Ten Steps Toward Cultural Sensitivity
1. Take the initiative to make contact with the "international", the "outsider", the "foreigner" even if language is a problem at first.
2. Show respect for their culture and language. They may be in culture shock and grieving over the "loss" of their culture or at least the fear of losing their cultural identity. Ask, "How would I feel if I were in their shoes?"
3. Learn how to pronounce names correctly. Their name is as important to them as yours is to you. Practice saying it until you get close to how it should be pronounced.
4. Be sensitive to their feelings about their homeland. Developing nations are not as poor, backward or uneducated as North Americans tend to think.
5. When speaking English, do so slowly and clearly. Remember, raising your voice does not make English more understandable.
6. Be yourself. Show that you care about them as people and that you honestly want to help.
7. Take time to listen. If you don't understand, or you are not understood, take time to find out why. Explain or ask questions. A key question might be, "Would you help me understand?"
8. Be careful about promises. In English we express the subjunctive (possibility, probability or contingency) in a way that is sometimes misunderstood by internationals.
9. The key ingredient to developing and maintaining a long-term relationship with internationals is old-fashioned friendship built of mutual respect and a desire for understanding.
10. Don't allow cultural differences (preferences) to become the basis for criticism and judgments. Differences are neither good nor bad. What we do with them is the key.
On Danish doings
This is much related with the latest Muslim cartoons, still it is interesting to grasp the other cultural issues that are stated between the lines...
here you go:
The ideal islandThe imagery used certainly made Denmark come off as some latter-day Aryan nation, full of blond-haired, blue-eyed Übermenschen, happy to live on their utopian island. Never mind that Denmark is home to immigrants from all over the world of all faiths and cultures, who have found happiness and a safe haven for themselves and their families taking full advantage of what Denmark has to offer. Read more about it
here.
Quality of life: a new religion?
Values like “peace”, “human rights”, “protection of the natural environment”, " fighting poverty” indicate a deeper reorientation in western attitudes to the world. It might be in Europe the significance of a new moral dimension in economic and social life.
hello you, people of the world!!
I am making my "debut" on this blog as a simple @'s Culture Sensitivity Task Force member. Why me? I don't exactly know… maybe because lately I am hunted by a thought that keeps coming to my mind...as Katie Melua’s song says:
“There are six BILLION people in the world
More or less
and it makes me feel quite small…”
Can you imagine? How big the world really is, how few we know about it? I feel as if I kept my eyes closed and I am ashamed in the same time of own my ignorance…
The real truth is that first of all I want “me” to be more cultural sensitive and then maybe to open a little bit the eyes of others if they allow me to!!
Did I ever told you that when I was a little girl I was dreaming and hoping to find out that I was adopted??(and I wasn’t a molested child, believe me:))? I just wanted my real mom to be... Patricia Kass (vive la France!!) and I was practicing the few words in knew in French in front of the mirror so that when her tours would have been over, to take me and the ‘other parents’ (I also truly loved them!!) back were I belonged: in France!!!
...this till I found some pictures with my mom as a child! we looked to much alike! i was in denial for a while but I had to face reality: I was the daughter of my parents and a Romanian!! And now I say is not bad at all!!
So after all I am also one of the people of the world, I can assume my own culture and keep interest in other cultures. I want to know, to understand, to learn at least something about how the world goes around for the other 6 billion people in the world!!
So please don’t tie my eyes and help me by posting your opinions and experiences on this blog!!
Europe's perspective
According to prof. Geert Hofstede Europe's best cultural researchers study a different culture having at the core of the object of research a common trait according to the reseracher's country of origin.
- Latin Europe: power
- Central Europe, including Germany: truth
- Eastern Europe: efficiency
- Northern Europe: change
Individual vs society approach
A scientific paper (Segall, Dasen, Berry and Poorting (1990)) argues that when it is abou cultural research the steps should be the following:
- Begin research in your own country
- Transport it to the other country
- Discover the other culture
- Compare the two cultures
- If the cultures overlap, the the comparison is possible and then the result is a derived etic.
The conclusion: When you go abroad, be aware of the characteristics of your own culture. (If you need a start point in what to take into consideration check prof. Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions). Futher on you will need strong objectivity skills to make the difference between the individual's features and the whole society's traits.
In order to understand the individual you need to take into consideration three pyramidal 'constants':
- Culture: the cultural background and the upbringing will affect a individual's opinions and decision.
- Company: considerate the organizational and professional culture of a foreign colleague. You will understand better where the gap is and what do you need to do in order to cover it.
- Character: each individual has his own values, motives and moods.
This one is a joke in Romanian. For the potential Latin language readers, try and see if your language is simillar to Romanian:) ;)
For the ones who know Romanian enjoy:
Stimate om alb ! Eu, cand am venit pe lume, eram negru. Am crescut mare si sunt tot negru. Ma duc la plaja si raman negru. Cand mi-e frig, sunt tot negru. Cand ceva ma infurie, raman negru. Cand sunt bolnav, fata mi-e neagra. Cand voi muri, pielea-mi va fi neagra. In timp ce tu, omule alb… Cand ai venit pe lume erai roz, Ai crescut si ai devenit alb, Te duci la plaja si devii maro, Cand ti-e frig, te nvinetesti, Cand te nfurii te nrosesti la fata, Cand te nbolnavesti, pielea ti-e galbena, Cand vei muri pielea-ti va deveni cenusie…. … si, dupa toate acestea, mai ai si tupeul sa ma numesti “OM DE CULOARE
It's all about understanding.
Well actually theory says that the core of cultural disenssion are the values.
This blog is meant to be a collection of theories about culture, graphs, useful links, cultural based jokes.
