Page 160 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

138 Susanne Günthner

Li, a Chinese student recollects her first experience with ‘office hours’ at a Ger-
man university:

I went to see my professor and brought him a lacquer vase as a gift. And I said to him:
‘I want to give you this Chinese vase as a gift’. But he looked at the vase and said:
‘Ms. Li, this is very kind of you, but I cannot accept the vase’. And he told that I
should take the vase away with me again. I was so shocked. And I thought to myself:
‘You are so stupid. Right at the beginning you spoilt everything.’ Heeheehee. (…) In
China, you must know, it is very important that the professor accepts your present.
Only later I understood that here you don’t offer presents to your professors. (…) In
China one thinks like this: First you offer the present and then you talk about your
problem. Then the talk will go much more smoothly. You don’t do it the other way
round. (own translation; S.G.)
These sequences not only demonstrate the insecurity of Chinese students
confronted with the ‘new’ genre of office hours, but they also show how certain
expectations concerning this new genre (e.g. offering a gift from home to the
professor) are disappointed.

3.2. Different uses of seemingly similar communicative genres
Besides having culturally different repertoires of communicative genres, often
seemingly similar genres are used differently by members of different com-
municative cultures. 16
Li’s (1999) analyses of Chinese–Dutch and Chinese–Finnish interactions re-
veal culture specific expectations towards the genre of business negotiations;
Whereas for Chinese participants establishing good interpersonal relations
is central in these interactions, for their Dutch and Finnish counterparts the out-
come of the negotiation is central. Furthermore, Li’s detailed empirical study
shows differences in discourse organization: Chinese speakers tend to provide
background information before presenting the central argument. Often they just
present background information and expect their co-participants to formulate
the intended conclusions. Dutch and Finnish participants, who are not used to
this way of providing extended background information first, often get frus-
trated waiting for the main arguments to come. Li argues that culturally different
expectations and ways of handling the genre of business negotiations can lead to
insecurities and frustrations.
Spencer-Oatey and Xing’s (2000) ethnographic study of business visits
shows revealing facts about culturally different expectations between Chinese
and British business partners concerning such visits. The authors argue that due
to different expectations concerning welcome meetings, hotel arrangements,
programmes of activities, different ways of judging the importance of the visitors
and especially different ‘face’ concepts, business visits can turn out to be ‘acri-
monious and unpleasant’ experiences (Spencer-Oatey and Xing 2000: 272). 17