Writing Correspondence to Multicultural Readers

• Cultural practices. As discussed in Chapter 4, cultures differ in a number of ways, such as whether they focus on individuals or groups, the distance between power ranks, and attitudes toward uncertainty. Typically, a culture’s attitudes are reflected in its business communication. For example, in Japan, which has a high power distance—that is, people in top positions are treated with great respect by their subordinates—a reader might be addressed as “Most Esteemed Mr. Director.” Some cultural practices, however, are not intuitively obvious even if you understand the culture. For example, in Japanese business culture, it is considered rude to reply to an email by using the reply function in the email software; it is polite to begin a new email (Sasaki, 2010).

• Language use and tone. In the United States, writers tend to use contractions, the first names of their readers, and other instances of informal language. In many other countries, this informality is potentially offensive. Also potentially offensive is U.S. directness. A writer from the United States might write, for example, that “14 percent of the products we received from you failed to meet the specifications.” A Korean would more likely write, “We were pleased to note that 86 percent of the products we received met the specifications.” The writer either would not refer to the other 14 percent (assuming that the reader would get the point and replace the defective products quickly) or would write, “We would appreciate replacement of the remaining products.” Many other aspects of business correspondence differ from culture to culture, such as preferred length, specificity, and the use of seasonal references in the correspondence.

• Application choice and use. In cultures in which documents tend to be formal, letters might be preferred to memos, or face-to-face meetings to phone calls or email. In Asia, for instance, a person is more likely to walk down the hall to deliver a brief message in person because doing so shows more respect. In addition, the formal characteristics of letters, memos, and emails are different in different cultures. The French, for instance, use indented paragraphs in their letters, whereas in the United States, paragraphs are typically left-justified. The ordering of the information in the inside address and complimentary close of letters varies widely. In many countries, emails are structured like memos, with the “to,” “from,” “subject,” and “date” information added at the top, even though this information is already present in the routing information.