2. Asking about a flight

Country

Nationality

Language

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

……wede……

……itzerlan……

……urke……

......enmar......

......ustri......

......exic......

……gyp……

……olan……

……hailan…….

……ale……

1-7:

'let's get down to business', fiscal quarter, frameworks, geared, getting the job done, goal structuring, short term

8-15:

deadlines, hierarchy, information exchange, measure, personal connections, schedules, seniority, team spirit

Although America's geographic regions challenge the foreigner with different sets of ………… ¹ to operate within, no matter where you visit or attempt to do business in the USA, you will experience something that can be described as the 'American Way'.

The tempo of life in America is fast. Americans are generally busy and appear to be working at a rapid pace. Perhaps this is due to the credo 'time is money, and money talks'. Americans work hard, generally play hard, and employ all available technology and gadgets to increase their pace. Other people may work longer hours and seem to live for their work, such as the Japanese. Yet for the Japanese, patience, contemplation, and even silence are important virtues. Americans think in terms of hours and days and the all-important ………… ². This tends to make ………… ³ in the USA more ………… ⁴ than in Japan, Europe, and the Australasian region.

The American attitude of …………… ⁵ does not encourage socializing and getting to know business partners.

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

Americans tend to have 'power breakfasts' and brief business lunches that are highly …………. ⁶ to achieving business goals. People in other cultures will commit a lot of time and energy establishing relationships with business colleagues, whereas Americans tend to be more dedicated to …………. ⁷.

Americans work by ………… ⁸. Given ………… ⁹, they very often race to beat or achieve them. Giving deadlines elsewhere may produce alternative results, because of cultural differences that do not recognize that giving a task a deadline increases its importance and creates a sense of urgency. Sometimes meeting the deadline is a more important ………….. ¹⁰ of performance than the job itself.

Americans tend to be direct, particularly in a business environment, and openly challenge ideas and issues. Assertive, they take initiatives and opportunities to speak about their problems. For people from other cultures, this can sometimes appear to be confrontational and seem offensive.

……… ¹¹ in American business life are vital. However, these do not qualify

in the same way as business relationships in some other cultures. Americans call this 'networking', where they are always prepared to sell something, whether it be a product, company, or themselves.

Meetings are a major source of …………. ¹², and workers rely on attending meetings to keep up with what's going on in the organization and industry.

The existence of ………… ¹³ within US companies is often not visually





pronounced. A CEO (chief executive officer) of a company often participates in day-to-day communication with employees of the company. Americans prefer to have their own offices where possible; ……………. ¹⁴ in the company is usually marked by a larger office or bigger window. In some areas, particularly in the high-technology industry, more traditional trappings of power (separate executive cafeterias or assigned parking spaces) have been purposely eliminated in an effort to show …………… ¹⁵ across the organization.