There is a wonderful Chinese proverb that says ’a man without a smiling face must not open shop.’ At the most obvious level, this indicates the advice that you should not do business with anyone or start any difficult task if you are not capable of looking or sounding polite. This says a great deal about the Chinese culture too. It indicates the importance of ‘face’ values and of good manners as a part of doing good business. You would not pick up the phone and immediately ask your Chinese colleague to do what you want them to do. Instead, you use polite chit chat as a preamble to your request.
According to the words of The Prophet Muhammed, sallallaahu alayhi wa salaam, “Say what is true, although it may be bitter and displeasing to people.” (Baihaqi).[1] According to these words of wisdom, it is more important to be honest than to be impolite. Clearly, you are not being asked to be rude but you are asked, perhaps, to be more direct with your honesty.
These are two contrasting ways of thinking and they speak volumes for the fact that “Rhetoric … is not universal” and neither is logic (Kaplan, 1966). Kaplan said that, as far back as 1966 but I still believe in the relevance of what he has said and the impact that this has on teachers or materials’ developers. What we learn from Kaplan is that our ideas may not make sense to people from other countries and, therefore, even if we keep the language clear and simple, our students might not connect with the lesson.
This works both ways. Big Ben and cucumber sandwiches are not what the United Kingdom is about but international students might have learned that. We should not be offended and we should not expect them to understand us because we use words that we believe they will understand.