国际文化交流 英文

Individual assignmentCase studyName: Sun QianT-number: 890706-T157Date: 2011-03-24Introduction:The world consists of different countries. Every country has its own unique culture. People come from different countries have different belief and different customs. But with the globalization increasing , world is becoming smaller and smaller. Different people from different countries start to mix and live together. So to get better communication with different people, we should respect and understand different cultures. on the first day that I came to Karlstad, everything was new to me. Before I came here, I’ve heard something about the difference between eastern and western, ho wever I’ve never experienced the difference. Now I’ve been here for 2 months, I have classes and live with different countries’ people. During this time, I found sometimes there were some misunderstandings due to the differences between different cultures. I expect to know more about the culture of other countries and the reason why we will misunderstand each other. If I know the reasons we won’t have misunderstandings and we can live a better life together. I think that is why we should learn more about intercultural communication. The following example is one of my experiences from my life. I will analyze this example by using concepts in the field of intercultural communication.Situation Description:The second of February is china’s spring festival. To Chinese, it is the most important day of the festivals. On that day, Chinese get together to have the dinner. We sent a invitation on Face book to invite the friends from different countries. On that day 2 Swedes, 1 American, 1 Mexican and 1 Frenchman would surely join us. Also some friends who were invited by us could not decide whether they would come to us or not. All my Chinese female friends made a lot of food in case that someone had nothing to eat. At the noon of the spring festival we started to prepare for the dishes. There were almost 20 Chinese in the kitchen so it was a little crowded.In the afternoon, the friends began to come. An American girl brought us some flowers while the others brought nothing. They seemed to be interested in thetraditional Chinese food called dumplings. When we were making the dumplings, American Mexican and French friends joined us while the Swedes were just sitting there.When the dinner started, all the Chinese wound not sit until all the others sat. When the dinner began I found the two Swedes ate very slowly. Although some food should be eaten by hand they still used the folks. The American would choose the food she loved to eat. Even it was far away she would ask someone to help her to get it. And the Chinese would choose the food nearby. After about an hour, some Germans came. They were not the guests we invited and we had no more seats already, but some Chinese gave out their seats. The German are conversable. They talked a lot when eating. Sometimes they would ask us the way to cook the food they were fond of. Furthermore, they even gave us some ideas about how to make the dumplings more suitable for Europeans. It seemed that they are our old friends but actually we didn’t know them before.After the dinner, some Chinese cleaned the kitchen. The others began to take photos, chat with each other. Some foreign friends and I went to smoke outside. We said happy new year to each other. When we were washing the dishes a Tanzanian helped me. He told me that in his country women would wash the dishes. And I told him in china washing dishes was the thing that was usually done by women .But with the development of the society, more and more women started to have their own enterprise. So the situation was partly changing. Some men started to do the household. Two French friends interrupted us and said”In Europe, Both men and women should do the housework together.” At the same time some German students came up and said to me that they were not satisfied with the environment condition and they wanted to help us to clean the kitchen right now.Individualism and collectivismIndividualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him- or herself and his or her immediate family. Collectivism as its opposite pertains to societies in which people from birth onward are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. [Hofstede, 2010]The Swedes and the Saudis in this true story have different concept of the role of personal relationships in business. [Hofstede, 2010]Different people from different countries have different ideas. The people who are collectivism think they are part of the whole organization. They consider more about others while the people who are more individualism think that they are an individual person away from the whole organization. They think the problem from their own view. They like to think I am …or I can do… but collectivism thinks we are…we can do something together.I will take Chinese people as an example. The people from the Asian part are most like to be collectivism. When we cook, we like to cook together, and then we will eat around the big table and share the food. We don’t care whose plate it is, which is public cooker, pot. This is a typical collectivism.One day after dinner, I was smoking with a Swedish friend. He wanted to buy a cigarette from me. I was so surprised and I said it is ok; I can give it for you for free.I think we live in the same building, why you want to buy the cigarette from me? I can give it to you. The other day, I smoked with three Frenchmen, I gave my cigarette to them. They said:” oh, you are so generous, in our country, we never gave others cigarette, they can use their own money to buy. They are individual, their own things can’t be shared with others. Then I know why that Swedish guy wanted to buy thecigarette from me. It is common in western countries; they like to buy the things they want instead of asking from others directly. This is also individualism which I cannot adapt to.Power distancePower distance can therefore be defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Institutions are the basic elements of society, such as the family, the school, and the community; organizations are the places where people work. [Hofstede, 2010]Power distance is thus described based on the value system of the less powerful members. Thy way power is distributed is usually explained from the behavior of the more powerful members, the leaders rather than those led. The popular management literature on leadership often forgets that leadership can exist only as a complement to “subordinateship.” [Hofstede, 2010]Through my case, we can easily find some obvious details. For example, because of the serious life attitude, Germans always like to deal with something strictly. They suggested us and even required us to achieve their desired demands. For some Africa friends, they also liked to help us. They are both kind-hearted. Differently, Africa friends just helped us without any suggestion and demands.In any society of the world, no matter what the social attribute is, there exists power gap. In large-power-distance countries, people who hold more power earn more respect. Usually if there is a great gap in hierarchic rank in a country, people there who hold great power could even turn the power into profits. If this kind of behavior doesn’t have a bad effect on people who are in the low position, usually there wouldn’t be any confrontation, because an inferior person’s life is controlled bypeople who are in high positions. In fact, in any country in the world, people who are in high positions are always the minority. So I think, from these reasons, in a large-power-distance country, people are not willing to point out others’ mistakes or quarrel with them, especially these people are in the high positions. But in a small-power-distance country, people are always equal, no matter which level of the society you are at. When they find the government’s problems, they will point them out and hope the government will solve the problems soon. Sometimes they even choose the rude way by arguing with the government.Masculinity and FemininityAll human societies consist of men and women, usually in approximately equal numbers. [Hofstede, 2010]The absolute and statistical biological differences between men and women are the same the world over, but the social roles of men and women in society are only partly determined by the biological constraints. [Hofstede, 2010]Because of the biological reason, many years ago, outside and hard work was mainly done by men. Most of the income came from the men’s work. At the same time, as the weaker power than men, mostly women stayed at home, brought their children up and did the whole housework. Gradually men became the host in a family and could have more and higher right than women. In my case, my Tanzanian friend told me that in his country cleaning work was totally done by women. So it seems that the phenomenon of men dominance was deep-rooted mind in some Africa countries. Although in many Asian countries, especially some less developed countries, it has changed a little, in fact, many housework such as washing clothes, cleaning room and taking care of children are mostly completed by women. However, most European countries almost have the equal division of labor in housework. As I see it, it should be closely connected to the country condition. The more developed country, the morechances for everyone to get job. Women may also have their own enterprise. On the other hand, as women get more outside work, men should need to pay more energy and time to family lives. As the society is developing faster and faster, men and women will finally achieve the goal of equal inside and outside work. But I have to say it should be a long way.SwedishnessSwedishness is mainly divided into the four parts■Separating the Private from the Public■Lack of Emotions/Emotionally Distant■Tension in Social Relationships■The cultural Consequences of Modernization[Ake Daun, Page 158, 2005]Connected to the case, Swedish are always low-key. They seldom interrupt others and they never ask anyone else to do as they like. They just eat quietly and talk little. Sometimes they are not interested in the topic that many friends are curious about. What Swedish impress others is reserved and cold.In my opinion, many factors form the Swedishness. Because of the small population here, the average space of each Swedish is very big. They used to have big enough space to have their private time. Sweden is not as lively and passionate as the big population country like German and French. And this makes them communicate little and know how to enjoy themselves. Then another factor should be the weather affection. Sweden has a much longer dark time than many other countries. Most time of the whole year, Sweden always get dark too early. More dark time force Swedes to have more home time and personal lives. Thirdly, because of the short work time, most Swedes get off work before 4 o’clock pm. This also creates more private time than public time. Finally, many Swedes have stronger individual mind and abilities, they used to depend much on themselves when they were very young. They do notneed too much public time to reduce their loneliness and solve their problems.It is worth emphasizing that Swedes are not that cold as they look. They are friendly and kind-heated. Although I have been here for such a short time, I could feel Swedish like to help others who are in trouble if you ask them for help.Conclusion:Through the analysis of the culture, we can find different countries definitely have different culture. If you do not understand other countries’culture, communication will have some misunderstands. And these misunderstands will become the obstacle in the life interaction. So to have a better communication, we should respect other country’s culture and the prerequisite for respecting is to know others better.References:Hofstede, G/Hofstede G.J. Culture and Organizations. McGraw-Hill Education, 2010. Daun, Åke. Swedishness as an Obstacle in Cross-Cultural Interaction. In Intercultural Discourses and Communication: The Essential Readings. Kiesling, Scott F. & Paulston,Christina P. Oxford; Blackwell Publishing, 2005。