Transcript Best practice at NHH East Asian Culture and Communication

Best practice at NHH
East Asian Culture and
Communication
(VOA045)
Annelise Ly
Kristin Rygg
FSK
About general behaviour:
Keep gestures and unusual facial expressions to a minimum. Chinese do
not use their hands when speaking, and are annoyed by people who do.
Avoid touching, as Chinese people dislike being touched by strangers.
About conversation:
Avoid negative replies. Negative replies are impolite. Instead of saying no,
say maybe, even if you mean no. Chinese people do the same to you.
If Chinese people say things like “this is not a serious problem”, or “this is
not a big deal”, it usually means there is a problem.
(http://business.uni.edu/buscomm/internationalbuscomm/world/asia/china/china.html retrieved in August 2012)
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What are our goals?
- Focus on the complexity happening when people
from different cultural backgrounds meet.
- Reflect on our own cultural values
- Acquire intercultural competence
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How ?
By providing a critical approach to existing theories on
Intercultural communication through:
1) Reflection paper
2) Case studies
3) Fieldwork
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1) Reflection text
About general behaviour:
Keep gestures and unusual facial expressions to a minimum. Chinese do
not use their hands when speaking, and are annoyed by people who do.
Avoid touching, as Chinese people dislike being touched by strangers.
About conversation:
Avoid negative replies. Negative replies are impolite. Instead of saying no,
say maybe, even if you mean no. Chinese people do the same to you.
If Chinese people say things like “this is not a serious problem”, or “this is
not a big deal”, it usually means there is a problem.
(http://business.uni.edu/buscomm/internationalbuscomm/world/asia/china/china.html retrieved in August 2012)
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2) Case studies
Part 1: The problem
In 2007, a Norwegian company was about to install
a new type of reverse vending machines in a large
number of stores in the Tokyo metropolis. With the
new machines, the customers will be able to use an
IC card (card with a chip), which they also use to buy
groceries at the store. However, before the new
machines can be placed at the various locations in
Tokyo, they have been asked by their partner,
Sumitomo, to perform as many as two hundred tests
on them. These tests include such things as what
happens if you have put the IC card in the machine
and the electricity in the supermarket shuts down, or
what happens if the customer forgets his card in the
machine and leaves without it? Some of the
Norwegians are really frustrated!
• What do you think of the demand for two hundred
tests?
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2) Case studies
Part 2: What did the company do?
They did the 200 tests
“The machines have been in use for one year, and we
have yet to receive a single complaint or a single
reported error” (the Norwegian manager interviewed one year later)
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Theory
• Theories about Japanese/Norwegian decision
processes:
Norway
decision phase
implementation phase
Japan
decision phase
implementation phase
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From experience to theory (down- top approach) –
why?
• Real life is more complex than theories
- Get used to the complexity
- The other’s perspective is also logical
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3) Fieldwork – lessons learned
• The expats’ accounts can be similar to or differ from
the theories
• New insights that were not discussed in class
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Evaluation
• 7,5 ECTS course
• Student presentation and active participation in class
(case studies)  40%
• Two written reports: (fieldwork and reflection
paper) 60%
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