Cultural Values (стр. 9 из 9)

- I learned that I should not feel inferior to other people because of being physically disabled.

- Being in the US I am conscious of being Russian and proud of it. I don't that I stand out in American culture and most Americans can't say I am from a different country unless I tell them, but somehow I always "feel" Russian and tell people I am from Russia with a sense of pride.

CONCLUSION

Let's sum up everything considered above.

Now there is a problem of misunderstanding among people of the different countries. This misunderstanding is shown owing to different attitudes to life, to business, to family, to fellow workers. Also because of ignorance of traditions, customs, etiquette of other countries.

Excellent knowledge of foreign language is not a guarantee of successful cooperation of firms or pleasant dialogue of people from different continents. To know language is only half-affair. The most important is to understand priorities of other people, to try to look at the world by their eyes.

If the country is more advanced in economic, political, social spheres, it gives more attention to studying other cultures for successful cooperation (for example, the USA, Japan).

It is important to note, that the closer cultures to each other, the fewer problems arise at their interaction. If cultures are opposite, then the essence of intercultural dialogue is reduced to understanding of different values.

For greater success in relations between the countries it is necessary to take into account all these features.

LITERATURE:

1. «Communication and Culture» / Alfred G. Smith // Hold, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., the United States of America,1966

2. «Crossing Cultural Borders - Russia» / Julie E. Zdanoski // Petrozavodsk, 2003

3. «Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension in the Language Classroom» / Louise Damen

4. «Culture Matters. How Values Shape Human Progress» / Lawrence E. Harrison, Samuel P. Huntington // Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, the United States of America, 2000

APPENDIX

A CULTURAL MODEL OF INTERACTION

When a person from a national society with hierarchical tendencies encounters a person from a society with egalitarian tendencies, and moreover when the country of the latter is generally "high" in the estimation of the former, the idealized paradigm as shown in Figure 1 would be approximated. In this diagram, X, the person from a country with egalitarian views, behaves toward Y, the person from a hierarchically oriented country, as if he occupied the same "level"; that is, in equalitarian terms.

Figure 1.

TABLE 1. SOME IMPLICIT CULTURAL ASSUMPTIONS

North American (USA)

Personal control of the environment

Change inevitable and desirable

Equality of opportunity

Individualism

Future orientation

Action orientation

Directness and openness

Practicality; pragmatic; rational

Problem-solving orientation

Cause-and-effect logic

Informality

Competition

DO-it-yourself approach to life

Contrast American

Nature dominating man

Unchanging; traditional

Class structure dominant; hierarchical Interdependence but individuality

Present or past orientation

Being orientation

Suggestive; consensus-seeking; group orientation

Feeling orientation; philosophical

Inactive; enduring; seeking help from others Knowing

Formality

Group progress

Intermediaries

TABLE 2 VALUE ASSUMPTIONS OF EAST AND WEST: JAPAN AND THE UNATED STATES

Values concerning

1. Nature and Culture vertically

(octopus pot)(draws in)

(outside/inside)

2. Interpersonal Relationships

Unated States

Heterogeneity; horizontal society guilt sasara (bamboo wisk)

Doing

Pusning

Omote predominates

Independence; I/you clash symmetrical relationships informality

Achieved status

Japan

Homogeneity; shame takotsubo

Being

Pulling

Omote/ura

We over I; amae complementary

Ascribed status