Thank you devi
by : me hadi
Short Paper
Cross Cultural Awareness
Submitted
to complete one of the excercises cross culture understanding subject
TEACHER
TRAINING AND EDUCIONAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
OF GALUH
CIAMIS
2013/2014
PREFACE
Thanks alhamdulillah writer climbs to presence Allah SWT.
because to what overflows taufik and its the hidayah that writer can finalize CROSS CULTURE
UNDERSTANDING in time. Peace
and salutation always be given to our prophet Muhammad SAW, the last messanger
of God who has guided us from the
darkness to the brightness, from the stupidity to the cleverness, namely Islam.
Many thanked
writer says to all of the people who has helped wrtiter in arranging this short
paper, specially to the Cross Culture Understanding lecturer who has given many helping to the writer.
With all of the respectable
writer hopes some suggestions or critics from the reader which can be
increasing be better to this short paper.
Ciamis,
22th April 2014
Writer
TABEL
OF CONTENT
Preface
.............................................................................................................
Table of Content
..............................................................................................
Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Background
...............................................................................................
1.2 Paper question
............................................................................................
1.3 Purpose of study
..........................................................................................
Chapter II Content
2.1
Theconcept of cross culture
awareness
...................................................
2.2 The important of cross culture awareness ……………………………….
Chapter III
3.1
Conclution
...................................................................................................
REFERENCES
..................................................................................................
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
Cultural
Awareness is the foundation of communication and it involves the ability of
standing back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs
and perceptions. Why do we do things in that way? How do we see the world? Why
do we react in that particular way?
Cultural awareness becomes central when
we have to interact with people from other cultures. People see, interpret and
evaluate things in a different ways. What is considered an appropriate behavior in one
culture is frequently inappropriate in another one. Misunderstandings arise
when I use my meanings to make sense of your reality.
As an Italian it is almost automatic to
perceive US Americans as people who always work, talk about business over lunch
and drink their coffee running in the street instead of enjoying it in a bar.
What does it mean? Italians are lazy and American hyperactive? No, it means
that the meaning that people give to certain activities, like having lunch or
dinner could be different according to certain cultures. In Italy, where
relationships are highly valued, lunch, dinner or the simple pauses for coffee
have a social connotation: people get together to talk and relax, and to get to
know each other better. In the USA, where time is money, lunches can be part of
closing a deal where people discuss the outcomes and sign a contract over
coffee.
Becoming aware of our cultural dynamics
is a difficult task because culture is not conscious to us. Since we are born
we have learned to see and do things at an unconscious level. Our experiences,
our values and our cultural background lead us to see and do things in a certain
way. Sometimes we have to step outside of our cultural boundaries in order to
realize the impact that our culture has on our behavior. It is very helpful to
gather feedback from foreign colleagues
on our behavior to get more clarity on our cultural traits.
1.2
Formula of the
Problem
1.
What are the concept of cross cultural awareness?
2.
Is cross cultural awareness important?
1.3
Purpose
Based on the above formulation of
the problem , this paper aims to :
1.
Knowing the important of Is cross cultural awareness.
2.
Knowing the concept of
cross cultural awareness.
CHAPTER I1
CONTENT
2.1
THE
CONCEPT
OF
CROSS-CULTURAL
AWARENESS TERMS
AND
DEFINITIONS
The
terms “war”, “conflict” and “cultural
knowledge” have long been interlinked. No single military
leader has ever started a military campaign or battle without having minimal knowledge
about his adversary or the population in the area of
operations.
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (V c. B.C), the first Western historian, narrates the engagements between Persians
and Greeks highlighting the history
and customs of both parties.
Another
remarkable example emphasizing the
need to have a thorough knowledge about the adversary and the environment (including the human
environment) can be found in Lawrence of Arabia’s The Seven
Pillars of Wisdom, which is an autobiographical
narrative of the guerrilla campaign
waged by the Arab forces under his
command against the Turks during the
First World War, that includes details of his daily life as well as a complete
attention to the local environment besides
narrating his war experiences. Lawrence recounts
Arabic people’s customs,
history, perceptions,
attitudes, feelings, etc, which
altogether form a brilliant reference
framework to know that people
Knowing the enemy, the adversary, the opponent or the population of the area of operations is a military
principle which sometimes is neglected. That has had a very negative impact upon our
actions.5
In
order to operate effectively among a
local population to gain and maintain
its support, it is important
to develop a thorough understanding of the society
and its culture, including
its history,
tribal/family/social structure, values,
religions, customs, and needs.
A.
Definition of the
culture
There exists a vast array of definitions for this term. According
the Merriam Webster Dictionary,culture is:
a.
the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief,
and behavior that depends upon the capacity for
learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations;
b.
the characteristic features of everyday existence shared
by people in a
place or time;
c.
the set of values,
conventions, or
social practices associated
with a particular field, activity, or societal
characteristic; and
d.
the customary
beliefs,
social
forms,
and
material
traits
of
a
racial,
religious, or social group.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica accounted
for the first definition of the term. It was
elaborated by anthropologist Edward
Burnett Tylor and
is defined as follows:
a.
Culture taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex
whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired
by man as a member of society.
All the previous
definitions are appropriate
and
complementary.
For
our
purposes, the following definition has been proposed:
a.
Culture is the shared concepts
that guide what people believe,
how they behave and how this behaviour is interpreted.
B. Concept of cross-cultural
awareness
The term “awareness” is defined
as the ability of human beings to gain self-
knowledge about personal core traits and about the changes experienced. It is a mental and
psychological activity that
only human beings can perform leading
to a perception of the self in the outer world.
The terms
of “culture” and “cultural awareness” are very different from each other. Once
the
implications
and
characteristics
of
the
term
“Culture”
are assimilated, being aware
of our own culture facilitates our understanding of other
cultures and make us be able to contrast them.
Cultural Awareness
is the ability to become aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions without focusing
on the self.
It is, also, the basic knowledge of cultural issues,
the comprehension of their
importance and impact.
For a better understanding of the concept of cultural awareness,
we should ask ourselves, in order to be aware of my own culture:
a.
What are our values,
beliefs and perceptions?
b.
Why do I have these values,
beliefs and perceptions and not different ones?
c.
Am I aware of the
peculiarities and limits of my
culture?
d.
Do I know what distinctive features
make my culture different
from other cultures?
e.
Why do we do things in that way?
f.
Why do we react in that particular way?
C.
Cross-Cultural Awareness
Once
awareness about our culture has been gained, a similar study should be carried
out about the culture of the host nation and of the contributing nations. It involves an analysis to know
the values and behavioral
patterns of several parties: the host nation,
coalition members
and other stakeholders.
It also implies efforts to make our own culture
(values, beliefs, norms, etc.) known to them.
The aim
is not to counter good and evil in both cultures, but to be aware of the
distinctive features. The foreign culture is not evaluated, nor is
one of them proclaimed to be superior. The main idea of cross-cultural awareness is being able to tell the similarities and differences between
the different cultures
related to our own culture, without being biased by the last one; or at least being aware of how our own culture may influence the knowledge of others.
Cross Cultural Awareness becomes central
when we
have to interact
with people from other
cultures. People see, interpret and
evaluate things in different ways. What is considered an appropriate behavior in one culture might be inappropriate in another one.
Misunderstandings arise when I use my meanings
to make sense of your reality.
It has
to be said that, in fact, all cultural knowledge, to be fruitful and objective,
must be a real “cross-cultural knowledge”. In this sense, we should not only
talk about “cross-cultural awareness”, but also, when describing later “cultural understanding” and “cultural competence” as superior levels of cultural
knowledge, we should be aware that what we really mean is “cross-cultural understanding” and “cross-cultural competence”. However, it will suffice
with this note declaring explicitly
that all levels of cultural knowledge should be, by definition, “cross-cultural” levels.”
2.2
Is
cross culture important?
Cultural awareness implies to being open to the
idea of changing cultural attitudes. It is important as a way to help members
of a multicultural team identify where things may be going wrong to best leverage
their differences. Without some sort of formal cross cultural awareness
training it is difficult for multicultural teams to identify areas that need
attention.
CHAPTER III
CLOSING
National culture has always been a complex and
difficult construct to define. All cultures are more nuanced than we might ever
imagine. In today’s globalizing world where cultures increasingly connect and
collide, the art of finding distinctive or even unique characteristics of any
national culture is becoming harder. Greater access to knowledge, data and
multiple opinions adds complexity rather than simplifies our ability to capture
and distil the essence of a nations’ culture accurately.
So how does this impact on the challenges of
preparing managers for working internationally, where cultural awareness is
often cited as being ‘the critical ingredient for success?’
The truth is it’s not always essential for
success. Indeed information on customer preferences, organizational talent,
local laws rules and regulations and organizational performance may have much
more of a positive impact on a manager’s performance than acutely tuned
cultural insight. But this is far from being true in all cases.
REFERENCES
Hofstede, Gert (1991). Cultures
and organisations. London: Profile Books.
Sardar, Ziauddin (2004) Introduction to Cultural Studies, London: Icon
Books
Tomalin, Barry & Stempleski, Susan. (1993) Cultural awareness. Oxford: OUP.
Lisa Castellanos, “Hispanic/Latina Women:
Cultural Norms and Prevention,” Project Director, Alberto Puertas, 1986, Florida Alcohol
and Drug Abuse Association, available from http://www.fadaa.org/services/resource_center/resources/JTF/hispanic.asp; Internet; accessed, 8 march 2007.
Colonel
Susan A Browning, Understanding Non-Western Cultures:
A Strategic
Intelligence Perspective,
Strategy Research Project, (Carlisle Barracks: U.S. Army War College,
9 April 1997), 8.
Shiraev, Eric B., Levy,
David. (2010) Cros-Cultural Psychology. Allyn & Bacon, Sue, Derald Wing.,
Sue David. (1990). Counseling the Culturally Different: Theory & Practice.
2nd edition. Wiley Interscience Publication, USA.
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