Cultural Differences and Similarities Between France and Germany

“Culture encompasses the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a particular group of people that are passed on from generation to generation” (Santrock).

Food is a very important in France. They don’t eat fast food as much as Americans. After meals they tend to talk and linger while Americans do that mostly before they finish eating. It is said that in France they eat like kings, lords, and then servants for dinner. While in America our bigger meals are often at dinner. Dessert is really common while in America for example, I rarely eat dessert more than once a week. French drink wine often, but not to get intoxicated. They normally drink it with their meals and the purchasing of alcohol age is 18. This is different from America where consumption and purchasing power is age 21. My perspective is France sounds like it has better

Geert Hofstede is a professor who came up with a theory after researching how people from different background/ countries interact with each other, he based this on six different types of dimensions. Which were, power distance, individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long and short term orientation. This theory was created so that society could come into terms with issues that needs to be organized. Geert Hofstede theory has become more important as society is continuing to become an integrated global economy.

In essence this dimension deals with the relationship between the individual and the collectives in a given society. It is reflected in the way in which people live together. For example, nuclear families, extended families, tribes and other larger communities. It directly effects peoples values and behaviours. In some cultures individualism is sometime to be sought after but in others it is seen as alienation.

In this paper I am going to concentrate on comparing and contrasting how America and France’s economic and political policies choices combined with their cultural and historic backgrounds helped their current place on the word stage. It is undoubted that the United States and France are two of the strongest and most competitive countries in the world. Although they have almost the same economic system and same concept, they still have very different current situations which are closely bound up with their historic backgrounds and political choices. Through this paper I am going to discuss this topic through several sections.

Germany and wisconsin are very similar. The land and animals are very much so the same. This state and county fall on the same longitude line. Our overall climate and types of weather are the same.This is one reason for why so many Germans came to Wisconsin, when they came over seas from germany in the 1880’s up to even today.

There are many cultural differences between the United States and France. Some of these are simply social and others are cultural. Hofstede’s Value Dimensions can be used to highlight the differences between the cultures. Individualism vs collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, power distance, and long-term vs short-term orientation are all characteristics that differ between France and the United States.

The United States and France though very far away from each other have a lot income with they way they were started. The United states was not always the great nation it is now. Infact they were under the rule of the British until the American Revolution. Shortly after the American Revolution the people of France became inspired. The people of France got rid of the monarchy and killed the royal family then created the national assembly.Even though these two countries begin so different the belief that it is a right to have life and liberty made them very similar.

Education is different all around the world. Some schools are the same, but many are not alike at all. “Education is a source of pride, especially in the areas of technology and craftsmanship”, (“Education”). Education in Germany is similar and different than education in the US. Both education systems have a similar setup. Private schools and public schools are very alike. Classes are the same, as well as the school day, but how they are graded and the universities are completely different. Education in Germany compares to education in the United States because of classes, school day, and grades.

Another major similarity between the two are their army, Greece is known mainly for one

24. How do you view yourself in terms of Hofstede’s six dimensions (Fig. 8.8)? For each dimension, place and “X” on one of the globes to indicate your own cultural preference. Do your preferences show the influence of your cultural background? Explain. Page 233

Wilhelm II: Russia was the sworn enemy of Germany since its forsake. After the Germany was unified by Bismarck at 1870s, it became a monarchy state ruled by emperors like me. Bismarck planed to build a stable alliance in order to counteract the hostile from France and Britain. So that, he decided to form an alliance with Russia , Austro-Hungarian empire and Italy. By a series of treaties, this system finally took shape. But, at 1892, Russia betrayed Germany and form alliance with

The people of France take pride in their selves. Although they seem like very modest people in France it is normal to have affairs while being married. They celebrate eleven official holidays. The French celebrate the traditional Christian holidays as well such as Easter and Christmas and normal ones like Fourth of July, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Labor Day. On July fourteen they celebrate Bastille Day, which is the day that the Bastille fortress was stormed in and it started the French revolution. Another few that are not common here is victory in Europe day, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Assumption day and , All Saints day and Armistice day, and last but not least St. Stephens Day. Although there are many great things about France there is one thing that’s not so positive about France is that it is well known for a lot of human trafficking. Although many laws have been passed to lower the rates of this awful problem and also to protect and keep the woman safe it is still very common. A little more information about their culture is that due to the fact that there country is a six sided shape they often use the word hexagon to describe their nation due to the similarity. France is a beautiful country filled lots of history. These are the five themes of geography for

Dr. Geert Hofstede created the first four dimensions of culture in the 1970’s after analyzing statistical data from IBM over the course of many years. In the 1990’s he created the fifth dimension after noticing specific cultural differences in Asian countries and their ties to Confucian philosophy. (www.mindtools.com) The five dimensions are as follows: Power/Distance (PD), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Uncertainty/Avoidance Index (UAI), and Long Term Orientation (LTO). I will only discuss a few of these as they seem more prominent to this case. First, let’s talk about the Power/Distance (PD) dimension as it pertains to Ms. Myers in South Korea.

When a business decides to venture internationally into different countries with its products, services, and operations, it is very important that the company gains an understanding of how the culture of the different societies affects the values found in those societies. Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most famous and most used studies on how culture relates to values. Hofstede study enabled him to compare dimensions of culture across 40 countries. He originally isolated four dimensions of what he claimed summarized different cultures — power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity (Hill, 2013, p.110). To cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm Hofstede has since added two more dimensions — Confucianism or long-term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint (Hofstede, n.d.). Because of the way Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are given an index score from 0-100, it is easy for a company to get a general comparison between the cultures they are expanding into and the culture they are already in.