First of all, I totally agree that each culture has its own definition and interpretation of different objects in communications. In the first article, the author discusses nonverbal communication intensively which I agree with most of the author's points. The author mentions that different gestures and body languages fall into three categories. They could mean the same in two different cultures while totally opposite meanings in other cultures or even no meaning in some. Therefore, in a cross-cultural setting, one needs to pay much attention to these gestures since they might create confusion when used improperly and read in advance the meanings of behaviors in different cultural settings. Additionally, the author also discusses other aspects that cultures may differ from. For example, individualism versus collectivism regarding personal identity in society. Monochronic versus polychronic is about how people regard time differently which I find a little implausible in my opinion. Monochronic says that time is a commodity, quantifiable and limited. Therefore, people will have to use it wisely and not being a wastrel. People need to adjust themselves to suit the demand of time. On the contrary, polychronic claims that time is limitless and it is a servant and tool of people and is adjusted to the needs of people. From where I stand, I find it problematic because time is limited to everyone since a person's life can only last approximately 100 years. Therefore, it's not right to think time as limitless and that people don't need to work hard to achieve something before it runs out.
Regarding the 6 dimensions model of Geert Hofstede, I find it quite intriguing because it tells what a nation should consider in order to well-organize itself. Individualism and power distance are definitely two important factors in which power distance refers to how power is distributed within the country. For me, I find my country is more of collectivism instead of individualism because the central government is always the most powerful organization and controls the country's economy. And people will work to make a better society instead of a better entity. All in all, a lot of factors have to be considered to organize a culture or to interact with other cultures since everything is mixed and different when positioning in different environments.
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