I think all parties should be working towards better understanding of each other. It's a fallacy to expect others (no matter what side) to behave completely wit

I think all parties should be working towards better understanding of each other. It's a fallacy to expect others (no matter what side) to behave completely within the norms of another culture, we will be always tone deaf to some nuances. E.g. in the chapter on feedback the author writes that it's very dangerous to try to simulate German or Dutch directness during criticism, so even when working with Dutch or German it's best to keep within the limits of your own upbrigning. This is why I suggested to adapt response depending on the signal, if you see someone pinging you with "Hi" the most productive thing is to be accepting. After helping them, you can always educate the other person to ask the question directly. P.S. I'm not american, don't leave in US, don't work in US. This is a universal problem of any multi-cultural or even single-culture multi-background environment.