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You might be interested in this cool new thing.

Cate — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:12:47 +0000

photo by Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester

Hey there! I know it’s been a little quiet around here (ehhh, understatement?). A lot has happened in the past few months (mostly good stuff, some not-to-good stuff, all gotta-deal-with-real-life stuff).

Anyway, stuff is happening/developing….such as this cool new thing I’ve been working on with 3 rockin’ colleagues. Please check it out and join us if you can!

Are Types of Rewards & Recognition Influenced By Culture? (Yes.)

Anamaria — Mon, 03 May 2010 09:51:48 +0000

photo by jumbledpile

by :: Anamaria

A while ago Cate and I came across a very interesting discussion thread on one of the on-line groups we belong to. We are grateful to Martina Rehm, who is originally from Germany, for allowing us to post her comments below.

The constant “praise” in the American school system (at least as I see it in my son’s school) surprised me after we relocated to the US from Germany. Although I try not to undermine the teaching methods the school decided on, my son (only 9 years old) sees and understands the “cultural difference” in the teaching approach. It takes a very confident 3rd grader to decide “against”some of the “reward methods”.

Let’s take the “Pizza Hut Book-it” competition every year. The children have to read a certain amount of pages in order to receive a free pizza. If they reach the class goal as well, they are invited for a pizza party in school. Do we really care more about HOW MANY PAGES the children read than WHAT they read?

My son’s friend explained to me that it is easy to reach the goal, you just read a book you already know from last year or listen to an audiobook or even cheat…. It does not seem to be important what they read, if it is a non fiction book the children might actually learn something from or if it is a comic. It also does not seem to matter if they read so fast that they don’t even remember what they read.

I can’t remember how many “Pizza Parties” or “Ice Cream Socials” my son’s school had last year for the children that reached a goal (reading, passing all spelling tests, running x. laps…..). Don’t get me wrong, I am all for rewards. But not too much. Hearing “good job” several times a day for average work makes it almost worthless.

First time I helped in school, one of the kids showed me their work (a very good friend of my son). I said that I liked the work but I believe that he could improve it by… Already the teacher took me aside to explain that we do not criticize the young children’s work.

Just like Marina, we are curious to hear what others think of the “praise/reward” methods in school systems around the world. In other words, how are students where you live praised and rewarded in school? How much and what kind of praise and rewards do you think are helpful? When do you think it becomes too much?

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“Lost” Education Question

Cate — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:14:51 +0000

Even people who are obsessed with the TV show Lost want to know more about education across cultures:

I found this educational comment and question on a Lost message board where people where discussing last week’s episode (in which parallel world off-island Alex needed a recommendation from someone who went to Yale University in order to apply and be accepted there).

The comment and question made me wonder about the college search and admissions process in other countries. I know what it’s like in Germany (similar to the U.K. system it seems) and the U.S., but what’s it like in the rest of the world?

What factors contributed to you choosing the university you attended?

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Going Home for Lunch

Cate — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:38:18 +0000

photo by pmorgan

Photographer’s note: Ba Li Ba Gai Village Middle School (China) students heading home for lunch. The new school building is part of a national government project to upgrade unsafe school buildings. Alas, there is no additional money for resources or teachers salaries.

See more of pmorgan’s school photos here.

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Indirect-Direct Communication Styles

Anamaria — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:58:10 +0000

photo by MyDigitalSLR

by :: Anamaria

We recently talked about communication styles here and here. The theory on cross-cultural communication styles is extensive, but I think many people are familiar with the distinction between direct and indirect communication styles.

In a nutshell:

Direct communication is when the meaning of the message is communicated mainly via words.

Indirect communication is when meaning is not only in the words, but mainly in the surrounding context of a conversation. In other words, somebody who is indirect will leave it up to the listener to fill in the blanks and make out the meaning by correctly reading the contextual clues (e.g. non-verbal communication, status and/or age of people involved in the conversation, attire, etc.).

No matter how much we read about indirect communication, it is virtually impossible for a direct person to fully understand the complexity of indirectness until we’ve been immersed in it.

At a first “direct” glance, it will seem that indirect people can literally read people’s minds. A second, third and fourth … and often a hundredth glance will reveal the contextual clues, all those things that are not being said. Things that indirect people have been taught to see and to correctly interpret since the day they were born. Direct people are not being taught to look at the context for what is NOT being said when interpreting a message. They are taught to listen to the words being said.

Just like with cultural dimensions, it is important to remember that both communication styles are found in every culture. However, cultures do have tendencies towards one more than the other. Also, they manifest themselves differently in each culture (e.g. an indirect US American communicates very differently than an indirect Japanese person).

In the context of education, it’s interesting to think of how these two communication styles shape teacher-student interactions. Or student participation. Or classroom management styles.

Are there any teachers reading our blog who have taught in both indirect and direct cultures? Or teachers who taught students from both direct and indirect cultures? We would love to hear from you.

Ask 3 Questions to Improve Your Cross-cultural Skills

Cate — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:09:28 +0000

photo by !borghetti

by :: Cate

When I was learning how to do ethnographic research I had to develop keen observational skills.

One of the things my classmates and I did to become better observers was to make the familiar strange.

In one activity, for example, we chose a situation or environment that we knew very well (e.g. a classroom, the check-out line in a supermarket, eating dinner, etc.). Then we observed and described the situation as if we were seeing it for the first time.

Doing this helped us uncover latent interpretations and assumptions. This was important because in collecting ethnographic data one strives to document meaning as determined by the observed, not the observer.

The practice of making the familiar strange taught us how to observe with the goal of understanding the perspectives of others.

If you want to be cross-culturally effective, develop keen observational skills.

Most of us go through a large part of our day on auto-pilot, quickly interpreting and categorizing what we see and experience. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every day we’re inundated with a huge amount of information, and we simply can’t stop and ponder every single thing we come into contact with.

But in order to be effective in cross-cultural situations, we need to disengage our cultural auto-pilot.

Instead of automatically interpreting what see or experience, we need to carefully observe it. We need to uncover our latent assumptions and interpretations. Making the familiar strange in our daily lives can help us develop the keen observational skills necessary to be cross-culturally effective.

Ask these 3 questions to improve your cross-cultural observation skills.

Even if you’re not in a cross-cultural situation right now, this simple practice can help you develop the observational skills that will come in handy the next time you are.

As you go through your day, look at everything and everyone with new eyes. Pay close attention to interactions between people (e.g. greetings, a heated discussion, a parent-child interaction, etc.) and get in the habit of asking yourself these 3 questions:

What do I see?
Describe what you see concretely and objectively. Avoid interpreting or evaluating.
Who do I see?
What experiences and perspectives might they bring to the interaction that’s influencing their behavior?
How might the where influence the what?
If the context changed, would the interaction between these people change?

What questions do you ask in order to better understand cross-cultural situations?

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Who’s Flying The Plane?

Anamaria — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:10:36 +0000

photo by bfraz

by :: Anamaria

Every morning at 7 am you will find me in my car, driving to work and listening to NPR. Recently, I heard an interview with science writer Shankar Vedantam, about his new book The Hidden Brain.

The more I listened to the story, the more I wanted to read the book. So I put it on my long list of books to purchase, and, eventually, read. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about it here.

Although this is not a cross-cultural communication book, many of the things Vedantam addresses in the book could explain why cross-cultural interactions are so tricky. And incredibly challenging. And exhausting.

Let me explain.

In his book, Vedantam talks about how our brains have two modes: one conscious and one unconscious.

Pilot and autopilot, he calls them.

And Vedantam believes that people are constantly switching back and forth between the two. This makes perfect sense to me, I thought as I was driving to work.

And then I started thinking about Vedantam’s theory from a cross-cultural perspective.

When we live in our own culture, I do believe that we switch back and forth between pilot and autopilot all the time. But what happens when we move to a different culture? Does this switching back and forth continue at the same frequency? Should it?

It’s difficult to stop the autopilot part of the brain from taking over, sometimes. However, in a cross-cultural context, it is very important to minimize the autopilot mode - as much as possible.

When your brain is on autopilot, it makes assumptions which, in a cross-cultural context, it should not be making.

These assumptions will result in cultural misunderstandings, frustrations, and miscommunications. Being on autopilot when we shouldn’t be is what leads to “unsupported snap judgments about people in the world around us” – as Vedantam points out in his NPR interview. How true!

A good cross-cultural communicator is one that suspends the autopilot mode as much as possible when interacting cross-culturally. But not being able to freely switch to autopilot mode can be exhausting for a person.

And this is why living or working abroad is so tiring. This is also why interacting with people from other cultures can be so exhausting. And this is why foreigners will happily look for the company of other fellow country men and women: to give their brain a break, and allow the autopilot to take over. Even if for just a little while.

@CateBrubaker’s Twitter Interview with @CindyKing

Cate — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:50:50 +0000

My interview with Cindy King is today!

The interview is conducted in two parts. First, there’s the blog interview that you can read over on Cindy’s blog. Then there’s the twitter interview. We’re doing the Twitter interview today (Tuesday) at 8am Eastern. If you’re on Twitter you can follow today’s interview by following me (@CateBrubaker) and Cindy @CindyKing) - our tweets will be marked with the #ckinterview hashtag.

Cindy has interviewed several cross-culturally inclined people - be sure to check them out (scroll to the bottom of the post to see the list)!

We’re Not Fighting, We’re Just Being Romanian

Anamaria — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:01:37 +0000

photo by Geir Halvorsen

by :: Anamaria

A few weeks ago we invited you to reflect a bit on your communication style. Well, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting of my own lately, especially during the winter break. Some of you may already know that my house was full of family for Christmas: the Romanian side of the family. My side of the family.

And when my side of the family comes into our home, I sometimes find myself wondering how my interactions with my family are perceived by my US American husband.

Why am I saying that? Well, because of differences in communication styles between Romanian and US Americans.

Romanians, like many other Latins, are very expressive when we talk. We are loud (we seem loud to Americans), use a lot of gestures, stand pretty closely to each other. So, when we talk to each other, even if it’s on the phone, we always look to Americans like we are having a fight.

I can’t tell you how many times my husband asked me during the Christmas holiday, when my family was here, if everything was OK. I smiled every time he asked.

Of course everything is OK – I would respond – that’s just how we communicate.

The non-verbal behavior is not the only thing that is different.

WHAT we talk about is also VERY different from the topics that most American families would discuss. Basically, we don’t have many conversation subjects that are off limits. Especially among close family members.

It isn’t uncommon to hear Romanians talk about money, weight, or religion. In detail. Talking about these things often involves openly questioning each other’s choices or opinions on these topics. And somehow, rarely does one get upset or offended. Why? Because for Romanians, talking about this “very personal stuff” (which is how most US Americans perceive these subjects – personal) is a way to get closer to each other. To establish deeper, more meaningful relationships with people. To become close friends.

Needless to say…I had to adapt my communication style when I moved to the US. I was clueless about these things when I first moved to this country…so I made a lot of mistakes.

Some of the questions that I would ask my new American friends were being perceived as very personal, and quite intrusive.

I thought I was making friends, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that I wasn’t.

So, pretty soon I learned to communicate one way with Americans, and my old way with Romanians. It’s fascinating to me how people find ways of transitioning in and out of their culture – national or regional. Going in and out of different ways of communicating is definitely one aspect of this complex cultural transition.

What about you?

Have you experienced these transitions related to communication styles? Do you find yourself communicating one way with a cultural group, and a different way with another?

Cultural Differences Related to Appointments & Deadlines

Cate — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:06:18 +0000

photo by iheartlinen

One of the cross-cultural blogs I read is Cindy King’s. Cindy is originally from the Bahamas and has lived and worked in several European countries, including France, where she currently lives. Even though her focus is business, Cindy’s insights into issues of culture are very relevant to educators.

Case in point: here are two recent articles from Cindy’s blog related to time, a topic we covered a while back on CulturallyTeaching (here, here, here and here):

5 cultural differences in understanding appointments

Fun With Half Hours

Some cultures use expressions where a “half hour” can mean 30 minutes before the hour referenced and not after the hour. This can lead to confusion when “half nine” means 8:30 and not 9:30.

This can happen when a non-native English speaker uses literal translations from their own language which uses such expressions. But there are even native English speakers in some parts of the world who use similar expressions.

This type of mistake usually happens when speaking as most people write out the numbers.

Takeaway: Always be clear in how you say the time.

>> Read about the other 4 cultual differences in understanding appointments on Cindy’s blog here.

Cultural differences in understanding deadlines

My downfall came because people can use two ways of giving deadlines:

Deadline December 23rd = meaning this is the last day for you to take action

Deadline December 23rd = meaning you need to take action before this date. In this case your last day for taking action would be December 22nd.

And I navigate almost exclusively in circles where people use the first example with the deadline date given is the last day to take action. But there are people who give the date to mean the first day after you must take action. And this is what happened to me. I had left taking action to what I thought was the very last day, but I was already one day too late.

>> Read more about cultural differences and deadlines on Cindy’s blog here.

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