【正文】 adline, which is often established to imply the degree of urgency or importance of work, will do nothing but stop the Middle Easterners from working, because they considered it rude, pushy and overly demanding. Another aspect reflecting different concepts of time is the classification of monochronictime and polychromictime by Edward T Hall. People from monochronic cultures, (such as the Germans, the Austrians, the Swiss and the Americans) do only one important thing at a time. They emphasize schedules more than people and perceive appointments as ironclad mitments. Before an appointment ends, they will see no one else. It’s impolite to answer phone calls during a meeting. In polychromic cultures, people such as Arabs, Asians and Latin Americans take an entirely opposite approach. They do several things at once. Time mitments, . deadlines, schedules, are taken rather casually, changed often and easily. People and human relationship are much more important than schedules. They won’t make an appointment before visiting others and will meet several guests at a time. Mismunication will arise when people from the two cultures contact. Charles Hawkins, a teacher, told me that many a time his appointments with Indians were interrupted constantly, not only by private phone calls, but also by long conversations with other people and even the neighbor’s children, which displeased and even offend him. Distance It refers to the perception and use of space, involving things such as spatial arrangement and personal space. It contains enormous cultural implications. Draw spatial arrangement as an example. As we know, in American culture, individualism is of paramount value. The uniqueness of each individual, privacy and petition are stressed. These cultural patterns exert controlling influence on American office layout: The size of your office depends on your rank in the pany. The higher rank, the bigger office. More important offices are usually located at the corners of buildings and on the upper floor. Executive suites will be on the top floor. The relative rank of vice presidents will be reflected in where they are placed along “executive row”. However, in Japan, where group cooperation and group participation are stressed (determined by their munal culture), firms see private offices as “inappropriate and inefficient” They would arrange many desks hierarchically in the center of a large, mon room absent of walls or partitions .The supervisors and managers are positioned nearest the windows. Only the very highest executives and directors have private offices in the traditional Japanese pany, and even they will also have desks in the mon areas. Leaders staying in his office would be viewed as holding distrust or anger at the group. This organization encourages the exchange of information, facilitates multitask acplishments, and promotes the Confucian concept of learning through silent observation. In France, everything is centralized. The supervisor is at the center, surrounded by his subordinates. This arrangement reinforces his control over them. In the Arab and Spanish cultures, their socalled spacious offices are actually very crowded. Personal distance is another important carrier of culture. It refers to the distance one wants between himself/herself and other people in ordinary nonintimate interchanges. It varies from culture to culture. Cultures that stress individualism (England, the , Germany, Australia) generally demand more space than do collective cultures and tend to take an active, aggressive stance when their space is violated. Middle Easterners and Latin Americans tend to get rather close to others. Gift Giving The norms of gift giving also vary significantly from country to country. In Great Britain for example, when invited to someone’s home for dinner it is not necessary to bring a gift, but it is polite to offer to bring a bottle of wine and to ask the host in advance what kind of wine they would like. In contrast, in Japan it is considered rude not to bring a gift when invited to someone’s home, and it is equally rude to rude to offer in advance to bring something for the dinner table, such as wine and so on. Exchanging Business Cards When business people in the United States meet, they often exchange business cards, typically at the conclusion of a meeting and without giving the exchange much thought. In Japan, in contrast, the exchange of business cards is regarded as a part of the introduction. Moreover, the order of exchange is important. The lowerstatus person must offer his or her card first. Only then will the higherstatus individual take out his or her card and offer it. It is considered respectful for the lowerstatus person with considerable interest while holding it reverently with both hands. 3.