17 hcm5 nguyễn tuấn hoàng 7051100144

HUE UNIVERSITY

INFORMATICS AND OPEN INSTITUTE
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ASSIGNMENT ON

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
TOPIC: Cross-cultural communication in a workplace

Lecturer: Nguyễn Văn Tuấn
Student: Nguyễn Tuấn Hoàng
Class: HCM 5

TP Hồ Chí Minh, tháng 8 năm 2023


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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.


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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 do 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, do 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 do 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


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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.


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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.


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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 do 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.


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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
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