Will Black

Intercultural Comm 35852-004

Case Study

A German businessman by the name of David owns a plethora of business in Europe

spanning from small bakeries to large multi-million-dollar tech firms. David was aspiring to

upgrade his business practices to international affairs, more specifically South Korea. From the

years of being a successful and well-known businessman, David obtained many powerful and

important contacts that could help in David’s pursuit of spanning into international business. One

of those contacts happened to be a very well-known businessman by the name of Mr. Chong in

Seoul, South Korea. David received Mr. Chong's information through a business exchange

conference in Nuremberg a few years prior. Soon after a few emails between the two

businessmen, David booked a flight to Seoul to meet and talk with Mr. Chong about a possible

business proposal. Mr. Chong even went as far as to invite David to his home for dinner.

This was the first time David has ever been to South Korea or any Asian country in his

life and he was very lost within the country and culture because he did not prepare for

researching the country before departing his flight. Regardless, David somehow found his way to

Mr. Chong's penthouse apartment in the heart of the city and proceeded to knock on Mr. Chong's

door. David was greeted by a middle-aged Korean man wearing a tailored suit, smiles were

exchanged between the two men but no words until Mr. Chong started to speak in Korean. David

never cared to research anything about South Korea’s culture which resulted in David never

learning any Korean. The two men both realized that they do not speak each other’s languages,

yet Mr. Chong still felt like he needed to invite his guest into his home. David quickly found out
that the was not the only person Mr. Chong invited to his house; there were a handful of Korean

businessmen standing in the living room staring at David like deer seeing headlights. The rest of

the night consisted of Mr. Chong showing David and the other men different cultural artifacts

and business awards around the apartment. The one furnishing that David did not notice was a

dining table in which to consume food, yet this was answered quickly when Mr. Chong notified

David and the others that their dinners are ready.

On the living room floor was a medium-sized sheet of bamboo with a 'Lazy-Susan'

placed on top with a verity of Korean dishes along with a handful of pillows placed around the

bamboo sheet. The other businessmen proceeded to sit on the pillows and pick the dishes Mr.

Chong made for them while in full conversation with one another. In front of the pillows were

two chopsticks, a napkin, and a glass of water. Skittishly, David sat on the pillow and looked

puzzled at the chopsticks that have been given to him as it was his first time using or seeing

chopsticks. Once David was able to comprehend what was transpiring in front of him, he noticed

that there were only a few dishes available as everyone else was in the middle of eating and

conversing. David was mesmerized by the dinner options that were left for him by the other

businessmen which consisted of cooked squid eyes, cow stomach, and mudfish soup. David

looked at Mr. Chong with a horrified look on his face and refused to eat the food that Mr. Chong

prepared for the guest. Mr. Chong found this to be incredibly rude and disrespectful. This offset

Mr. Chong for the rest of dinner who gladly invited David out of his home without talking about

a possible business proposal, which was the entire point of David flying to South Korea to talk

business. This left David feeling defeated and responsible for what was evolving in front of him

and soon regretted not researching the Korean culture before meeting or visiting Mr. Chong.
 Case Concepts

Having outstanding communication skills is a necessity at the organizational level of

communication, especially if business practices branch into international cultures. One concept

within this case study is the idea of cultural awareness which is the understanding of the

differences between a person's culture and other people's cultures from other countries or

backgrounds. Moreover, there is an emphasis on the understood notion of respecting other

people's attitudes and values concerning their specific culture. This applies to David throughout

the entire scenario because of his lack of cultural awareness due to the insufficient knowledge of

the Korean culture. This embarrassing catastrophe could have been avoided if David took the

time and effort to gain sufficient knowledge of the other culture; any researched information

would have left David in a better place compared to how his night unfolded. Due to his

arrogance of not researching Mr. Chong's culture, David’s potential international business

proposal fell through the cracks and left a negative image in Mr. Chong's conscious. Even if

David researched a minuscule amount on the Korean culture, Mr. Chong most likely would have

seen that as great respect because David would be showing his effort towards this potential

business relationship. Unfortunately, David came short and left a bitter taste in Mr. Chong's

mouth.

An additional concept that I pulled from the case study was David generating an idea, or

the lack there-of, self-awareness. There were multiple times within the case study that David

could have improved his cultural self-awareness with examples spanning from David attempting

to communicate non-verbally, resolving noise from communication styles, or even use

technology to properly communicate with the businessmen. David chose not to attempt any of

these techniques to understand his self-awareness of the situation and instead maintained an
arrogant approach to cultural self-awareness. The lack of David’s self-awareness in regards to

Mr. Chong himself, his culture, or values was the Achilles heel of David’s business proposal. In

Eastern Asian cultures, refusing food from a host in their home is incredibly disrespectful and

rude along with not bringing a gift for Mr. Chong as in thanks for the invitation and opportunity

for a business conversation. Mr. Chong took David’s demeanor as being rude and arrogant

because of the lack of effort David put into learning about Mr. Chong, his culture, beliefs, and

values.

Conclusion

If David prepared by researching the Korean culture, language, and customs before

venturing to South Korea, he would have been extremely well off in terms of building a new

relationship with Mr. Chong as well as enjoying the Korean culture. Thusly, from David's lack of

knowledge on the Korean culture, he failed to gain a new ally in his international business

ventures. Overcoming personal arrogance to learn about another's culture is an obstacle that

people need to hurdle to successfully respect and enjoy other people in different cultures. Simply

from researching the culture allows for the user to gain the knowledge needed to properly

communicate and build relationships with cultures.