Intercultural Business Etiquette Soft Skills Training :D

            On 17 March, I was attended a soft skills workshop with the title with my course-mates at the UTAR Petaling Jaya campus. We went to the Petaling Jaya campus by UTAR bus. Since this was the first time I ride UTAR bus, so it became a interesting experience for me. We were arrived PJ campus about 8.45a.m. But since something was delayed, so we started our program about 9.30a.m..

            This program was ran by  Miss Kim Chow who has vast experience in the fields of image development, communication, education, insurance, negotiation and event management. And now she is a soft skills trainer and conducts training in Image Development, Business Etiquette, Interpersonal Skills, Communication Skills and also Emcee Skills. 

            Intercultural business etiquette means the public behaviour which are practice by different nation, community and race when they are doing business. As a business student, we need to know more about the different business cultural because it may affect our business if we do something wrong that will invasion our foreign partners' culture. In this program, Miss Kim mentioned three main elements we need to practice in the intercultural business etiquette which are appearance, behaviour and communication. All this three elements play an important role in our transformation from a fresh graduates to an executives in our workplace. 

            Firstly, the appearance part, we were discussing about the dress code for male and female in workplace. We were be encouraged by Miss Kim to practice an outstanding dress code but not inappropriate because "Outstanding A Touch of Class". Besides, in the behaviour part, the two main elements had to practice by us was polite and respectful. Our polite and respectful could be detected from our body language, eye contract, facial expression, gestures and also deportment when we communication with other people. In the behaviour, we also discussed the different greeting pattern which practice by different cultures. For examples, Japan and Korea practice greeting bow; handshake is common practice by the western; Thailand practice Wai while Eastern Europe practice greeting kiss. Besides, the ways to give a calling card and give gift also been touched by the speaker. And the final part of the slides was discussed about the ways to communicate with people in different position in business or workplace like Dato and Datin, Sultan, our workers and even our boss. Besides, we also practiced a little pieces of the dining etiquette when you attending a business dinner.   

 

                   After the talk is given, we were been formed to four group which each group had ten members to conduct some group activity. The first group activity was practiced the greeting gestures. Firstly, we were been required to form two lines, face to face to practice some greeting gestures like handshake, greeting bow, greeting kiss, greeting hug, Salam Salut, Malaysian greeting, and Daulat Tuanku each group. In the second group activity, we were been required to perform a short playlet to perform the intercultural business etiquette knowledge we learnt just now. My group was performed a intercultural business etiquette between the Thais and Westerners on the after party of a fashion show and I think my group done a good job in this performance. Miss Kim recorded all of the group performance and played back to us when we finished our performance. She tried to comment about our performance while correct the business etiquette errors we made in the playlet. This made me knew more and understood more about the business etiquette error we did not mention in our daily life.     

            Through this soft skills workshop, I learnt more about the suitable dress code for us in our future workplace. I realized that the new clothes must be practice. Besides, through this workshop, I knew more about the different countries greeting gesture and the various countries taboo. This made me knew more and understood more about the business etiquette error we did not mention in our daily life. I feel very lucky as Malaysian because I live in a multicultural county and practice different race cultures. With this superiority, it can bring more benefits to me in the future when I need to communicate with my business partners who are practice different cultures.

            From this intercultural business etiquette, I gained many knowledge about the different races or different cultures when they are doing business. And I believe that as a business student, it may bring more benefits to me when I communication with different races, different countries or even different cultures people.