希腊文化类型分析

Style of the Greek Culture

This is a paper about the analysis of the Greek culture.We draw the conclusion mainly based on these two aspects:communication style,four-dimension model.

•Communication Style

Greece is a traditional country which values tradition highly.According to our discussion, we agree that the communication style of Greece is high-context. We draw the conclusion according to the movie—“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.

The heroine in this movie is called Toula.Toula wanted to learn computer,b ut she didn’t tell her father this idea directly. It’s just the feature of the high-context communication.

Their conversation was indirect, ambiguous, and understated. Besides,once Toula’s mother asked Lan,Toula’s boyfriend,if he was hungry. When Lan said that he was not hungry and he had eaten just now, Toula’s mother thought he was hungry and prepared a meal right now.

in fact, Lan was really not hungry. This is the difference between American culture and Greek culture. The communication style of America is low-context, and their communication is direct, explicit, open, precise, and consistent with one’s feelings. So they couldn’t understand each other absolutely.

According to above examples,we got the conclusion that the communication style of Greece is high-context.

•The Four-Dimension Model

1.Power distance

Greece is a country with a middle power distance.

Powr distance means the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

Based on the Hofstede’s theoriey,the degree of the power distance in Greece is 60%.Compared with China and America,the power distance in Greece is a middle drgree.It in America is 40% and in China is 80%.

There are some evidences supporting this conclusion.Firstly,thousands years ago,the Greeks have proposed the democratic system.They emphasized that the power was distrubuted equally.Secondly,the welfare in the Greek society is very high,which means that the Greeks own more rights than many people in other societies.However,the thousand-year-ago democratic system is mainly served for the noblemen,rather than all the people.Thus,this kind of narrow democracy still has some influences on the contemporary Greek power distance.

2.Uncertainty avoidance

The Greek uncertainty avoidance degree is extremely high.

Based on the Hofstede’s theoriey, the degree of the uncertainty avoidance in Greece is 112%.This data of Greece is higher than all the other countries.The movie called “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” can confirm this point clearly.

In this movie,this family leads a typical Greek style life.Everything they use and everything