How to know people’s thinking accent?

This post is part of a series: Thinking Accent. This series is an attempt to explore the existence of our unique thinking style, which we lovingly call here as thinking accent, in each of us. First step was an overview of thinking accent, next is the identification of our own accent and last identifying others. You might say, “why should I care about thinking accent?”. Well, honestly you must. Like old sage advise, “look not only what is being said but also who is saying it.”. It is the “look who is saying” part that has a flavor of unique thinking accents.

 

 

Now that we have some idea about ourselves we can explore how others think. Here are few techniques to identify someone’s thinking accent.

 

How & Why of things:

Umezawa thinks that questioning the internal logic of why things are done a particular way will help understand others behavior. For example, a common practice in Japan is to give kids money as a present, while in North America, people prefer buying a gift. To North Americans, the Japanese way appears impersonal while the Japanese think the child should have a choice as to how the money is spent.

Avoid stereotypes:

Cultures have tendencies, but beware of assuming that an individual conforms to the stereotypes about their culture. Effective way is to treat a person independently of his or her culture. Umezawa points out a common stereotype Japanese have about Americans as being aggressive. In his years of interaction with both cultures he has seen more exceptions than confirmations of this.

 

Stories tell:

According to Corriero, “A society’s humor, newspapers, magazines, and radio will give you an idea about their values.” Another neglected source is the advertisements. “In Australia, for example, practically every second commercial is advertising either beer or sports. This should give us a general indication of what Aussies value,” says Ms. Corriero.

 

 

Technorati tags: Thinking Accent, Communication, Cross Cultural Communication, Community, Ideas