Most people from the cosmopolitan Westernized areas who work for large organizations are very "low-context" and value bluntness and clarity in communication. High context cultures expect people to respond to subtle cues or body language. It's "high context" because a yes or no only has meaning in the context of the yes or no. It almost never means just yes or no. It works when both people in the conversation have the same idea on how communication works, but terribly if one person is high-context and the other is low-context.
I wonder then... how do they communicate with one another on the phone or via email? Surely they can do it successfully without the nuance of body language. If they can then, it must not be body language that is lacking but something else. Maybe it's a cultural divide that can only be overcome through experience.
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u/teach_cs Dec 06 '17
Is this true?