On Monday (Listening) I posted the site of 6 Billion Others. One of the intriguing topics on that site was on nature, and what it means to these different individuals from various parts of the world. Then yesterday in the New York Times, I was struck by an article on Koreans who write Japanese poetry, in spite of the disapproval of their compatriots because of the political history between the two countries. It should not be forgotten that conflicts between cultures are often about power difference rather than cultural difference.

Nevertheless some of these Korean poets and their Japanese colleagues who write with them uncovered interesting and meaningful cultural differences between Korean and Japanese perceptions about nature, about beauty, and about emotion.

An excerpt from Japanese Poetry Persists in Korea, Despite Disapproval

Reiko Yamaguchi, a Japanese hotel manager and another club member, said writing haiku with Koreans had enhanced cultural understanding.

“Japanese and Koreans have different ways of perceiving nature,” she said. “Japanese tend to find maximum beauty when they see cherry flowers falling. Koreans’ hearts exult when the flowers are in full blossom.”

Mr. Rhee agreed: “It’s the same moon. But in haiku, Koreans sing the moon with our heart. To Japanese, our haiku may sound too subjective and hard to understand. Japanese sing the moon with their eye. They prefer realism. Koreans may find their haiku bare and superficial.”

Perhaps poets are especially equipped to appreciate such cultural differences in perception.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research
AFS International

Listening

A colleague recently led me to this beautiful site called 6 Billion Others. Yann Arthus-Bertrand created this project of hundreds of testimonials from individuals all over the world on topics like fear, tears, joy, family, nature, and more. In his own testimonial about the project, he tells of being stranded for 24 hours in a small village where, through his conversations with one man from the villagers, he came away realizing that he had something profound to learn from the experience and outlook of every other person on earth. You can select a photo or a topic and see several people from different parts of the world present their views on this topic. While you hear the person speak, his or her words are also provided as English text.

While each of these testimonies presents an individual's experience and point of view, each also has a cultural context that is often identifiable, and that influences how that person thinks, what each values, and how each presents himself or herself. If you think again of the Five Frameworks of Culture, you can look for the differences in language use, non-verbal behavior, communication style, patterns of thinking (cognitive style), values and assumptions.

AFS Research News

This is a busy time for AFS research. We are finalizing our first report on our 15-country, Long-Term Impact Study. We expect to post this report on our web site sometime in April. If you would like to receive an email notice when it becomes available, please join the AFS research community for our Research Network newsletters.

In the meantime, much of my own time this week will be spent working on a fundraising proposal for research we hope to begin in 2009, and preparing for the Educational Colloquium next month in Paris: See our announcement in the Event Calendar.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International

Welcome back to Leo Hitchcock, Guest Blogger from New Zealand.

M-time vs. P-time

Something very odd seems to be happening to me!  Every time think to myself ‘it’s about time I contributed to Intercultural Eyes again’, I look in here to find Betsy has recently written something (Saving Time, March 10 – I am a bit slow!) that coincides with something I’ve just been reading about!  Do we have some ESP going on Betsy? 

I’m currently reading Edward T. Hall’s (1981), Beyond Culture.  Other writers claim that Hall was the first person to use the term ‘intercultural communication’ (in The Silent Language, 1959).  However I think our founder, Stephen Galatti probably beat him to that!, so let’s just say that Hall was the first to introduce the term into scholarly literature.  But, I’m getting off the point…

Hall discusses cultural differences relating to the perception of time.  When I read Betsy’s comments about her brief meetings with special friends while travelling on the train, however train schedules prevented their spending quality time together, Hall’s discussion immediately came back into my mind.  Reverse incidents regarding cultural perceptions of time came to my mind too as I was reading Hall!

Halls calls this monochronic time ('M-time' - everything according to a fixed, linear time schedule) and polychronic time ('P-time' - do things as they naturally occur, or ‘when it feels right’, even though you may be doing many things at once!).  (I don’t like 'monochronic/polychronic', I prefer 'monochronological' time and 'polychronological' time. Bigger words and not ‘chronic’ J.)

Hall explains it like this:  M-time is characterised by scheduling, by doing one task at a time.  Everything is time-dominated, with time so thoroughly woven into the fabric of existence that we are hardly aware of the degree to which it does dominate.  It affects relationships (as Betsy found out), and denies us context.  It permits only a limited number of events in a given time span with important things done first and ‘unimportant’ things done last - or not at all if time runs out!  P-time, on the other hand, is characterised by several things happening at once.  It stresses the involvement of people and complete completion of tasks rather then strict adherence to schedules. In P-time markets and stores, one is surrounded by other customers demanding attention, with no order to who is served next.  The same pattern occurs in governmental agencies, even hospital emergency rooms.

I think this is a very important concept for exchange students about to live and study in a new culture to understand, as it can be a source of frustration, and resistance to cultural adaptation.  When my partner and I travelled in Latin America several years ago, it was probably our first introduction to having to adapt to P-time.  We were not so much ‘frustrated’ or felt ‘resistance’ but we very soon understood that things will happen as they naturally occur, not according to some pre-fixed time on the clock face, so we just decided to ‘go with the flow’.  New Zealand’s indigenous culture, as well as the Pasifika (Pacific Islands) cultures (plural!) are also polychronological, so while it was new to us to experience it first hand, we were not totally unaware of what was happening.  My partner has recently returned from Spain where she attended the wedding of an AFS student we had with us a number of years ago (I couldn’t go - am I jealous or what!).  She commented about some of the TV programs there showing all the ad’s (like 30-odd!) at the end of the program rather than interspersed through the program.  This is an example of P-time.  Hall also mentions this example in his book.

Betsy highlights one of the problems with M-time.  I have a problem with my P-time-oriented Uni students – getting to class at the scheduled time! (Mind you, this problem is not restricted just to P-timers!)

Positive Feelings for Other Cultures

My niece is in love with Ireland: the music, the linen, the pubs, Riverdance, the green hills and quaint houses and even the climate I think. She's given both her children Irish sounding names that, in the USA work reasonably well with the Dutch last name her husband brought to the family.

Allophilia is the name given by Harvard University professor Todd L. Pittinsky for the development of positive feelings toward another culture. He sees this as a necessary approach to overcoming conflict between cultures, preferable to the more "neutral" tolerance that he has observed. You can download his paper on Allophilia and Intergroup Leadership.

Pittinsky mentions the problems for the leaders where such conflict exists, and suggests that the leaders might want to emphasis commonalities as an interim step towards a strategy of allophilia. Milton Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity proposes that the "Minimizaton" of cultural differences is a necessary step toward acceptance and adaptation. Most of our exchange program participants and alumni are likely to focus on the similarities between cultures rather than the differences.

From the research on the AFS students from 2002 by Mitchell Hammer (you can down load the "Educational Results" study reports from Hammer's study here) and our newer research that surveyed our alumni from 1980-86, we learned that many of our students and alumni are already in love with their host countries. This may have all the benefits of Pittinsky's allophilia, but we also see that for some, this comes with a sufficiently negative and cynical view of their own culture compared with other cultures that one wonders if they can be an effective bridge between the cultures, regardless of how happy they are to feel included in the other culture.

I can recall how some 25 or 30 or so years ago I felt the burden of anti-Americanism stemming from a number of US foreign policies and action that were not so appreciated in other countries. When traveling to Europe, I hoped not to be recognized as American, as I thought my own culture would get in the way of my being accepted. I tried to look European, to "pass" in another culture. In the course of these travels I also met with friends who of course knew my nationality. I cannot even remember which president I was apologizing for to my French friends but I do remember the gist of their reply: "Don't worry about it," they assured me. "Our president is just as idiotic as yours. It can't be helped." It can be enormously freeing to recognize that human failings exist in all cultures.

While my niece's love of Ireland is easily accepted by her American friends, this would not be true if the two cultures were in conflict. One simply cannot fathom a Palestinian man who is in love with Jewish traditions, who gives his sons Hebrew names because he thinks they sound charming. Should such a person exist, it's hard to see how he could be a leader in the quest for peace between these two cultures. What credibility could he have with his own cultural group? How could he encourage others to see things his way?

On St. Patrick's Day, anyone can be Irish, but many of us in the USA can trace our roots to some Irish immigrants. Years ago I also went to Ireland for a SIETAR conference and found it quite moving to see the ruins of small stone cottages of the many, many Irish who left that country, more than decimating its population at the time of the potato famine. The historical accounts of the potato famine and the Irish emigration have obvious parallels with the desperate and forced migrations of people around the world today who risk their lives and give everything they have in hopes of basic survival, but information like this doesn't help me imagine the experience from the eyes of the Irish in the middle of the 19th century. What helps is to reflect on the unique history, culture, and beliefs about the world that surrounded this experience. It is the stories that bring another person's experience alive.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International

Saving Time

This weekend I lost an hour. At least this is how I think of it. In the United States, most of us shifted the time on our clocks one hour forward for daylight savings time. So it seemed appropriate to address this issue to cultural concepts of time, including daylight savings time. What time are we trying to save? and for what?

Recently while riding the subway home from work, I happened to see a friend of mine, a person I have known for years, a person I truly care about. And yet, because he was getting off the train and I was getting on, we barely had time to greet each other, to smile and say "good to see you." Neither of us seemed to think that this unexpected meeting should cause us to miss our next train, to be late getting home to our partners, or to change what we had planned.

Some years ago, I also happened to meet a friend on the train, traveling in my direction to work -- again, someone I hadn't seen for a while. We spoke briefly for a few minutes, then she apologized, "You'll have to excuse me. I always read the paper on the train, and I need this time alone with my newspaper." I also had a newspaper in my briefcase, so after this, we continued to ride together, separately reading the same newspaper, only to say "good bye" to each other when one of us left the train.

These scenes on the train would be quite different had I run into my Iranian friend. Suddenly the priorities shift, practically automatically. What good luck that we would have, to run into each other just by chance! Best to take advantage of it, to catch up on our news, to understand how each of us is, to wish each other well. And because of this unexpected opportunity, I'd quickly let the train go on without me, knowing that there will be another in 10 minutes or less. And I would certainly leave my newspaper in my briefcase. But I still would not shift my schedule enough to, say leave the station to stop for a coffee. I have my other plans and commitments that I must keep, and being "on time" is part of that. On the other hand, my Iranian friend, who is easily "on time" for a morning run in the park on Saturday morning, places his priority more on these chance encounters and events which mean that the day's planned schedule is less and less close to reality as the day wears on. When I've invited him to dinner parties, he has seldom arrived within the first two hours. But he always comes.

Where do we learn to be prompt?

Lessons from childhood can be quite powerful. My very prompt husband remembers that his father kicked his bed every morning to make sure he got up in time and ready for school. Such a message could not be ignored. My daughter may remember the games we played to get her up and ready and "on time" for school. 

My own father was not always so prompt. He frequently got involved deeply in his work and would call home to say that he'd "lost track of time" and though he would be leaving now, he was going to be late for dinner. I would be sitting at the window, watching with my mother for my father's car to come home. Dinner was supposed to be ready when he got home, and usually it was keeping warm, or "getting ruined" because he was late.

The idea that "people are waiting for you" is strong and is part of the social commitment that many of us in the USA grew up with. This, of course, is the kind of commitment that pulls me to be prompt now. Like my father, I sometimes do get involved in my work. A project I begin at 4:30 almost never ends at 5:00 when it is time to go home. I like to get the project finished before I leave. So I am not always prompt either. My husband is almost always home from work first, and starts the dinner. Like I remember with my mother, I have seen him watching for me from the window sometimes as I come home. The salads may be already made, waiting for me. He is waiting for me. The evening is short, always and it is this "expected" opportunity that calls me much more strongly than the unplanned opportunity of a chance encounter.

I'm not sure that the "future" orientation I've described will continue to be characteristic of U.S. culture, at least at the social and personal level. The near universal use of cell phones, text messages and "twitters" may be changing how and whether "people are waiting for you" in our society, especially among the young and single. My suspicion is that the USA is, with the advent of instant communication, becoming less tied to our planned schedules and more open to last minute invitations and chance encounters in our social lives, though perhaps while still demanding rapid service in business and consumer areas. I'd like to hear more about how technology may be changing other cultures as well.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International

East is West

When I lived briefly in India and watched the nightly Doordarshan news broadcasts on television, I was baffled for a while about the West Asian peace conferences that were going on at the time. What was going on in West Asia? I wondered. I don't remember when it dawned on me that what I had always known as the "Middle East" was, in fact, West Asia. How perfectly sensible that in India, where Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon are most closely to the West, the region is given a more geographically accurate description! And since I supposed that the world had agreed somehow that the line separating Europe and Asia that runs through the Red Sea and the Bosphorous and then runs up somewhere along the ridges of the Urals mountains, I thought I should start a campaign to rename the "Middle East" -- a vestige, I supposed, of the British Empire's renaming of the world -- to the more technically correct "West Asia."
 
But now I see two problems with this:

#1 Other than the substantially large number of Indians who would already understand, within my own cultural context in the USA, most people would not immediately connect the familiar problems and debates about the Middle East with any discussion about West Asia. (See What is an Entrée? below.)

#2 I'm no longer sure that there is any worldwide agreement on the definition of continents.

How Many Continents does Earth Have?

When AFS Switzerland hosted our World Congress in 1996, our organization there created a lovely logo for the Congress, to be used on the folders, T-shirts, banners and so on. The logo included a circular shape encompassing five colors: one for each continent.

Five continents? I was taught there are seven! It seems that the Swiss put North and South America together as "America" while in North America, we separate them into two continents, and we count Antarctica as a continent as well, though we don't expect to start exchange programs there any time soon.

What is Western?

Lately I have been twice surprised by Belgians who were preparing research projects that included the view that South America is "non-Western." Even though I have been taught that it is a separate continent, I have also been taught that it is in the Western Hemisphere, and with the history of the Americas colonized largely by England, Spain, Portugal, France, and even the Netherlands, there is certainly a strong European influence all over our one or two continents.

These same Belgians were also surprised by my remarks that, as I felt my own US culture might lie in between Europe and South America on some dimensions. They had been certain that the US culture was clearly closer to Europe than it was to the "non-Western" cultures of South America.

I remember a discussion I had with a Mexican woman living in Belgium, who found her European surroundings very unfamiliar. However, stopping over in the USA on her way home, she told me she felt "halfway home" culturally in the USA. I understood her completely. The adjustments I make in my trips to Europe are quite different from those I make in Latin America. Or, I might say, I am misunderstood very differently in Europe than I am in South America.

What is an Entrée?

I give this example just to show how impossible it is to change established language use, even to "correct" it.

Anyone who knows French will recognize that "entrée" would be an entrance, a beginning, or what the British would call a "starter" on a menu at a restaurant. Why is this not true in the United States?

I have often wondered who was that very influential restaurant owner in the USA who wanted to give his restaurant more elegance, or to connect his cuisine (also a French word, of course) a French flavor? Whoever he was who first labeled the main course "Entrée" has forever changed the meaning of the word in the United States. Today, even a truly French restaurant in the USA would have to think twice about labeling the appetizer as "Entrée" because virtually all the customers will be expecting it to be the main course.

As we say in the United States: Some food for thought.

Bettina Hansel

Director of Intercultural Education and Research

AFS International