职场防雷：和老外交往容易犯的六个错误

　　奥运盛事，中外友人齐聚一堂，共睹赛况。How cultural differences can lead to difficulties when foreigners and Chinese meet? 体育无国界，友谊无国界。看看今天的flash对话，学点中外社交技巧，今年的盛夏将格外精彩。

　　Cultural Differences 中西对比

　　There is a table which compares Chinese and English native speakers with respect to certain cultural conventions. 中西差异的实例，不得不看。

　　Situation1

　　英国人对家人的帮忙会说谢谢；而中国人认为帮助家里人是一种义务，所以无需言谢。

　　Interactions: help between family members

　　Conventions: politeness

　　Chinese Conventions: one's own obligation, no need to thank or be thanked

　　British and American Conventions: Expect polite expressions like 'please', 'thank you', etc.

　　Situation2

　　外国人觉得中国人对待他们是十分友好的，但是有时候会问出一些令他们感到尴尬的问题，比如问他们的年龄和工资。

　　Interactions: conversation between people meeting for the first time

　　Conventions: conversational topics, privacy, taboo, openness, directness

　　Chinese Conventions: Many Chinese people tend to ask about age, marital status, and even salary when first meeting one another. To them, these are open conversational topics. Knowing a person's age helps them use appropriate terms of address, such as 'Lao Wang', 'Xiao Li', or kin terms such as 'uncle' or 'aunt', etc. And Chinese people pay a lot of attention to family life, so naturally talk of family members features as a common topic. As to salary, since there is a national system of salaries, people usually don't consider it a secret and they talk about it openly.

　　British and American Conventions: In Britain, weather and sports are common topics. Some taboo questions: age, marriage and salary. These are considered too private or too personal to talk about when first meeting someone.