Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofsted Dimensions of Culture seem to be attempting to pinpoint some of the major differences between cultures. An ambitious task, as all cultures are different in varying ways and it is difficult to identify general themes across global cultures. I think some of the dimensions identified, such as individualism versus collectivism, or nonverbal cues having different meanings depending on the culture, and monochromism versus polychromism as it relates to time, represent some of the general differences across cultures. I experienced some of those differences during my semester in Paris, which was a very monochromistic culture like what I’m used to, and when I went to Italy and experienced a very polychromistic culture. At risk of making a complete generalization, I also realize that many Western countries are stereotyped, for better or worse, as individualistic cultures, where many Eastern or African cultures place a larger value on collectivism.
I was puzzled by some of the other dimensions detailed in the readings. Masculinity, for example. I understand what Hofsted was trying to identify, but I think it’s a little bizarre to create a “masculinity” scale and identify cultures as more “masculine” than others. The Uncertainty Avoidance Index also seemed very nuanced and, ironically, ambiguous. Trying to set a culture on that scale seems very difficult and subject to personal experience and opinion, which is why I would hesitate to use that index if I were studying cultural differences. I also think that the High Context/Low Context scale in Figuring Foreigners Out was an incredibly specific measure. So while I agreed with some of the dimensions of cultural differences detailed in the readings, I also found some of the measures used to be confusing at best and useless at worst.
I’m excited to continue my study of Turkish and the Turkish culture and see how it differs from my own. I can use some of the measures in the readings and compare American culture to Turkish, but I probably will draw my own conclusions rather than relying on the ways the Hofsted analysis measures cultural differences.
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Hi Eliza,
I've also experienced differences between cultures, especially with monochromism versus polychomism when I went abroad to New Zealand. How people think of time significantly affected how I made plans with local kiwis. Though masculinity is an odd measure, I can see how other cultures value traditional family structures of having the main male head figure and have stayed more traditional. Laughably, I also think the uncertainty avoidance index is ironically vague. I thought uncertainty as more of a personality trait and not generalized to cultures.