The email below was written by a Swedish speaker, who comes from a low-context culture. This writer is sending this email to a high-context reader in South Korea. For the blank parts, which sentences best transform this email into a high-context one?
Answers
Explanation:
INDIA OR OTHER "HIGH-CONTEXT" CULTURES LIKE JAPAN OR CHINA, PEOPLE ARE LESS LIKELY TO SAY "NO."
You won’t find many direct declines peppering emails from Indians. People will throw out a "maybe" or "yes, but" to imply "no" without actually saying it. This allows both parties to "save face," an important cultural concept where both parties avoid an embarrassment that could come from a refusal. For example, if you ask an India-based colleague to Skype at what would be 7 p.m. their time, they may reply with "yes" but then mention that they will push back their dinner plans as a way to signal that the time isn’t actually convenient—that's your cue to suggest an earlier time.
2. IF AN INDIAN WRITER HAS SOME "DOUBTS," FEAR NOT.
When you send over a suggestion or a business plan and an Indian colleague responds that they have some "doubts" on the issue, they could very well just mean that they have questions. There are Hindi and Tamil words that effectively mean both, so someone may inadvertently write the former, which comes across as much more negative, when they really mean the latter.
3. BE CAREFUL HOW YOU ADDRESS SOMEONE WHO EMAILS FROM CHINA.
In China, people state their names with their surname first, followed by their given name. It would be rude to call someone only by his or her last name, so a Westerner would have to make sure to switch the order before adding a title (Mr., Ms, etc). However, Chinese people will sometimes preemptively use the Western format when emailing Western companies, which would lead to confusion if the recipient tries to swap the names. When in doubt about someone’s name, ask.