Essay on cultural context

Question 1

Settings in which people operates are different and they are never neutral, thus settings where people are play a great role on behavior of the communication participants in the varied settings. Studies have revealed that communication is affected and influenced by the setting where people are, and this is based on three assumptions are communication as rule governed which will dictate ones conduct, the next is the settings which will determine an individual to know what regulations are in operation. The last assumption is that all the rules people use in the communication has been learnt depending on the settings and experience (Larry et al, 2009).
This is why every culture has got different view on management. In some cultures, depending with the context, the mode of greeting and the way people make the business appointments differ as well. This influences how decisions are made and at the end influences the business as a whole. For instance in Japan, they believe in consensus and working in harmony, before any decision is passed across, the group involved must be informed to discuss and move with the matter in oneness. Therefore, for any serious business process to go through, the manager invites the management hierarchy and discusses the planned business deal. Additionally, after passing the general idea through the management hierarchy, the management team leader call workers and partners for a face to face conference, not to reach a decision, but as a formal process that the decision has been reached, this is not typical in the western business settings where these formal face meetings are held to reach a consensus or a decision on a complex matter. Therefore, Japanese must not be rushed through the decision making process with the westerners in case they are in a business together. Furthermore, the Japanese values this process, so the westerners should not look at it as a slow process. Furthermore, they must appreciate as they do business together that the Japanese do not talk too much and would prefer visual aids in the business process, thus the westerners must gain understanding on these customs and Japanese culture as a whole.
However, a close study of the Germans and American culture is different; they are market driven and capital based. Due to the past wars and conflicts in Germany, Germans are very coy of uncertainties, thus they are very fearful of the unknown, thus they have many regulations to avoid risks unlike business in the America. Furthermore, the German law is code based and the American is case based, making business in Japan, America and Germany to be very different. Germany companies have got management and supervisory board unlike the Americans CEO and the management board. The management board comes up with the policies and the advisory board has got the role of implementing the policies as well as ensuring that the policies put forth by the management board are in accordance with the partner’s interests. Furthermore, business in Germany does not value small talks like the Americans, and because of their rigidity they believe that these talks are a waste of time. Furthermore, Germans do not want an impromptu meeting which Americans can accept with lots of ease, instead they prefer being informed about planned meetings early enough, and the details of the meeting must be given in advance (Larry et al., 2009).

Question 2

I disagree with this advert. In western culture the mode of dressing where people go in the beach and have fun is accepted. This dressing code can be made public like in television and still there will be no problem making it highly acceptable in the western. However, taking the same advert in Saudi Arabia where the dressing culture is very strict, and people in that country believe in complete dress up, the advert will be contrary to their beliefs and nobody will welcome it. Furthermore, people will wonder what kind of an advert it is, and why should such an advert which disobeys and goes against their culture be shown in public. Instead of the company succeeding in promoting sales and marketing of its product, it will lose customers and this advert might even lead to the closure of the company. Furthermore, in Saudi Arabia people do not like publicizing their intimacy, and these love and relationship affairs are things that have been kept secret and perceived as holly. So the moment, a display of an advert with people half naked is displayed, it will be like looking down on their culture and believes so they can hardly welcome this wonderful and great advert that can move many in the west (Larry et al., 2009).
In the current classroom which embraces different culture, the traditional concept which do not value multicultural context is never enough and must be changed. In other words the educators must appreciate the cultural diversity of the people in the classroom since the difference in their culture will affect their classroom behavior, stereotyping and prejudice, thinking habits, communication pattern and styles as well as learning strategies. A closer look at the students thinking habit reveals that those students who are traditional in their communication reveals that they are likely to face problems with school achievements unlike those who behave and think in ways that embraces diverse cultural norms. Also, the educators must understand the classroom cultural diversity because language and communication styles are very important for every student. Through them, thoughts and ideas are emotionally and sensitively embodied. Furthermore, it’s only through language and communication styles that the educator will find out how the student has gained mastery of the learning task, since these are dependent on the cultural values and norms which are also passed through language and communication style. Furthermore, cultural diversity brings people with different learning ability, thus a teacher must incorporate learning strategy that will be acceptable to the students in the context. For instance, a teacher teaching students of a color must incorporate learning strategy of storytelling into the structural behavior of the student. Most importantly the teacher must acknowledge the ethnic background and the gender of the students since these will determine need for difference in the learning strategy (Larry et al., 2009 and Huntington and Sudbury, 2005).
My online learning environment is the blended kind of virtual learning where I access the class learning tools from the web, including the grades, the class assessments and the course instructions. In deed in my virtual learning the teacher also prefer using video and power points to bring in clarity of pertinent issues. in the era of social media, I have disciplined myself to put aside study time, during which I only access web for study purposes and not chatting since many a times when I access materials from the internet I am attempted to chat with my friends through face book and sometimes to follow them on the tweets (West, 2010).

References

Huntington, A., and Sudbury, J. (2005). Virtual classrooms: Experiences of European collaborative teaching and learning, Social Work Education, 24(3), 217-228

Larry, A. S., Richard, E. P. and Edward, R. M. (2009). Communication between Cultures, 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning
Larry, A. S., Richard, E. P. and Edward, R. M. (2009). Intercultural Communication, 12th ed., Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
West, C. (2010). Borderless via technology. International educator, 19(2), 24-33