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Health Care and the Silent Language of Vietnamese Immigrant Consumers

California State University, Los Angeles

Cultural contexting has long been an established part of the business communica tion vocabulary. Each cultural group possesses a deeply embedded "silent lan guage" that requires attention and provides communication challenges. In the busi ness of health care, this silent language can create tremendous challenges for the physician/patient communication process, especially when the physician and patient come from starkly different cultural backgrounds, an increasingly common scenario. Through focus groups with recent Vietnamese immigrants, we identified three salient factors in this silent language: cultural health beliefs, time orientation, and the expected role of family members in the practice of health care. Business communication instructors need to incorporate these factors as they prepare administrators and practitioners to communicate well as health care professionals.

Key Words: Cultural contexting • silent language • immigrants • medical communication

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