Other Cultures and their barriers

The language barrier

There is a theory seen in class that says that if you don’t speak the same language, the effective work and communication is close impossible. A clear example of it was the Babel tower, as they joined people from many different countries that didn’t share the same language and therefore it was impossible to communicate and as a consequence the tower fell down. But at least is the language stable? No, it is not, it is dynamic and is constantly changing, thanks to the Jargon, the Argot, the Acronyms and the idioms.

Can you judge other cultures?

According to the discussion handled in class, it is not easy to decide between judge or not judge other cultures. It is a matter of tolerance and how much can you support the differences, just as we saw in the Calvin and Hobbes picture.

There are two approaches for this question, the relativism and the universalism. The relativisms support the idea that every society has its own legal and social standards that are the only ones that allow any kind of judgment. As Carl Rodrigues said, “No cultures ethics are any better than any other’s”.

On the other hand, the Universalism consist on judging the morality of an action on one universal guiding principle, however it is not easy as the cultures are so different and judging the same action in different countries and scenarios could be a huge mistake.

According to the Hofstede Model, which one is the country most similar to Colombia?

According to the Hofstede Model, the most similar country to Colombia is Venezuela, even though Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil are very similar, Venezuela is the one that has the closest scores.

Regarding power Distance, we can see how similar are both countries, as their people conceive the inequality as a fact of life, something that is normal and almost unchangeable. Even though in Colombia this score is high, in Venezuela it is every worst, as they sits in the higher ranking of the Power Distances, thus the feeling of inequality as a normal fact of life is stronger, even perceivable in democratic positions as the president and use to concentrate the power over long periods of time.

Analyzing the individualism, we see that both countries are very similar, which means that both are very collectivists, thus the importance of belonging to a group is primary for their citizens. Therefore if we analyze this aspect taking into account the high levels of power distance, we can see that the people is used to be part of groups with a very determined purpose and strong identities, where the relationships are even more important than the tasks.

Both Colombia and Venezuela are Masculine societies, as both of them got high scores in this topic. This means that are performance oriented with a collectivist feeling, so the struggles we see in this case are more group vs group rather than individual vs individual. Perceiving a kind of struggle between different social classes.

These two countries also try to avoid ambiguity, consequently there are a lot of rules that seeks to avoid misunderstandings, this is also perceive in the religion, however not always the rules are followed, sometimes they are consider by the groups and then are applied.

Long term orientation, in this topic, both countries obtained a really low score, which indicates us that they are very likely to seek quick results and don’t use to plan the future, as they prefer to live today.  Also it means that both have a huge respect for traditions.

Finally, if we are talking about indulgency, we have to take into account that even though Colombia has a high score, Venezuela has the highest possible, which means that both countries are highly indulgent, thus they are likely to realize their impulses, trying to have fun and enjoy the life as much as they can.

Bibliography

THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE. (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://geert-hofstede.com/venezuela.html

Comunicación. (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comunicación

Universidad del Norte. (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.uninorte.edu.co/web/wrondon/home/-/blogs/la-cultura-como-herramienta-para-la-ensenanza-del-espanol-como-lengua-extranjera-parte-1-

  

Communication

High Context and Low Context Communication

To compare both types of communication, we have to analyze five terms, which are: Communication, Emphasis, The responsible of the communication, Overtness and Expressions.

In the particular case of the High Context, the communication is more based on the non verbal communication, as the emphasis cares more about the context and the setting. Also the responsibility of a good communication corresponds to the receptor of the message. In the high context cultures, they focus more on the implicit messages and the expression is more like a reserved reaction.

On the other hand, the Low Context is based on a more verbal communication with emphasis in logic and reasoning, also the responsibility of the good communication relies on the sender of the message, rather than in the High context. Finally the communication tends to be highly explicit and the expression cares more about the external reactions.

Non verbal communication

As a way of communication, the non verbal communication has also a socially shared meaning, which can be intentional sent or interpretated and consciously sent or received. Even though there is a general non verbal communication in the world, it not always means the same, for instance the simple gesture of “okay” could be interpreted as a bad word in another country.

We have been grown surrounded by non verbal communication signs, for example the traffic signs as the traffic light: We all know that red light means to stop and the green light means to continue, but why?, how do we know that? It is because it is socially shared meaning which we have assume and understand without the need of verbal communication.

But not only the gestures with the hands and the colors are non verbal communication, for example one of the most accepted and understood gesture all over the world is the smile of a baby.

Which theories exist about the perception of the change from the oral communication to the written communication?

There are two main theories about this topic

The first one involves the conception of a society that moved over from oral to written communication as a need, developing cognitive skills and better brain structure.

It also analyzes the oral society as backward and worthless, which requires the invention of oral writing to last over time. This theory is called the theory of the Great dividing line

Moreover, the second theory tells us about the equality of the types of communication, where both forms of communication are equally valid and useful, for this reason named after the theory of continuity.

Perception and Derdian Case

Derdians Case

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Is the culture a barrier for the business according to the Derdians case?

This incidence of the culture in the business world is probably one of the most studied topics in the art of the negotiation, due to the importance of a culture in the way of acting of the people. There are hundreds of cultures all around the world, as it is defined as the set of way of life, manners, knowledge, artistic development, scientific, industrial among other but with one common thing, always is surround by an era and a group of people. Currently, in the globalized world we are living in, this barriers of culture seems to be tinier, however there are still big differences between cultures that definitely can affect the destination of any negotiation if they are not respected and understood as they are.

In this particular case, the culture played a very important role for the engineers and the derdians, as it was the biggest barrier between us through what I consider the most important act for every human, the communication. Due to the short time we had to understand such different culture, we could not reach what we were supposed to do, just because we focused on how to solve the problem rather than to communicate the solution to those who were going to solve it.  

If the perception is determined by the cultural framework, is there a collective perception?

From my point of view, I strongly support the fact that the perception is unique and individual, because it is closely related with the culture but also with the personal experiences, which can even vary the perception of the culture itself. However the idea of a collective perception is not completely wrong, as we see that we all share common prejudices and stereotypes without knowing why. So I assume that even though the perception is individual, there is a set of perceptions that becomes more general as they are shared by most of the society, thus probably becoming into a collective perception.

Research Question:

Which one could be a good example of linguistic relativity?

From my experience in Brazil, I can definitely ensure that the most important untranslatable word from the brazilian portuguese is: "Saudade" 

This is a uncommon word that is a kind of mix between the feeling of missing someone, impotence and sadness. The brazilian people is used to use it when someone of their close family is away and it is almost impossible to see him again soon.

In spanish there is a word that is close to its meaning, and it is "Nostalgia", However i had the opportunity to talk with a colombian guy that had lived in brazil many years and he explained me that feeling that this word means for the brazilian goes even beyond that. Consequently, It is the untranslatable word that represents one of the most common feelings of the humans.