This week we will discuss three short videos that help us understand the field o

Question

This week we will discuss three short videos that help us understand the field of intercultural relations and competence.Share your thoughts and respond to each of the three videos. Which one did you like best and why? How did they contribute to your understanding of different cultures?

Cultural Differences http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT0kzF4A-WQ&feature=related

Culture and Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bICOV3Lug

Low and High Context Cultures http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIUilYX56E

Explanation / Answer

Personally, I found the video describing the differences between low context and high context vultures the most interesting. This was a concept that I had previously heard of, but could never fully comprehend. With the support of the video, however, I was able to gather how cultures vary based on the explicitness of the messages exchanged are and the meaning of the context in certain situations. High-context cultures are those in which the rules of communication are primarily transmitted through the use of contextual elements and are not explicitly stated. This is in direct contrast to low-context cultures, in which information is communicated primarily through language and rules are explicitly spelled out.

I was also able to gather that attitudes to time may differ between different cultures in often quite significant ways. For example, being late for an appointment, or taking a long time to get down to business, is the accepted norm in most Mediterranean and Arab countries, as well as in much of less-developed Asia. Such habits, though, would be anathema in punctuality-conscious USA, Japan, England, Switzerland, etc.

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