商務禮節美語第148期:倖存的性別鴻溝

Surviving the Gender Divide

倖存的性別鴻溝

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: 可凡事都要有節制啊。有幾次我爲了推動進度，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: 什麼？性別問題？

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

Amy和陳豪午飯時繼續上午的話題。

C: 我想了一上午，怎麼也想不通早上我們說的事怎麼會跟性別有關。

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？那具體該怎麼做呢？

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，建立關係，因此雙方就會出現矛盾。