in the United Stated

　　People in some Asian countries consider silence an integral part of social discourse, not a failure to communicate. Silence in East Asia and Finland is associated with listening and learning. It protects your privacy and individualism and shows respect for the privacy and individualism of others. In these cultures, silence is gold. People from Finland can walk in the forest with friends for a long time without talking. They don’t feel uncomfortable about this. We Chinese also like periods of silence and do not like to be hurried. People who converse with no pauses are viewed as having given little thought to what they are saying and that their thinking lacks focus. Perhaps the most obvious example is Japan. The Japanese believe that silence is preferable to conversation. Japanese speakers can also put up with a long silence in communication and do not hurry to fill it up with speech. It is through silence that one can discover the truth inside oneself. Japanese know that Americans are not comfortable with long periods of silence and the American businessmen will offer a price concession just to get the discussion going again. Silence has to do with turn talking. It is found that culture-based differences in turn taking are significant. For example, in the United Stated, there is more emphasis on horizontal relationships and a discussion is give-and-take procedure where people take turns in speaking. Many companies proclaim open door policies and strive to empower employees in an effort to tap the creativity of their workers. They encourage subordinates to initiate communication with supervisors and to express their ideas more openly. As a result, subordinates have gained some control over the turn taking. So if an American boss talks with a British subordinate, cultural conflict might occur. The American boss would expect the subordinate to start the conversation, but the British subordinate would expect his boss to speak first. Besides, even though in the