Friday, October 23, 2009

Cultural Misunderstandings

Learning the language but not the culture of a particular country or area can lead to great misunderstandings. In particular, I have seen many cases in which stereoptyes---often negative mental images of another people---have led to great misunderstandings. Often, people think that their way---raising a families, eating, dating---is the best, or even, the only right way, and when something new comes along, they quickly reject other ideas.

Can you think of a time when you experienced misunderstandings dealing with culture? Share your ideas.

Randall

1 comment:

  1. Hi Randall and everyone,

    I have experienced an awkward situation once because of the image people from different countries/cultures have of Brazilians. Brazilians are commonly known for being friendly and "tactile" people (always hugging and kissing others). This is not true whatsoever! :-) I myself do not like hugging people and/or kissing them all the time. A friend of mine (John) from the UK once came to Brazil and the first thing he did when he saw me was to hug and kiss me (on the cheek -of course!! :-)) . That's not at all usual here specially between two men! LOL

    What about you? Have you ever experienced any misunderstadings dealing with people from other cultures?
    Best,
    Bruno
    Brazil

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for posting a comment. I appreciate your interesting in sharing your ideas.

Best,

Randall

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