Cultural Differences
See also: Geert HofstedeCultural characteristics can be measured along several dimensions. The ability to perceive them and to cope with them is fundamental for intercultural competence. These characteristics include:
- Collectivism and individualism
- Masculine and feminine cultures
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Power distance
- Chronemics: monochrone (time-fixed, "one after the other") and polychrone (many things at the same time, "multitasking"). This is also called "long-term orientation."
- Structural characteristics: basic personality, values, the experience of time and space, selective perception, nonverbal communication, and patterns of behavior
- Christianity and Confucianism
Read more about this topic: Intercultural Competence
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or differences:
“Somehow we have been taught to believe that the experiences of girls and women are not important in the study and understanding of human behavior. If we know men, then we know all of humankind. These prevalent cultural attitudes totally deny the uniqueness of the female experience, limiting the development of girls and women and depriving a needy world of the gifts, talents, and resources our daughters have to offer.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“The country is fed up with children and their problems. For the first time in history, the differences in outlook between people raising children and those who are not are beginning to assume some political significance. This difference is already a part of the conflicts in local school politics. It may spread to other levels of government. Society has less time for the concerns of those who raise the young or try to teach them.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)