When he answers the telephone, John always gives his department and his name.John learned when he first became a salesman that when you answer the telephoneit is important to give your name and to say who you are. When you answer thetelephone, the person calling can't see you. If you give your name, the caller willknow who you are. Then, the caller should do the same, giving his or her name toyou. In this way, people know each other before they begin talking.
After he has found out who the caller is, John usually takes a few moments totalk personally before he gets to business. This is called friendly conversation. Johnhas learned that customers like it if he takes a few moments to show he is interestedin them.
"Each customer is a separate person. Each person likes to be recognized as anindividual, to know you are interested in him or her."
When he meets somebody new on the telephone, John talks or asks questionsabout simple things. Then he remembers the answers and converse a bit about whathe was told when the person calls again.
For example, if it is a sunny, warm Friday, John may say he hopes the weatherwill stay nice for the weekend. The other person may then tell John about what he orshe is planning to do over the weekend. Then, when John talks to the same personthe following week, he will try to remember to ask, "Did you have a good time lastweekend?"
John learns a lot about his company's customers in this way. He is able to wintheir confidence by knowing them. Even though he has never seen many of thepeople he talks to, he has become friendly with most of them. This is important ingiving service to customers.
When he gets down to business in talking to customers, John is very carefulabout his speech. He is careful to pronounce all words clearly. He is especially carefulabout pronouncing names and numbers. When customers give John their names oran order, he always asks them for the correct spelling. John always
…… 人类进入21世纪之后,20世纪60年代末期到70年代前期关于“地球村”的预言已成为现实。不同文化之间的时空关系不断被打破。封闭的、保守的和排他的文化现象正在不知不觉中改变。取而代之的是宽容的、吸纳的跨文化合作。文化交融现象已经成为不争的事实。合作文化也已成为当代国际商务交流活动中的重要内容。
由于经济全球化的发展,不同文化背景的人们之间的商务交流活动越来越频繁。经济全球化使国际商务交流活动处于一个多元和异质的文化环境中。2l世纪的中国,国际合作更是日益频繁与广泛。增强跨文化理解、克服文化冲突、加强文化沟通与合作,显得尤为重要。那些直接参与国际商务活动的人员,无疑都面临一个现实的问题:如何尽快提高跨文化交际能力,增强国际商务竞争能力,进而创造*大的经济利润。因此,丰富学生跨文化商务交际知识、提高学生跨文化交际能力,将帮助学生更好地参与到国际商务活动之中,接受各种挑战。简言之,培养和提高跨文化商务交际能力已成为大学英语教育的重要内容之一。
《跨文化商务交际》是专门针对商务英语专业本科或其他专业副修、选修此课程的学习者的教材。全书共分8章。 **章:以跨文化交际学的基本理论为框架,阐述交际、文化、跨文化交际等基本概念。 第二章:介绍言语交际,即口语交际和书面交际。主要强调在跨文化交际中要保证说有规矩,写有规则,进而完成有效交际。 第三章:主要介绍非言语交际,如身势语、空间和距离等方面的知识及文化内涵。通过这些方面知识的学习,学习者将会了解到在跨文化商务交际中,很多情况下,非言语的交际行为比言语交际更为重要。 第四章:介绍霍夫斯泰德四个文化维度:权力距离、个人主义相对于集体主义、男性气质相对于女性气质以及不确定性规避,在文化层面上分析了人们在跨文化商务交际中存在的众多价值观念差异。 第五章:介绍和分析文化休克现象,使学习者认识到在跨文化商务交际中文化休克不可避免,但可以“**”。