Cultural Dimensions: the Hofstede Model

Hello people!

Last week we can't speak with our American friends because they were on holiday!
So we continued our discussion about cultural competence and culture in general. In particular, we considered how Italian culture is perceived by the members of other countries.
We visited a very interesting website called Kwintessential Site Map which lists tha main social habits, attitudes and behaviours of Italian people.
We discussed in class about the reliability of these characteristics: we realized that some of them can be true but others are simply silly stereotypes.
This fact was valid not only for Italy but also for the other different cultures we analyzed.

At the end of the class, we had a look to a cultural model called The Hofstede Model. According to the analysis made by Geert Hofstede, national cultures can be described on the basis of 5 cultural dimensions.

1.Power Distance
2.Individualism
3.Masculinity
4.Uncertainty Avoidance
5.Long-Term Orientation

These five dimension should enable us to quickly see how silmilar or different countries are.
I think the Model it's quite interesting..it is exciting to compare the different data and to discover that USA can be seen as individualistic, while Japan has the highest level of masculinity!

As always, we have to approach things with a CRITICAL eye: these data are only a general model applied to general population...obviously, not all individuals or smaller regions have the same characterstics!
We can't label the single member of a community in the same way!
Everyone has his/her own way of thinking and behaving!

Photo source

Intercultural Competence

Unfortunately , this week I didn't have my second Skype Exchange because I had a lecture of Medieval English Literature. So I'm going to Skype next week..

Meanwhile, we started considering a new topic: intercultural competence or rather, the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. We did some reading about this subject in order to understand:
1.What is intercultural competence?
2.Why is it so important?

After reading some typical examples of cultural differences, we had the opportunity to do a questionnaire called YOGA , a sort of self-evaluation guide in order to assess our intercultural communicative competence.(ICC).
I have to admit that it was not so easy to evaluate myself , my awareness of how a specific context affects my interaction with others or how I am perceived by a native of the host culture as communicator, mediator of intercultural situations.

Generally speaking, it is very difficult to reach the three requirements to be an effective, sensitive and self-concious mediator:
1-Knowledge about other cultures, people, nations..
2.Empathy.understanding feelings and needs of other people.
3.Self-confidence: knowing what I want, my strenghts and weaknesses.

I think that nowadays intercultural competence is essential in order to live in a multiracial society like ours and it helps understanding others and achieving goals.
Besides the awareness of the existence of different cultural characteristics, I believe it is important the willingness to understand and interact with members of the host culture. And what it is more important it 's that the host culture but also the guest culture have to

RESPECT each other.

Photo source:http://webd.savonia-amk.fi/tertta/eu_usa/intercultural_competence/p2-pelkka-kuva.jpg

Cultural Xchange with SKYPE

This semester I'm back and I'm busy with a brand new experience: an online linguistic and cultural exchange with a group of American students from Tulane University in New Orleans.

All the Xchanges are possible thanks to a revolutionary way of communication: SKYPE!
I've heard about it but never tried..
I have to say that it is easy and quick to use: after a simply registration you are able to talk with a person who is at the other side of the world!

As regards the Xchange we had our first conversation on Monday and my impressions about it are extremely positive.
I and two friends of mine made a Skype conference, this means that we can talk together with our American guest..we made a sort of collective chat!!

We spoke with Bari, a girl from New York who is studying in New Orleans. First we introduced each other and talked about our hobbies and our knowledge of our respective countries..
At the beginning it was quite embarassing but funny at the same time..
I think it is a normal feeling because the person in contact with us was a perfect stranger who spoke a different mother tongue..and the lack of a visual contact didn't make the situation easier..
Although this initial "shyness" I have to say that the fact that we were four people speaking together helps a lot to render the atmosphere more relaxing!

After some general topics we talked about Recycling ,which is the main topic of our Tulane-Padova wiki!
Bari told us that in the USA there are no specific laws on recycling and the choice is up to the single citizen.
Moreover, she said that there aren't school programs that can awaken public opinion to recycling because, especially in New Orleans, people have to face first of all the leading problem of social and racial integration..
The situation is then, quite similar to Italy because also in our country there are no specific laws or sanctions about recycling..

That's all for the moment

Annalisa

Photo source
http://www.tecnocino.it/img/skype_free.JPG