Surviving the Gender Divide

　　幸存的性別鴻溝

　　陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他有事去找美國同事Amy。

　　(Office ambience)

　　A: Hi Chen Hao, how are you?

　　C: 我有個問題，要請教你。你有時間嗎?

　　A: Sure. I don't have anything on my calendar for another hour. What's the matter?

　　C: 我們正在做一個新項(xiàng)目，宣傳最新的客戶服務(wù)計(jì)劃。

　　A: That sounds like a good idea. We can always improve customer service. Why is that a problem?

　　C: 我們成立了一個小組，包括三男三女，以前互不相識，結(jié)果溝通上出現(xiàn)了問題，影響了項(xiàng)目進(jìn)度。

　　A: What kind of communication issues?

　　C: 事先聲明，我可沒有大男子主義，但我覺得那三個女的浪費(fèi)了很多時間。

　　A: How?

　　C: 她們喜歡談私事。好不容易談到主題了，她們又沒完沒了，直到大家都對方案滿意了才肯罷休。

　　A: It's good to be sure that you are all in accord.

　　C: 可凡事都要有節(jié)制啊。有幾次我為了推動進(jìn)度，打斷了她們，結(jié)果她們特不高興。

　　A: I understand what is happening. You have a gender issue.

　　C: 什么?性別問題?

　　A: This is going to take a bit more time to explain. Can we continue our conversation over lunch?

　　Amy和陳豪午飯時繼續(xù)上午的話題。

　　C: 我想了一上午，怎么也想不通早上我們說的事怎么會跟性別有關(guān)。

　　A: Remember that you started off by telling me that there were some problems in the group and you immediately zeroed in on the women.

　　C: 沒錯，進(jìn)度慢，就是那幾個女同事的責(zé)任。

　　A: Men and women have different approaches to communication that both need to understand.

　　C: 男性和女性交流的方式，可能是不一樣。我們幾個男的都覺得可以行動了，但那幾個女的老覺得太倉促。

　　A: As with all conflict, you need to take time to address this. You should talk about what is happening, attempt to understand each other and resolve the issue in a cooperative manner.

　　C: 加深相互理解?那具體該怎么做呢?

　　A: Tell the women you appreciate their opinions and expertise. Ask them to focus more on business conversation and less on personal. Next consider how you men are behaving.

　　C: 難道說我們這些男的也有做錯的地方嗎?

　　A: You admitted that you interrupted in an effort to move things along. I bet that you are also trying to dominate and give the women as little chance as possible to speak up.

　　C: 我承認(rèn)，我們確實(shí)有控制會議之嫌。一般情況下，聽完她們的意見，我們就不再去看她們，生怕她們沒完沒了地說下去。

　　A: To avoid additional strife and accommodate each other, you need to stop interrupting and trying to dominate.

　　C: 我知道了，男性希望馬上找到解決問題的辦法，而女性喜歡先花時間，建立關(guān)系，因此雙方就會出現(xiàn)矛盾。