Cross-cultural Communication Memo

Due Date

This assignment is due by  Wednesday, October 1. It is worth two percent of your semester grade.

Purpose of the Assignment

This assignment introduces you to important elements of culture, and it encourages you to think about how culture impacts the way people in a given culture communicate.

Assignment

This assignment involves doing a small bit of research on a particular country, and then using that information to rewrite a given e-mail to a person from that country. Turn in all parts of this assignment in the same MS Word file.

Step 1: Pick a country other than Mexico, Canada, or England from the list posted at http://spectrum.troy.edu/~vorism/hofstede.htm.

Step 2 -- 25 points: Develop a snapshot/short summary of that country's culture.

Analyze the Hofstede scores for your country; go beyond simply repeating the scores and tell me what those scores mean (refer to this PowerPoint). Determine whether your country has a low- or high-context culture, and tell me that, too. Write all this information in memo format in 1-2 paragraphs.

Step 3 -- 25 points: Develop a short bibliography

In the same memo, prepare a list of at least five sources that contain information about communicating in your country. Follow MLA or APA format, then summarize the source's importance or relevance in 1-2 sentences.
These may all be from electronic sources. Don't forget sources from our library's electronic databases.

Example in MLA format:
Pyramid Press. "Travel Tips for Human Rights Observers in Mexico." n.d. [means 'not dated'] 22 March 2005 [the date you looked at the page]. http://thedagger.com/chiapas/TRAVELTI.html.

This webpage contains information about communicating and interacting with people in the Chiapas region of Mexico. It emphasizes the need to respect the local culture.

Step 4 -- 50 points: Rewrite an e-mail

On the final page of your MS Word file, rewrite the following e-mail message so that it would be appropriate to someone from the country you have researched. You are free to add to and subtract from the letter as necessary to meet the needs of your country's culture.

Even though this country might not feature English as its first language, rewrite the e-mail in English.

Howdy Joseph,

Sorry I missed your call this morning. I burned the candle at both ends last night here at the office so I came in a little late, looking like something the cat dragged in (if you know what I mean). As for the business at hand: yes, I got the batch of glass vials from the manufacturer; they were a real piece of work!—some of the twist tops did not seal properly, labels would not stay put, and, to top it off, some of the informative package inserts were missing! All of this is coupled with the fact that our release date got pushed up and we now have to crank out the product almost a month earlier than anticipated. I tell you, when it rains it really pours!

While we’re on the subject, just want to give you a heads up on the following, which you’ll probably hear from the higher-ups in marketing or Corporate coms., in the form of a memo: make sure that you’re jotting down your timeline for this project. It’s almost a sure thing that you’ll have to submit a copy of it for the press release; most of the time it’s just for show, but other times, it’s really crucial to how well the product is perceived by the public and by other members of the scientific community. Don’t worry about polishing it up; the com dept. will take care of that.

Now, back to the nitty gritty, I’ve already contacted the vial manufacturer to get the scoop on the defective vials they sent. He’s assured me that his product is top notch and he will be sending us a new batch; he’ll overnight it to us care of UPS and it should hit our doorstep by tomorrow in the a.m. I’ll keep you posted. As soon as we get these puppies, you should probably plan a brown bag with the senior writing consultants so they can review the info on the inserts and give them the final seal of approval before we push them through to assembly. In the meantime, if you run into any roadblocks on your end, please feel free to give me a buzz.

See ya,

Your name

<This letter is adapted from a presentation by Prof. Lorelei Ortiz of St. Edward’s University, from the STC Region 5 Conference Proceedings, Austin, TX, 2003.>

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