商務英語：商務禮儀之Surviving the Gender Divide

陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他有事去找美國同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

A：Hi Chen Hao, how are you?

C：我有個問題，要請教你。你有時間嗎?

A：Sure. I don't have anything on my calendar for another hour. What's the matter?

C：我們正在做一個新項目，宣傳最新的客戶服務計劃。

A：That sounds like a good idea. We can always improve customer service. Why is that a problem?

C：我們成立了一個小組，包括三男三女，以前互不相識，結果溝通上出現(xiàn)了問題，影響了項目進度。

A：What kind of communication issues?

C：事先聲明，我可沒有大男子主義，但我覺得那三個女的浪費了很多時間。

A：How?

C：她們喜歡談私事。好不容易談到主題了，她們又沒完沒了，直到大家都對方案滿意了才肯罷休。

A：It's good to be sure that you are all in accord.

C：可凡事都要有節(jié)制啊。有幾次我為了推動進度，打斷了她們，結果她們特不高興。

A：I understand what is happening. You have a gender issue.

C：什么?性別問題?

A：This is going to take a bit more time to explain. Can we continue our conversation over lunch?

******

Amy和陳豪午飯時繼續(xù)上午的話題。

C：我想了一上午，怎么也想不通早上我們說的事怎么會跟性別有關。

A：Remember that you started off by telling me that there were some problems in the group and you immediately zeroed in on the women.

C：沒錯，進度慢，就是那幾個女同事的責任。

A：Men and women have different approaches to communication that both need to understand.

C：男性和女性交流的方式，可能是不一樣。我們幾個男的都覺得可以行動了，但那幾個女的老覺得太倉促。

A：As with all conflict, you need to take time to address this. You should talk about what is happening, attempt to understand each other and resolve the issue in a cooperative manner.

C：加深相互理解?那具體該怎么做呢?

A：Tell the women you appreciate their opinions and expertise. Ask them to focus more on business conversation and less on personal. Next consider how you men are behaving.

C：難道說我們這些男的也有做錯的地方嗎?

A：You admitted that you interrupted in an effort to move things along. I bet that you are also trying to dominate and give the women as little chance as possible to speak up.

C：我承認，我們確實有控制會議之嫌。一般情況下，聽完她們的意見，我們就不再去看她們，生怕她們沒完沒了地說下去。

A：To avoid additional strife and accommodate each other, you need to stop interrupting and trying to dominate.

C：我知道了，男性希望馬上找到解決問題的辦法，而女性喜歡先花時間，建立關系，因此雙方就會出現(xiàn)矛盾。