The word "NO" doesn't mean the same thing in all countries!!
I learned this and I will try to explain this by using 2 examples:
example 1 :
A while ago, I met a russian girl (an erasmus-student)
One evening she invited me for a cup of of tea....In Belgium, we would never do this, it's just a habit that young people normally don't do. For us, this is something for old people?! (=Cultural difference)
But I just couldn't say "NO" to her because she insisted ... So I agreed ...
Then she also insisted that I ate a cookie. She REALLY INSISTED. It even made me feel that it would be very rude to say "NO". It made me feel as if I would have said "NO" to her, she would think that I didn't like her. So, I ate one, but wasn't hungry AT ALL, but she was happy
example 2 :
Almost the same thing happened to me with a Turkish girl. She asked me to come to a party....
BUT I had a test the next day so I had to study
In this example I did say "NO" because of the test. And, as I expected a little bit, she didn't really understand that.
A Belgian girl would understand this giving the circumstances but it seems that, if a girl asks you something in Turkey, all men normally say "YES". The girls see it as an insult if you say "NO" to them, the reason why is less important.
Conclusion :
Think twice before saying "YES" or "NO". And always watch out that the other person interprets this "YES" or "NO" the way that YOU mean it!
Family is very important. I think (hope) this is the case in ALL cultures. But today I have learned that in some cultures the family is even more important than in others (Or at least they give this impression) !
In Turkey, this is the case. Breakfast is never served as quick as possible and there is lots and lots of food!! Food for everybody ! Everybody is invited as they are also very collectivist. The people do it all together. they prepare it together and eat it togeter.
When we discussed this habit, I told the Turkish girl that most of the time I usually eat NOTHING for breakfast. She couldn't understand this at all
For the arrangement of my internship, I had to go to the Netherlands. Again I remarked some interesting differences between the Belgian people and the Dutch ...
Sources (Geert Hofstede) told me that Belgian people and Dutch people aren't very alike. G. Hofstede said that "there are no 2 countries so different than Belgium and the Netherlands".
- Belgians have more hiërachie than the Dutch people.
"De Nederlanders gaan al snel over op de informele termen; "je" en "jij" ."
This was also the case in my internship-meeting. The company was not very hiërachic. The Belgians are far more formal and that's the reason we think the Dutch people are arrogant and have little respect.
-A date is a date
"In Nederland toch, in Belgie zijn dit slechts een paar hoofdlijnen, waar je van kan afwijken of flexibel hanteren. De Nederlander is hier rechtlijniger in, en de Belg flexibeler."
This was also the case in my communication with the Dutch company
The Russian girl I met had never learned how to ride a bike.
She said that in Russia not many people do this, because it's very dangerous over there. The traffic, in most parts of Russia, is a mess, she told me!!!
I think this is because people in Russia are very particularist. They think the law is different in all circumstances. They interpret it the way they want, so they will be less galant and more stressy. Because of this the traffic becomes of course much more dangerous... And this is the reason why people avoid riding bycicles.
Another thing I've learned is that the Germans are far more patriotic than we are!
We are NOT AT ALL patriotic (but maybe we have less thing to be proud of ?) Of course we also have things to be proud of but where just a small country.
When I was watching a game of soccer with some German people, they all knew their national anthem, and they were all singing allong! Even the woman!
(And most woman also know all the player names, in Belgium this is certainly not the case!)
After a while we were also telling jokes. I was amazed that these german people also made jokes about the war. I thought this would certainly be a "NOT DONE" toppic. But these young people didn't see it this way. It made me think about a very funny video I saw recently :
Oral and Nonverbal communication patterns can be more important in some cultures than it is in Belgium.
What aspects do I mean :
-looks (clothes)
-smell (much perfume)
-gestures (how much)
-use of facial expressions
-eye contact
- ...
Some cultures that I have met really show much more emotions. They express themselves more through non-verbal communication. Sometimes we(Belgian people) would just show almost no non-verbal signals, but they do it much much more.
So for example the Russian and Turkish girls are using eye contact, gestures and facial expressions a lot to express how they feel. For me, they are "dramaqueens".
Something I also noticed was the fact that some foreign girls dress up very different than the Belgian girls that I know...
For example the way that some Russian and Turkish girl look like, that I have met.
If I look at some girls, I think they all want to be "moviestars"...They even carry a little mirrow and, every 5 minutes, they look at it!! Really insane !! Appearance for girls is very important in these cultures but in other cultures people may dress up the other way around.
I think this has something to do with being individualist or being a collectivist. I think the Russian and Turkish cultures are far more collectivist than ours. We want to be different and individual, but they want to belong to a group, they want to be seen as somebody else, somebody they look up to (who they also want to be).
I think this also has something to do with the hight context communication of the Russian and Turkisch culture. They want to use their physical appearance to prove that they are rich or popular for example.
I am also a volleybal player and sometimes I also have to play against foreign opponents....
This has also led to some funny situations. The way some cultures greet each other can also be very different than the way we do it.
The Belgian people give a firm handshake, I guess.
But for example German people are far more brusque in the way they shake hands, and French people, wen they meet they are more gentle. And if they know each other good, they KISS! They do it all the time. It's not only the French but also the french-speaking part of Belgium. When two men of the same sportsteam want to say hello for example in Nivelles, they kiss!!
, but she was happy 
so I had to study 
Cultural shock 
