Communication and Differences

After reading the chapter I remembered I had some notes on the guest speaker who came in to talk to us and whom also had us do some team building activities in order to help us further understand what the business world was like. He also spoke about the differences not necessarily in the cultures but rather in the mannerisms and the words we used when people were in a different setting or place. The differences could extend as far as countries or as close as county to county. Where one mannerism was understood as a sign of positive encouragement that same mannerism could be understood as looked upon as a sign of offense in another setting due to the many different cultures worldwide, and of course according to the upbringing each individual had. The guest speaker also said that body language is important and can say a lot more than a million words. By simply observing someone's body gesture you can tell a lot about a person and what they are thinking about or how they feel without that person having to tell you through verbal communication. Therefore you must be well versed not just in speaking to someone in their native tongue but also by learning mannerisms that may be offensive to someone in a particular part of the world. You must also be able to control your body language because you don't want to send off the wrong message, or lose a great client due to one mistake you made.