Section 3 Importanceof non-business communication 

duringbusiness negotiations

3.1 Differences between international business andnon-business communication

     Here are the main differences between the twokinds of communication in business activity:

     1. Communicationin internationalbusiness negotiations must be well prepared but you need not spendtoo much time on preparing for a non-business talk.

     2.Communicationin internationalbusiness negotiations must have a clear purpose but a non-businessconversation can be aimless, or, we can say that all non-businessconversations have the same aim: relaxing our guests.

     3.Comparedwith internationalbusiness communication, non-business talk may befreer, and conversationcan move from one topic to another casually and unconsciously.
           4.Communicationin internationalbusiness negotiations require you to be specialized in theparticular business of your company, while non-business talkdemands your being open-mindedness.

3.2 Importance of non-business communication

     Non-businesstalk is considered important for the following reasons:

      1.In general, a negotiation is a longprocess, lastingdays or weeks, and a pause or pauses in a negotiation is inevitable (不可避免的). During a pause communication will continue andsuch communication often comes in form of non-business talk (maybe the worse the business is, themore important the non-business talk is.).
            2. Before anegotiation begins, we must receive the visiting negotiators assoon as they arrived, and the non-business often begins at air port andcontinues on the way to a hotel and even lasts the whole process ofbusiness negotiations.

     3. It is impolite to letthe visiting negotiators have meals (especially lunch and supper) bythemselves, so we should enjoy meals with them, and obviously it is notsuitable to discuss business affairs or eating quietly in most of the international businessnegotiations, so in such situations,  non-business talksare rathernecessary.

     4. Non-business talk can shorten the distance between the two sides,which helps business negotiation a lot.