Culture Matters(Week 5)
High/Low Context Communication
High Context Communication
- The Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America
- Non-explicit
- Descriptive
- Longer Emails
Low Context Communication
- North America, Western Europe
- Straight forward
- Concise
- Efficient
- Logic
- Facts
- Directness
Low Context Writer + High Context Reader
- Status & identity need acknowledgement
- Building a relationship is important
High Context Writer + Low Context Reader
- Efficiency & effectiveness through tasks
- Direct questions are used for clarity
Age & Gender Considerations
DO:
- Use RESPECTFUL words(Mr., Ms., Mrs.)
- Use official TITLES
DON'T:
- Don't use SLANG words
- Limit references to POP culture
Gender
- Keep Gender NEUTRAL
- NO BIAS
Assignment: Write an Email to Yourself
Subject:
Learning Impressions from English Courses
Message:
Dear Me,
I come from China and my mother language is Chinese, and it's a high-context communication culture. So if you would like to write a letter to one Chinese person, you'd better build a good relationship with that person. If you want to write a professional email, I recommend you to remenber keep your subject line clean and specific, keep your message concise and humble and do not forget to review before send it out. The best advice I received through this course is the inportance of efficient and logic. I hope you will enjoy the next course.
Regards,
Xinzhe Wang