If I have watched this video before living in the USA and come back to Brazil, I may have to disagree with the teacher's point of view (in the video) he said the Latin Americans is more about having a pleasant time than given the right directions. And by being a latin American myself I see receiving the right information more important than having a pleasant time. I notice that when I came back from the USA, I had changed, but I only noticed when I came back to Brazil. I have get used to the American way and start to think that even my own parents now were getting too much in my own family business. This experience helps me from that point on not to judge too fast and try to understand other points of view and seek for better communication because the problem many times is only a difference of perception.
"the nail that sticks out is hammered down" exemplifies a big difference between the culture from Japan and USA, in Japan, you should act collectively for the common good not drawing the attention of anybody, in the USA is just the opposite. Those difference in perception can make a reward turn into a humiliation very quickly, so be aware of at least seek to understand those difference is going to save you a lot of trouble in jobs like ESL teacher, where you can be very often exposed to students of different places.
Another point that can draw so many misunderstanding in the business negotiation, and I may say in personal communication too is that Asian society speaks indirectly even sometimes not even getting to the point, while western society speaks more directly most of the time given the point of the discussion first following the justifications afterwards, there are so many differences between the cultures of the world that some of them are exactly the opposite from the other, making it a perfect situation for misunderstanding
The advertisement made regarding the miscommunication between different cultures was funny and humorous, but in real life, it can destroy a business opportunity or worse, so it was indeed a topic worthy of attention
One of the dangers with the presentation was that when the teacher was talking about directions in Latin America he was making generalizations, just as he did with other cultures. When I was in Nicaragua we had the direction thing happen to us. We asked several different people how to get to the church, and many people were willing to help us, but we were only ever given the wrong direction. We found the church by accident. We never had the same problem in Mexico. Everyone was able to give us accurate directions. I think we need to be careful when we state generalization, because while they might be true in some cases they are not true in all. This is why when we are teaching we need to take a more individualized approach to our students.
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