【正文】 s desire for privacy and personal space became obvious in a setting that deniedher the ability to achieve either one. Things we va。t apply inSaudi Arabia, and many Saudi norms did not make sense to him. Much of the business done inSaudi Arabia depends on baksheesh, a type of kickback to a middleman (and it is a man), whofacilitates contacts between potential business partners. The middleman is doing a service andexpects to get paid for it. The more baksheesh the person gives, the more likely it is that theperson will succeed, because the middleman will be sure to treat him very well. Giving baksheeshis a norm in the Saudi business munity. In addition, Saudis believe that God gave usmultifunctional hands and that the hand is our best tool for eating. However, they are alsoconcerned with hygiene. They reserve the left hand for cleaning themselves and use the right handfor eating. Saudis have a number of norms related to restricting male and female interaction that,within the context of their religious beliefs, make perfect sense but would be very inappropriate tomost Westerners.Case 42:Wrong Signal?Ning Tong was not observing the house rules for watching TV, which was probably why heeventually stopped saying anything in the argument. Usually, when a Chinese chooses not to sayany more things in an argument, it would mean one or both of the following: the person feels thathe/she is wrong。s mother that it is okay. This orientation is grounded in usingmunication primarily as an information source rather than as a social lubricant, whichShaheed39。s mother got the right message. Finally, Americans would tend towant to discuss the issue more, asking, Why won39。smother39。 Akira generally defers to Jim andsays little, even addressing Jim as Mr. Jim. As a foreigner, Akira probably sees Jim as sociallysuperior and uses a formal title. Moreover, rather than talking about his personal preferences,Akira mentions that Japanese people enjoy restaurants.Case 32:What Is Wrong with the Interaction?This case can reflect different nonverbal munication patterns exist in the actualintercultural munication. Nonverbal munication differs according to different cultures.People might have different opinions about the proper space, time, body language andparalanguage. If we don’t pay attention to intercultural nonverbal munication, we will havesome misunderstanding and conflict. In this case, Jim (an American), Mitsuko and Akira (twoJapanese) belong to totally different cultures。s style ofmunication overtly personal, but he39。 it means she died. Just like in the case my student39。t really relevant to her query.Case 26:Slogans and the Importance of LanguageThe intercultural encounters we experience are not only influenced by language and perceptualdifferences, and language choice based on restricted and elaborated social situations, but also onlanguage and how it is translated for members of a culture. For many reasons linguisticinterpretation and semantics provide the source of numerous misunderstandings. For instance, aninsurance pany discovered that fires inadvertently occurred because warehouse employeesacted carelessly around empty barrels of gasoline, although they previously had exercised greatcaution around full drums of gasoline. The terms full and empty seem to mask the real danger inworking with gasoline drums. Empty drums are extremely bustible, while full drums pose farless threat. The linguistic perception of the word empty in the general culture signified null or void,but in the work culture of volatile products like gasoline the semantic interpretation wasdisastrous. A story is told of a Christian Scientist who refused to take vitamins, since theremender described them as medicine. However, the same person gladly took the vitaminswhen he was told they were food.Case 28:Two Different Communication StylesThe dialogue takes place between a young couple who have been dating for a short time. Theman is a . student, and the woman is from an Asian culture. Note the misunderstanding thatresults as a consequence of the use of direct and indirect modes of munication.In all likelihood, Jim is not going to get much of an answer from Michiko. She continuesthroughout the dialogue using rather general answers to Jim39。girl is sometimes interpreted to be demeaning or disrespectful.Case 24:An Unfair DecisionThis case reflects prejudice, which involves an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitudetowards another group of people. In this case, Mr. Bias decided to select someone else, instead ofapplicant from the country Levadel, for the position. That is just because he holds prejudice towardspeople from the country Levadel.Case 25:Success StoryOne of the sources of the frustration and misunderstandings that occurred in this case wasdifferent notions of what was verbally relevant. In this case, Mary was expecting a much moredirect response to her question. Ms. Goshima, however, was unfortable with the question andfelt her response should be very indirect and establish a proper sense of modesty before revealingthe answer to the question. If Mary had been more patient, she would have eventually heard theanswer to her question, but she was not really paying attention when it finally came because shefelt that Ms. Goshima39。s usually no misunderstandingbetween people from the two cultures. However, there is this one difference and Fan learns it bypaying a fine since she may hold that her culture is the center of the world.Case 23:GirlnessThis case can reflect one of the translation problems: the lack of conceptual equivalence,which refers to abstract ideas that may not exist in the same fashion in different languages.Different cultures may attach different meanings to the same thing or person. Concerning this case,we should know what young females call themselves is very dif