Cultural Differences

The harmony of the existing cultures is crucial for the survival and success of any communication and ignoring these aspects may challenge the communication. For example, speaking to employees in Middle East is quite different from Switzerland; talking about personal things is acceptable by Swiss. Individuals who move to other countries unprepared for cultural differences may face unpleasant frustration when communicating. However, those who try to learn other cultures are likely to avoid individual tragedies. For example, Americans doing business in Mexico need to learn the local language to enhance interactions with the locals.

There are cultural differences within all the communities that make up the world, we are constantly surrounded and reminded of these other cultures. In this paper cultural differences will be discussed from the film “Why Did I Get Married?” which is an African-American movie about the hardships one goes through in marriage, friendships, and trust. This paper is going to give specific examples of Hall’s perspective of culture on the screen and Hofstede’s five dimensions that are reflected in a particular pattern. Examples of both verbal and non verbal intercultural communication and how they relate to particular intercultural

Everyone has a different way of life, whether it be by the way you talk, dress, or eat. Or maybe how you dance, sing, and perform. These aspects of everyday life is called culture. Everybody in the world has a culture, but not all cultures are the same from person to person. In the book, The Miles Between, a group of teens, who attend a boarding school, have a different way of life than I do. Even though there is many differences between our cultures, there are still some similarities peeping through all the differences.

Sometimes it is hard for people to start and operate a business in their own countries. It is sometimes advisable that these people should start thinking of launching their business in foreign countries. To start your international business, there are many methods that are available to an enterprise for opening a business in a foreign nation. Globalization has made expanding into foreign markets easier for huge corporations as well as small businesses. These methods include:

You beat me to an email! I was actually going to write you today to let you know I'm home and will most likely go to visit KIPP once class resume, and wanted to see if you were going to be around on a specific day there to see if I was able to see you. It makes me happy that you had me in your thoughts as well. I would love to have a chat with you about Bates and my first semester, I will be here until January 10th (which is the day I leave). I love that you have started this group so students don't lose sight of where they come from and how important our difference in our cultures contribute to what America is and has been. I would love to participate in the group, however, I noticed your first session is January 13th, making it 3 days after

In anthropology, researchers aim to understand how culture shapes our lives. One of the greatest influential factors within a culture is the food we grow, eat, and sell. Food is perhaps the most central component of our lives. Without food, there would be no life. It is crucial to consider the foods people decide to eat and how those choices are influenced by culture and community. In several places, there may not be as may options when it comes to choosing food. The choice may simply be between eating or not. And in other cultures, it is the land, traditions of the past, and current climate that affect what people select to eat.

I have chosen three stories of women growing up in relationship to thtime period in which they lived, their ethnicity,the customs of their countries and how they attempted to handle their life situations. Child f the Americas by Aurora Morales, gives us a view of a woman who is happy with herself and adjusts well to her life. The second is What It’s Like to be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith, a story of transition from childhood to adulthood for a young black girl having problems with both growing up and her place as a black woman in society. The third Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimer is the story of growing up in South Africa as a repressed young black woman.

Other cultures tend to use an indirect form of communication where their true response is embedded in the presentation of the message. Accents and fluency problems also cause barriers as it is hard to understand someone with a thick accent or to speak with someone who has little knowledge and working use of a foreign language that another team member might use. The group member might have an idea of how to say something in their head but can’t find the words in another language to share the idea (Brett, Behfar, and Kern, 2006).

Cross cultural communication theory (CCT) implies the idea of the communication of people who differ from one another. These differences can include the age, race, financial status, ethnicity, and gender of an individual (“Cross Cultural Communication”). The theory looks at how a culmination of individuals with conflicting traits interact together and how their culture impacts said interaction. Body language, gestures and language are all used to find a common ground between two or more individuals. Finding the balance and compromise between cultural differences makes it possible to communicate effectively and efficiently with each other, which can only assist in coherent dialogue.

1) U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2012). Definitions of child abuse and neglect. Retrieved on February 28,2012 from http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/define.cfm

In every culture, people work diligently to find a common ground for acceptance and tolerance. Typically, people are accepting of various social criteria that are oftentimes associated with a specific ethnicity. However, many individuals simply tolerate the beliefs, standards, values, and behaviors of other individuals in society while inwardly opposed to the model of the displayed behaviors of other individuals as it relates to another individuals beliefs, value systems, and other variables that influence how an individual functions in society.

In terms of individualism vs. collectivism Israel has components of both but leans slightly towards individualism. Individualism vs. Collectivism expresses the degree to which people value autonomy or group work. Multi-cultural groups such as Palestinian-Arabs, and Jewish-Israeli’s make up a majority of the population. Jewish-Israeli traditions focus more on individualism, while Palestinian-Arab ethics display a more collectivist approach. A study done by the University of the Negev, interviewed 1,190 Palestinian and 1,144 Israeli high school students. The study examined whether the student liked group work, or individual work. Results showed that both groups had collectivist ideals, however, Palestinian students had a higher score towards group

My upbringing is atypical compared to most white, middle-class females, I would also assume different than my classmates. What once caused me a sense a dread now gives me a sense of pride because I have lived a life others have not. I feel I have a better understanding of the diversity of the community than people I know. I frankly did not need an assessment to point out my knowledge of cultural differences as I have lived with many diverse cultures. I explain to my children that they are at a disadvantage growing up here as there are not the cultural differences like we had in Georgia, especially where I lived. My hometown is also the home for one of the largest nuclear submarine bases. I was fortunate to grow up with many diverse cultures as the Navy brings diverse backgrounds into an area. I have explained to my children that I believe prejudices form from ignorance. Our school assimilated the diverse cultures and brought their histories into our education. There is a bias against the South being racist, and there is truth in that. I would argue, though that here in the Northeast I have seen more prejudices from people that I did down south. While growing up I lived with many different races, cultures, religions, and people of different sexual orientation than mine. What I quickly learned was that we are all the same, and the differences are just in our mind. As I have explained to my children, prejudices are useless as people show you what they want you to

We can say that language is the biggest barrier for the people to make the cross-cultural communication. According to Oxford dictionary, language means “the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structure and conventional way” (2014). Language is the important tool that can connect people to communicate to each other, and it is not only for the business purpose, but it includes how to talk with people in daily life. However, if people come from the different country, the problem is how they can understand the language of each other, because in each country, they have their own language. In addition, there are more than 7,100 languages

In the case that Professor Zhao gave us we can see clearly that Mr. Moto met with a lot of serious problems in an intercultural negotiation. And all these problems had a bad influence on the international connect. The case also has left us two questions. The first is that whether the different between high context culture and low context culture is that important and whether the difference will destroy the negotiation if one can’t handle it properly. The second question is that whether the only solution for the conflict is to give up one’s own culture and accept everything in another culture.