HUE UNIVERSITY INFORMATICS AND OPEN INSTITUTE ASSIGNMENT ON LANGUAGE AND CULTURE TOPIC: Cross-cultural communication in a workplace Lecturer: Nguyễn Văn Tuấn Student: Nguyễn Tuấn Hồng Class: HCM TP Hồ Chí Minh, tháng năm 2023 I INTRODUCTION In an office environment, in addition to showing one's ability, behavior in daily communication also plays a very important role We can create effective conversations if both sides listen and understand each other Currently, it is also very common for businesses to set up companies in other countries For example, in Vietnam, there are now many companies that are fully invested from abroad such as Korea, China, Japan Besides, our country also supports jobs for people Laborers from brother countries such as Laos or Cambodia, or some other friends also have demand for jobs due to excess human resources The problem of cross-cultural communication is inevitable, everyone can have some foreign colleagues in the same office Sometimes by chance, they also have to communicate with them, or sometimes both sides help each other with something Communicative culture will have some difficulties, but also can be considered as advantages when working with them When working with colleagues from different countries, communication becomes more complex and interesting Cross-cultural communication is also known as cross-cultural communication when: A message is produced by a person of one culture and understood by a person from another culture 3 II CONTENT Overview on culture and language Culture “any of the customs, world view, language, kinship system, social organization, and other take-for-granted day-to-day practices of a people which set that group apart as a distinctive group.” (Scollon and Scollon, 1995: 126) However, anthropologists not totally agree with this definition as they see culture in a largerview With them, culture also includes shared beliefs, values and ideologies which are notdirectly observable in human social life pproaching culture with cognitive approach, SavilleTroike (1982) defines culture: “culture is what the individual needs to know to be a functional member of the community”(pp 8) It means that culture tends primarily to the sharing ofknowledge (including beliefs and values) sometimes to the exclusion of actual behaviour It is necessary to know that culture changes when the living conditions change as knowledge andbehaviours, which are parts of culture, not remain static The other two factors whichcontribute to the dynamism of culture are culture’s contact with another groups’ culture andlanguage structure, language uses Cross-cultural communication in a workplace When it comes to workplace culture, it's important that we come up with a definition But this concept is difficult to define Is workplace culture a set of values? Behavior? Attitude? Or customs and traditions? Actually it's all this and more Forbes describes workplace culture as "the permanent environment around us" Job site Indeed says it's "the set of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that make up the everyday atmosphere in a work environment" Perhaps the simplest explanation comes from the famous American management expert - Marvin Bower He describes culture as "the way we things around here" IMPORTANCE OF MULTI-Cultural Communication in the Workplace Currently, Vietnam is in the period of integration and development, so meeting and working with people from different countries is inevitable At work, if you understand a lot about other people's cultures, it will make people trust and appreciate you more A good relationship at work will be established when between you and the object there is a similarity in body language or behavior and communication When communicating with many different cultures, each of us will expand and cultivate new knowledge to better ourselves For example, when you work in an environment with many foreigners, you can choose to learn their good cultural characteristics to see yourself as lacking or incomplete in some way communicate, behave in the workplace to become more professional In addition, cross-cultural communication gives you the opportunity to promote a good image of Vietnamese people, helping them understand and sympathize with some problems in our country better Understanding more different cultures will help you avoid unnecessary misunderstandings or conflicts with foreigners Communicating in the workplace will help us maintain and build stronger, stronger relationships For businesses: Office communication culture plays a great role in the development of businesses, helping businesses become more united and flourishing We can see that the big corporations that are leading in the market are all businesses that have a good working environment and office culture There, the gap between boss and employee is narrowed Colleagues are always ready to support each other For individuals: Good communication and behavior bring many opportunities for us on the career path A dynamic, creative and professional working environment will make everyone feel comfortable and respected Examples of workplace communication culture Some typical features in the office communication culture of Vietnamese people in general and office workers in particular are often seen: Vietnamese people attach great importance to maintaining good relationships with people, but they are quite timid in crowds, interacting with many strangers 5 Before starting a conversation, people often find out information about the subject first so that they can address themselves as well as better understand the other person's lifestyle, views, etc The language used in communication by Vietnamese people is very rich Smile is one of the communication habits of Vietnamese people: agreeing smile, sympathetic smile Cultural differences Value Individualism Time Orientation Power distance High Short United States Japan Canada China United Kingdom Mexico Australia Greece Netherlands Hong Kong United States Pacific Rim and Middle Easterncountries Switzerland France Spain Israel Japan Germany Mexico Ireland Brazil Swede Cultural barriers Every country will have a different culture, and when we work with people from other countries, sometimes some problems turn into obstacles, even though it may not be significantly effective An example is the holiday schedule When it comes to a holiday for one person, it is a normal working day for another and vice versa Our working hours will sometimes be shortened because of those holidays For example, a company in the cultural environment of Vietnam and Japan The Japanese celebrate the New Year while the Vietnamese celebrate the Lunar New Year I still see them working during my holidays 6 Sometimes there are times when the party of the whole group also has a little cultural problem As colleagues are Bangladeshi And according to the custom of that country, it is not to eat the meat of cattle or poultry At the same time, they also not use alcoholic beverages in parties Mutual understanding Communicating in a cross-cultural environment at work as colleagues, but not always talking about work In addition to stressful working hours, a multicultural communication environment is still very necessary to exchange with each other about interesting issues in life Sometimes it's about family, personal hobbies or trips to get to know each other better The multicultural environment at work gives everyone the opportunity to work, travel, attend outdoor parties together The most important thing is to understand each other and want to understand each other Understanding each other requires understanding of each other's cultures and that is the key to communication in a multicultural workplace environment III CONCLUSION The above are just some of the issues of cross-cultural communication in the workplace Mostly gathered from my own experience and some references We may sometimes think that we cannot work when there is a difference in language or culture, but in general, as long as we are willing to accept and understand each other about the culture, we can all work together good work 7 REFERENCES Gudykunst, W (1991) Bridging differences Papademetre, L & Scarino, A (2000) Integrating culture learning in the languages classroom: Amulti-perspective conceptual journey for teachers Melbourne: Language Australia,University of South Australia, pp 33 Phan, Le Ha and Phan, Van Que (2006) Vietnamese educational Morality and the discursiveconstruction of English language teacher identity Journal of multicultural discourses, Vol.1, No 2, doi: 10.2167/md 038.0 Education Publishing House Triandis, H C (1995) Individualism and collectivism Boulder, CO: Westview https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/vanhoa