Cultural Awareness

 

Effective Interaction with other cultures requires

- a good understanding of your own and the other culture, 

- reflecting the different preferences in communication and behaviour. 

- knowledge and experience how to bridge the differences through interaction and case studies 

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Cultural Differences

In all areas of modern life, we are dealing with people with a different background.

The mix is expected to keep increasing due to global demographics, political and economic development worldwide. At school, in shops, in businesses and in entertainment, we interact with people that have different values, different communication patterns - and if we don't understand that, we often judge too quickly. 

 

All groups of people have to deal with these basic dilemmas:

• Equality vs Hierarchy,

• Individualism vs Collectivism,

• Competition vs Consensus,

• Structure vs Spontaneity,

• Pragmatic vs Normative Approach, 

• Indulgence vs Restraint.

 

Communities have developed different solutions for these dilemmas. They represent the basic values in this community and are passed on from generation to generation. These sets of values are generally alike for the people of one country, but different from the people of another country.

So each country has a different cultural profile that explains the preferences, reactions, and communication practices of this community.