Welcome to Week Four
Lesson Four
Assignments and questions related to this week's reading:
This week you are going to read about the Fundamental Principle 2 of Workplace Integration - Upgrading Your
Communication Skills.
Go to the Library to Reading materials and read pages 27 - 44 from the Desk Reference. Answer
the following questions and post your answers on the Discussion Board.
1. What are the four building blocks of the Canadian communication style?
2. Why are clarity, coherence, conciseness and consensus so important for Canadian communication style?
3. How might some new immigrants not familiar with Canadian culture perceive Canadian consensus? Why? Share any examples
from your experience.
4. What are softeners? Provide examples. What is their major role?
5. What advice does Paul Holmes give to new immigrants coming from direct cultures with regards to adapting a more indirect
style of communication?
6. Create two mini dialogues between colleagues, one with the use of softeners, and another without them. How does the first
dialogue make you feel? Why? Do you feel differently after reading the second dialogue? Why?
7. What do you need to do if you make a mistake on the job? What does "losing face" mean in your home culture? Does it have
the same meaning in Canada?
8. What are six examples of non-verbal communication norms you learned about in this week's reading? How do they compare to
non-verbal communication in your home culture?
Lesson Four
Assignments and questions related to this week's reading:
This week you are going to read about the Fundamental Principle 2 of Workplace Integration - Upgrading Your
Communication Skills.
Go to the Library to Reading materials and read pages 27 - 44 from the Desk Reference. Answer
the following questions and post your answers on the Discussion Board.
1. What are the four building blocks of the Canadian communication style?
2. Why are clarity, coherence, conciseness and consensus so important for Canadian communication style?
3. How might some new immigrants not familiar with Canadian culture perceive Canadian consensus? Why? Share any examples
from your experience.
4. What are softeners? Provide examples. What is their major role?
5. What advice does Paul Holmes give to new immigrants coming from direct cultures with regards to adapting a more indirect
style of communication?
6. Create two mini dialogues between colleagues, one with the use of softeners, and another without them. How does the first
dialogue make you feel? Why? Do you feel differently after reading the second dialogue? Why?
7. What do you need to do if you make a mistake on the job? What does "losing face" mean in your home culture? Does it have
the same meaning in Canada?
8. What are six examples of non-verbal communication norms you learned about in this week's reading? How do they compare to
non-verbal communication in your home culture?
Reference
Images of cultural differences. [Online images]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=ssl#q=images+of+cultural+differences