Intercultural communication requires, apart from language skills, an understanding that different cultures have different thinking patterns. Our thinking pattern largely determines what we say and how to react in communication and more importantly influences how we interpret and further predict words and behaviors presented by the communicators involved. To a broad extent, the way we think also impacts how we perceive ourselves and people of different cultural backgrounds. Good knowledge of intercultural perceptions helps us avoid being judgmental and enables us to have effective and efficient intercultural communication.

Here is a story: Lead-in Scenario
The following account is from an American professor who is conducting a training session with a group of Chinese participants.   

It was Friday afternoon in Paris and I had spent the morning teaching a group of Chinese CEOs how to work effectively with Europeans. I asked the class: “What steps should the team leader in this case study take to manage different attitudes towards confrontation on the team?”

Lilly Li, a bird-like woman with a pleasant smile, who had been running operations in Hungary for two years, raised her hand: “Trust has been a big challenge for us, as Hungarians do not take the same time to build personal relationships as we do in China.”

Now I was a little confused because the question I’d asked was about confrontation, not trust. Had she misunderstood me? I pushed the earpiece closer to my ear to make sure I was hearing the translator correctly. Lilly Li continued to talk for several minutes about trust, hierarchy, and her experiences in Hungary. The Chinese participants listened carefully.

After several long minutes of interesting comments that had — from my perspective — absolutely zero to do with the question I’d asked, Lilly came to the point: “If the team leader had spent more time helping the team build relationships outside of the meeting, they would have been much more comfortable dealing with debate and direct confrontation.”

All afternoon long, the participants' answers followed a similar pattern: After taking several minutes to discuss peripheral information, they would loop back to the point.
Questions for Intercultural Understanding. Check your comprehension by choosing A, B, C, and / or D. You may select more than one option for an answer.

Get started to learn more about thinking patterns and perceptions of behaviors and please be ready to finish the following exercises:

Chinese narrative from a Sino-Western philosophical perspective: Yiduobufen