You send an email to your colleagues or partners in Asia or emerging markets to share information or request feedback, but you receive no clear answer — or worse, no response at all.
Have you ever found yourself in this situation?
Perhaps you urgently needed confirmation from overseas staff, and were trying to:
- Reconfirm tomorrow’s appointment time or work progress
- Remind them about decisions made in a meeting
- Ask about the current project status
- Consult with overseas staff about an important matter
Despite your best efforts to communicate via email — especially important when working across distances — you wait and wait, but no reply comes.
In these situations, you might begin to doubt your overseas partners or colleagues:
- “Are they not motivated to work with me?”
- “Do they lack processing capabilities?”
- “Don’t they value our business relationship?”
Having lived and worked in six different Asian and emerging economies for over 20 years, I’ve often felt disappointed, uncomfortable, and distrustful toward my partners when emails go unanswered.
In this post, I’ll explore why your partners might not be responding to your emails through the lens of cultural differences.
Communication Logic in Asia and Emerging Markets
Value Foundation & Thinking Patterns
Let’s first establish the underlying values that form the basis of business relationship-building in Global South regions:
1. Prioritizing harmonious relationships within organizations and groups:
Rather than creating adversarial human connections, emotional bonds are emphasized, aiming to build relationships that are as smooth and comfortable as possible.
2. Respecting hierarchical relationships:
Those in “lower” positions show respect by demonstrating deference to those in “higher” positions.
3. Avoiding public humiliation:
Causing someone to lose face or experience embarrassment in front of others is taboo.
In regions commonly referred to as the Global South, the focus is primarily on:
- Maintaining smooth interpersonal relationships within groups
- Preventing negative emotions in the other party
These fundamental values influence daily communication behaviors and attitudes, including business interactions.
Typical Communication Behaviors & Attitudes
How do these social values — prioritizing “smooth group relationships” and “avoiding causing negative emotions” — manifest in communication styles?
The most notable characteristic of business communication in Asia and emerging markets is its high-context nature, meaning:
- Communication relies on indirect and ambiguous expressions rather than direct verbal statements
- Silence is considered a valid communication method
- True intentions are interpreted through non-verbal cues like facial expressions, eye contact, and voice tone
- Communication shortcuts are taken based on assumed mutual understanding
Direct verbal communication (low-context communication) risks explicitly revealing differences in opinion, which could damage relationships or hurt the other party’s feelings or face.
As a result, societies with high-context communication styles often view people who use direct expressions as “aggressive,” “impulsive,” “disrespectful,” or “insensitive.”
These high-context characteristics become even more pronounced when expressing differences of opinion, delivering bad news, or providing critical feedback — situations where consideration for the other party’s feelings becomes paramount.
Regarding “communication shortcuts based on assumed mutual understanding,” when parties believe they have established mutual trust, obvious details, daily routines, and commonly understood aspects of the business may be omitted from communication.
There’s a feeling that “we already understand each other, so there’s no need to point it out or repeat it.”
In fact, repeatedly confirming such matters might be interpreted as “Don’t you trust me?” and cause discomfort.
Why I Never Received Replies to My Emails?
“It’s Too Obvious”
The reasons varied depending on the situation, but one surprising cause was what I mentioned earlier:
“Communication was omitted because the matter was considered too obvious.”
For example, when I sent an email reiterating “who will do what by when” after a meeting, my counterparts viewed this as something already thoroughly discussed during the meeting — it was “common knowledge.”
So no matter how much I tried to remind them, from their perspective, they didn’t feel the need to respond with statements like:
“Understood, Mr. Okabe, I’ll complete XX by ○○.”
In fact, my act of reminding or double-checking what was confirmed during the meeting might have been misinterpreted as:
“Don’t you trust me?”
Hierarchy Dynamics
Another reason my emails went unanswered was the influence of hierarchical relationships.
Since I was in a “higher” position as a manager, partners, and staff in “lower” positions would often be overly cautious.
They worried about potentially offending me, especially when they had different thoughts and opinions against me, which made them hesitant to send replies to my emails.
Perceived Disregard for Relationship-Based Trust
For important matters such as:
– Critical issues
– Situations requiring careful handling
– Problems necessitating mutual cooperation
I would typically send emails and wait for responses or ideas, but these were precisely the situations where I’d often receive no reaction at all. This became increasingly stressful.
When I once confronted colleagues about this frustration, their response surprised me:
“If it’s that important, why didn’t you come to see me or call instead of sending an email?”
As mentioned earlier, relationship-based emotional connections are essential in Asia and emerging markets. They expect mutual support during challenges, facing issues together cooperatively.
Consider this: wouldn’t you prefer to meet someone in person for truly important discussions?
While we often resort to email to avoid imposing on others’ time, people in these regions spend considerable time on phone calls and direct conversations in person.
For them, the foundation of communication is face-to-face interaction or voice calls. When trust exists, direct communication is considered the most suitable approach.
The Required Mindset in Encountering Stressful Communication
You may have encountered similar difficulties in communication with partners from Asia and emerging markets, particularly in email exchanges.
While you might feel frustrated and stressed when not receiving the expected responses, remembering your counterpart’s “logic” can help you develop effective countermeasures.
First, it’s essential to recognize that your counterpart is not necessarily disregarding you or deliberately ignoring your emails.
Though the lack of email response might cause you to doubt or feel displeased with them — wondering if you’re being ignored or if they don’t value your work relationship — please remember that there’s an underlying logic to their behavior, as I’ve explained above.
Practical Solutions
Based on this understanding, here are some recommended approaches for communicating with high-context counterparts in Asia and emerging markets:
Create private communication spaces:
Since these individuals prioritize relationships, hierarchy, and avoiding causing others to lose face, it’s best NOT TO set up group meetings.
Remember that when emails include multiple recipients in the TO or CC fields, people may feel psychologically resistant to responding or contradicting your message.
The most effective communication approach is to connect with your counterpart in an unofficial, more private setting.
If face-to-face meetings aren’t possible, one-on-one or small group online meetings can be very effective.
Creating a situation where no one else is watching or listening can help your counterpart feel psychologically safe, making them more likely to share their honest thoughts.
A significant benefit of these private settings is that they allow you to more clearly understand your high-context counterpart’s true intentions through non-verbal information.
Make a phone call:
If you’re not receiving email responses, your counterpart might be facing some obstacle or issue. They might want to tell you something but can’t, or they might be unclear about something in your email but hesitate to reach out.
In such cases, even if it seems troublesome, I recommend making a phone call if meeting in person is difficult. I guarantee you’ll gain valuable information from their tone of voice.
Try WhatsApp instead of email:
For simple confirmations, communication tools like WhatsApp on smartphones can facilitate easier interactions. At a minimum, you’ll know whether they’ve seen your message, and if it’s a platform they’re comfortable using in daily life, they may find it easier to respond. Being able to confirm some form of reaction from them might also help reduce your stress.
Establish communication rules:
After implementing the above strategies, gathering team members to create rules for daily business communication can be highly effective.
Discuss what frustrations you’ve experienced and what stress your counterparts might feel about your communication style.
Assuming you’ve built trust with your counterparts, establishing such rules together becomes very important.
This process helps create an environment where everyone can work with less stress and greater comfort — a fundamental factor for success in business across Asia and emerging markets.
Bonus: English Communication Challenges
English proficiency affects communication in Asia and emerging markets. Once I sent partners an issue-focused email in English and received no response because:
My email was too long, and they closed it immediately upon seeing multiple paragraphs of English text.
While many professionals in these regions have stronger English skills than you might expect, many still find English communication stressful.
Your counterpart might feel overwhelmed and close your email immediately upon seeing lengthy paragraphs.
Keep emails concise, focus on essential points, and include questions that encourage easy responses.
Also, try to meet in person whenever possible.
Face-to-face interaction allows you to deepen communication despite language barriers by watching each other’s reactions.
If both parties have limited English proficiency, maximizing face-to-face communication time is particularly valuable.
Ready to Transform Your Management and Leadership Strategy?
Many professionals operating in Asia and emerging markets struggle to build effective relationships with local stakeholders.
These challenges often lead to communication breakdowns, missed opportunities, and significant stress that impacts both business results and personal well-being.
Don’t navigate these complex waters alone.
With over 20 years of business experience across seven emerging markets, I provide personalized mentoring that equips you with practical cross-cultural strategies tailored to your specific business challenges.
Contact me today to discover how my mentoring services can help you build stronger relationships, reduce risk, and unlock sustainable growth in your target markets.
