Communications across Cultures

Communication Across Cultures

One thing that is obviously different across cultures is language. Language is symbolic way of communicating to share you ideas, which is extremely important for the whole concept of culture in and of itself. Some cultures may have complex language system while some may have a simpler one. For example, as learned in my Cognitive Psychology class in english language we have over hundreds of different words for the different colors of the world. For example we have the words blue, red, yellow, green, purple, black, brown, indigo, white, grey, silver, and all the different shades in between. While we have many words for all the possible colors out there, the people of New Guinea only have two words for the different colors. The two words are "Mola" and "Mili". These two words take the place of our hundreds of words by simply grouping the colors together by characteristics. "Mola" means bright, and "Mili" means dark & cool. So, while they do not have words for red, blue or yellow, they can describe these colors and communicate about them with the term "Mola". Although there are many different languages out there and all  following their own grammatical structure with different meanings, they all follow the same sole purpose, and that is to communicate ideas and transfer culture among people. Without language there would be no culture!

The Influences of Culture

I have a niece and nephew who are now 9 and 8 years old, so for the past few years I ave been seeing lots of different changes among themselves as they grow and enter their teenage years. Their personalities are changing so much! Its interesting to watch the whole process and think about how they become who they are. Although a lot of it seems to be how they are raised by their parents, their personalities and their interests defiantly are inspired by the media they see around them, what their peers are doing, which is ultimately what their culture brings to them. Our culture is heavily influenced by media. For example, my niece wanted this very particular toy, and she HAD to have it. She started collecting things that were all revolved around this idea, you may have heard of it, the famous Grumpy Cat. She wanted a shirt,a teddy,a calendar, I found her googling images of it, she was simply obsessed with it, and at 9 years old too! I asked her where she heard of this "Grumpy Cat" and she said she seen it on TV and that her friends are always talking about it. Her culture, and the environment that she is surrounded by (in this case the media and her peers) influenced her to become obsessed with this cat icon. This is just an small example to show that ones culture can help influences and create ones identity. For example, hypothetically there could be too people that are sisters and both being raised by the same parents and living under the same roof, yet they grow up to be complete polar opposites.  What could cause this may be the specific culture that these sisters belong to. For instance one sister might hang out with people who are into drugs and take part in rebellious acts, while the second sister may hang out with people who are all about horseback riding and farm animals. The environments that these sisters belong too are completely different and what they are interacting with is influencing their personalities. Although this example show how culture on micro level can impact your beliefs, it is synominous at a macro level, meaning that in the big picture culture can impact you. For example, at a macro level the culture you belong to may suggest that killing is wrong, thus you believe that killing is wrong and do not take part in that behaviour. Culture is constantly shaping us! 

Growing Old

Two weeks ago my brother and his wife gave birth to a baby girl, and my parents became grandparents for the 4th time. During that week I saw a lot of spoiling to their grandkids with giving them gifts, candies, and toys. My parents are so easy going with them and there is a lot of things that the grandkids can get away with(lets just say stuff they would never be able to do if their parents were around) This is what it means to them to be a grandparent, and most likely how I will treat my future grandkids. This idea of being a grandparent can change between cultures. In some cultures it may mean being more obedient to the grandkids, as compared to the way they were with their own children. Gardiner, in Lives Across Cultures, illustrates that as one becomes a grandparent in Japan they are to be treated with honour and repeated, even to the point where they wear the color red to show their 'status of honor' as being a grandparent. When I was home the other weekend I was visiting my grandmother at a elder residence where she lives. It got me thinking of how this idea of senior homes came to be and how different cultures have different ideas and beliefs of how to care for the elder. Growing up, because I have been exposed to it and it became apart of my belief system it seems natural to admit a grandparent into a home. However, some people may take offence to that and think that my family isn’t caring my grandmother, or that it seems disrespectful. Again, as Gardiner illustrates in Japan the elder are to be cared for directly from their children, often the oldest married son. Although, it is mentioned that this trend is changing among the Japenese culture as more elders are being placed in facilities to be cared for by care takers. For a Japenese elder to be admitted into a nursing home they must meet certain criteria: have no living children near by, not be bed ridden, be willing to enter the home, and obtain local welfare. The difference seen by the Japenese and my Canadian culture on the care of elder can be explained by the Japanese being a more collectivist culture, while Canada seems to be more individualistic. Culture is constantly changing however, and as mentioned before that the oldest son to care for the parents trend is slowly changing, this suggests that the Japanese culture may be moving away from a collectivist culture. It's interesting to think of how much things can change and what will become of the next 50 years. 

Importance of Culture to Human Development

It is easily understood that the development of a child occurs due to biological factors. A persons genetic makeup results in how that person will development, for example, how tall they will be, their eye color, or even their personality and cognitive abilities. However, it is not just biological factors that determine a person’s overall development. For instance, research has shown that the brain is very plastic, meaning it can change, alter and rewire its networks in according to one’s unique experience. Culture can shape an individual’s thoughts and our brains can alter because of this. The mind is shaped by content and context. An example illustrated by Gardiner is that schizophrenia, a psychological disorder, can be seen in multiple cultures, but there is variability among cultures of that particular disorder. Therefore, something that seems to be biological such as the disorder of schizophrenia can be highly influenced by cultural factors. Everyone has their own unique experience which in part is influenced by culture, thus the development of the child is due to both biological forces and cultural realities.The study of human development has practical applications such as it can help us in the health field by having a better understanding of human’s behaviors, biological terms or even social aspects, or it can be important for history and evolution, or just for general knowledge. Basically, the need to study human development is extremely important and can provide foundations for many other fields out there. However, it is important to take a cultural approach to study human development. A cultural approach allows for people to deal with and understand the differences or similarities that are seen across people. Culture creates variability among people, thus we cannot generalize any theories of human development if we do not have the support to say that these theories are indeed universal. To support that a theory is universal or specific to one culture human development must take on a cultural approach. If we want to understand why some people are different from others we must look into the cultural influences that are acting upon individuals. If it were just all biological factors that is, pre-determined genetic makeup that determines a person develop then there would easily be universal theories, however that is not the case. Cultural and biological forces are interconnected and both play a tremendous role on human development.