When Cultures Collide: generic cultural differences

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When Cultures Collidegeneric cultural
differences

• Minjuan Wang
• Educational Technology
• San Diego State University
• mwang_at_mail.sdsu.edu

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What is Culture?
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What is Culture?

• Beliefs and behaviors accepted within communities
  
• that may range from small family units to
  national or intra-national systems
• Signs (body language, symbols)
• Tools (other behavioral patterns and procedures
  set to function within the culture

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Shakehands

• In the US?
• mutual understanding and agreement
• In Middle Eastern Countries?
• 'serious' negotiations are just beginning.
• Japan?
• Seinfeld episode
• China?

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Many Types

• Ethnic culture
• Speak up, motivation (extrinsic, intrinsic)
• Local culture
• Using examples
• Academic culture
• Honesty, grading scales, teamwork
• Disciplinary culture

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Why Culture?

• Global online learning reaching 160 million by
  2025
• Even a small slice of that would mean handsome
  financial returns to the universities
  (Goodfellow, 2001, p.65).

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The World is Flat!
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The 10 Forces

• The Berlin Wall (89)
• Netscape went public (95)
• Lets do lunch have your application talk to my
  application
• Web-enabled workflow the vast network of
  underground pluming

• Open sourcing
• Out sourcing
• Offshoring
• Running with Ganelles, eating with lions
• Insourcing
• Your world is synchronized!
• In-forming
• The Steroids
• Digital, Mobile, Personal, Virtual

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Is Learning..

• Abstract rules, concepts, facts, processes,
  skills, or procedures?
• Or the construction of internal models of outside
  reality
• consistent with their understanding of the
  cultural contexts in which they operate. (Pincas,
  2001, p. 31).

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Models of Cross-Cultural Instructional Interaction

• Looking at culture from the schema theory
• Culture can be seen as a body of knowledge
  contained in schemata whereby culturally
  appropriate behavior is generated (Thompson,
  1998 in Wilson, 2001, p. 53)

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Models of Cross-Cultural Instructional Interaction

• Cultural discontinuities occur when the schemata
  of a learner and instructional designer do not
  correspond.

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Cultural Discontinuities

• Unfamiliar seas with schematic signs and tools
• Following are some mismatch between schemas

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Humors that are not funny

• Seinfeld commercial for American Express
• Confucian and Buddaist (truth, sincerity,
  politeness)
• Will Sarcasm and Crazy jokes work?
• Jokes about religion, sex, minorities, older
  people black humor
• Germans and Japanese
• If no one laughs, tell them to a Korean
• Turkish jokes

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International Humor

• Lets write about elephants
• Hunting elephants in British East Africa
• The love life of elephants in French Equatorial
  Africa
• The origin and development of the Indian elephant
  in the year 1200-1950 (600 pages)
• How to breed bigger and better elephants

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International Humor (2)

• How we sent an elephant to the moon
• Elephant and the welfare state
• Techniques of elephant fighting
• Spaniard
• As a means of transportation before railway
• What the elephants think about us?
• Norway and Norways mountains

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A Way with Words

• Germany
• Next week I should become a new car
• What is your death line (deadline)?
• Japan
• I have spilt up my boyfriend
• My father is a doctor, my mother is a typerwriter
• Are you hopeful of any change? I am hopeless.

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Mismatch between Schemas

• Body languages
• A-OK obscene in Brazil in Japan
• Touching a childs head?
• not in south-east Asia
• Avoiding eye contact suspicious?
• Stare and Blinking eyes?
• Widened eyes
• Astonishment or anger?

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Culture-Specific Advertising

• First bite at the Big Apple
• Fly United Airlines
• DELTA SERVICE
• Every year we fly more people than the largest
  airlines of Great Britain, Germany and
  France..Combined

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Culture-Specific Advertising

• Lufthansa
• There's no better way to fly
• Eastern Airlines
• We have to earn our wings every day.Eastern
  Airlines. The Wings of Man.
• Air France
• Air France. One of the best places on earth

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More Airline Ads

• Bangkok Airways
• Asia's boutique airline - Exclusive Service to
  Exotic Gems
• Braniff Airways
• We Better be Better, We're Braniff  If You've
  Got It, Flaunt It

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Martin Airline, flying their planes way too close
for comfort?
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Categorizing Culture

• Linear-active, Multi-active, Reactive
• See handouts
• Japanese, Chinese listening culture but lengthy
  discourse to attain ultimate harmony
• Dialogue-oriented or data-oriented

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From Dialogue to Data-oriented

• 1. Latin Americans
• 2. Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, French
• 3. Arabs, Africans
• 4. Indians, Parkistanis
• 5.Chileans
• 6. Hungarians, Romanians
• 7. Slaves
• 8. American subcultures
• 9. Benelux
• 10. British, Australians
• 11. Scandinavians
• 12. North Americans, New Z, South A
• 13. Germans, Swiss

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Why are they so quiet?

• Listening culture!
• Allow ideas to mature
• Tend to be accommodating in decisions
• Resilience!
• Economic success
• Japan, Asian tigers, Finland

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The Use of Time (1)

• Past-----?present--------?future
• Cant bear to be idle
• Past (over)
• Present todays tasks (A-gtB-gtC-gtD-gtE)
• Future (plans for Jan. worries for Feb.)
• 8 hours of his time cost 400!

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The Use of Time (2)

• Italian why are you so angry because I came at
  9.30?
• German, because it says 9am in my diary
• Why dont you write 9.30 and then well both be
  happy?

• Southern Europeans
• Multi-active
• Best way to invest their time?
• Complete a human transaction
• Priority thrill or significance of each meeting

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Punctuality in Spain

• Messes up schedules
• A (start late), B, C(merges with Lunch) D(not
  starting until 430) E(delayed) F (cancelled or
  meet in bar)
• A subjective commodity manipulated
• My time is up I have to rush
• Spaniard or Arab, only use these if death were
  imminent

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Chinese?

• Value time
• Penchant for humility
• Expect generous allocation of time for discussion
• Dwell on details of a transaction
• Walk around the pool to make decisions
• Careful nurturing of personal relationships

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More topics from When Cultures Collide

• Leadership styles (handout)
• Horizons and Team building (some nice charts)(p.
  86)
• Bridging the communication gap
• Manners and Taboos
• Audience expectations during presentation
  (handout)
• Online/Video Games (welcome Joe)
• Profile of many culture
• good references if you need them!

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Add some Graphics Here

• Managing styles
• The collision of Japanese and Latin culture
• Characters of Multicultural manager
• For Day 2
• Tips for training and motivating Asians
• For Day 2