Cross cultural understanding: a handbook to understand others’ cultures

E.
 
Paralangue
It is not only words that convey message, but also a range 
of other factors, such as : 
vocal characterizers -laugh, cry, yell, moan, whine, belch, 
yawn- send different messages in different cultures. For 
example, in Japan, giggling indicates embarrassment, and 
in India, belch indicates satisfaction. 
vocal qualifiers such as volume, pitch, rhythm, tempo, 
and tone have different meaning. Loudness indicates 
strength in Arabic cultures and softness indicates 
weakness. In German, it indicates confidence and 
authority. Meanwhile in Japanese, it indicates indicates 
loss of control. Generally, one learns not to ―shout‖ in 
Asia for nearly any reason. 
vocal segregates such as ―uh-huh, shh, uh, ooh, mmmh, 
humm, eh, mah, nahh‖ indicate formality, acceptance, 
assent, uncertainty, and also controlling conversation. 
What do you think is happening here? 
A British 
–
Polish joint venture is running into problems. Magda 
Sapinska, one of the Polish staffs, impresses the UK partner company 
with her performance. They asks her to stay on for another weeks for 
further discussion. The British manager asks her to ring her boss to see 
what he thinks. The telephone conversation is in Polish language. 
Although the British manager can’t speak Polish, it quickly seems 
clear to him that Magda is having a problem with her boss office. 

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Cross Cultural Understanding | 97 
When she puts the phone down, h
e says to her, “ Magda, sorry to 
have got you into this problem “. Magda is puzzled and says, “ What 
are you talking about? Everything’s fine. My boss has given us the 
OK”.
 
Intonation patterns and tone voice vary widely in 
different cultures. What in one culture sounds like a hysterical 
argument, in another culture would be considered to be the 
norm for a reasonable argument. The British manager came to 
wrong conclusion about the tone of the conversation when he 
judged the sound of people speaking in Polish by the very 
different intonation pattern in English.