Case 2:White Dress

Case analysis: The Indian women might think the wedding ceremony is a funeral if they see the western bride in white gown. The case reflects the similes and metaphors in the text. Culture is like an iceberg: we can identify the color of the dress worn by women in different cultures, but we do not know the values underneath. Culture is like the water a fish swims in: people wear dress of different colors for different context but they usually take it for granted and never ask why.

Case 4:Coconut-skating

Case analysis: The case reflects the characteristics of culture. We can tell from the case that culture is pervasive and it’s learned. People may invent different ways for things even as simple as the issue of floor moping. The Philippine woman must have learned this way of mopping from her own culture.

Case 12:Why Don’t You Eat the Pizza?

This case can reflect the problems appearing during intercultural communication and how ignoring cultural differences can affect communication. In Malaysia, where most people are Muslims, people think the left hand is used only for cleaning the body and thus it is dirty and can not be used to pass food. Knowing nothing about the cultural difference, the American student puts himself in an embarrassing situation.

Case 16:Different Responses to Noise

This case can reflect different culture can give different influences on human sensation. No two of people can assume that their sensations are the same, especially when they come from different cultures. Different social reality and living conditions can equip them with different way to sense the world. So it is very common for them to have totally different sensations even towards the same condition. In this case, the German professor and Japanese professor have very different response to the noise produced by the same motor for the heating system because of their cultures and living habits.

Case 21:A Danish Woman in New York

This case can reflect assuming similarity instead of difference. When communicating with people from another culture, one is likely to regard and treat other people as “his people” and to assume there must be only one way of doing things: that is “his way”. In this case, the Danish woman assumes that her behavior of leaving the baby alone, which is common in Denmark, is also appropriate in New York. Here, she assumes what is suitable in her own culture is also indisputable in another culture. That is why the small conflict happens.

Case 23:Girl-ness

This case can reflect one of the translation problems: the lack of conceptual equivalence,

which refers to abstract ideas that may not exist in the same fashion in different languages. Different cultures may attach different meanings to the same thing or person. Concerning this case, we should know what young females call themselves is very different in China from the States. In China, "girl" means someone who is young and single. In a way, it makes a female sound more desirable to be called a girl rather than a woman. For most people, "woman" means someone who is married and who probably is not young. In fact, most single Chinese females, such as university students, would be insulted to be called "women". While in the West, in formal, public settings, it is customary to call any woman who is past puberty a woman, even though she may not be legally old enough to vote, marry, purchase alcoholic beverages, drive a car, or sign a contract. This terminology became widespread during the "women's liberation movement in the 1960s". The term "'girl" is sometimes interpreted to be demeaning or disrespectful.

Case 25:Success Story

One of the sources of the frustration and misunderstandings that occurred in this case was different notions of what was verbally relevant. In this case, Mary was expecting a much more direct response to her question. Ms. Goshima, however, was uncomfortable with the question and felt her response should be very indirect and establish a proper sense of modesty before revealing the answer to the question. If Mary had been more patient, she would have eventually heard the answer to her question, but she was not really paying attention when it finally came because she felt that Ms. Goshima's comments weren't really relevant to her query.

Case 33:Are Americans Indifferent?

This case can reflect different nonverbal communication patterns exist in the actual. intercultural communication, especially facial expression differ according to different cultures. Compared to most Chinese, Americans like to smile a lot and to have causal and rich facial expressions in their daily lives, even though they have some misfortune. In this case, because of the different opinions about facial expressions in intercultural communication, the American lady talked about her father’s sickness and death in a smiling way to show she still has the optimistic way to treat the future life, which is misunderstood as being indifferent and selfish by the Chinese.

Case 37:What’s wrong?

This case can reflect different gestures can represent different meanings in different cultures and misuse of some gestures can lead to ineffective intercultural communication. For example, the common “OK” gesture means being good and friendly in some western countries such as USA, while in Latin America it represent something dirty and obscene. Therefore, in this case, the gesture of the American politician is really a disaster and it hurt the people in this Latin American country and also made himself to be unwelcome person.

Case 41:Getting Frustrated

Jay was frustrated in large part because many of the norms he was used to didn't apply in Saudi Arabia, and many Saudi norms did not make sense to him. Much of the business done in Saudi Arabia depends on baksheesh, a type of kickback to a middleman (and it is a man), who facilitates contacts between potential business partners. The middleman is doing a service and expects to get paid for it. The more baksheesh the person gives, the more likely it is that the person will succeed, because the middleman will be sure to treat him very well. Giving baksheesh is a norm in the Saudi business community. In addition, Saudis believe that God gave us multifunctional hands and that the hand is our best tool for eating. However, they are also concerned with hygiene. They reserve the left hand for cleaning themselves and use the right hand for eating. Saudis have a number of norms related to restricting male and female interaction that, within the context of their religious beliefs, make perfect sense but would be very inappropriate to most Westerners.

Case 43:The Improvement Does Not Work

Following their individualistic orientations, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Wyman were perfectly comfortable with the idea of creating team leaders within the individual sales groups. However, as Park Young Sam mentions, doing so upset the harmony of the groups, which in turn led to poor performance. In the United States, workers are often motivated by the opportunity for promotion and advancement as this serves the individualistic drive for individual achievement. In collectivistic cultures, however, workers may be motivated by being a part of a cohesive and productive team. Individualism and collectivism are terms that describe whole cultures. But cultures are not pure. Members of collectivist cultures may practice individualistic tendencies while members of individualist cultures may value collectivist ideals. For example, Denmark is a country with both collectivistic and individualistic tendencies. In Denmark, individual freedom is nurtured through a devotion to established traditions and customs. Regarding income and social rank, Danes are staunchly egalitarian. At the same time, however, Danes consider themselves free to be nonconformist and to stand out from the group. In this way, Danes may be at the theoretical midpoint of the individualism and collectivism cultural continuum.

Case 44:When Shall We Meet For Dinner?

Uncertainty avoidance orientation can be seen in this case. In the dialogue presented below, Kelly and Keiko are interacting about a dinner invitation. Kelly, from the United States, possesses a relatively low uncertainty avoidance index, while Keiko, from Japan, comes from a culture with a relatively high uncertainty avoidance index. In the dialogue above, Keiko is confused by Kelly’s easygoing attitude toward the evening’s plans. Coming from a high uncertainty-avoidant culture, Keiko would prefer to plan ahead to avoid uncertainty and prepare her script for the evening. Kelly, on the other hand, is perfectly comfortable making plans based on how the evening progresses. Without a plan, how will Keiko know how to act?

Case 48:Gift from a Chinese

Chinese people love giving gifts. Usually, the value of the gift is an indication of how important the receiver is in the sender’s eyes. Most people giving gifts are concerned about whether the gift will be seen as valuable enough. An inexpensive gift means a loss of face. Dongxie may have a practical reason in giving the ginseng to his manager, but most Chinese will take it as something usual for a subordinate to do this to a manager out of a sign of respect. North American companies do occasionally receive gifts out of appreciation for the friendship and assistance the manager may provide. Such gifts are treasured; however, the value usually is fairly small, a bottle of wine, a music CD, a small book, or other tokens.

Case 50:Refuse to Be Treated?

In the case just described, the U.S. American medical team system for making sense of the situation demanded that people be seen in order of the seriousness of their injuries or illness. Each person was considered as worthwhile as the next, and so seriousness of injury appeared to be a natural way to determine who was seen first. However, the cultural system working for those on the Virgin Islands demanded that elders be seen and treated first. Their position, age, and wisdom demanded respect. For younger members of the community to go ahead of them in a time of crisis was seen as extremely disrespectful. The conflict centered on efforts by each side to do what they perceived as good and morally responsible. Because the U.S. Americans were in a better position to adapt than an entire community that had just suffered great loss and were under extreme stress, it was good that they were willing to do so. Sadly, this is not always the case.

Case 54:A Fish out of Water

This case reflects that the boy is experiencing culture shock, which may bring him some psychological symptoms. Culture shock is virtually a communication problem which involves the depressed feelings accompanying a lack of understanding of the verbal and nonverbal communication of the host culture, its customs, as well as its value systems. Culture shock happens when people have to deal with a huge amount of new perceptual stimuli that are difficult to understand and interpret because the cultural context has changed. In this case, when the American student feels that his familiar cues from his native culture is removed, he becomes to reject the new environment and he displays some psychological symptoms due to culture shock.

Case 55:Missing China!

This case can reflect reverse culture shock. When people return home after an extended stay in a foreign culture, they experience another round of culture shock in their native culture and they must proceed through the four stages of the U-curve pattern once again. In this case, John, whose comes from Canada, has been living in China for quite a long time and he has got familiar with the Chinese culture. Therefore, when he returns to Canada, he cannot adapt well to his native culture.