When your computer malfunctions and you phone in for help, you're routed to a call center in India, which is of course staffed by residents of India.

I was reading what the call-center managers do to avoid cross-cultural discomfort or confusion. The Indian staffers adopt Western-style first names for the purpose, each a sort of 'nom de business'. The learn to speak with a US accent. They learn US idioms and cultural references; the are helped to become more aware of stereotypes, on both ends of the phone line.

But one part I didn't understand.

As a high-context culture where what is communicated is more internalized (say, in a family), Indians can seem to be beating around the bush to Americans, who are part of a low-context culture in which communications need to be more explicit. … "keep it simple and get to the point."

Can someone explain, more thoroughly, about high-context and low-context cultures and/or communications?

I've found a good place to start is Wikipedia (e.g., [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_context_culture]high-context culture[/i]). At the very least it can give you a short bibliography which would come in handy at the bookstore or library.

quote:

High context culture (and the contrasting ‘low context culture’) are terms presented by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his book Beyond Culture. It refers to a culture’s tendency to cater towards in-groups. An in-group being a group that has similar experiences and expectations, from which inferences are drawn. In a high context culture, many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain.

Interesting, Shu. I hadn't heard of those phrases before. From this link I wonder if the high-context classifications are mostly used in those cultures that are more homogenous since the speakers are "highly attuned to non-verbal communications and dervive meanign from the speaker's facial expressions and body language." You'd really have to know the culture well in order for that to occur, yet, in the U.S. there are so many different cultures.

Where did you read about that, Shu? Sounds to me like the book I can't stop talking about - The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman.