Cross-cultural communication  (Page 2/2)

Contributions to world civilization

• You've probably seen Star Wars, ET, Home Alone, Casablanca, and Snow White. If you're under forty, add Blazing Saddles,Terminator, Jaws, and 2001; otherwise, add Gone with the Wind, A Night at the Opera, Psycho, and Citizen Kane.
• You know the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Simon&Garfunkel.
• You count on excellent medical treatment. You know you're not going to die of cholera or other Third World diseases. You expectvery strong measures to be taken to save very ill babies or people in their eighties. You think dying at 65 would be a tragedy.
• Your country has never been conquered by a foreign nation.
• You're used to a wide variety of choices for almost anything you buy.
• You still measure things in feet, pounds, and gallons.
• You are not a farmer.
• The people who appear on the most popular talk shows are mostly entertainers, politicians, or rather strange individuals.Certainly not, say, authors.
• You drive on the right side of the road. You stop at red lights even if nobody's around. If you're a pedestrian and cars arestopped at a red light, you will fearlessly cross the street in front of them.
• You think of Canada as a pleasant, peaceful, but rather dull country.
• You consider the Volkswagen Beetle to be a small car.
• The police are armed, but not with submachine guns.
• If a woman is plumper than the average, it doesn't improve her looks.
• The biggest meal of the day is in the evening.
• There's parts of the city you definitely want to avoid at night.

• You feel that your kind of people aren't being listened to enough in Washington.
• You wouldn't expect both inflation and unemployment to be very high (say, over 15%) at the same time.
• You don't care very much what family someone comes from.
• The normal thing, when a couple dies, is for their estate to be divided equally among their children.
• You think of opera and ballet as rather elite entertainments. It's likely you don't see that many plays, either.
• Christmas is in the winter. You spend it with your family, give presents, and putup a tree.
• You may think the church is too powerful, or the state is; but you are used to not having a state church and don't think thatit would be a good idea.
• You'd be hard pressed to name the capitals or the leaders of all the nations of Europe.
• Taxis are generally operated by foreigners, who are often ignorant about the city.
• You are distrustful of welfare and unemployment payments-- you think people should earn a living and not take handouts. Butyou would not be in favor of eliminating Social Security and Medicare.
• If you want to be a doctor, you need to get a bachelor's first.
• There sure are a lot of lawyers.

Space and time

• If you have an appointment, you'll mutter an excuse if you're five minutes late, and apologize profusely if it's ten minutes. Anhour late is almost inexcusable.
• If you're talking to someone, you get uncomfortable if they approach closer than about two feet.
• About the only things you expect to bargain for are houses, cars, and antiques.
• Once you're past college, you very rarely simply show up at someone's place. People have to invite each other over-- especiallyif a meal is involved.
• When you negotiate, you are polite, of course, but it's only good business to 'play hardball'. Some foreigners pay excessiveattention to status, or don't say what they mean, and that's exasperating.
• If you have a business appointment or interview with someone, you expect to have that person to yourself, and the businessshouldn't take more than an hour or so.