【精英翻譯】的部落格

Putting Things in Context

Fine-Tuning Cross-Cultural Business Communication  跨文化商務溝通停看聽

精英翻譯社轉自http://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0059/263901/web/

As with most aspects of life, the way we communicate is conditioned to a large extent by the culture in which we grow up. In multicultural work environments, it is important to understand the values that underpin our colleagues' communication patterns.

如同生活中的多數環節，我們溝通的方式絕大部分取決於我們所成長的文化。在多元文化的工作環境裡，了解同事溝通模式的價值觀是非常重要的。

One of the most important things to bear in mind relates to the divide between high- and low-context cultures, as identified by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall. High-context cultures are those societies which place emphasis on in-groups and close-knit networks of relationships that have been cultivated over a period of years. The subtleties of communication and behavior are generally not explicit, because members of the group know how to act and react based on an extended period of association with one another.

須牢記的要事之一和高低情境文化的差別有關，這是由人類學家愛德華．T．哈爾所提出的概念。高情境文化是強調已建立數年之久的內團體和緊密人際網絡的社會。溝通和行為的微妙之處通常不明顯，因為該群體的成員會根據彼此的長期交流而知道如何行動與反應。

East Asian cultures generally have more of a tendency to high-context communication. When an outsider — particularly a Westerner from a low-context culture — enters the group, he or she may encounter difficulties based on a lack of implicit knowledge. It will also take the outsider longer to form relationships that bind the group together — the so-called “guanxi” that is so crucial to the smooth operation of Chinese society.

東亞文化通常較傾向於高情境溝通。當局外人，尤其是來自低情境文化的西方人，進入一個團體時，他／她可能會因為缺乏祕而不宣的知識而遇到困難。這也會讓局外人花更多時間去組成將團體結合在一起的人際網絡，也就是所謂的「關係」，這對華人社會能否流暢運作是非常重要的。