Criticism -

Transatlantic Letters from William Parks
Comments on German and American Culture and Society

#6 Criticism - Cross-Cultural Crossfire

We have different ways of offering and receiving criticism. Americans usually begin with some sort of personal gesture, often reassuring the other person that they're OK as a person, pointing out something good before then continuing. Something like this: "John, you know we really value the work you're doing here. Your handling of the ABC case was especially good. I'd like to share some ideas with you, so you can be even better in your work here."

For many Germans, this is a lot of misleading, beating around the bush stuff. Germans like to be direct and to the point in making criticism, seeing this as a question of honesty and truth: "Herr Schmidt, sit down a moment, please. There are a number of things you're doing which are not in accordance to what we expect here."

Germans tend to see any kind of diplomatic gestures to soften the recipient up as unnecessary and mildly sadistic delays. Americans may, however, find this directness blunt and insensitive, and somewhat paradoxically, then become less open to the criticism. Americans usually believe that by introducing the criticism with positive remarks, you make the recipient more open and less defensive. This style could, however, backfire with many Germans, who become impatient and nervous, sensing that the "real message" is yet to come. The criticism itself comes across, but at the cost that the German may find the American critic somewhat devious and even a trifle dishonest.

A positive solution to these differing expectations is not hard to find: simply clarify beforehand what the other person wants in the way of critical feedback. Nonetheless, Germans would do well to point out the positive intent of their criticism, and Americans would do well to begin by stating specifically that what they intend to offer is critical feedback.

After having done some reading on the topic I came to the conclusion that intercultural communication is horror.

I mean, in the average English didactics lesson the professor tells about the fact that there might be some problems and that one has to be careful; usually this is accompanied by a stereotypical example of things that went wrong. But this is as far as it goes. Many professors and English teachers mistake the whole topic of intercultural communication by only pointing out differences that are apparent: Germans shake hands at every opportunity, Anglo-Saxon people don’t, etc. And that’s about it.

But due to above-mentioned research I am now able to tell that there are quite some more differences between the US/English and the German culture. What is more, many features of communication are implicit to the respective culture and therefore most people are not aware of them (it’s like the grammar of behaviour: you need no explicit knowledge of grammar to speak your mother tongue correctly). Only to people who live in another culture for a longer time period these differences can become apparent - and then it is additionally very difficult to trace those differences. In the following explanations it is necessary to use somewhat stereotypical features of the cultures to make distinctions possible. I am absolutely aware that this is not an accurate way of describing reality. So when you read about a typical German or a typical American this only represents a theme and not actual persons or characters.

One of those stereotypical features of German behaviour is a certain amount of directness. Germans usually mean what they say. An invitation for coffee entails the act of arranging a possible date to drink coffee. In other words: the polite American who says: “Hey, why don’t you come over some time?” will be surprised to find that the German really wants to visit him. The same principle applies when the American is taken aback by the German who just says goodbye without an invitation - the German and the American both never intended to invite the other after their first meeting, but the German makes it clear.

A similar problem occurs when a person is asked his or her opinion on the country (or anything else). The polite American will say that everything is lovely and nice because saying something negative would be horribly impolite. The German, on the other hand, remarks both positive and negative things because it is a sign of a critical mind to analyse things and find good things and downsides. So the German shows polite behaviour in criticising things as this shows a certain respect towards something - only if you think about something you give it a certain value. By thinking you find downsides, and if you express them - well not a problem to another German, just say WHY you have your opinion. Many Germans love to argue or to discuss and there’s nothing better than a nice disagreement for a good discussion. This even leads to the phenomenon that some people are of a different opinion as a default. Sometimes I behave myself like that: Somebody states something with which I agree. Nevertheless I take a different point of view - all for the sake of a nice discussion and, what is more, the more diverse the opinions are, the better you can understand different viewpoints and the more thoroughly you can analyze the thing.

http://kellermax.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/the-minefield-of-intercultural-communication/