Problems and solutions for exporting and importing staff of dap cau garment joint stock company when negotiating and communicating with busin

ABSTRACT
This study aimed to research the English oral communication problems
and solutions used by Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company exporting and
importing staff to communicate with business partners. The participants in
this study were 6 exporting and importing staff of Logistics Department of
Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company based in Bac Ninh, Viet Nam. The
instruments employed in this study were interview and observation. It was
found that exporting and importing staff when communicating with business
partners had problems with listening comprehension and grammar usage,
fluency, accents, producing word stress misplacement, cultural awareness and
quality of voice. The result also showed that the major common oral
communication solutions used both the leadership and exporting and
importing staff were asking business customers directly of what they did not
get, making clarification requests, paraphrasing and generalization.

1


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Nowadays, Vietnam’s economy has many opportunities for development,
the logistics service business is one of the potential economic development
brings positive results for the country. With the developing economy, logistics
becomes a service that integrated many activities with high added value,
bringing significant economic benefits. Vietnam with favorable business
environment, high growth opportunities promising to develop the service
market in the near future.
Development of logistics in low and middle income countries can
promote trade growth and benefit the whole business and quality assurance
services. However, the logistics industry of our country is still limited, so that
can develop strongly need to consider many factors and development
direction. Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company is one of the Vietnam

Garment Corporation which was born to meet the comprehensive strategy of
logistics services development of the country on the domestic and foreign.
Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company is investing in the logistics
industry to expand the multimodal transportation service with high potential.
Nevertheless, the staff’s skill must be professional enough in order to meet
the need of the logistics development of the company. Especially in the
directional exchange with the business partner, how to negotiate and
communicate efficiently to obtain the successful transaction. Despite the
limited skill in speaking and negotiating, at the present there are any thorough
method that helps improve their skill. Therefore, the topic “Problems and
solutions for exporting and importing staff of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock
Company when negotiating and communicating with business partners” is the
one that I extremely concern. In this graduation paper I would like to bring a
specific view on problems and solutions for negotiation and communication
with business partners in logistics work.
2


With the help and guidance of the management and staff of Dap Cau
Garment Joint Stock Company, I get knowledgement about negotiating and
communicating in logistics transaction in practice. I would like to send my
sincere thanks to the teachers of Commercial English Faculty – Thuongmai
University, the staff of the Logistics Department and especially the dedicated
instruction from the supervisor help me complete this graduation paper – MS
Nguyen Bich Hong. During my completed process, I could not avoid certain
mistakes. I hope to receive the comments and help of the teacher to
accomplish my graduation paper.
Hanoi, March 08, 2018
Student

3


TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT......................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENT..........................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY......................................................1
1.1

Rationale........................................................................................................1

1.2

Previous studies.............................................................................................2

1.3 Aims of the study...............................................................................................5
1.4 Research Subjects..............................................................................................5
1.5 Scope of the study..............................................................................................6
1.6 Research methodology.......................................................................................6
1.6.1 Interview..........................................................................................................6
1.6.2 Observation......................................................................................................7
1.7 Organization of the study..................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................9
2.1 Concept of exporting and importing work......................................................9
2.1.1 Exporting work................................................................................................9
2.1.2 Importing work................................................................................................9
2.1.3 The duty of exporting and importing staff......................................................9
2.2 Definition of communication skills.................................................................10

2.2.1 Business communication skills......................................................................11
2.2.2 Differences between Business Communication and General/ Social
Communication......................................................................................................13
2.3 English in business communication................................................................14
2.3.1 The importance of English Oral Communication in the business work 15
2.3.2 English communication in exporting and importing work...........................15
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS..............................................................17
3.1 Research findings about the problems when communicating with business
partners of exporting and importing staff...........................................................17
4


3.1.1 The results of the interview............................................................................17
3.1.2 The results of Observation.............................................................................22
CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SOLUTIONS.............................25
4.1 Plans of solving the problems of exporting and importing staff when
communicating with business partners................................................................25
4.2 Solutions for the problems of the exporting and importing staff when
communicating with business partners................................................................25
4.2.1 About the problems of communications barriers..........................................25
4.2.2 About the problems of Misinterpretations and Assumptions........................27
4.2.3 About the problems of poor listening skill.....................................................28
4.2.4 About the problems of wrong grammatical sentences...................................29
4.3 Conclusion for the solutions............................................................................30
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................31
REFERENCES......................................................................................................33
APPENDIX

5

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
DAGARCO
EIS

Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company
Exporting and Importing Staff

6


CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1 Rationale
Nowadays, English has become an important part of the business of
every entrepreneur. It is an essential factor to help businesses take advantage
of opportunities to exploit new markets as well as seek and negotiate with the
foreign investors. So it does in the Exporting and Importing Department,
which is also called Logistics Department. English knowledge is necessary to
understand all the contents of exporting and importing documents such as
invoices, packing lists, contracts and business partners’ emails. When
customers or business partners visit the Company to make direct transactions
and examine quality of exported goods, boss or staff of Logistics Department
are required good English speaking skill to communicate, socialize with
foreign partners and make efficience deals with them. However, there are
about 40% of office staff can speak English at a relatively good level and it’s
not an impressive number. Most engineers and office workers only have the
ability to read and understand specialized English, not to communicate and
write in such language. These obstacles have many times caused company not
to immediately reply to foreign partners or make serious mistakes while
handling international contracts due to the lack of English proficient staffs.

Based on the above practical needs, I would like to select the topic “Problems
and solutions for exporting and importing staff of Dap Cau Garment Joint
Stock Company when negotiating and communicating with business partners”
as my topic. I hope that my research on existing problems in negotiating and
communicating skills and solutions to develop this condition in DAGARCO
will help the company to have an overview and to set up plans for the
company’s development in the future.


1.2 Previous studies
There are some previous studies about the communicating skills in
business as below:
The first study is the study of Dr Micheal Crewnal, his study researches
the communication skills in business. The main content of this study included
the definition of communication and it is divided into three main fields: Oral
(Presentation, Audience Awareness, Critcal listening and Body Language),
Written (Academic Writing, Revision and editing, Critical Reading and
Presentation of Data) and Non-verbal (Audience Awareness, Personal
Presentation and Body Language). Then the author shows the reason why
Business Communication is important: “Communication is the lifeblood of
any organisation. Whether it is issuing simple instructions at work, sorting out
a tricky situation with a subordinate, lifting flagging morale, working out a
better way to meet productivity targets, briefing your team on customer
feedback after a product launch, or as CEO, getting your employees to buy
into your company’s vision – communication is the pivot of any business
venture, from start-up to global corporation”. The next part he compares
Business Communication to General/ Social Communication: “Business
communication could be internal, that is, within the organisation between
colleagues or between departments; or it could be external, for instance, a
brand-building campaign for a company to shore up its image. It could also

include communicating with vendors, partner organisations, prospective
clients or just the public at large”. Whereas telephone and email were once the
most often-used mediums, now online meetings, videoconferencing,
teleconferencing, voice messages and even web chat and instant messaging
are par for the course. When it comes to a company targeting a large audience,
videos, powerpoint presentations (PPT), blogs, apps, social media and
television come to the rescue: “The study doesn’t have the problems and
solutions when conduct the communication skills with business partners, it


just has the definition and classifications of communications skills in
business.”
The second study is conducted by C. Ramakanta Sarma, the research
paper is about the importance of good communication skills for business staff.
She points out the necessity of using communication skills in business works:
“People in organisations usually spends 75 percent of their daily time on
communication through writing, reading, listening, speaking, inter-debate etc.
Effective communication is an essential component for organisation success,
whether it is the interpersonal intra group organisation or external levels. A
recent newspaper report said that during hundred of interviews, only five
qualified for the employability. It was not technically sound but they lacked in
communication skills. Communication skills are as important as technical
qualifications for youngsters aiming at a bright career. Communications hold
the key. Poor communication skills, low confidence levels and improper body
language have resulted out in the job race. The person recruited will have to
deal with the global clients directly. The command over the language and
accent neutralization also play a vital role in the recruitment process.” The
next point is the importance of communication:
Communication raises aspirations:
 Project the future in the present

 Raise awareness. Meet information needs.
 Motivates the people for a purpose.
Then the author analyze the characteristics of writing skills, reading
skills, speaking skills and listening skills:
 You must have patience.
 Openness and desire to understand.
 Concentration, intelligence and maintain eye contact.
 Think before you speak.
 Know your message


 Know something about the audience.
 Read inspirational or motivational books
 Subscribe to newspaper, newsletters, periodicals journals of your
interest to update your knowledge.
 Accuracy, appropriateness, attentiveness, to your audience, avoiding
of ambiguity.
 Brevity or conciseness, brightness or buoyancy.
 Correctness, clarity, consistency, concreteness
The next one is a study of English oral communication skills in an
undergraduate business and commerce curriculum of Crosling & Ward (2002)
indicated that English oral communication skills were crucial in the
workplace. Employees in this field required effective communication skills
were the most valuable. On the other hand, if employees lack this core skill,
they were at a disadvantage. Moreover, in a sudy investigating the
development of English and communication skills for modern business
conducted

by

Riemer

(2002),

the

results

indicated

that

English

communication skills were essential for any business man who aspired to
carry out his or her professional practice in the workplace. The results of the
study also indicated that to prepare engineers for industrial demand, they
should be trained to use all four English language skills especially listening
and speaking in order to communicate effectively in the global business
environment.
Hua & Kuar (2007) also concluded that effective oral communication
skills were vital to business people, especially those who hold managerial
positions because managers need to listen, explain, persuade, guide, coach,
encourage, facilitate, and direct group members to meet the goals of
individuals and their organizations. Effective oral communication enabled
individuals to be understood. It also helped create understanding between


people and fostered good relationships among workers in any business
context.

1.3 Aims of the study
On the basis of studying the communicating skills in logistics
transactions that Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company staff is
implementing, along with the effective method that logistics companies on the
world apply, I hope my research will help:
- Find problems related to oral communication of exporting and
importing staff of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company when
communicating with business partners.
-

Provide solutions to help DAGARCO develop appropriate and

effective strategies and measures for the development of communicating
skills for DAGARCO’s staff.
- Improve the ability to communicate effectively with business partners
is essential, no matter what industry you work in.
- Improve body language, eye contact, hand gestures, and tone all color
the message DAGARCO’s staff are trying to convey. A relaxed, open stance
(arms open, legs relaxed) with a friendly tone will make staff appear
approachable, and will encourage others to speak openly with them.
- Find the method to become good listeners. Instead of truly listening to
what the person is saying, we interrupt, think of our response, or think we
already know what the speaker is going to say next.
- Find out preferred way of communicating. Respect the person you’re
trying to contact and use the method they seem to prefer. If you’ve called
someone several times and always get their voicemail, but the person is
always quick to respond to email, switch to email instead.
1.4 Research Subjects
The subject of this thesis: + The real problems of exporting and
importing staff of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company when

communicating with business partners.


1.5 Scope of the study
The research scope of the thesis is limited to analyzing the problems and
solutions of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company’s exporting and
importing staff in communicating with business partners.
The main targets are the exporting and importing staff of Logistics
Department of the Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company. The problems are
arised when the DAGARCO’s staff conducting the exporting and importing
transactions with foreign customers, particularly communicating with foreign
partners, matters in communication skill of the DAGARCO’s staff.
The type of communication that this research paper will focus on is oral
communication. Problems of oral communication derive from basic
differences in values between cultures like America, Korea, Spain, …,
problems when listening to the customers, negative attitudes interfere with the
communication process, non verbal and verbal communication matters.
1.6 Research methodology
Interview and Observation are the research methods that I intend to use
in order to collect the information that help complete this research paper.
1.6.1 Interview
About the interview, the interviewees are the staff of Logistics
Department of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company, who directly conduct
communication with business partners. The followings are questions about
problems and solutions for communicating with business partners effectively:
 What are the main problems of exporting and importing staff of Dap
Cau Garment Joint Stock Company when conducting oral communication
with business partners ?
 Does the different culture affect to the conversation between exporting
and importing staff of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company and business

partners ? If it does, could you explain the detail of the affection of different
culture factor ?


 What are the matters of exporting and importing staff of Dap Cau
Garment Joint Stock Company when listening to the foreign business partners
?
 Do you meet any difficulty with pronunciation ? Could almost
business customers understand all the content when you speaking ?
 Are you good at eye-contact ? How do you conduct eye- contact and
what problems do you meet when conducting it ?
 What are the solutions that you want to propose for the oral
communication problems of exporting and importing staff of Dap Cau
Garment Joint Stock Company ?
All of the above questions would be answered by 5 people, the gotten
data help built the content of chapter 3: Research Findings that shows the
results of the research methods.
1.6.2 Observation
About the Observation, I spent one month in the recently internship
process to observe all the exporting and importing works such as: Contact to
business partner through mail, fax,…solve the exporting and importing
documents, and especially the direct communication process in which the
staff negotiate and make the exporting and importing deals. During the
internship time, with the permission of the director of DAGARCO, I was
taken to the transaction place in order to observe the process and skill of
communication with business partners. When communicating with customers,
they listened to their demands, analyzed the demands and send the analyzed
information to the logistics department so that the staff could solve and
prepare the papers, document and garment to meet the customer’s need. The
difference culture problem in communication was also solved with the skillful

method. They also use eye contact skill fluently, the look the person in the eye
to demonstrate that they are focused on the person and the conversation. They
are of course be sure not to stare at the person, which can make him or her


uncomfortable. After the conversation, they gave feedback about the
transaction that appeal the deals are successful or not, at the same time, they
didn’t forget to give praise such as: “ Thanks for caring our products and
services ”, “ Good job”
1.7 Organization of the study
Apart from the opening, conclusions and reference materials, the thesis
is divided into four chapters:
Chapter 1: Overview of the study
Chapter 2: Literature review
Chapter 3: Research findings
Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Concept of exporting and importing work.
2.1.1 Exporting work
Exports are the goods and services produced in one country and
purchased by citizens of another country. It doesn't matter what the good or
service is. It doesn't matter how it is sent. It can be shipped, sent by email, or
carried in personal luggage on a plane. If it is produced domestically and sold
to someone from a foreign country, it is an export.
2.1.2 Importing work
An import is a goods brought into a jurisdiction, especially across
a national border, from an external source. The party bringing in the good is
called an importer. An import in the receiving country is an export from the

sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial
transactions of international trade.
In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are
limited by import quotas and mandates from the customs authority. The
importing and exporting jurisdictions may impose a tariff (tax) on the goods.
In addition, the importation and exportation of goods are subject to trade
agreements between the importing and exporting jurisdictions.
2.1.3 The duty of exporting and importing staff
The duty of an exporting and importing staff may include performing
transactions, negotiating and signing contracts with customers and suppliers,
completing the procedures and documents of Exporting and Importing goods
such as purchasing contracts, transportation documents and exporting and
importing documents. Moreover, he/she is also in charge of conducting L/C
opening activities and making bank guarantees, receiving, examining,
coparing and recording exported and imported goods with the actual quantity
at the border gates in the process of making dossiers of good clearance. The


following duties are managing, tracking orders, contracts and coordinating
with related departments to ensure timely delivery as well as receipt, carrying
out the search for new customers, expanding the exporting market according
to the Company strategy. Last but not least, an exporting and importing staff
has the obligation of contacting, caring and maintaining good relationship
with customers and suppliers, collecting and evaluating feedback from
customers, markets and competitors, advising the Head of Logistics
Department on exporting – importing business strategies, as well as making
internal reports and reporting to relevant state agencies.
2.2 Definition of communication skills
Communication is the process by which information is exchanged
between individuals. It requires a shared understanding of symbol systems,

such as language and

mathematics.

Communication is much more than words going from one person's
mouth to another's ear. In addition to the words, messages are transferred by
the tone and quality of voice, eye contact, physical closeness, visual cues, and
overall body language.
Experts in child development agree that all babies develop skills for
spoken and written language according to a specific developmental schedule,
regardless of which language the child is exposed to. Although the milestones
follow one another in roughly the same sequence, there is significant
variability from child to child on when the first word is spoken and the first
sentence is composed.
The different categories of communication include:


Spoken or Verbal Communication: face-to-face, telephone, radio or

television and other media.


Non-Verbal Communication: body language, gestures, how we dress

or act - even our scent.




Written Communication: letters, e-mails, books, magazines, the

Internet or via other media.


Visualizations: graphs and charts, maps, logos and other visualizations

can communicate messages
Language employs symbols—words, gestures, or spoken sounds—to
represent objects and ideas. Communication of language begins with spoken
sounds combined with gestures, relying on two different types of skills. The
staff first learn to receive communications by listening to and understanding
what they hear (supported by accompanying gestures); next, they experiment
with expressing themselves through speaking and gesturing. Speech begins as
repetitive syllables, followed by words, phrases, and sentences. Later, the staff
learn to read and write. Many staff begin speaking significantly earlier or later
than the milestone dates
2.2.1 Business communication skills
Communication is the lifeblood of any organisation. Whether it is
issuing simple instructions at work, sorting out a tricky situation with a
subordinate, lifting flagging morale, working out a better way to meet
productivity targets, briefing your team on customer feedback after a product
launch, or as CEO, getting your employees to buy into your company’s vision
– communication is the pivot of any business venture, from start-up to global
corporation.
Business communication is the sharing of information between people
within an enterprise that is performed for the commercial benefit of the
organization. In addition, business communication can also refer to how a
company shares information to promote its products or services to potential
customers.
Business communication involves constant flow of information.

Feedback is integral part of business communication. Organizations these
days are verly large and involve large number of people. There are various


levels of hierarchy in an organization. Greater the number of levels, the more
difficult is the job of managing the organization. Communication here plays a
very important role in process of directing and controlling the people in the
oragnization. Immediate feedback can be obtained and misunderstandings if
any can be avoided. There should be effective communication between
superiors and subordinated in an organization, between organization and
society at large (for example between management and trade unions). It is
essential for success and growth of an organization. Communication gaps
should not occur in any organization.
Business Communication is goal oriented. The rules, regulations and
policies of a company have to be communicated to people within and outside
the organization. Business Communication is regulated by certain rules and
norms. In early times, business communication was limited to paper-work,
telephone calls etc. But now with advent of technology, we have cell phones,
video conferencing, emails, satellite communication to support business
communication. Effective business communication helps in building goodwill
of an organization.
Business Communication can be of two types:
1.Oral Communication - An oral communication can be formal or
informal. Generally business communication is a formal means of
communication, like : meetings, interviews, group discussion, speeches etc.
An example of Informal business communication would be - Grapevine.
2.Written

Communication - Written

means

of

business

communication includes - agenda, reports, manuals etc.
Speaking or verbal communication is perhaps the most frequently used
way to get a message across at the workplace, and it includes meetings,
presentations, workshops, in-person interviews, and telephonic and video
conferencing.


It is direct, it costs nothing, and it is instant. It is also effective because it
allows the receiver to pick up on critical non-verbal cues such as facial
expressions, tone, pitch and body language.
This communication skill is best used in situations where establishing a
personal connection is important, such as conflict-resolution scenarios, teambuilding exercises and while selling a product. But as more and more
businesses go global and they work with partners, clients and customers all
over the world, verbal communication is losing out to digital platforms.
Writing is another powerful business communication skill, which
embraces the

gamut from email, internal business memos, formal letters,

bulletin boards, posters, flyers, PPTs etc. Effective writing requires careful
choice of words that send out a message cogently and accurately.
This form of communication is reliable; it can be used to reach multiple
individuals all at once; and is the best way to convey technical information.
Since it is precise and explicit, written communication is an effective tool to

explain complex concepts and to issue instructions. It is unambiguous, and
when the writer is articulate, he or she leaves no room for misinterpretation.
Written communication also creates a paper trail for future reference and it
also helps the legal teams of large companies do their job.
2.2.2 Differences between Business Communication and General/
Social Communication
Business communication differs greatly from regular communication. It
refers to communication that takes place in a work environment, and is meant
to achieve the common goal of getting the job done and doing it effectively.
Business communication could be internal, that is, within the
organisation between colleagues or between departments; or it could be
external, for instance, a brand-building campaign for a company to shore up
its image. It could also include communicating with vendors, partner
organisations, prospective clients or just the public at large.


There are many career tracks that are based almost entirely on business
communication skills, such as marketing, customer care, corporate
communications, public relations, brand management, advertising and event
management.
While the parties at the sending and receiving ends of the
communication differ, each of these career domains revolves around getting a
certain message across and getting it across to a very specific target audience.
The number of platforms that we use for business communication has
exploded in recent times. Whereas telephone and email were once the most
oft-used mediums, now online meetings, videoconferencing, teleconferencing,
voice messages and even web chat and instant messaging are par for the
course.When it comes to a company targeting a large audience, videos,
powerpoint presentations (PPT), blogs, apps, social media and television
come to the rescue.

2.3 English in business communication
The concept of Business English has undergone some major shifts in the
last few years because of a number of developments, such as advances in
genre theory and the coming together of English for Business Purposes and
Business Communication, inspired by the realization that there is a gap to be
bridged between the academy and the globalized business world. Drawing on
advances in the analysis of business discourses, especially in applied genre
analysis, this state-of-the-art review revisits the frameworks currently used in
English for Business Purposes and Business Communication (or, more
generally, Professional Communication) to suggest an integration of the two
approaches for the design of English for Business Communication (EBC)
programmes. The study incorporates an extensive review of much of the
relevant published work in all the three areas mentioned above to identify
some of the main issues in EBC, and illustrates a gradual shift in the rationale
for the design and implementation of EBC programmes.


2.3.1 The importance of English Oral Communication in the
business work
As the world develops into a global network, many business
organizations are increasingly interested in hiring people with good English
speaking skills and effective English oral communication will give an
employee an extra opportunity to gain competitive advantage. The importance
of English oral communication skills for those seeking employment or career
advancement is well documented. Several studies (Boonkit, 2010; Crosling &
Ward, 2002 and Forey & Lockwood,2007) confirm that English oral
communication skills are considered to be the most important competency in
evaluating entry- level job candidates and the most critical attribute for all
career and managerial success.
Effective oral communication is the life blood of every organization. In

the business field, the ability to communicate effectively is essential and
significantly influences promotion to the executive level. An employee who
cannot communicate effectively remains buried in lower, dead – end jobs.
Moreover, effective oral communication also helps individuals to better
accomplish certain goals.
English oral communication skills are vital to the advancement of any
business or industry. English has been accepted as the medium for business as
well as engineering, tourism, the IT industry and especially in garment
industry. Therefore, business people and learners need to be equipped with an
excellent command of English oral communication in order to respond to the
impact of globalization and professional demand.
2.3.2 English communication in exporting and importing work
In a global market place and in the face of increasing business pressure,
efficient and effective Supply Chain Management can provide a real
competitive advantage. With more and more companies operating in an
international environment, Supply Chain and Logistics Management requires


a higher degree of international coordination to ensure the smooth flow of
goods, information and other resources from the point of origin to the clients
and end-users, in many cases thousands of miles away. English is the
language used as the tool of communication between different nationalities to
manage this complex and challenging process. This makes English an
invaluable skill for all levels of exporting and importing working within the
Supply Chain and Logistics function.


CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS
3.1 Research findings about the problems when communicating with
business partners of exporting and importing staff.

Poor communication in the workplace includes lack of communication,
incorrect messaging, incomplete directions and a host of other problems
related to speaking, writing and listening. A review of common problems of
poor workplace communications could help exporting and importing staff
take steps to strengthen their ability to stay on the same position with your
managers, employees and suppliers to avoid problems and maximize
productivity. The following contents are the common problems that my
interviews with the exporting and importing staff and my observation showed:
3.1.1 The results of the interview
After conducting the interview with five exporting and importing staff of
Logistic Department of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company, I obtained
the following results about the problems and solutions of them when
communicating with business partners:

 Question 1: What are the main problems of exporting and importing
staff

of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company when conducting oral

communication with business partners ?
- Staff 1: I’m usually having trouble with listening comprehension when
foreign business customers spoke too fast.
- Staff 2: Producing grammatical errors when speaking is my main
matter when communicating with business partners.
- Staff 3: I met trouble during telephone call when conducting the
English business communication.
- Staff 4: My difficulty is understanding foreign accents and producing
word stress misplacement and trouble regulating the volume of their voice.

- Staff 5: My problem is lacking or having insufficient knowledge of the
cultural background of our business customers.

 Question 2: Does the different culture affect to the conversation
between exporting and importing staff of Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock
Company and business partners ? If it does, could you explain the detail of
the affection of different culture factor ?
- Staff 1,2,3 : Yes, of course, it is really the matter of exporting and
importing staff when communicating with business partners because if they
don’t feel comfortable with the different culture problems we might lose large
exporting and importing deals, which leads to the heavy losses for the
DAGARCO. For example, Americans like to greet by the firm of handshake
while Chinese do not like much touching to greet, rather they bow to greet
people, in U.S.A people maintain eye contact while speaking to provide
importance. Whereas, in Indonesia, looking directly at people considered to
be disrespectful or a smile is viewed as a positive sign in American culture but
considered as a sign of weakness in African cultures. So, all cultures use body
movements during communication but in different ways.
- Staff 4,5: Actually our Vietnamese Culture is quite polite, friendly and
hospitable which makes our business customers feel comfortable , moreover
the exporting and importing staff are also good at researching information of
the business partners before conducting the oral communication with them so
we don’t think the different culture has much affection to the English business
communication.

 Question 3: What are the matters of exporting and importing staff of
Dap Cau Garment Joint Stock Company when listening to the foreign
business partners ?
- Staff 1: The problems I usually meet when communicating with
business partners is that assuming a subject is uninteresting and tuning out,

focusing on the delivery rather than the content.


- Staff 2,3: We usually have difficulty at reacting too quickly before the
message is completed, picking up on emotional words and not hearing the rest
of the message.
- Staff 4: When communicating with business partners, my problem is
listening only for facts rather than trying to absorb ideas, allowing myself to
be distracted, and avoiding listening to subjects that I don’t understand.
- Staff 5: Trying to listen to more than one conversation at a time is my
problem, this includes having the television or radio on while attempting to
listen to business partners talk; being on the phone to customer and talking to
another person in the same room and also being distracted by some dominant
noise in the immediate environment. 

 Question 4: Do you meet any difficulty with pronunciation ? Could
almost business customers understand all the content when you speaking ?
- Staff 1: I usually make mistakes in the stress of words and rhythm of
sentence because English requires that one syllable in each word be stressed
more than others. When I made wrong stress business partners might
misunderstand my meaning or attitude.
- Staff 2: Intonation is my problem, the rises and falls in tone that make
the ‘tune’ of an utterance, which is an important aspect of pronunciation of
English, often making a difference to meaning or implication. Sometimes I
still have to repeat or restress my pronunciation because they could not
understand my intonation.
- Staff 3: I’m Vietnamese but I’m from Nghe An – central of Viet Nam
so my English pronunciation is rather hard to listen. That is the reason why
business customers sometimes could not understand my content when
communicating.

- Staff 4: The factor of age is also the important factor in English
pronunciation while I’m rather old, if I started to learn pronounce English
with native accent, I should have started to learn it during my childhood. That