One thing that seems notable to me about these cross-cultural communication/norms issues is how often they are simply a result of ignorance. If I live in a country for several years I’m probably going to learn that people view it as rude to do some things, and I’ll see how the Romans do it. But if I am only visiting for a short period of time, I will probably be profoundly ignorant of how people there view various behaviors. If I haven’t previously spent time living in, thinking about, or reading about different cultures, I might not even be aware that people have different norms.[1]
Before reading this, I didn’t know that it was a norm in Malaysia to not greet people in a elevator or a corridor at an apartment. I almost certainly would be guilty of violating this norm if I were to visit Malaysia.
Or at most, I would be aware of relatively obvious artifacts and things that are easy to describe, such as how some cultures tend to take showers in the evening/morning, people eat using forks/chopsticks, greeting a person involves a handshake/hug/kiss/two kisses/three kisses. But it is much harder to describe similar underlying assumptions and values (relationships to parents, happiness with conformity, desire for uniqueness, etc.). I find the Edgar Schein 3-level framework for culture very simple, but useful for starting to think about these things.
Hmm I think you’re right! I don’t think my advice doesn’t seem to be solving this issue. Perhaps a better advice is to just read more about the norms of the country first? And expect such poor CCIs to happen and allow for space to have meta-conversations around what’s appropriate?
I do hope that people learn about behavioral norms before visiting a new place or interacting with people from other places, but it is an unrealistic expectation to expect (for example) for all people joining an event in COUNTRY_A to know about and adapt to COUNTRY_A-style norms of communication and interaction.
Little books of “Learn COUNTRY_A culture and customs while you are on your flight” have existed for decades; the knowledge is generally easily available. But most people simply don’t bother (unaware? aware but deprioritizing?). I imagine that if there was an EAGx event in COUNTRY_A and a Google Doc of a few cultural norms to be aware of was shared with attendees in advance, some of the easier and more clear gaffes could be avoided (such as wearing a tank top and shorts in a religious temple, or not offering to pay for a shared meal, or making a comment about a person’s weight).
There are some small things we can do to reduce the risk of poor CCIs occurring, but of course we will never reduce the risk all the way to zero. Realistically, I suppose we need to simply accept that some level of poor CCIs will occur.
One thing that seems notable to me about these cross-cultural communication/norms issues is how often they are simply a result of ignorance. If I live in a country for several years I’m probably going to learn that people view it as rude to do some things, and I’ll see how the Romans do it. But if I am only visiting for a short period of time, I will probably be profoundly ignorant of how people there view various behaviors. If I haven’t previously spent time living in, thinking about, or reading about different cultures, I might not even be aware that people have different norms.[1]
Before reading this, I didn’t know that it was a norm in Malaysia to not greet people in a elevator or a corridor at an apartment. I almost certainly would be guilty of violating this norm if I were to visit Malaysia.
Or at most, I would be aware of relatively obvious artifacts and things that are easy to describe, such as how some cultures tend to take showers in the evening/morning, people eat using forks/chopsticks, greeting a person involves a handshake/hug/kiss/two kisses/three kisses. But it is much harder to describe similar underlying assumptions and values (relationships to parents, happiness with conformity, desire for uniqueness, etc.). I find the Edgar Schein 3-level framework for culture very simple, but useful for starting to think about these things.
Hmm I think you’re right! I don’t think my advice doesn’t seem to be solving this issue.
Perhaps a better advice is to just read more about the norms of the country first? And expect such poor CCIs to happen and allow for space to have meta-conversations around what’s appropriate?
I do hope that people learn about behavioral norms before visiting a new place or interacting with people from other places, but it is an unrealistic expectation to expect (for example) for all people joining an event in COUNTRY_A to know about and adapt to COUNTRY_A-style norms of communication and interaction.
Little books of “Learn COUNTRY_A culture and customs while you are on your flight” have existed for decades; the knowledge is generally easily available. But most people simply don’t bother (unaware? aware but deprioritizing?). I imagine that if there was an EAGx event in COUNTRY_A and a Google Doc of a few cultural norms to be aware of was shared with attendees in advance, some of the easier and more clear gaffes could be avoided (such as wearing a tank top and shorts in a religious temple, or not offering to pay for a shared meal, or making a comment about a person’s weight).
There are some small things we can do to reduce the risk of poor CCIs occurring, but of course we will never reduce the risk all the way to zero. Realistically, I suppose we need to simply accept that some level of poor CCIs will occur.