Understanding World Cultures Through American Eyes Series

  Nigeria is an exciting, vibrant country that also happens to be full of hidden cultural traps that this book will help newcomers see and avoid. Many of the frustrations experienced by Westerners new to Africa have to do with unseen differences in how time is perceived, valued, and used. A common observation made by newly arrived Westerners goes something like: "Nigerians sure do spend a lot of time just waiting around doing nothing." The core Western cultural assumption hidden in this comment is that time has value in itself and therefore should not be wasted by doing nothing, or by doing something insignificant or of little value while time, which has intrinsic value, passes by unused for materially productive purposes. The Westerner's use of words like "waste" and “spend” to describe what they believe they see Africans doing speaks volumes about the belief systems behind such comments. The economic value of time is an American/European concept, and is not a part of traditional Africa culture. Ignoring time as it passes violates no important cultural rules anywhere in traditional Africa and many places in modern Africa – in stark contrast to core values regarding time and money that permeate all Western cultures. From the African perspective, which does not value time as a thing in itself, “doing nothing” while waiting for some event of actual value to occur is not a waste of time. In fact, what the Westerner sees as doing nothing is, for the Africans, doing many things that all have significant value. Since the event is valued and not the time it takes for the event to arrive or occur, time can be spent doing nothing or just talking with others. "Hanging out talking and joking around with others - that is definitely wasting time", says the Western observer, confirming his opinion of Africans and completely unaware of his own assumptions and hidden beliefs about what is valuable about time, and why. By the way, the fact that Africans enjoy "wasting time" in discussion with each other can be understood better if the Westerner sees that talking, laughing, and arguing are all culturally rich events - not wasted time. While waiting for the next truckload of equipment to arrive the workers don't seek out other tasks to occupy the time. Doing other work would interfere with hanging out with each other, and that would indeed be a waste of time. Now, talking with each other, maybe some clowning around, perhaps a heated political argument - those are good things to do while waiting for the truck to arrive, because these kinds of activities are intrinsically valuable, culturally relevant events. Therefore the time spent doing nothing but talking and fooling around waiting for the truck isn't wasted; it is used to engage in relational activities, which are critical to a productive working environment. Try that reasoning on a newly arrived Western manager if you want to see a disbelieving and probably disgusted expression. Then check back in a year – he will either still be there and much wiser, or he will be gone.  

Population density and the small size of the country have made rules of social interaction important and a certain amount of intrusive regulation necessary. The Dutch people feel that an individual’s privacy, personal and physical, should be respected at all costs. Rules of etiquette, politeness to others, and many formal and informal regulations are designed to ensure privacy and respect for the individual. It is important for Americans to recognize the influence of this core Dutch cultural value upon our own culture. Many of the original American settlers were from the Netherlands, and with their dedication to personal liberty and freedom they helped shape the American core culture. So while some Dutch rules and regulations, and some of the petty bureaucratic processes one encounters everywhere, may be perceived by Americans as being excessively restrictive, confining, and interfering, the Dutch value a smoothly running, well-organized social system as much as they value privacy and liberty, and they realize that in order to achieve that balance, individuals must when necessary sacrifice a personal preference in favor of group considerations. One of the central aspects of the Dutch approach to life is incorporated in the word ‘gezellig’. The state of ‘gezelligheid’ is a comfortable, pleasant, no-stress interlude in the day’s activities like the family who, at twilight, rather than turning on the house lights will put a few candles around the living room and all gather to look quietly out at their garden. It can also be seen in a mother at a playground who calls gently “keep your play gezellig” as the children’s play becomes too rowdy. The most valued mood in a Brown Café is gezellig, and there is even a Dutch beer advertised as “guaranteed gezellig”. (If you are familiar with Thai culture 'gezellig' is a lot like 'sanook'.)  

“Kamo is a type of especially tasty wild duck that makes the thousands of marshes and literally millions of ponds of rural Japan its home every winter, where it feeds on rich wild grains and grasses. It quickly gets very fat and slow to move or fly, and becomes very easy to hunt. In Japanese business circles, a Kamo is someone worth taking advantage of, who is inexperienced, a sucker or pushover, easy prey. There is a special type of Kamo, very much appreciated in business as you can imagine, who "brings his own onions" for cooking. Overly friendly Americans, who are trying so hard to be culturally sensitive that they forget they are facing shrewd business people, can find themselves being welcomed to the table as the main course.” “The concept of Face, which is Confucian rather than strictly Japanese in origin, is fundamental to understanding and being effective working with Japanese people. Face has been given many different explanations by Westerners trying to understand why it is such a powerful force in Japanese relationships, even among strangers. Face has been compared with concepts such as personal dignity, self-esteem and pride, but these concepts are centered on a very Western, and especially American set of ideas. All of these Western analogies are centered on the individual and how they feel and are being affected, whereas for Japanese people Face is all about others. Face doesn't "belong" to Japanese individuals in the same way that Americans mean when they refer to "myself". A Japanese individual's Face "belongs" to the people who make up that individual's web of relationships, obligations, and attachments.”

There is so much that is so different for an American seeking to understand and adapt to Thai ways, but everything can be brought into focus rather quickly if you work diligently at learning the language, and if you don’t succumb to the temptation to remain the eternal tourist. Whether you are just visiting or staying for a while, or perhaps for a lifetime, you’ll adapt quickly and easily in this welcoming society, as long as you make a determined effort to meet and befriend real Thais living real Thai lives, rather than clinging to the lovely and sensual illusions that are offered to you generously and easily at every turn of the road. It’s said that culture is like water to a fish – the fish can’t understand the objective nature of water, even though water is its entire existence until it finds itself caught and pulled onto dry land and into a universe of air. It is virtually impossible for us to understand the cultural values, norms, beliefs and assumptions that make up our own cultural ‘water’ until we find ourselves washed up on a foreign shore. There we find ourselves in a culture where everyone is immersed in the everydayness and the naturalness of ‘the way things are’ for them. It is literally as natural to them as the air they breathe, just as we are in our own home culture. But now we are immersed in Thai culture. Everyday life will seem strange and even exotic because of the contrast with all the “cultural cloud” that we carry with us – a kind of fog you walk around in when you are new to a culture. It takes a few weeks to burn off, but eventually it does and you begin to see things for what they are. Once you get to know Thais as people rather than exotic strangers, and once you are beginning to understand the language and communicate in broken but much-admired Thai, you’ll soon also find yourself occasionally thinking “mai pen rai” when things aren’t going the way you like. That’s then you’ll know that you’ve officially arrived in Thailand.

British and American people have many cultural characteristics that at first glance may seem similar and even the same, and there are also some rather extreme and interesting differences. Examining the contrasts and similarities between these two fascinating world cultures will give readers more practical and useful knowledge than can be achieved by studying either British or American culture by itself. Readers worldwide appreciate Professor Drake’s friendly, conversational English-language writing style. Never academic or boring, Professor Drake writes about cultural differences with a sense of humor and insight developed over a lifetime of international living and learning. The author is a retired American professor of international business management at the University of Texas, a world-traveler and experienced expatriate, a valued consultant to multi-national corporations, and a respected author of a 30-volume library on building and managing cross-cultural relationships.

Written by an American professor of cross-cultural studies this book is based on interviews with hundreds of German, European and American business people, professionals, students, and travelers. The value of this book to a careful, interested reader is that examining the German culture from an American point of view will yield valuable insights into both cultures. This book covers topics of interest to the serious international student, traveler or business person who will be spending more than just tourist-time in Germany. Readers will come to see what is needed to go beyond the reserved, cautious face that Germans present to those they don't know well and become accepted. This isn't a book of 'do this and don't do that'. There are many books that try to teach cultural etiquette. This book is specifically about navigating the cultural interfaces between German and American cultures in areas where increased understanding of how the idiosyncrasies of both cultures can either complement or clash with each other, whether in business, leisure travel, academia, the professions, or just in everyday life.

Americans have a distinctive communications style, regardless of the part of the country they come from, regardless of their personal family or educational background, and regardless of their business and technical skills. This American style of communication has been the subject of many studies both by Americans and those from other cultures.  We will go into the principal components of this "American-style" later; at this point let's just say that much of the rest of the world feel that they can identify an American speaker not so much by accent as by communication style. Those who have studied international business communications agree that there is a set of challenges that is common to almost all Americans operating in an international environment.  These challenges include: Communicating respect for the values of others while retaining personal and organizational integrity. Cultivating empathetic skills while pursuing rational objectives. Practicing judgment-free interactions while retaining personal values. Tolerating deep ambiguities while enjoying the differences those ambiguities express. Nurturing effective business relationships in small as well as major ways. Being aggressive and persistent while respecting unfamiliar limits. Two areas of business where these six principles come into play with special intensity are: Making Effective Multicultural Presentations In English Managing Remote Written/Spoken Communications In English In this book we'll see what lessons can be learned from people from other countries who have worked alongside Americans both in the United States and in their own country.  These observations were gathered over many years while I worked as a cross-cultural consultant to American, European, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern companies and organizations.  Much of the time my work consisted of facilitating better communication between multicultural team members in technology companies, and in the process of the work we did together many frank discussions developed between American team members and their foreign counterparts in which individuals and groups expressed the difficulties they were having in communicating effectively and their perception of the origin of these difficulties.  These sessions were rarely “blame games”; rather they were sincere attempts on the part of everyone involved to understand why people of good will seemed to go astray so frequently in the context of multicultural teamwork. Another component of my cross-cultural consulting work was helping American company management plan strategic initiatives involving multinational partners.  I found that very often the frustrations encountered by American managers were grounded in their inability to understand the importance of personal relationships in business to their foreign counterparts.  Again, the issue of effective communications lies at the core of most such frustration. Finally, in some of my work the client was a foreign company doing business with an American partner and wanting to remove perceived obstacles to effective business communications, planning, integration of operations, staffing, and other areas of business where interpersonal relationships have many subtle influences that Americans, by virtue of their cultural inclinations, seem to have difficulty appreciating and practicing. With these observations as a background, let me present some of the sincere criticisms and helpful suggestions that I heard offered many times by people from other countries doing business with Americans.

Most cultures display some degree of internal inconsistency, and Australians are no exception. Australians are both prudent and rash. Despite the national fixation with gambling, Australians have a high rate of personal savings. But while they save, there are relatively few "investors" and most put savings in savings banks with low rates of return. They have a high rate of home ownership and a wanderlust that finds Australians around every bend of the trail in the world.  They are prone to live for the day but most have life insurance. They make good-natured fun of subjects that in America are approached with great seriousness like death, accidents, religion and anything deemed even a little pompous. And as we shall see with “Waltzing Matilda”, Australian humor mixes the grim into the playful. They admire the “bush” ethos, but choose overwhelmingly to live in cities. They have disdain for those in authority, but have laws to protect officials from defamation which are much more restrictive than in America. The Australian attitude toward authority is ambivalent. While depending on the government to provide for many needs, Australians are simultaneously skeptical of authority figures and don't trust the government. The ambivalence about authority figures in relations between Australians and the English, and latterly the Americans. “Poms”, a name of disputed origin for the English, have long been derided as effete, decadent and even treacherous. This is not surprising in a country with a population of that England’s outcasts and Irish political prisoners. On the other hand, for years, the middle and upper classes emulated all things English, often disdaining Australian ways. This is known now as the “cultural cringe.”