2) a. It was unwise of you to have done that.
b. I would say it was unwise of you to have done that. 3) a. Our products are the best on the market
b. According to the opinion poll, our products are the best on the market. The first sentence of each group is so direct that it may make people uncomfortable while (1b) and (2b) make the opponent more comfortable and make allowance for them. The sentence (3a) fails to convince people, but when “ according to the opinion poll” is added(3b), it makes tone more euphemistic and also gains euphemism for the whole business negotiation. In addition, when we encounter some questions that are hard to answer we should answer them with vagueness. 5.3 Language strategy of politeness
Politeness can help to build a good interpersonal relation and it also helps to cooperate with other better. The international business negotiation relies on good interpersonal relations and co-operations. It is hard to negotiate with someone if there is no stable and harmonious interpersonal and cooperating relationship. Obviously, carrying out the principle of politeness is a wise choice for international business negotiators. It is also a guarantee for international business negotiations to be proceeded. If people cooperate with each other in communicating, then they will cooperate with each other in negotiating. The most efficient way for them to cooperate with each other is to use polite language strategy in
international business negotiations. International business negotiators need to pay attentions to the following issues 5.3.1 Avoiding tone of blame Let’s look at the following sentences.
a. You obviously ignored the fact that the sales of my company are improving.
b. You may be pleased to know that the sales of my company are improving.
These two sentences convey the same fact that the profits of our company are improving. The aim is to make the opponent know the condition of our company. But the first sentence may sound a little aggressive, so the second one is better. Another example: a. Why did you delay the shipment?
b. As you know, your delay in shipment has caused as much, as the users were in the urgent need of goods.
Sentence a makes the opponents think that we blame on him for the delay. Sentence b is much more acceptable and it makes the other party feel sorry for his delay. 5.3.2 Avoiding Arrogance
Let’s look at the following sentences.
a. You would of course rather continue to do business with my company. b. All wise managers would like to cooperate with us.
From the above two sentences, we can see that sentence a makes people feel we are self-righteous and sentence b sounds disparaging. If we speak in that tone, the negotiation can be hard to go on. 5.3.3 Avoiding subjective attitude
When we are negotiating, we should express less of our own viewpoints and reduce the benefits for ourselves. Strictly speaking, we should adopt more of others’ attitude and adopt less self-attitude. We need to respect others when we are negotiating. For example: a. We allow 1.5 percent discount. b. You can obtain 1.5 percent.
Sentence a and sentence b share the same meaning. But compared with each other, sentence a stressed the benefit of our party, while sentence b sounds more cordial, which directly concerns the benefits of the other party and broadens the benefits of the other party. In addition, it indicates the principle of politeness. This kind of language strategy which can make other party comfortable is used in negotiations, with which we will cooperate with each more freely and reach an agreement. 6.The use of modal verbs
In international business negotiations, it is important to use modal verbs. The use of modal verbs may leave a good impression on the other party and it sounds less aggressive. “Modal verbs have the function of mild expressions. There are mainly two parts: major modal verbs and minor
modal verbs . Minor modal verbs can make sentences sound more modest and polite than it is when major modal verbs are used. In business negotiations, questions almost occur throughout the whole process of negotiations. Most people who raise questions make every effort to obtain information. It is beneficial to speakers. Thus, according to the degree of politeness, the more indirectly people raise questions the more polite people express themselves”. For example,
1) Could you please tell me how many research projects in your institute are finally supported by Chinese National Natural Science Foundation? 2) You just mentioned the executive licence. Could you please explain more explicitly about the implication that the seller and a third party can not re-use his technique within this area ?
The above sentences indicate that these minor modal verbs make these requests more indirect but more polite, because these modal verbs provide different possibilities of acceptance. In the ways of expressions, they are abided by different degrees of politeness: firstly, if the talks can make the listener comfortable, the speaker will be direct. There will be more chance for the listener to accept the request. Secondly, if talks can only benefit the speaker, the speaker should be more cautious about it. For example,
1) a. We think it is advisable for you to accept this offer at this price. b. We think it is advisable that you should accept this offer at this price.
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2) a. Perhaps you want to have a look at the exact calculation b. Perhaps you might like to have a look at the exact calculation. (1 a) and (2 a) sound like you are commanding the other party, which makes the other party more passive. In (1 b) and (2 b) minor modal verbs are used to replace the declarative sentence, which meets the psychological needs of other party. Therefore, it is more acceptable for listeners.
In international business negotiations we should also pay attention to the use of structures of English.
They may sometimes play an important role and help you to win in international business negotiations 7.The use of conditional sentences
“In business negotiation, one of the most important factors for negotiators to make negotiations successful is to master and use varieties of condition sentences appropriatley according to the differences among objects ,affairs, time, place, oral and written”
As it is just mentioned above, language strategies can make a key decision in international business negotiations. Conditional sentences can help to gain more chances of success in international business negotiations. Conditional sentences can be divided into two categories according to the meanings(real conditional sentence) and (unreal conditional sentences). Real conditional usually expresses that the
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