To help you negotiate and communicate more successfully in your role as a multinational manager， we will review some of the major issues in cross—cultural communication： the relationship between language and culture， differences between high—and low—context cultures， cultural differences in communication styles， nonverbal communication through body movements and the use of personal space， when and how to use interpreters， how to speak to nonnative speakers of your language， and how to avoid cross—cultural communication errors based on faulty attributions.
Language and Culture
There are approximately 3，000 basic languages in the world， with many dialects.3 Language is so essential to culture that many consider lingustic groups synonymous with cultural groups.Multinational managers should also note that many countries—Canada and Belgium， for example—have more than one national language.Even within political boundaries， these nationallanguages often represent diverse communication and negotiation styles of many cultural groups.In addition， the choice of the wrong language may touch on areas of extreme cultural sensitivity.
The interrelationship between language and culture is so strong that some experts suggest that a soaety's language determines the nature of its culture.This is known as the Whorf hypothesis， developed by the anthropologist and linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf.Whorf argued that words provide the concepts for understanding the world.According to Whorf， all languages have limited sets of words.These restricted word sets， in turn， constrain the ability of the users to understand or conceptualize the world.Because language structures the way we think about what we see， it determines cultural patterns.
