More thoughts from Cross-Cultural Managment

A topic I found both interesting and relevant was the importance of context in communication. In countries with low-context cultures, such as the U.S., what is said tends to be what is meant. Things are explained clearly and in detail. In high-context cultures, like China or France, more things are communicated through context instead of words, many things are left unsaid. In France, people tend to talk around a subject, instead of talking directly about something. The differences between classes in the U.S. and France provide a great example. In the U.S. teachers will hand you a syllabus that can be seven pages long, it will outline exactly what should be read for each class. In France, the syllabus tends to be a half-page sheet of paper that list two or three books. The teachers will never even mention the books or what should be read, it is just understood that the students should have the books read. My teacher made fun of her American students who always ask her "What font and size should I write my paper in, what should the spacing and margins be, what format should the bibliography be in?" According to her, Americans need every detail explained to a ridiculous extent and if they don't get every detail they will immediately ask questions. However in France and high-context cultures, asking questions is seen as rude and disrespectful. It implies that the person did a poor job of explaining things and gives the feeling that you are questioning what the person has said.

I think cultural differences like this explain a lot of negative interactions between Americans and the rest of the world. People naturally tend to think of things through their own cultural lens, especially Americans. While the Americans asked questions because they wanted to make sure they understood, the French saw these questions in a completely different way.

While tour books tell you the importance of saying hello, please, and thank you and speaking quietly on the metro, they never cover more intricate cultural differences. To move from a low-context culture to a high-context culture is incredibly difficult and certainly cannot be mastered in just a few weeks. While the importance of context in communication is just one aspect of culture, it shows the incredible number of differences that exist even between countries that appear relatively similar on the surface. I knew to expect a lot of differences, but no one can explain all of the intricate details of daily life in a foreign country. Americans come to France and go about things like they would at home in the U.S. It's not anything we can help, when you live a certain way for your entire life, you cannot just change who you are for a vacation to Europe. Meanwhile, Americans leave Paris thinking that everyone was rude, and Parisians are left here thinking how rude the American tourists were. While both groups are failing to adapt to different cultures, it is the job of the tourist to adapt because they have chosen to submerge themselves into a new culture. So instead of calling the Parisians rude after receiving the all to familiar Parisian "glare", you must realize that it is you who is strange for asking for ice, ketchup or a to-go box and it is you who is weird for thinking milk and eggs should be refrigerated.