1. Culture plays one of the biggest roles in shaping how we communicate. For example, in India, it is sort of frowned upon to say no to someone. They will try their best to avoid saying no, and will often times try to say things that you want to hear to get around saying it. Sometimes they will even talk in very vague details. I have personally experienced this with an exchange student I met from England this past semester. Even though England and America have some similar characteristics in regards to culture, they also are very different. One of the biggest differences is in our humor. I would show her some American comedy TV shows that are fairly popular, and she would not like them very much. Then she would show me popular British TV comedy shows and I would find them quite odd. 2. Stereotyping is labeling a certain group of individuals to certain qualities or characteristics. Whether they be positive or negative. For example, a common stereotype is that all Muslim people are terrorists. Though that may be true for a very insignificant percentage of the Muslim population, it is actually highly inaccurate. If someone were to stereotype me with something, I would probably say that they would label me as a gamer nerd that expresses my anger through games on Xbox. 3. Language and culture almost go hand in hand. But they can cause major differences even when two cultures use the same language. A prime example of which is America and England. As I mentioned before, humor is one of the biggest differences that I have noticed between the two countries. 4. One big example of body language meaning different things in cultures is what in America we say as A-OK. Which is connecting your index finger and thumb together while keeping your other three fingers extended. While it is common for us to do this in social situations in the US, in France it means something completely different. It means “zero” or “worthless”, and in Japan it is a symbol of wealth and money. This can effect business when trying to recognize a person’s emotions through their facial expressions. Research has shown that cultures worldwide can distinguish facial expressions and relate them to almost any type of emotional feeling. 5. In monochromatic time systems, time is expressed in a linear fashion. For example, there is a past, present, and future. In this time system, time is treated almost as a resource that came be saved up and spent, or even wasted. In Polychromatic time systems, things occur almost simultaneously and time is not viewed necessarily as a resource. For example in Arab culture, putting the priority of a relationship above material systems and would even miss an critical business meeting for an important conversation with a friend. 6. In high-context cultures, you must look closely and carefully understand a person’s intentions. Their intent is not necessarily in front of you in plain sight, so you must read in between the lines to interpret what they mean. Arab cultures are good examples that exemplify this. It is very common for them to make assumptions about situations from their previous knowledge of the person or the situation. In low-context cultures, information and intent is almost told up front and verbatim. North American culture is a good example of this. Feelings are commonly expressed as direct words and information is readily available. 7. Information systems control how efficient a company is at communicating information in and out of their company. The speed at which the information transfers, however, can vary greatly from culture to culture. For example, in Chinese culture, a lot of information is actually censored whereas in South American culture, information flows more freely. 8. Social media has been invaluable in some aspects of global business communication. Social media outlets are a source of rich information that global managers have began to take advantage of in the recent years. Companies can get wide opiions on current products, generate new ideas for products, and even find out how competitors are doing.