The importance of cultural awareness (Сочинения ЕГЭ английский язык)

Nowadays it’s really complicated to imagine business culture, running the office, business assignments, making appointments without conducting negotiations.

Cultural awareness is all about recognising and understanding that we all have different values shaped by our diverse cultural backgrounds, social customs and traditions, ceremonies and festivals. What we consider to be 'normal' behaviour and attitude in one country can be entirely different and rude in another one. For example, shaking hands during greeting is appropriate in almost all corners of the world, exchanging business cards also welcome, small talks are suited for especially America and English speaking countries, while being direct, using first names are unlikely to help break the ice in communication, and on the contrary, will not contribute to getting on like a house on fire with the interlocutor.

The sense of humour, flexibility, fluency in the English language, cross-cultural skills, interpersonal skills sounds good and are likely to the business person. The business person should not refuse invitations or to be send on business assignments, disclose information or arrive late for the formal/informal briefings not to be redundant from the parent company, get into troubles, feel like a fish out of water and put his or her foot in it or just embarrass other participants of the event.

By being respectful of others and accepting people's opinions, rights, patterns of behaviour, interpersonal skills and feelings – even when they are alike or various to our own – we allow ourselves to create a culture, develop more successful personal and professional relationships and benefit from cultural diversity and cope with day-to-day issues.

The influence of local culture is extensive.

It impacts everything from how employees are managed to the pace at which business is conducted, how negotiations are handled, and how risk management is enforced.

The honorific title of any employee should not have impact on the level of his or her awareness in business culture. The key cultural differences, such as the body language, clear boundaries of personal space, acceptability or unacceptability of moving to a first-name basis, using family names, proposing or avoiding proposing toasts, safe topics, keeping eye contact, good or bad topics of conversation or the local dishes must be kept in mind by every business person.

In conclusion I want to emphasise that the business culture and awareness are underpinned by respectful attitude to all countries and nations and revolve around mutual tolerance.