Manners

    From a year ago, I was fond of joining the international meeting, with all the westerners and some few Koreans and Japanese, but few Taiwanese only joined for a meeting. Pleased with the westerners, my recognition was learners from South Africa, South America, Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Iraq, Egypt, and etc. They usually greet each other with questions: “How was your day?”, “How are you?”, “How do you do?”. In Chinese culture, the questions “Have you eaten? Or “Where have you been?” are pleasantries equivalent to those of Westerners’ questions.

    Exchanging ideas, agree or disagree is very common in Western countries, but Chinese is trying to avoid political-related discussion, transgender, human rights or gay relationship issue. We are deeply careful about strong negative statements, even though we already knew that, like other countries, are working hard to deal with issues, but still seen as sensitive and should be avoided.

    Westerners have a hard time figuring out all the customs and formalities in Chinese cultures, they almost assume that Chinese customs are like Japanese or Korean ones. When you come to customs in detail, there are some big differences between doing and don’t to do.

    The rules of meeting new friends in a meeting, refrain from asking them about age, salary income, private matter, or unnecessarily questions. Some people may do not feel comfortable answering a question, but they just do not let them know about their feelings. Getting angry or raising your voices is considered a loss of face in our culture. However, Chinese would like to write their emotions in their face when they are irritated.