The Silent Language Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Silent Language - Assignment Example In his book ‘, Edward T. Hall notes down the importance of mastering these skills for an American, who aspires to conduct successful business abroad (Cardon, 2008). This paper will, therefore, evaluate the important things that an American businessman needs to familiarize with while in a foreign land as addressed in The Silent Language in Overseas Business (Hall, 1960). Some things are acceptable in one culture, but may also be offensive in another culture. For instance, as Hall notes, an American will realize that a Latin American time might be quite spontaneous with their time, but when doing business with an Arab, he will realize that Arabs will tolerate interruptions in between. However, that will not lessen the seriousness of the business being conducted. With this in mind, an American should seek to understand the various cultural practices in a foreign state by acquainting himself or herself with the social, ethnic and economic dissimilarities of the people in that state. As Hall has stated, an understanding of various cultural differences will go a long way to make business transactions quite easier to conduct (Cardon, 2008). This includes an understanding of the communication in terms of time, space, material possessions, friendship patterns, and agreements. Hall makes it clear that people’s actions can act as a perfect means of conv ersing in one culture, while in others; it is words that do most of the expression (Hall, 1960). A person’s behavior communicates a lot and so are the attitudes and material possessions. Cultural interactions, according to Hall, can be explained in three levels; formal, informal, and technical. Formal forms include those instances when one does something inappropriately but is corrected and shown the right way. Informal involves learning the ways of a certain people by imitating them. Technical forms of learning, on their other hand, are similar to the experience of a teacher to a student (Hall, 19560).