If you want to get your point across in a meeting in Finland, keep quiet; and let your counterparts deliberate. Of course, that won't work at all in, say, Canada.
在芬蘭，如果你想在會(huì)議上讓別人明白你的觀點(diǎn)，就要學(xué)會(huì)安靜，讓對(duì)方思考一下。當(dāng)然在加拿大，這個(gè)方法卻一點(diǎn)兒也不適用。

As more of us do business across cultures and far-flung offices, every meeting can feel like a riddle. What do the long silences, idle chitchat and serious faces really mean in context?
現(xiàn)在，更多人把生意擴(kuò)展到不同的文化地域，辦公室遍布世界各地，每次開會(huì)都感覺像是一個(gè)謎。長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的沉默、漫無目的的閑聊、認(rèn)真嚴(yán)肅的表情在不同語(yǔ)境中究竟意味著什么呢?

It's best to prepare ahead of time so you can quickly zero in on cultural quirks before you head to the meeting table. Here are five rules of thumb for different countries to make navigating your next international meeting a little less nerve-wracking.
走向會(huì)議桌之前，你最好提前準(zhǔn)備一下，才能很快明白不同文化的特殊習(xí)慣。這里列舉出了五個(gè)針對(duì)不同國(guó)家的經(jīng)驗(yàn)法則為你保駕護(hù)航，下一次開國(guó)際會(huì)議就不會(huì)再這么傷腦筋。

Stick to the schedule
嚴(yán)格遵守時(shí)間表

Where: Germany, Austria, Japan
國(guó)家：德國(guó)，奧地利，日本

We've all been to meetings that have a loose agenda, if any at all. They don't start on time and they seem to repeat as stragglers wander in. Not so in these countries. Japanese users of Do.com, an online meeting platform, are more likely to create a detailed agenda and pass out supporting documents several days prior to a meeting than meeting goers in any other country, according to founder Jason Shah.
我們開過會(huì)的人應(yīng)該都參加過時(shí)間規(guī)劃松散的會(huì)議。開會(huì)時(shí)間不準(zhǔn)時(shí)，遲到的人進(jìn)來，還要重復(fù)一遍之前的話。但在這些國(guó)家就不是這樣。在線會(huì)議平臺(tái)網(wǎng)站Do.com的創(chuàng)始人杰森?沙阿說，利用他們的平臺(tái)，日本人比其它國(guó)家的會(huì)議組織者更傾向于創(chuàng)建詳細(xì)的會(huì)議日程，開會(huì)前幾天就把輔助文件分發(fā)出去。

"People [in Japan] are cognisant of how much time remains and don't go over," said Shah. It's expected that you'll understand the written materials ahead of the meeting. If a meticulously planned meeting runs over the allotted time, the gathering might be deemed unproductive, he adds. Ultimately, it can lead to a negative outcome because participants may be seen as inefficient.
沙阿說，“日本人能夠意識(shí)到還剩多少時(shí)間，并且不會(huì)重復(fù)已經(jīng)說過的話?！彼€說，你應(yīng)該開會(huì)之前就對(duì)書面材料有所了解。如果精心規(guī)劃的會(huì)議超出了預(yù)定時(shí)間，那么他們就會(huì)認(rèn)為這次會(huì)議是低效的。最終可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致不好的結(jié)果，因?yàn)楣芾碚呖赡軙?huì)認(rèn)為與會(huì)者沒有效率。

Germans and Austrians have a similar sentiment, said Stuart Friedman, founder of Global Context, a cross-cultural communication firm based in Redwood City, California in the US. In the US, a well-planned gathering that exceeds its scheduled time might signal great interest or excitement over the topic, but meetings that run long in Germany are often taken to mean that the parties are not communicating efficiently, he said.
位于美國(guó)加利福尼亞雷德伍德城的“全球語(yǔ)境”是一家跨文化交流公司，其創(chuàng)始人斯圖爾特?弗里德曼說，德國(guó)人和奧地利人與日本人觀念相似。在美國(guó)，如果一次精心準(zhǔn)備的會(huì)議超出了既定時(shí)間，可能說明人們對(duì)會(huì)議話題很感興趣、很有激情。但是在德國(guó)，這樣的會(huì)議通常意味著與會(huì)各方交流不暢。