Cross-Cultural Blog

Hi everyone, I am Oksana from Ukraine and my name is pronounced as AKH-SAH-NAH. You would probably wonder why do I describe this in detail. The thing is that my paper is focused on names and the reasons why people change original names when going to another culture. In Sweden, where I have been living for the last two years, I’m usually referred as Roxana, in Italy Rozanna and English speakers call me Ug-za-na. Facing these problems, I tried to investigate whether there is rational proof for reasons, that make people change their names.

Latin proverb ‘Nomen est omen’ became the departing point for this research. When parents (or someone else) give names to the baby, they usually have certain expectations on how this name will influence the life of a child. Meanings of the names are explained in thick books, that expecting mums and dads go through. This is an old philosophy of nominative determinism, popular in the ancient world. Theoretical concept itself emerged in the 1952s, when scientists tried to prove that a person's name plays an influential role in reflecting key attributes of his/her job, profession, or general life. The studies were not very successfully, I believe. Examples of Prof. Snowman doing research on North Pole or Dr. Splatt exploring incontinence in urology didn’t prove anything.

Recent research went better – psychologists and neuropsychologists divided names into three categories: desirable (favourable), problematic and undesirable. Empirical studies I went through showed, for example, that schoolteachers had different attitudes to children according to their names. Another experiment proved, that name affected ratings of physical attraction – beauty queen would be the girl with desirable name. In some mixed cultures (such as U.S.) people tend to choose ‘exotic’ names for newborn babies nowadays and that may cause narcissism epidemic. But still Emily and Greg are more employable than Lakisha and Jamal.

Finally I selected 5 top reasons why people change names:
5. Feuds in the family (when one starts a new life by changing the name)
4. Objectionable pronunciations or spellings (e.g. Dick Lipschitz or Honey Fuchs)
3. Difficult pronunciations or spellings (Brykczynski)
2. Immigration and naturalization (Don Vito’s real name in The God Father is not Corleone, but Andolini)
1. Dislike causing troubles, special attitude or even discrimination (when you hear Usama or Adolf, the connotation with Bin Laden or Hitler is unavoidable)

I also found examples, confirming the relevance of these reasons among my friends, who changed or aim to change their names. I interviewed these people and included quotations in my research. Even though, I was convinced at the beginning that it is bad to change the given name, I changed my mind. So, maybe, if you are in a foreign culture, you will think twice, what to put on a blank name tag.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 10:38 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Nowadays, working in the other countries is becoming so common. There are many multinational corporations and many workers are working in those countries. In addition, many sports players are also doing their business expand the border.
In this situation, international workers need to know host countries culture. Otherwise, they will have some cultural crashes during their business and those are directly connected to loss of their profit. That is because they will fail on getting a deal due to those crashes.

To prevent and solve the problems which cause due to the cultural crashes, the workers have to know about what kinds of problems they have in the real life. This paper introduced three examples of cultural crashes in the business area. Firstly, one Mongolian Sumo wrestler had a trouble because he did not understand Japanese tradition. He was regarded as an ill-mannered wrestler. His example teaches us that we should consider about host countries custom or tradition. Secondly, a Japanese worker and a French coworker are introduced. They had a trouble with their hierarchy systems. The international workers cannot work smoothly without knowing the host companies’ hierarchy system. Finally, a process to make decision is examined in Japanese and French companies. Each country has different process of decision making. It caused misunderstanding to those workers.
Next, some solutions are introduced according to the problems which discussed before. The most important thing is to know about the host culture. To achieve that effectively, there are some note points when workers learn host countries culture. For instance, a hierarchy system, a concept of leadership and some hidden dangers should be focused on.

In the future, more people will have opportunities to have business with people from another culture. To avoid having some trouble that time, each worker has to get information about the differences between the culture from the trustful sources.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I ve been in Shanghai for an internship during six months one year ago.That´s why I was very interested to make a research paper about french expatriates coming in Shanghai in order to talk about the cultural differences they can be faced to.
Shanghai is a very big city composed by 20 million of inhabitants.Can you believe it?
Shanghai is composed by 13 million chinese people living in and 7 million of expatriates people. I will try to show you in my research paper that even if an expatriate can feel well in Shanghai because he can find a lot of expatriates, the adaptation is not very easy and french people can experience culture shock.

The first part of my research is more theoretical and general. I explain more deeply the meaning of expatriate and what are the predicatable success and failure factors of expatriates.I explained that some people have some characeristics that we can see before they go which show us that they will have more facilities or less facilities to adapt themselves to a such different culture.

Then, in my second part I tried to analyze the behavior of a french people coming to Shanghai explaining all the different steps in the cultural shock. I gave a lot of example of what I exprerienced and what I learned by being a foreign in this city. I tried to show that a french will have to be very patient and very intereseted in the chinese culture instead of being relectant to this culture.

Finally, I made an interview of a french expatriate who works with me last year nd who has been there since 6 years. He will bring to my research paper more concrete elements and some feelings which can make more trustful my research.

In conclusion I will talk about what I felt duing this period and why I want to come back as soon as I can.

I hope my topic will interest you and that you will learn more about chinese culture and how the life in Shanghai is.

Lucie

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The superstitions show us a lot of information about an every particular culture. They are often based on some kind of religious background but remain without religion anyway. I consider this topic interesting enough to look on it deeply. Because of it's currency I have decided to focus on three - culturally very different - countries: Japan, France and the Czech republic. I would like to do my paper interesting for my audience, so I chose these familiar countries for our group members.

Different cultures are very complicated spheres of human's knowledge. It is difficult to understand them well. They are based on lot of small pieces as a cultural history, experiences, values etc. To understand better, we have to put together the mosaic of those pieces. And my contribution could be one of them.
What is a superstition? Superstition is a belief in non-existant phenomens or humans. This faith is not based on rational or founded facts. It makes people exaggerate power of things or humans, f.ex as predicting of future.
I have chosen for you some national specialties among superstitions. As the Czechs are big consumers of beer, they have a lot of superstitions connected with drinking. Bad luck will come to someone who refills a mug, if there is still a different kind of beer in. If you toast and tap with your glasses and do not look in other's eyes you are going to have 7 years of bad sex.
In Normandy an eye-contact with tortoise-shell cat brings disasters. In Provence, the cat who is licking herself means a treachery. Brittany is a region which is the most fullfilled of legends and superstitions. Pirates from Britany canceled their journeys, if a cat was found on a boat before departure.
Numbers are very evaluated in Japan. Some are strictly lucky, some unlucky. Numbers 4 and 9 are avoided, their sum is 13, which is "unlucky" worldwide. Number 4 - pronounced "shi" means death. Number 9 - pronounced "ku" means suffering or pain.There are no floors 4 or 9 in hotels, hospitals. You also can not find any13 in addresses of houses.

Finally, I would like to quote one great French comedian and actor Coluche. He said; "Moi, je ne suis pas superstitieux, ça porte malheur!"( I am not superstitious, it brings bad luck!) This citation portrays my feeling. Although a lot of people do not consider themselves as superstitious, when some crucial situation comes, they are afraid to do anything that could influence the situation in a bad way.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Great Wall of China

Fredrik Bo Dahlberg
CCR Paper Summary
“Why Swedish People Experience Culture Shock Traveling or Living in China”
Anders Eriksson

When you travel through China, either on business or on leisure it is important to know of several things that might help you interact with people, and it is very important to be aware of these things prior to encountering them since the culture shock phenomenon when Swedish citizens travel through China can be quite shocking should you not be prepared.

This phenomenon is especially strong when it comes to us in Sweden compared to people from other countries because of some major ethnical and historical differences between our countries.
I will try to find out why this phenomenon is so strong when it involves Swedish people and I will compare the historical and social background to the factors witch differentiates the two cultures. This will be done by first comparing different customs and cultural aspects of the two different countries and then I will attempt to trace these behaviours back to their roots to clarify the differences and reasons for culture shock.

I will conduct my research by reading books on Chinese culture and on Swedish culture in comparison and I will research a book by William Theodore De Bary called Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1 and I will also be reading a book on Swedish culture and customs written by Charlotta J. DeWitt and this book is called Sweden – culture smart! The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture. I will be comparing the different cultures and attempt to understand what lies behind the most major differences between the cultures.

With Chinas current expansion it is good for anyone who strives for an international career of some sort to be familiar with some Chinese culture and customs. If working with a Chinese company it is important to be aware of etiquette and customs in order to present your own company in a acceptable way.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Pierre BERNARD
CCR Paper Summary
“Cooking Across Cultures”
Headed by: Anders Eriksson

Culture is composed by several elements that ethnologists or sociologists have tried to describe for a while. It generally is considered that those components are representative of a culture worlwide. Food and eating have a huge relation with the daily life of everybody. History, traditions and environment influence a lot our ways of eating: food has a strong relation with culture. This paper shows the impact it is influencing cultures and the mixing of them.

Food can be a representative of a culture, for example in USA or in France. While meeting people from abroad, as we are very skilled after 7 months of Erasmus program, we all are very used to talk about specific food like: “Do you cook Japanese food?”

The differences can be huge. In my paper I am firstly describing and explaining the differences and habits we can hurdle when we go overseas: the way of setting tables, the different meals, … All those changes are showing how food has an impact on our way of life and cultural identity. Then with these facts, the third part of my paper deals with the result from the mix of cultures. This is the main and most interesting part, because it shows the impact of food when cultures are meeting each other. In the history, we can see that lead to huge changes in habits, as the image of UK: British people are very famous for being one of the first customer of tea in Europe, but if we look a bit deeper, we all know that tea does not come from England in any way where the weather and environment is absolutely not adapted to its production. In fact, tea is original from India, and this british feature is only the result of centuries of colonization in India: here we realize the impact of blending cultures.

Results can differ, when going abroad the food can turn into a component of a cultural shock and it often requires an adaptation. But we can also enjoy the new diversity coming from mixing cultural foods. We note this enrichment by seeing the number of supermarkets or shops of Asiatic or Arabic typical food developing in Eastern Europe or America as well: the demand is obvious.

The conclusion to my paper is that food and eating is a real component of a culture, and as other elements it has an impact at different level of society and while cultures are meeting each others.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:20 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

When we meet a person for the first time, it is difficult to know him/her without speaking. It is more complicate when it is a person from another culture. The non verbal communication is important such as the verbal communication.
So my topic is about the non verbal communication, especially clothes and physical appearance. How can we decipher all the different physical aspect.

Most of people think that the language is the base of the communication. The clothes and physical appearance is the first contact with people.
For example: Hairstyle, fashion clothes, facial expression, gesture and posture (body language) etc.

In function cultures, the fashion isdifferent. In Saudi Arabia for example, the traditional clothe for men is the Thawb or in India for women, it is the Sari (it is a tradition since 100 B.C).
In Western countries, it will be more trendy and short skirt for example, in Arabean countries, because of the tradition, women should hide their body.

Clothes also are symbol of membership of a social group or some professions (military or sailor).

The physical Appearance differs. It is also the symbol of membership of a social group, for example the punk's hairs (cf the picture).
The gesture or some signs have different meaning in different countries (V-sign for example.

In my research, I will explain and compare the different clothes and physical appearance in different countries.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Quentin Izard
"The V-sign Across Cultures"
Örebro University. Cross-Cultural Rhetoric

Cartoon representing Karl Marx making the famous V-sign

“Words have been given to men in order to hide their thoughts” H.B. Stendhal

In 2004, a Cumbrian pensioner was fined £100 for flicking the V-sign at a speed camera.

Over the past decades, many studies were leaded in order to uncover the mysteries of communication. Indeed, it constitutes a basic and essential feature of social life. Relations between friends, family, colleagues are based on communication. It has been demonstrated in many ways, and with different conclusion, that a critical part of the communication process is non-verbal, that is to say that it does not concern the language in itself, but all its adjoining elements, such as the body language, the space, the time, the voice, and so on.

My research paper focuses on an important and very interesting actor in the non-verbal communication. Indeed, gestures are powerful and complex communicators used by a wide and growing number of internationally cosmopolitan individuals. However, numerous gestures can be quoted. In order to narrow the topic, the study of the V-sign is the base of this framework in order to put things into perspective.

Applied to the V-sign gesture, what are the essential concerns linked to the body language, taking into account the origins and their consequences on the current meanings of this gesture?

The study of gestures is a vast and complex task. However, in our modern globalized area, it has become necessary to be aware of the habits and customs of population across borders and cultures. Being about an international gesture, this study of the V-sign around the world opens prospects concerning intercultural non-verbal communication studies.

Different meanings can be given to the V-sign gesture, according to the history or origin of the sign. From the V for Victory, democratized by Winston Churchill during the World War II, to the rude English sign, anecdotes and historical facts clash. It shows that a good knowledge of cultural backgrounds is essential in order to adapt and deal with people from different horizons. Between myth and history, fiction and reality, reason and excesses, it is necessary to find its way to avoid confusion and misunderstanding.

Quentin Izard. Örebro University, Sweden / Toulouse Business School, France

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As we talk a lot about intercultural communication during this course, i decided to focus my paper on two differents countries and so two differents culture: France and Mexico.

I am French, I went to Mexico the last summer and I was the fisrt "victim" about problems that you can meet by communicating with an other culture. I use the word "victim" in the way that you try to communicate and you think that you understand the meaning of the answer, but with the time you realise that you interpretated something completly different. And so I can say that I experiented that in Mexico.

So, by writting my paper i want to show how important is it to be careful with that giving the example of the differences between France and Mexico.

Why did I choose "How can a French be a good tourist in Mexico" as a research question ?

Simply because I was a tourist in Mexico, so at the beginning I came there with my own previous mind about Mexico and I adopted a behaviour following my mind, like a French tourist in Mexico.
But then I met French friends who live in Mexico since a long time and I talk with them about this mind and I also talk with Mexican people. So I experienced the side of the French tourist and I understood the side of a Mexican "receiving" a French tourist people.

That is way after a first theoric part about intercultural communication and consequences I will illustre it by answering to my question.

My second part will give 10 principal views and ways of thinking that French have about Mexico (taking in account their cultural background) and which behaviours they will adopt then. Following that, I will give the 10 feedback interpretation thinking from a Mexican in answer to these behaviours.

My last part conclud about this example giving the two differents meaning about these 10 points and showing which problems were created there.

Posted by Rhetoric Class, Orebro University at 11:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)