When you want to expand you have to ask yourself: what sort of people do I prefer working with? If you work in a foreign market you will no doubt have to make contacts with the locals and they will of course be in tune to a different culture.

Let’s think about Italy, for example. Italian society is considered high-level contact, which suggests that Italian people are generally outgoing and sunny (like the weather!): when you meet an Italian person you would shake hands and among women or between men and women it is common to give two or three kisses on the cheeks, from right to left according to your side.

Italian people expect positive politeness, which means a type of politeness is expected based on things you have to do such as giving presents, making compliments, giving invitations or saying thank you when visiting. They think that it is more important to be polite rather than not doing those things with the fear of disturbing the other person.

Italian society is also a dense word society: conversations are often overlapped. Interfering too much when somebody is speaking is considered impolite, but some overlapping happens quite often and it is allowed, because Italian people love to communicate verbally and they usually put emphasis and enthusiasm in their sentences. A long silence is seen as embarrassing, as it implies the communication is not in progress.

In the Italian media and business world you hear people using many foreign words, especially English terms, even if there is an Italian translation. Perhaps they believe this sounds more posh. Words like: mission, vision, brand, know-how, welfare are often used instead of the Italian phrases: missione, visione, marchio, competenza, benessere.

Enjoy discovering Italian culture, as well as other cultures different from yours! The world is like a kaleidoscope: it changes when you look at it in a different light.

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