Business Communication 8th Edition by Amy Newman,Scot Ober

Exercise 5

Interpret two messages from international offices.
Imagine that you work for the law firm Dewey, Wright, and Howe as an intern. With a team of employees, you are working on an orientation program for new interns. Part of your plan is to have interns do research online about the firm before their date of hire. You believe this research, which will take about two hours, will give new interns a jump start before they start working.
In response to your draft Orientation Plan, you receive two emails from partners in the firm-the first from the German office and the second from Japan. From these messages, you realize that Mr. Yamashita misunderstood your intent: he thought your plan was for interns to come to the office before their start date, whereas you meant only for them to do research online.
Working in small groups, discuss how you interpret these messages. What feedback are the partners giving you? Consider cultural differences discussed in this chapter.