解放军文职招聘考试Accurate or Polite?

 Accurate or Polite?

"How far is it to the next town?" The American asks a man standing by the edge of the road. In some countries, because the man realizes that the traveler is tired and eager to reach his destination, he will politely say, "Just down the road. " He thinks this is more en­couraging, gentler, and therefore the wanted answer. So the American drives through the night, getting more and more angry, feeling "tricked". He thinks the man deliberately lied to him, for obviously he must have known the distance quite well.

If conditions had been reversed, the American would have felt he was "cheating" the driver if he had said the next town was close when he knew it was really 50 miles further on. Although he, too, would be sym­pathetic to the weary driver, he would say, "You have a good way to go yet; it is at least 50 miles. " The driv­er might be disappointed, but he would know what to expect.

Whether to be accurate or polite leads to many misunderstandings between people of different cultures. If you are aware of the situation in advance, it is some­times easier to recognize the problem.