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Thread: Guiding Piece: Chinese Cultures vs. American Cultures

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[quote=MARRIE,305105]I on the other hand enjoyed great success. I patiently accepted every setback but firmly stood my ground. If the message bearer of the boss told me that I wouldn’t be paid on time I would smile and quietly say that I would be unable to come to work after a certain number of days. Phone calls would be made and salary would be promised. Normally a foreigner would go away happy but I knew that this was only a front. When I would come back on the designated day of course the salary would not be prepared. As expected, they would demand that I teach the classes without pay anyway. I would simply smile and say that I would be back 10 minutes before the class started. If I was paid on time then I would teach. If not, I would return home and await payment. There were always groans of complaint, constant berating for not being a responsible teacher, and plenty of excuses. I simply waited and would get paid where as other foreigner would have exploded and pulled out a contract and pointed out of their grievances.

In China you can never openly express anger. This is the easier way to offend someone who will hate you as long as you live, your children and their children. Even though the contract is always ignored, obligations are unmet; quality is poor one must not openly express anger. Of course, anger and insults will be expressed to the foreigner but one must simply ignore this. 5 minutes later everything will be ok and life will be good again.

Every organization I worked with in China displayed the same typical behavior: late pay, poor quality, unfulfilled promises, inconvenient or outrageous demands, the ignoring of the contract, and eventually intentional problems created to find fault in me. This is to be expected. The foreigner in China will predictably try to be patient and understanding, but this will come to an end when the problems don’t stop. Eventually they will break off the relationship or business transaction because they feel the situation isn’t fair. They of course are correct but they will not be able to continue to do business.

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