context to admonish in an indirect manner. Thestory went as follows:Assume that you are the son of Jens Holm [the Danishcorporate CEO] in Copenhagen. One day your father buysyou a Ferrari. The car is put outside your office and he says:“Son, this is a gift to you – drive carefully.” Now, this is JensHolm [the Danish CEO] telling you this, so you are veryhappy to drive it. You have no accidentsyBecause you’reborn in Copenhagen, you knowexactlyhow Copenhagenpeople behave: you know the traffic conditions, you knoweverything. You even know that when you turn around –then you get home. Now you’ve come to Chinayand yourfather is now Danny Lim. Then I say: “Son, I bought you aFerrari, but son, be careful,yeven if there’s a red light becareful because some cars will not stop behind you and willcrash into your car. When you come to a zebra crossing,don’t stop your car, because in China, no one stops at thezebra crossingsyI just want you to have a safe drive andthen you come home!yNow the whole issue is that yourboss, your father, wants you to come home safely, so it’s akind of care more than interruptions.” Jan said, “OK, thankyou” and went back to his office. Twenty minutes later hecame back to my room again: “Hey, Danny, thank you somuch! Now I understand what you are talking about –thank you for your care.”yNow Jan has been with us forthree years, and he has such an excellent understanding ofthe local culture.ApplyingGreimas’sactantialmodeltoDanny’sFerraristory.Inthisbriefstory,Janistheprotagonist and the subject. Danny assigns Janthe role of a son, while he himself (as well as thecorporate CEO) acts as a father, a benign power,who bestows the gift of an expensive car and thetaskofdrivingitsafelyuponthesubjectandreceiver. Danny’s use of family metaphors whendefining the roles in this story may be understoodin the light of his ideal of the company as a kind offamily. The object or the aim for Jan is to drivethe Ferrari successfully. This is uncomplicated inCopenhagen,butnotinChina.Here,Chinesedrivers act as his opponents, since they may crashinto his car or behave in other ways that he cannotpredict. And this is where his father acts as a helper,and provides him with the information he needs tobe able to drive safely (Figure 4).ApplyingGreimas’sactantialmodeltoDanny’smentorstory.Thus,inDanny’snarrativeaboutmentoring Jan, his telling of this didactic story asareactiontoJan’sangryoutburstbecomesaturning point that radically changes the followingcourse of action, influencing his own role and, evenmoreso,thatofJan.Itconstitutesperipeteia,and is accompanied by anagnorisis. Jan’s relativeignorance or lack of understanding of the Chinesebusiness context is changed to his recognition of aneed to learn from Danny’s advice. The story in thestory is what decisively triggers off Jan’s culturallearning process, at least from the narrator’s point
