Components and Representation

Yet again this week we were introduced to another aspect of communication that I would have never thought was given much thought or research. After this lecture I realized the importance of the "macro" look to communication and how cultural traits can influence communication.

Hofstede's model of cultural variability does a good job at using the proper dimensions to evaluate culture differences. In general, the results did not shock me as I had already had some idea where counties would place on the spectrum. I knew that Americans and Caucasians would place in the category of "low context cultures" and Orientals would place in the "high text cultures", but did not have expectations for Latin Americans, Greeks, Spanish and the French. (Not having any good friends in any of these cultures) Therefore this lecture helped show me the differences between the cultures that I am not very familiar with. It was very surprising to me to see the Latin Americans at the higher end of the continuum as I never knew that Latin Americans were homogeneous in their experiences and have not changed very much over time.

Through personal experience I can easily see why Americans are placed on the lower end of the spectrum. For example, I can come up with an instance where individualism is shown in the American culture. When students move onto university and college, the majority of them will look into schools that are away from home. (too far to commute) This is because most students want to get away from home to live by themselves and "party" without the rules of their parents.
I would say that moving away from home to go to university is more of the "in" thing to do as you get a lot more freedom. With my parents, moving away was primarily to help me to become more independent as a student, to help me "survive" out in the real world. This meant getting up for class on my own, doing my own laundry, cooking for myself, cleaning, paying bills etc.

Since there are so many different cultures it is quite amazing how they all communicate and get along with each other regardless of the many differences they have. I wonder if the trends that we see now will continue to exist of will they all eventually blend into one?