According to Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture different countries have different cultural norms. Figuring Foreigners Out organizes these traits into individualist-collectivist, monochronic-polychronic, internal-external, and direct-indirect communication. Alternatively, Hofestede organizes culture into individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty, long-term orientation, and indulgence. The fact that this model is not a spectrum may unintentionally convey that countries with more of a certain trait have a higher score and are therefore superior. In this case of Individualism, a country that has a low score on this indicator may be seen as having a deficit, though I don't think this is the intention.
Society shapes the way people live their lives, but it is not definitive. There is variation within a culture, and sometimes an individual may feel tension with the prescribed cultural norm of their society. I noticed such a tension when I read about the monochronic-polychronic spectrum. This discussion on different cultural perceptions of time suggested that countries like the United States, which are concerned with efficiency, busyness, and see time as a scarce commodity, are monochronic. As someone growing up in the United States, I feel these pressures even though I try to fight them because I don’t feel that this is the way for me to live an authentic life. I feel that living in the moment, embracing detours and interruptions, and slowing down are key for recognizing how our lives interconnect with one another. This framing of time as a scarce resource resonates with a reading from my sustainability class. We talked about how the market economy and push for profit-centered development transformed Nature into a resource to be exploited and consumed, an environment with no agency of its own. It seems that this market-based perspective has also shaped how places like the United States view time, in an effort to always be working for progress without ever stopping to recognize the depth of opportunity offered by the single present moment. Thus, I seem to identify better with the polychronic model that is prevalent in Indonesia.
When I compared Indonesia’s culture with the United States, Italy, and Spain, which are the two other countries I have been to, I was surprised how much each country varied. The biggest differences between Indonesia and the United States was Individualism (at 91 the US is individualist, while at 14 Indonesia is collectivist). Coincidentally, in my culture class this week we talked about Indonesian personality traits, especially those that Americans may find off putting at first. Many of these spoke to Indonesia’s collectivist culture. For example, my teacher talked about going out for dinner with a roommate even though she was very tired. People rarely express how they are really feeling, especially if they have a dissenting opinion. Students in school also wear color-coded uniforms that reinforce their commitment to the collective. Despite this commitment to the larger group, it’s important to note that Indonesian culture is not monolithic. Life is very different in metropolitan Jakarta than rural Java, and there are hundreds of different languages spoken throughout the archipelago. While these cultural indicators make helpful starting points, we should not assume that the speak for everyone in a given country.
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