Cross Cultural Management

When I transferred the flight in Singapore, I felt embarrassed about my behavior. When I went to the washroom, I directly entered the washroom quickly as I usually do in China, however, my leading teacher suddenly stopped me and pointed at the several foreigners waiting outside the washroom in queue, I felt very ashamed and stepped to join the queue. In China, It is easy to see people jostle to enter the elevator and bus, and people do not think strange and even take it as a custom. However, the western people attach great importance to the politeness in public occasions. No matter what the occasion is, they always consciously queue in the line and obey the order strictly, it is unacceptable to cut in line. Generally speaking, the western people pay attention to respect others’ tranquility, so they could appreciate the drama in the theater silently. So we could find that they always converse in a low voice. Even at night when there is few people, the drivers could still obey the transportation rule and will not pass a red light, they always respect the walkers and wait for the walkers to cross the street first. The situation in China is quite different, I think we should learn from the western people and perform politely in public occasions so that our society will be more civilized.In my second year of high school, a new American teacher came to teach us English, and she was introduced by the headmaster like this, I am delighted to introduce to you a very pretty girl, Miss Brown, she is a very good teacher from USA. Miss Brown felt very embarrassed after hearing the introduction, because American people think that it is not necessary to be commented when they meet people for the first time, the subjective comment gives them an abrupt impression even though it is commending remarks. However, when Chinese people introduced someone, they always use positive words. In the sentence of instruction, what Miss Brown felt embarrassed are the words pretty and good. In that occasion, the identity, academic degree and job, etc. should be focused on rather than the appearance and abstract comment. So the headmaster’s ignorance of introduction cultural difference results in the embarrassing situation.