Situation 5: You have difficulties understanding your friend coming from another country in communicating. You are looking for ways to help you understand what he or she means. There are three options: using body language to express yourselves, getting help from an interpreter and reading books about culture differences.

I just met a foreign friend at a programming forum. But I found it difficult to consult him because we didn’t have a similar culture. Then I detected three ways to help me understand what he means. They are, using body language to express yourselves, getting help from an interpreter, and reading books about cultural differences. And I selected to use body language for the following reasons: First, it is simple to express emotion via facial expression. Even we’re in different countries, we know what that expression show. To illustrate, we frown to show that we’re preoccupied with something and unmistakably we’re feeling good. Second, using gestures to show what we mean is easy and clear. We usually use it in daily communication so we can do that without thinking. Third, nonverbal is useful. It make the conversation went smoothly and more lively. We still can misunderstand each other mean, even though we have the same mother tongue. Regarding interpreters, getting help from them is unnecessary. It’s too extravagant to rent them just to discuss with a friend. Moreover, the interpreter won’t help you all time unless you have an interpreter in your house. And about books about cultural differences, it’s a less efficient way. Reading it will take a long time and there are many things about the culture that books can’t describe. After considering the pros and cons, I find that using body language is the best method for me.