Cultural Shock Mini Case Study One of my friend, Abdullah had a wonderful chance to go to USA to present a paper at a professional meeting. Having attended the course in Intercultural Communications, we met to review some of the cultural differences he might experience. I also gave him the phone number of a friend of mine who lived in the area. When he got back, we met again to share his experience. Abdullah told me later that the course information had helped him. He experienced the typical stages of culture shock. He arrived expectant and happy and enjoyed his first day very much. At the conference, he felt quite confident in his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation. But after a few days, he began to feel uncomfortable. His English was fine, but the social interaction expectations were different, and he was unsure of the cues and the communication style. He was worried more and more that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions. When someone greeted him with, “Hi, how’s it going?” he thought they had asked him “where are you going?” and answered with the name of the conference hall, only to get a stare from them. At a western style dinner, a colleague asked, Abdullah “how’re you enjoying’ the States?” he thought he heard, “how are you enjoying your steak?” and answered that he was eating chicken, not beef. That time, they smiled, and patiently repeated the question, with both laughing at his mistake. Such misunderstandings and miscommunications were minor. But for Abdullah, they were the beginning of a sense of “cultural confusion.” By the end of the meetings, he felt a deep sense of “cultural stress” and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans’, found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented him, didn’t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches, and so on. Eventually, he was so bewildered that he felt the full impact of “culture shock.” Based on the case, answer the following questions: 1.Examine the case and highlight or summarize the relevant facts pertaining to the case. 2.Identify the key problem. 3.Write at least three (3) possible solutions for the problems identified in letter 2. 4.Select the best solution from number 3 and justify your answer

Cultural Shock Mini Case Study One of my friend, Abdullah had a wonderful chance to go to USA to present a paper at a professional meeting. Having attended the course in Intercultural Communications, we met to review some of the cultural differences he might experience. I also gave him the phone number of a friend of mine who lived in the area. When he got back, we met again to share his experience. Abdullah told me later that the course information had helped him. He experienced the typical stages of culture shock. He arrived expectant and happy and enjoyed his first day very much. At the conference, he felt quite confident in his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation. But after a few days, he began to feel uncomfortable. His English was fine, but the social interaction expectations were different, and he was unsure of the cues and the communication style. He was worried more and more that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions. When someone greeted him with, “Hi, how’s it going?” he thought they had asked him “where are you going?” and answered with the name of the conference hall, only to get a stare from them. At a western style dinner, a colleague asked, Abdullah “how’re you enjoying’ the States?” he thought he heard, “how are you enjoying your steak?” and answered that he was eating chicken, not beef. That time, they smiled, and patiently repeated the question, with both laughing at his mistake. Such misunderstandings and miscommunications were minor. But for Abdullah, they were the beginning of a sense of “cultural confusion.” By the end of the meetings, he felt a deep sense of “cultural stress” and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans’, found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented him, didn’t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches, and so on. Eventually, he was so bewildered that he felt the full impact of “culture shock.” Based on the case, answer the following questions: 1.Examine the case and highlight or summarize the relevant facts pertaining to the case. 2.Identify the key problem. 3.Write at least three (3) possible solutions for the problems identified in letter 2. 4.Select the best solution from number 3 and justify your answer

Understanding Business

12th Edition

ISBN:9781259929434

Author:William Nickels

Publisher:William Nickels

Chapter1: Taking Risks And Making Profits Within The Dynamic Business Environment

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1CE

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Cultural Shock Mini Case Study

One of my friend, Abdullah had a wonderful chance to go to USA to present a paper at a professional meeting. Having attended the course in Intercultural Communications, we met to review some of the cultural differences he might experience. I also gave him the phone number of a friend of mine who lived in the area. When he got back, we met again to share his experience.
Abdullah told me later that the course information had helped him. He experienced the typical stages of culture shock. He arrived expectant and happy and enjoyed his first day very much. At the conference, he felt quite confident in his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation. But after a few days, he began to feel uncomfortable. His English was fine, but the social interaction expectations were different, and he was unsure of the cues and the communication style.
He was worried more and more that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions. When someone greeted him with, “Hi, how’s it going?” he thought they had asked him “where are you going?” and answered with the name of the conference hall, only to get a stare from them. At a western style dinner, a colleague asked, Abdullah “how’re you enjoying’ the States?” he thought he heard, “how are you enjoying your steak?” and answered that he was eating chicken, not beef. That time, they smiled, and patiently repeated the question, with both laughing at his mistake.
- Such misunderstandings and miscommunications were minor. But for Abdullah, they were the beginning of a sense of “cultural confusion.” By the end of the meetings, he felt a deep sense of “cultural stress” and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans’, found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented him, didn’t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches, and so on. Eventually, he was so bewildered that he felt the full impact of “culture shock.”
Based on the case, answer the following questions:

1.Examine the case and highlight or summarize the relevant facts pertaining to the case.

2.Identify the key problem.

3.Write at least three (3) possible solutions for the problems identified in letter 2.

4.Select the best solution from number 3 and justify your answer.

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