How I Did Strong Relationships With Other Cultures
“This helped me a lot for my business success. Tell me if I’m wrong about your culture for Americans, Germans, Italians, and more…”
As a Global Employee, I’m so lucky to travel all over the world.
The above photo shows one shot from one of my important training camps in Denmark, We’re closed our eyes and tried to create a perfect square with ropes against other teams.
In the photo, you can see 8 people from 6 different countries.
In this article, I want to explain why understanding cultures is so important for your success in your business and private life.
Because this approach chanced and provided me making good and strong relations with people from other countries.
At the beginning of my carrier, It was really difficult to understand them from their perspectives.
So I’ve started to look for ways for creating better relationships besides my own experiences in years.
To Fight these difficulties, I started to take notes after my visit to other countries. Today I’m going tıo share my notes with those who wonder and need this kind of cross-cultural business and relationship.
I think that besides business life, those notes are important for those who visit those countries as private or touristic tours.
GERMANS
I’ll start with German Culture because It’s an important one for me because I work for German Based Company as a person from Turkish Culture.
Germans are mostly deal-focused, Monochronic, Reserved, and Formal people.
Most German can good at English Language and Large companies have fluent English speakers. It’s easy to understand them within their accent.
Being on time may actually mean arriving a few minutes early. If you have any appointment and meeting with them, you can believe that they will be there on time or a little bit earlier.
This is What I like about their behaviour while doing business with them.
Formal behaviour is a way to show respect to people.
Handshakes are expected whenever you meet or leave someone.
Direct eye contact is needed to make strong relationships.
Germans tend to judge men by the condition of their footwear so shoes must be clean and polished.
If Invited to a German home for dinner, be sure to accept.
I’m really happy to work with Germans for a long time. Their discipline teaches a lot of things for me.
I’ll continue with my other country where I have most friends.
AMERICANS
The USA is huge and the population is high. There are lots of immigrants.
I’ll share my notes for my environment most of my friends were born in the US and I think that they showed my good behaviour examples to understand Americans.
My friends and colleagues are mostly from the North so I’m sure about the cultures and behaviours of people from the South.
Because As far as I know, there is a north and south divide there. I haven’t seen any of my friends can speak another language besides English. They mostly kidding about the different accents of British English, Australia.
They are so helpful and friendly.
If you are not a family member or old friend, You need to know for stopping at the limit for jokes. You need some time to create good trust and relations.
Americans tend to speak more directly than Arabs or people from the East and Southeast.
They tend to asset the time as can be saved, spent, lost, found.
American businessmen can slap on your back to show their friendship.
I’m also happy to work with my friends from the US even though long time zone differences.
ITALIANS
I don’t like their siestas :) Because once I couldn’t find an open restaurant to eat something for lunch.
I’ve found one place and convinced them to drink beer in the garden while waiting for the finishing of their siesta break.
The young generation is not bad at English but I can honestly tell that Old people who I need to talk with couldn’t speak English including in emergency situations.
To learn the matter of this second language problem, I’ve asked the question to my close Italian friend. He answered the situation with a different perspective as Italian.
The answer was very surprising.
He said that Italians saw themselves as a powerful and influential person. He conveyed that the world existed from Italy and they did not need anything else. That’s why he said he had no motivation to learn a different language.
I have a few Italian friends and all can speak English very well. I think that the young generation is focused to learn English or other languages as well. I think that This answer shows a general point of view for Italians.
They are so friendly and Handshakes are expected whenever you meet or leave someone.
They really know which dress is correct to show their best version to the world. From socks to glasses. All Italians from 7–77 years are like a stylist.
Until getting their sign on contract, you have to be careful because suddenly they can change their idea.
In my next article, I’m going to share my determinations for Indians, Arabs, Danishes, Dutches.
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