Understanding Cultural Differences

I’ve given a couple of presentations recently at work about understanding the cultural differences between East (US / Europe) and West (China / East Asia) which I thought I’d share today. The first is aimed at Chinese to understand Western Culture (with lots of nice pics) while the second is aimed at Westerners to understand Chinese Culture (wordier):

Understanding Western Culture

Yes, that’s a picture of my sister in Africa killing a goat for dinner towards the end – a perfect example of dealing with uncomfortable situations (in this case quite an extreme one)! The presentation itself had lots of talking over the top – if you download the file you can see my notes with more information about the content. It would be great if someone could help me translate this into Chinese.

When Yes Means No (or Yes or Maybe)

Understanding Chinese culture and the implications for doing business there

This presentation was a summary from my earlier series “Chinese Culture 101” (which contains lots more detail). Hopefully, this will be published as a revised and expanded paper in the near future.

Summarising the history and culture of two major civilisations was a bit of a challenge but I think I’ve managed the pull it off without any glaring holes. I hope this is useful to people and as ever feedback is welcome.

David avatar

9 responses

  1. I just came across your Powerpoint. Some good notes in there as I think about a presentation about intercultural understanding for some visiting scholars at Rice University. Thanks.

    1. Glad you found it useful Matt – good luck with the presentation!

  2. Alan avatar
    Alan

    Thanks David

    I appreciate your efforts

    As an English teacher preparing a final year high school class for study in the USA I will use the ppt to give some ideas for cultural differences. I like the broad sweep introduction on “how the west was won” i.e. Greece, Rome, Xtianity, etc

    Alan

    1. Thanks Alan, glad you found it useful!

  3. Amee Kay avatar
    Amee Kay

    Hello I’m a high school student in S. Korea
    I’m writing a report about cultural differences and your ppt was very inspiring!! Thank you so much I’m so glad I found your page 😀
    Amee Kay

    1. Thanks Amee! Good luck with your report 🙂

  4. Hi, We are a China consulting company in Brasil, and we have been requested to help a chiense company to have a better integration into brasilian culture, I would like to receive your ppt to be adapated to our content. Hope you can share with us. I would be glad to share the final work on East /China == west/Brasil.

    looking forward to hear from you
    Andrea Martins

  5. Peter Pigram avatar
    Peter Pigram

    Dear David
    I am preparing a pptx on the culture of ASEAN countries for a group of Thai business people. I came across your presentations above and was so impressed and wondered if I may be able to use many of your slides in my own presentation? Of course I would attribute them to you and your website! This is a promise!

    Would such a request be possible? If so, would it be possible to request that you email me the presentations? or explain to me how to download them?

    Kindest regards

    Peter

  6. edwin lam avatar
    edwin lam

    Excellent info and very good presentation.

Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *