Dialogue Draft

First scene:In the afternoon of the first day, the boss and an employee were discussing the annual
meeting
Natalie is the shareholder of a multinational company from Britain, which contains over 50
people. This company is a big family, and employees are from numerous kinds of countries from
all over the world. They all get along with each other in a harmonious way, and they all show
loyalty to their boss, Natalie. Natalie tends to view those employees as individuals of equal
status, rather than the relationship between superiors and subordinates. One day, Natalie asked
Susan, an employee from Northeast China, if she could help decorate the banquet hall in the
afternoon to prepare for the upcoming annual meeting. However, Susan has lots of work to do,
and she wants to focus on performance.Here is the conversation

Natalie:Hey, Susan.Would you like to help the company decorate the banquet hall this afternoon,
put some New Year's atmosphere stickers on the walls of the banquet hall, and adjust the
playback equipment, etc., in order to prepare for the annual meeting in a month?I originally
asked other professionals to come and help, but they didn't have time and the price was too
expensive. I heard that you have some experience in designing atmospheres, so I called you on.
Susan:Er...Sure.I am a very helpful person. If you need my help, I can make a last-minute change
to the plan
Natalie:Hey,I’ve already known that you still have a lot of things to deal with later, and you need
to focus on performance，and if it’s too much,just say it.
Susan:It’s...It’s okay!
Natalie:Thanks,I believe you are competent for this task！

The second scene:On the second day, the employees in the company resumed their normal work
and life. At this point, the company also happens to have a project to be put into construction
Due to differences in time and efficiency concepts, Natalie and Susan had a significant
disagreement over the pursuit of project progress, which inevitably led to arguments.
Natalie:Our company is currently working on a project task, which is particularly urgent and
requires the overall arrangement of all steps from design to completion within the next month.
Can you complete this task?
Susan:This progress is too urgent. Do you think it is possible?
Natalie:I think this matter requires a lot of human resources, average workload, creativity, and
overall planning. But I believe that only allowing employees to rest for four or five days within
this month and using the rest of the time for work can also ensure the completion of this task. No
big deal, just ask them to work more overtime
Susan:OK
Natalie:Now that our program has initial formation. How about everything else?
Susan:Everything went smoothly, except for a wave of cold waves and extreme weather that
prevented workers from working outside, resulting in a delay in construction progress
After two and a half weeks
Susan:I am very happy because 50% of our total project work has been completed, including
preliminary design, structural construction, and so on. The remaining half will be completed
gradually in the next two weeks or so.
Natalie:Only 50% now?! I thought we agreed that most of the main works would have been
finished by now！！
Susan:Yes.In the next two weeks, there should be no more extreme weather, so the construction
progress will resume and accelerate
Natalie:There will be city level institutions coming here for evaluation later. This project is crucial
for influencing our company's image in society.Please get it done as soon as possible.
Susan:Don’t worry, I'm sure this task can be completely completed in the next two weeks.

To sum up, the 2 scenes above show us different cross-cultural conflicts. In the first scene, due to
the different contextual backgrounds of the two nationalities, there may also be differences in
communication styles. China is a country from a high-context culture background. People from
high context countries usually speak in a reserved and introverted manner, with more nonverbal
information, less emotional leakage, close interpersonal relationships, high reliability of
commitments, and flexible time management. In the first scene, Susan declined Natalie's request
politely by saying ‘Er...Sure.I am a very helpful person. If you need my help, I can make a last-
minute change to the plan’.However, Britain is a typical country from low-context culture.’ People
from low context countries often speak straightforwardly, clearly, with a lot of language
information, emotional leakage, low reliability of commitments, and strong time organization.So
that Natalie spoke in extremely straightforward language when affirming Susan's
abilities.‘Thanks,I believe you are competent for this task！’

In the second scene, the two had a dispute over time concepts. Britain is a typical country from
monochronic time concept background. People from a monochronic time tendency background
usually concentrate on the job and take time commitments seriously, and they are also
committed to the job. In the case, Natalie is very anxious about the progress of the project,
because she comes from Britain,which is a monochronic country. By contrast, China is a country
comes from polychronic culture. People from China see time as a fluid concept go with the
“flow”, and they tend to do many things at a time. They also consider time commitments an
objective to be achieved if possible. Susan's view of progress in the project is relatively calm
compared to Natalie's, such as “Don’t worry, I'm sure this task can be completely
completed!”,etc. This is a typical feature of a polychronic culture.

In conclusion,during the process of communication,people may have different perspectives on

things due to cultural differences between different ethnic backgrounds, which inevitably leads to
conflicts.Only by promoting cross-cultural communication and considering issues from each
other's perspectives can we maintain communication.