Like so many people who work internationally, my client seemed to be oblivious to the impact the different cultures he was in contact with were having on him and the way he was carrying out his business.

It did not seem to be unwillingness on his part or animosity towards other cultures. It was ignorance or a refusal to recognise their existence; it boiled down to a lack of awareness, although he had travelled to several European and American cities for his work.

“Shall we have breakfast tomorrow?”
“Yes, good idea”

Breakfast. A simple word, widely understood. But is it that simple?

The conversation was lively and interesting. Our hostess had prepared a delicious dinner and served a good red wine with it.

We talked about London and how diverse and cosmopolitan its population is.  Almost inevitably, we classified the various populations into groups and used over-simplified and over-generalised descriptions to categorise them. In other words, we were using stereotypes.

First published in The Connexion, July 2018
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FRENCH and British businesses do not operate in the same way - as any Briton who has worked for a French company will tell you. It means meetings can easily turn into a minefield of mis- understandings due to cultural differences.