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He stabbed you in the front. If nothing else, you now accurately understand the nature of your relationship.
by redler 8y ago
He stabbed you in the front. If nothing else, you now accurately understand the nature of your relationship.
- heavenlyblue 8y agoYeah, I mean - wouldn't the same happen in America or the UK if the stakes were high enough their respective countries? He wasn't lying and he was being incredibly direct.
- simonh 8y agoMandarin is a very direct and unsubtle language. Even between family, direct translations into English of simple requests and conversation seem very brusque on the verge of rudeness, so the threshold of expectations for politeness are at a completely different level. It's also a very status conscious culture. So to get to the point, not you wouldn't expect that in Western business culture, partly because if the bigger customer got wind of it they would think he was being an a-hole too, while in China they'd be flattered. Source - my wife is Chinese and I've been over many times.
- redler 8y agoSo, a sort of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis for business?