“We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help
people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own culture.”

Edward T Hall (Anthropologist)

There are many models that exist to describe the stages of emotions
and behaviours that one experiences during culture shock and the adaptation process. All of these models include periods of highs and lows, anticipation and resolution.  One model that describes the many ups and downs of culture shock is Rhinesmith’s Ten Stages of Adjustment.

Why is it that serious attempts at sharing knowledge across
cultures frequently end in frustration, disappointment and a sense of aggrievement on all sides?

The problem is that people from different cultures have fundamentally different beliefs about the proper roles of bosses and subordinates, teachers and students, and even about the nature of knowledge itself.

 I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Cindy King a cross-cultural marketing expert living in France.  As Twitter was our interview medium, I haved blogged our conversation for those who missed the ‘live’ performance. 

‘Tweets’ are limited to 120 characters per post, so sometimes it’s a challenge to articulate what you think in so few words!  In part one of the interview Cindy asked me about my background and this can be found on her site. Part two, as blogged below, is all about cross-cultural things.

What is Culture?

1. Culture is the heartware of a nation/race/culture; its soul and what makes it tick

2. Culture reflects widely shared assumptions and beliefs about life

3. Culture is so embedded that most people do not and cannot analyse it

4. Culture is what is ‘normal’ around here

5. Culture is learned from our superiors and role models

What is a nations culture? Many Governments and institutions around the world are engaged in a continual effort to preserve our heritage by restoring or maintaining ancient monuments and historic buildings. And, UNESCO’s programme aiming at the preservation and dissemination of valuable cultural heritages has been successful over the years in identifying and putting together some of the world’s most valuable archive holdings and library collections.

However, a nation’s cultural heritage often goes deeper than its physical ‘tangible’ manifestations. Each culture has its own ‘intangible cultural heritage’. But what is that?

According to UNESCO and the 2003 “Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage”, the intangible cultural heritage – or living heritage – is the mainspring of our cultural diversity and its maintenance a guarantee for continuing creativity.

The Convention states that the ICH is manifested, among others, in the following ways:

• Oral traditions and expressions including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;
• Performing arts (such as traditional music, dance and theatre);
• Social practices, rituals and festive events;
• Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe;
• Traditional craftsmanship.

Anthropologists and interculturalists alike will express the importance of story-telling in relation to the embodiment of a culture. It’s good to know that UNESCO aims to help us be more aware of the importance of our intangible assets.