Читать книгу The Interpersonal Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 92

People from different cultures also exhibit different communication style preferences. Individuals belonging to high-context cultures tend to be very polite and indirect when interacting with others, while people from low-context cultures typically exhibit a more direct communication style.³⁸ When meeting someone for the first time, a person from a low-context culture is likely to ask direct questions in an effort to gather background information and get to know the person; their priority is the discovery and expression of individual uniqueness.

People from high-context cultures, however, hesitate to ask direct questions, preferring to rely on nonverbal, contextual information. They value silence and reticence, believing that people of few words are thoughtful, trustworthy, and respectable. As a result, they also are likely to find unsolicited self-disclosures inappropriate. And because they would view such behavior as a sign of disrespect or disloyalty, they are less likely than people from low-context cultures to criticize one another publicly. When their words hurt another person, they believe they hurt themselves as well.