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companion replies “Yes, of course, let’s go. What an excellent idea!”

      After these words you see the green light – you are ready to buy the tickets and wait for your friend at the cinema as agreed. But for your Asian friend it was just an abstract idea that can potentially be turn into reality. He might come if he doesn’t have anything else to do, if he doesn’t forget, if he finds the film interesting, if, if, if… In none of the cases he will inform you about it. He could say “yes” just because he felt uneasy to refuse.

      If you want to put this abstract idea into action you will have to get minimum two more “yes” from your friend before the event. Otherwise, it won’t even occur to him that you have really planned it. He would think it was just blabbering.

      But that’s small beer that will hardly do any harm to your relationships.

      You might have really dire consequences for yourself personally and for your relationship if you express or imply that you have some problem that you are currently unable to solve.

      Remember what you have just learned? It is impolite to say “no” in Asia. You are in the “civilization of status”. That means that whoever you talk to they will immediately offer you their help. First, they think so because they automatically regard your story as a call for help. Second, it will “elevate” them in their eyes (or maybe not only in theirs) because since you are asking them for help you trust them and think they can manage something you can’t manage by yourself.

      From this point forward you’ve got new problems in your life. These problems can be of different severity level. The worst you can do is to wait for your problem to be solved, especially, if you have a deadline.

      There are some exceptions though. For example, you mention your problem in front of someone who is an expert in this field. It’s easy to understand from the conversation. It is also fine if someone introduces you to someone else so that you could ask for advice. You’re lucky then. Unfortunately, 90% of cases have the same above-mentioned script with slight alterations.

      You assume that after you discussed the problem and your friend told you he would help, you will get the result at some point. It makes sense from your point of view. But in most cases nothing happens. Most probably, no one was even going to deal with your problem in spite of cordial assurances of support. If you got it right and never disturbed the person with your request again, it’s like nothing had ever happened. You simply had a conversation. He might have improved his status though by mentioning to his friends how powerful he is – even foreigners ask him for assistance!

      If you start reminding about yourself and asking what has been already done or what you can do to contribute, you automatically activate another program. Finally, according to this new script, you will be the one to blame for not solving the problem. It is you who has given all the wrong explanations, you haven’t provided the necessary information or documents, or you have sent wrong documents, to a wrong person, at a wrong time, at a wrong place… You have basically done everything wrong.

      As a result, you just wasted so much time of such a busy and important man, but he is so generous and kind-hearted that he holds no grudges. He is even willing to invite you for lunch with his friends in order to tell them all the details about how he wanted to help this stupid foreigner, but the foreigner was so useless that simply ruined everything himself.

      At this stage all you want is to cut off contact with this person. Sometimes you are even tempted to apply some physical action. Unfortunately, it will happen every time you would like to ask someone for help.

      There is only one way out. You will hardly ever change your skin so much. It’s quite hard to avoid such conversations all the time. It’s not necessary to avoid them though. When someone insists on helping you, tell them that everything been already sorted out or is going to be sorted out shortly, so no need to bother such an important and busy man. But in case something goes wrong you will surely ask him for help. It’s enough to show that you obey courtesy rules. By the way, after you say it, you can easily ask about your companion’s opinion about possible solutions for this problem that he himself would have chosen. If he seems to be professional in this field you can choose to really ask him to help you.

      I think it’s enough for a general idea of local communication style. If something seems too general and “universal” to you, don’t get upset. Later on I will make more specific examples of building communication bridges under very different circumstances.

      I hope the most important thing you have got out of this chapter is how not to be a hostage to your own communication model. We will learn how to take advantage for ourselves later. Now remember how not to harm yourself. When you live with the permanent lack of communication and native cultural environment even the slightest psychological discomfort can easily turn to craving for the familiar mindset. Sometimes you’ll be wildly eager to give the finger to everything, pack your things and be off to the airport.

      But if you want to be a success in such a hot place as Asia you need to learn how to keep your head cool all the time.

      Chapter 4. Employment

      In this chapter I will switch from general to specific. I hope you already have a general idea about communication in Asia and now we can start looking into practical application of some recommendations that will help you get the maximum profit.

      Imagine you work in an Asian company. You’re lucky if this is a large international company with a lot of foreign employees. In this case you can skip this chapter. But if you’re one of the few foreign specialists under the direction of Asian executives, it makes everything different. In this case you will have to work hard, both literally and metaphorically.

      First, you should know about the basic approach that Asian companies apply to the cooperation with foreign experts and partners. The whole idea of such cooperation is getting the unique information and learning about technologies in order to use them independently in the future. In short, as soon as they see that their employees are able to do what you do your cooperation is over. Or they will decrease your salary because you aren’t unique anymore. It regards every single kind of activity.

      That’s why your most important aim (besides performing your primary duties) is to stay unique and irreplaceable as long as possible.

      Now let’s talk about the motivation of people who work in your company. For those how have hired you, you are an expensive resource, a source of information. This information should be “extracted” from you for the shortest possible time and conveyed to the local employees.

      For your immediate superiors and colleagues in Asia you are a person who occupies someone else’s position. You are also a person with a salary a few times bigger than theirs. You’ll never be forgiven for that. For example, if you’re not a top manager, your immediate superior could have 2—4 people of his own for this position (for your salary alone). But here you are – incomprehensible, expensive and more efficient. Your prospects are vague and complicated. However, nobody will prevent them from claiming your results as their owns. This is a basic principle of middle management in Asia. That’s why you are a resource here.

      For your subordinates you are something extremely obscure, and it scares them. At the same time you can be a good opportunity for them to work their way up and gain some new skills and knowledge.

      Briefly, this is what it looks like. Later on we will see who exactly you are for different “characters”. Now let’s have a look at your strategic goals and how to navigate towards them.

      To be a success, you will have to do something else before you immerse yourself in the daily routine. You will also have to repeat it occasionally, when you feel it’s high time to do it. I’m talking about total formalization of all your relationships and arrangements with your employer.

      In local companies all communication is based upon traditions in the society. It means that an immediate superior dominates in everything. Any orders

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