When you are working in an international environment you will find yourself surrounded by a lot of foreigners and you will see different ways of talking polite as being friendly for one culture can be considerate normal etiquette for other or overbearing to another one.
So when you want to communicate with a foreigner and you dont know his culture is better to be polite and a bit distant until you know more about it. It is very important to keep a level of professional distance from your co-workers. The hierarchy levels in a company is important to respect and keep them in your mind so you may act correctly and appropriately towards your co-workers. Example: You can`t talk with your boss as a friend during your work hours (even if he/she is!) because that would make him/her lose respect from the others and that means you disregarded the professional relationship principles which is going to affect you and your boss as well (you may even lose that friendship and your way of communication will change from friendly to coldly). Social background – one of the most important context since old times- People were labeled as poor, ordinary and rich based on their social status since the beginning of time.
Between these “classes of people” always was a wall which they couldn`t pass- or rarely a miracle would happen and the poor would pass to ordinary class. This affected our relationship for hundred of years and unfortunately is still affecting us. The mindset is so deep that is hard to overcome and this keep us apart because we still see others “too different”. ( They might have different religion, opinion at politics, ethnicity/race, gender rights – and this is making us to struggle even if we are “open-minded”.)
