumer identification and categorization of a particular brand
3) By observation since we were infant, we learn and understand the norms, symbols, the culture of surround where were grew up. I think in each of us, less or more, we all have ethnocentrism. Because when we grow up, learn things from surrounding, we start to build the wall that distinguishes ourselves from others, who are from other cultures. So I believe, we have some kinds of ethnocentrism.
4) My dream is to come back to my home country and help my parents’ business. But as I study abroad, my thoughts and beliefs can be different from if I stay and study in my home country. Different consumer requires different strategies. If I want to develop the business, understanding and respecting the consumers’ needs, culture, and avoid to violate the pride, local culture f people from my home country are necessary (because things I learn in US can be quite different from where I want to develop the business.)
5) The source is from a journal of communicate and the authors are the experts in business with a global notions. From the reference, I know the topics in this source were well researched and studied carefully.
6) Ethnocentrism and animosity are issues needed to be concern about when the business wants to know about the local cultures of consumers in order to develop and expand the business. There are still lots more issues to concern about such as intercultural communication, different ethics, and different cultural standpoints.

Work cited:

Lwin, M. O., Stanaland, A. J. S. and Williams, J. D. (2010), American Symbolism in Intercultural Communication: An Animosity/Ethnocentrism Perspective on Intergroup Relations and Consumer Attitudes. Journal of Communication, 60: 491–514. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01494.x

[Annotation blog post #4] Communicating and adapting across cultures - Riall W. Nolan

1) The fourth source I chose is “Communicating and adaption across culture” written by Riall W. Nolan. I read three chapters, which are: 1) communication and culture, 2) verbal communication, and 3) nonverbal communication. Studying cross-culture is not simply know about the language of the country/culture you want to know about, but need to know how to perform the language appropriately. Different language is a reflection from how people from that culture view their life.

2) Quotes:

a. “Language is a double-edged sword. While language communicates it also ex-communicates; that is, it includes only those who share the system, all others are excluded.” (42)

b. “Since other languages describe the world differently, do the speakers of those languages see a different world?” (43)

3) Although we are using a same language, English, there are different styles and different accents that describe the unique of one culture. And we are studying in a same environment. There are people who were born and raised in a different culture from what they experience now. Or even some grew up at Washington State; they also have a lot of differences in life style, culture, etc.

4) I really like the part that author mentioned about the double-edged sword of language. I am wondering how I will negotiate with the differences/conflics in language when I come back to my home country, where the national language is not English. The theories, the terms I learnt here, will be called differently. And even if open a business, the knowledge and experiences, are applied for American, a western culture, will be dissimilar to Vietnam, an Asian country.

5) The author is an international development specialis and has lived oversees for nearly twenty years, so I believe he experience by himself with the cultural conflicts and difficulties to communicate with other people, who has different language/ culture. The author brought up amazing ideas and cited from reliable sources.

6) One language can be shared by different cultures even though language is a vision of life of a specific culture. Because of this, one normal word in one culture can be an inappropriate in another culture. Therefore, applying the right style, language that suite for each individual that you target to is one way to develop the intercultural competence.

Work cited:

Nolan, Riall W. Communicating and Adapting across Cultures: Living and Working in the Global Village. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1999. Print.

[Annotation blog post #3] Intercultural business communication - Lillian H. Chaney and Jeanetter S. Martin

1. For this book, I choose three chapters that I think they can support for my topic: 1) The nature of intercultural communication, 2) Contrasting cultural values, and 3) Intercultural Negotiation Process. As the other sources, I found similar ideas about the intercultural business communications, but the authors of this book also give the business terms, which I found really interested for me. The authors also mentioned about the differences between cultures in verbal or nonverbal way. The considerations when a company expands internationally and multinational management orientations are the amazing information/issue about international business that I have never thought about.
2. Quotes:
1. “When a company expands internationally, they have to consider the consumers who are targeted to buy their product.” (14)
2. “Negotiators, however, cannot escape their own cultural mind-sets. Even professional training cannot erase the deep-seated perceptions.” (197)
3. The intercultural communication seems more complicated than I thought. For international business, intercultural communication will probably occur between party and party. But even for small business, or business do in the same country, the geography is one of the reasons cause to the different in culture. Religious is also one of the reasons. Even right now when people seem to be more open-minded and everyone (between different races, nationalities, gender, job status, etc.,) seems to be treated equally, but in reality, subtle distinctions are still made by non verbal way.
4. The source brought up the terms that I found really helpful, I can use these terms to make my research paper’s tone seems more professional (I hope!) One more thing is about the use of interpreters and translators when do business internally ( positive effect is you have more time to think about next statements while the previous one is translated, but the negative effect is somehow your messages will not be translated fully because the different in language or can be because of the misunderstanding of the interpreters/translators)
5. Both the authors are professors in university also published articles in professional journals. Both of them have experience working with intercultural as well as international issues, and their current job now is relevant to intercultural communication as well.
6. Communication is the main topic in my three first posts. From international to intercultural communication, and even intracultural communication, the cultural differences possibly exist. They quite have similar ideas and appear repeatly, even though each source focuses more on specific issues. As an internationally-educated student, I want to go back to my home country and apply what I learned in US. But it seems not to be easy at all. That is why I want to focus more on intercultural communication, and hope can find ways to negotiate those cultural conflicts.

Work cited :

Chaney, Lillian H., and Jeanette S. Martin. Intercultural Business Communication. 3RD ed. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Prentice Hall, 2004. Print.