Communication between cultures

[Retroboy]

Just read a fascinating piece in the local paper, quoted from elsewhere, about the perceived differences between the American business/political culture of communication, and the same version in Iran.

(hidden for brevity)

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The Fine Art of Hiding What You Mean to Say - Iranian 101: A Lesson for Americans

It is certainly unfair to accuse all Iranians of being liars. The label is judgmental and reeks of stereotype. The more appropriate way to phrase the Iranian view toward honesty, the way many Iranians themselves describe it, is to say that being direct and telling the truth are not prized principles in Iran.



Often, just the opposite is true. People are expected to give false praise and insincere promise. They are expected to tell you what you want to hear to avoid conflict, or to offer hope when there is none.



There is a social principle in Iran called taarof, a concept that describes the practice of insincerity — of inviting people to dinner when you don’t really want their company, for example. Iranians understand such practices as manners and are not offended by them.



But taarof is just one aspect of a whole framework for communication that can put Iranian words in a completely different context from the one Americans are familiar with.



“You have to guess if people are sincere, you are never sure,” said Nasser Hadian, a political science professor at the University of Tehran. “Symbolism and vagueness are inherent in our language.”



This way of communicating is suddenly essential for Americans to understand. Increasingly, it appears that the road to peace, and war, runs through Tehran. And so hearing what Iranians are really saying, not what Americans think they are saying, has become a priority. [snip].

And yet, understanding each other — forget about agreeing — is complicated from the start.... [have to register to get the rest]

Call me wet behind the ears from an international travel perspective, but I find it interesting and compelling that something as simple as basic honesty is treated so intrinsically different between cultures.

Anyone here have any experiences that show fundamental differences in communication between different cultures, not from a language/meaning perspective (e.g. Chevy Nova failed in Latin America and Spain because "nova" translates to "no go") , but from a general thought process point of view?

Is this fundamentally going to get in the way of a globalized world? Or are tools like the Internet helping to break down these cultural differences, or at minimum, help people understand that they exist?

Some big questions from...
-- Retro

[Wargrim]

There is for example one notable difference between how carefull you have to be in choosing your words to stay polite in the eyes of a "normal" German or US citicen. It is verry common in Germany to directly point out things that you think others did wrong, or should improve, in general you can adress things pretty direct most of the time without the other person feeling offended, of course not all people can take criticism, but if i would write the same direct way here in the forums that i talk in real life, many many people would feel offended for sure.

[Nurizeko]

The general rule of honesty in the UK is people expect you to be saintly honest, but in reality, they want you to lie, mainly small things "yes, I can magically change the entire world to get you this loan/get you on that flight" or "no hunny, that god awful ugly dress does suddenly make you (and by extension it) look good).

Iran sounds kinda like Japan, in the sense they wont say what they feel or want out of politeness.

Still, one cannot generalise entire nations.

[jetfx]

The cultural divides have long been a source of conflict, and in today's globalizing society they are a problem at times. However, globalization has helped different cultures understand that there are differences and how they should be dealt with. As that article mentioned, a lot of the problems we are dealing with in terms of Islamic based terrorism is that these cultures do not understand us very well and therefore oppose us. Western culture has developed a more cosmopolitan outlook about other cultures but in this case we do not understand there lack of understanding.

Personally I've never travelled in non-english speaking foreign countries so I've never run into major cultural differences.

The differences in thought processes do stem from differences in language. One thinks in one's own language and so thought patterns are structured along those lines. Different languages mean a different thought pattern and sometimes different conlclusions. Language can also dictate one's understanding of the world.