首页
登录
职称英语
Advance notice is often referred to in America as "lead time," an expression
Advance notice is often referred to in America as "lead time," an expression
游客
2024-08-18
11
管理
问题
Advance notice is often referred to in America as "lead time," an expression which is significant in a culture where schedules are important. While it is learned informally, most of us are familiar with how it works in our own culture, even though we cannot state the rules technically. The rules for lead time in other cultures, however, have rarely been analyzed. At the most they are known by experience to those who lived abroad for some time. Yet think how important it is to know how much time is required to prepare people, or for things to come. Sometimes lead time would seem to be very extended. At other times, in the Middle East, any period longer than a week may be too long.
How troublesome differing ways of handling time can be is well illustrated by the case of an American agriculturalist assigned to duty as an attachê of our embassy in a Latin country, After what seemed to him a suitable period he let it be known that he would like to call on the minister who was his counterpart. For various reasons, the suggested time was not suitable; all sorts of cues came back to the effect that the time was not yet ripe to visit the minister. Our friend, however, persisted and forced an appointment, which was reluctantly granted. Arriving a little before the hour (the American respect pattern), he waited. The hour came and passed; five minutes--ten minutes--fifteen minutes. At this point he suggested to the secretary that perhaps the minister did not know he was waiting in the outer office. This gave him the feeling he had done something concrete and also helped to overcome the great anxiety that was stirring inside him. Twenty minutes--twenty-five minutes--thirty minutes--forty-five minutes (the insult period)!
He jumped up and told the secretary that he had been "cooling his heels" in an outer office for forty-five minutes and he was "damned sick and tired" of this type of treatment. This message was relayed to the minister, who said, in effect, "let him cool his heels." The attachê stay in the country was not a happy one.
The principal source of misunderstanding lay in the fact that in the country in question the five-minute delay interval was not significant. Forty-five minutes, on the other hand, instead of being at the tail end of the waiting scale, was just barely at the beginning. To suggest to an American’s secretary that perhaps her boss didn’t know you were there after waiting sixty seconds would seem absurd, as would raising a storm about "cooling your heels" for five minutes. Yet this is precisely the way the minister registered the complaints of the American in his outer office! He felt, as usual, that Americans were being totally unreasonably.
Throughout this unfortunate episode the attach6 was acting according to the way he had been brought up. At home in the United States his response would have been normal ones and his behavior correct. Yet even if he had been told before he left home that this sort of thing would happen, he would have had difficulty not feeling insulted after he had been kept waiting for forty-five minutes. If, on the other hand, he had been taught the details of the local time system just as he should have been taught the local spoken language, it would have been possible for him to adjust himself accordingly. [br] Lead time is an important concept of a person’s culture that is ______.
选项
A、learned casually and without planning
B、vague because its rules have not been stated technically
C、not taught formally in the classroom
D、only learned through experience
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3725636.html
相关试题推荐
ThetraditionaldividinglineinAmericabetween"east"and"west"is______.A、th
WhenEnglishpeoplearefishing,theynoticethatsomefishtakethebaittobe
TheAmericanDreamisthedreamofaland____________lifeshouldbebetterand
RareamongAmericanactors,Depphasmadeanameforhimselfeffortlesslysw
RareamongAmericanactors,Depphasmadeanameforhimselfeffortlesslysw
RareamongAmericanactors,Depphasmadeanameforhimselfeffortlesslysw
RareamongAmericanactors,Depphasmadeanameforhimselfeffortlesslysw
Americansarepeopleobsessedwithchild-rearing.Intheirbooks,magazines,
Americansarepeopleobsessedwithchild-rearing.Intheirbooks,magazines,
GoingtothebeachismanyAmerican’sfavoriteactivity.IntheareanearNe
随机试题
Untilwhattimewillthetornadowatchbeineffect?[originaltext]Weinter
ABCentertainmentchairmanLloydBraunwalkedintoVincentirestaurantinB
【教学过程】 (一)新课导入 课堂伊始,教师为学生演唱湖南儿歌《月亮粑粑》“月亮粑粑,肚里坐个爹爹,爹爹出来买菜,肚里坐个奶奶,奶奶出来绣花,绣成糍粑……”
张某向甲房地产公司购买一套商品房,双方签订了书面买卖合同。该买卖合同的客体是:A
Alport综合征最早、最常见的临床表现是A、水肿 B、氮质血症 C、蛋
据我国《2005年国民经济和社会发展统计公报》显示,2005年我国邮电通信业继续
在和学生打交道中几乎没有什么信心,或认为学生爱怎样就怎样,很难做出决定,对学生管
下列不属于宪法的特征的选项是()。 A.宪法是国家的根本法 B.宪法是公民
A.标准品 B.对照品 C.供试品 D.精确度 E.空白试验用于生物检定
男,3个月。生长发育良好,体重为5kg,因母亲患慢性疾病,需停用母乳而改牛奶喂养
最新回复
(
0
)