Do As The Romans Do

When we finished our oral reports, our tutors often made comments on our reports:” keeping eye contact with your audience is very important. If you don’t, people will lose interests in your oral report.” I think that is the difference between the Chinese culture and the west culture. Generally speaking, Chinese are very shy to make eye contact when they talk with others while foreigners like to make eye contact with their audiences. They think making eye contact means you respect your audience.

Different countries have different cultures. So when we first come into a new culture, we may feel like we don’t fit with our environment. We may be frustrated with not being able to communicate with people who do not have the same language as us, and so on. Don’t complain about it. What you need to do is learn about their culture and try you best to adapt to their culture.

For example, when you enter the Americans’ house, your American friends say:” welcome! Let me have your coat.” Even though you are always placing your coat by yourself, you had better let them do it. Otherwise they will think you want to see their house and know some secrets. In Tanzania, when a young person addresses an elderly person, it is correct to touch the elderly person’s hand to his or her forehead and say: “shikamo”, which means, “I am not worthy to kiss your feet.” This is a sign of respect for age and wisdom and will bring much good. In Indonesia, girls talk softly and stand very close to other females when speaking. In Taiwan, however, most restaurants are very noisy with loud conversations. So we should take our cues from the local people for the appropriate volume of speech and laughter.

The world become more colourful because of various cultures. So before coming into a new country, you had better learn something about its culture. When you have arrived in the country, try your best to adapt to it.

Do as the Romans do!