Choose one of the global media and prepare a report about it. Present your report in class using some visual aids to illustrate your story.

4. Watch “John Lennon Shot” (BBC NEWS, 1980). What has changed in the news programs since that time?

 

5. What sources do you mostly use to learn the news? Do you think that printed mass media may be totally replaced by electronic once?

 

DISCOVERING OTHER CULTURES

 

 

Cross-cultural and status barriers [19] Part I

Sometimes, observations about cultural differences are based on scientific observation According to the studies cited, Latin Americans make more eye contact, face each other more, and touch more when they speak. Strong eye contact used by Hispanics goes along with my observations.

If Hispanics face each other more, it is probably because of the need for eye contact. I do not believe that Hispanics touch more, with the exception of some very specific social contexts, one of them being between dating or married couples. One of the studies cited more contact among Latin American couples. Another study showed that Latin Americans stand closer than North Americans (something that goes contrary to my observations) but that there are regional variations among countries. Argyle asserts that there are few genuine cross-cultural studies in the area of spatial behavior. Interestingly, yet another study showed that "middle-class Americans actually touched quite a lot" and that the USA is more of a contact culture than people think.

Much of the differences in culture have to do with food preparation, music, and what each culture considers politeness. Food preparation, for instance, can be quite different in various cultures. One farmer could not understand why his workers did not attend a specially prepared end-of-season meal. The meal was being prepared by the farm owners. Instead, when the farm operators provide the beef, pork or other meat but delegate the actual preparation to the workers who can spice up their own way, such a celebration meal can be a great success. Similarly, a dairy farmer found out that his Mexican employees were not too excited about getting ground beef as a perk. Instead, they would have preferred the cow's head, tongue, brains, as well as other cuts of meat that were not ground up. With world globalization, even tastes in food and music are rapidly changing, however.

When I came to the US, for a long time I was also guilty of broad generalizations about those born in the US. While I have not conquered this disagreeable human inclination, I feel I am beginning to see the way. Often, observations on cultural differences are based on our own weakness and reflect our inability to connect with that culture. As a young man I found myself in an almost entirely Anglo-Saxon community in New Canaan, Connecticut. I remember that on several occasions I felt my personal space was being invaded and wondered how Anglo-Saxon men could stand being so close to each other. After all these years, I still feel uncomfortable sitting as close to other men as often dictated by chair arrangements in the US. I am not the exception that proves the rule. Other foreign-born immigrants from México and Iran have mentioned feeling the same way.

Jill Heiken, an HRnet correspondent, explained her learning process this way: "I've taught ESL to many-many different nationalities and lived in rooming situations with people from all nations and lived in Japan and Cambodia... it took me a long time not to generalize and now when I hear others doing so... I know they are just beginning to 'wade in the river,' so to speak, of intercultural relations."

I now live in California and have been married for over 20 years to a Californian (of Northern European descent). It is sort of funny because my wife now realizes that I need to have eye contact while we talk. If she is reading, she has learned that I stop talking if I don't have eye contact with her. I have had several people tell me, when I stop talking because I no longer have eye contact, "Keep talking, I'm listening." My kids still give me a bad time about the year my mother came to visit and we drove to Yosemite National Park. They were all panicked because I kept looking at my mother as I drove. They felt I was not looking at the road enough and thought we would drive off the mountain. I have a very high need for eye contact.

Besides being a native Chilean, I have met, taught, been taught, roomed with, studied with, worked for, worked with, been supervised by, supervised, and been friends with Hispanics from almost every Spanish-speaking country in the world. I have interviewed and done research among hundreds of Hispanic farm workers and have noticed no difficulties with poor eye contact or invasion of personal space. Nor have I ever had difficulties in these areas with people from other nations or cultures.

Strong eye contact is partially a factor of shyness; partly a measure of how safe a person feels around another. If those who have written about poor eye contact on the part of Hispanics would walk down a mostly minority neighborhood at dusk, they may also find themselves looking at the ground and making less eye contact.

 

Can we trust statistical observations and measurements when we talk about cultural differences?

How does world globalization change tastes in food, music etc.? Do you personally feel it?

How important is eye contact for you?

UNIT 10