Remember Foghorn Leghorn? The Disney cartoon rooster with the southern drawl. He would pitch a baseball to the little chicken hawk who, try as he might, was just too short to hit the ball. There was just no connection whatsoever. In Asia, the communication style is known as high context. This means that

How Asia cultures view time is quite different from how we view time in the West. In Asian cultures, time exists but is not determined by people's actions. Time is in the background, there is usually plenty of it, relationships and immediate needs come first. In the West, our monochronic revolves around clocks,

In Hong Kong, place your chopsticks on the rest provided when you're not using them. If you are in a dim sum restaurant crossing your chopsticks across each other tells the server you want the bill. If you are NOT in a dim sum, crossing chopsticks across each other is believed to bring

Most Westerners think of the heart as being the center of one's being. Take, for instance, a saying such as, "My heart has been broken" or "sweetheart." In Japanese culture, it's the stomach - not the heart which is the center of emotions. In ancient times the stomach was looked to as a

The term Kibun (key-boon) literally means "feelings" but it goes far beyond a Western definition of the word. Kibun is the foundation of harmony, it sets the tone, style, and quality of all interpersonal relationships. In the book, The Business of Korean Culture, Richard Saccone writes that "the goal of kibun is to

Learning and displaying correct Asia Business Etiquette can be the difference between landing the deal and future revenues or losing it to a competitor. Business history has proven repeatedly, that 90% of all failures by western companies in Asia can be traced back to originate from a simple cross-cultural mistake. Interested in learning

Whoa!! Did I just see that? I realize there are differences in manners and culture, but this one was off the charts shocking. On TV right now (April 2022) there's a beer ad showing two young guys watching sports. One is lying on the couch, shoes off, the other is sitting in a

What is easier? Finding a needle in a haystack or a specific Mr. Kim in the Seoul phone book? Once upon a time, there were phone books. Inside were all the names and phone numbers of the people living in an area. It was quite easy to flip through the pages to find

If you drink alcohol, funerals can be a killer One drinking custom caught me by surprise while at the funeral of one of my spouse’s relatives in Busan, Korea. Liquor flowed freely with drinking rituals going on as per usual - but with exceptions. The size of the drinking glasses appeared a bit