YUAN 1

Mingjia Yuan

Professor Carlisi

ESL 33B

17 May 2018

Thesis Statement

There are many cultural differences that negatively affect business communications between

Chinese-American and American such as language barriers, cultural values and beliefs, of which

would have big impact on business communication.

Detailed Outline

I. Introduction

A. Globalization made more business people move cross-culturally

1. Intellectual business communication could directly affect successful

negotiation with other companies.

2. Miscommunication is a serious problem that are totally different from cultural

to cultural.

B. Thesis: Language barriers, cultural values and beliefs, and political influence could

affect Chinese-American business communication in the U.S.

II. Language barriers:

A. The speaking skill that people like to use in sharing ideas

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1. People often are unable to speak properly in the other business’s language, which

can waste a lot of time and make companies unwilling to deal with another

country’s company.

B. Misunderstand during the process of translation.

1. Across cultures, some words and phrases are used in different ways

(Constantinescu 614).

2. Translation can be wrong and there may be many critical errors.

III. Cultural value and belief

A. Individual vs collective

1. Americans like to work on their own and avoid having to work in big groups

2. Chinese like to work in large groups

3. “Chinese people, on the other hand, base their decisions on how they will be

perceived by those around them. They will first consider how their decisions

will affect their family, colleagues and friends” (Tan 1).

B. How individualism and collectivism affect people’s communication

1. Chinese and Americans are prone to conflict because the working styles are

different, which causes people to clash.

2. There can be misunderstandings during work because in a Chinese system,

maybe the decisions need to be taken by multiple people so it can take a long

time or there can be confusion.

3. “People in the US are encouraged to defend their ideas which may even lead

to a confrontation or debate for the purpose of getting the other person to

agree with their way of thinking.” (Tan 1)

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IV. Political influence

A. Strong nationalism of nations.

1. Many people may not want to conduct business that may damage their political or

country’s view. For example, Chinese-Americans may not want to do business

that could potentially harm their country, even if they are working for an

American company.

B. Different perspective between different nations (politics impact nations in different

way.)

1. Lack of opportunities for Chinese people who wants to work in America.

(immigration law limited by polities)

2. In the work place, some people can have conflict because of different perspectives

3. People have different ways of behaving, as Thompson says, “Marketing styles in

other countries may differ, and polite behavior in the United States may be

impolite elsewhere.” (Thompson 1). This behavior is mainly dictated by the

political culture of the countries, and how the countries behave towards each other

on a political stage.

V. Conclusion

The cultural differences between Chinese and American in terms of business are highly

significant and can cause a number of problems for Chinese Americans who came here to work.

The way Americans function is pretty different from Chinese-Americans, and the

miscommunication can be an issue in the workplace and also between businesses. There are also

political differences, which can be a sensitive issue that can also create conflict. Subsequently,
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there is also the obvious problem of the language barrier, which is the natural obstacle between

Chinese-Americans and Americans.

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Introduction

In recent years, there are many different ways to realized how importance that

cultural differences affect communication for daily activity. Internet and international media

make an easy communication through over the world. Therefore, globalization made more

business people to move over-culturally. Intercultural business communication could directly

affect successful negotiation with other companies due to it belong to different cultures need to

the variety of cultural values and to improve their communication skill. And also, because of

misunderstanding of small linguistic, miscommunication become a serious problem that are

totally different from cultural to cultural. According to (Constantinescu 614), the nature of

communication which included analysis and understanding of language may cause

misunderstood between speaker and listener. As the result, language barriers, cultural values and

beliefs, and political influence could affect Chinese-American business communication in the

U.S.
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Body Paragraphs: Outline Section II. A.1

Language barrier is first negative affect for business communication. As reading the article

‘Asian immigrants in the United States’ by Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova who are policy analyst

at MPI program was mention that there are increasing immigrants move to the U.S. From Fig.1.

there only have 2,540,000 immigrants in 1980. In 2014, there are nearly rise 6 times within 30

years. Which means when immigrants work in different countries they need to learn a new

language and they will face language barrier into the workplaces.

Fig. 1. Data from U.S. Census Bureau 2006, 2010, and 2014 American Community Surveys

(ACS), and Campbell J. Gibson and Kay Jung, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born

Population of the United States: 1850-2000" (Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau,

Washington, DC, February 2006

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/asian-immigrants-united-states
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As I mention in my research presentation, in the U.S. American speak loudly and be

aggressive when they sharing ideas or giving direction to others. However, in Asia, like Japan,

people like speak softly and more passive about sharing ideas or making suggestion. Because of

different expression, they will have many problems in workplace e.g., if Asian leader give

suggestion rather than give direction to the subordinate, this might lead people to confuse about

the detail mission and they might not perfectly finish the assignment. Therefore, to solve this

problem immigrants must concern about their expression way while they doing business and

discuss with partner in order to let other people understand their language.
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Works Cited

Constantinescu, Aurora-Liliana. "Intercultural Communication in Business." Calitatea, vol. 14, no.

2, 2013, pp. 610-614. ProQuest,

https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1366367229?acc

ountid=28371. Accessed 17 May 2018

Davis, Boyd. “English in Intercultural Interaction.” American Speech, vol. 73, no. 2, 1998, pp. 215–

218. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/455741. Accessed 17 May 17 2018

Kenman, Leon. "Intercultural Communication for Business." The Journal of Language for

International Business, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005, pp. 106. ProQuest,

https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/197240727?acco

untid=28371.

Lozano, J. F., and Teresa Escrich. "Cultural Diversity in Business: A Critical Reflection on the

Ideology of Tolerance." Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 142, no. 4, 2017, pp. 679-696.

ProQuest,

https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1904071951?acc

ountid=28371, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3113-y.
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“7 Differences between Chinese and American Culture You Should Know About Before Living and

Working in China.” Teach English in China - Current TEFL / ESL Teaching Jobs, 19 May

2017, goldstarteachers.com/7-differences-between-chinese-and-american-culture/.

Thompson, Van. “What Issues Arise When Doing Business Globally?” Small Business -

Chron.com, Chron.com, 28 Mar. 2018, smallbusiness.chron.com/issues-arise-doing-business-

globally-56877.html.