Understanding Cultural Interactions

Culture is a body of learned behaviors and values of a society that shape behavior and consciousness. A practice may be considered cultural if it is widespread or spans about 4 generations. Culture can develop from shared religious views, within a race or geographic location, but doesn't always have to.

We can use the United States as an example. People of the U.S. are viewed as freedom loving, apple pie eating, 4th of July celebrating, Bill of Rights hugging, God fearing, flag waving Americans. Yet within this title of "Americans," there are variations. Being considered an American does not mean that you are of a particular race, that you speak Americanized English or that you were even born in the States. As well, in the U.S., as with many other countries, there are many different regions and varieties of people associated with them.

Cultures have the ability and often do change. Previously, cultures may have been influenced by invasion or traders bringing products from foreign lands. In modern times, economic, political, etc. ties between nations aid in the spreading of ideas. Sometimes this cultural exchange is called "progress," yet this statement is unfair. To say that thanks to ties with the U.S., many countries are making "progress" through taking our advances and making them their own, is stating that other countries are lacking in some way or another and could make "progress" by becoming more like us.

To state that the world is moving towards a global culture would appear to be a stretch. The peoples of the world (mainly Eurasia and Africa) have known of each other and have been trading goods and ideas for many centuries. During this time empires rose to power seeming like they could take over the world, yet they eventually fell. Despite being taken over, nations retain pieces of their identity, at times their language, traditions and religion. Could the world create a global culture that was not specifically of a superpower? Even if the all of the people agreed to let go of their culture/heritage/language/religion/traditions/ideas of government/etc and adopt another more worldly culture, there would more than likely still be divisions. To imagine this creation of a global culture working is difficult. If everyone was the same in thought then there may be a move towards more equality, understanding, fewer differences, it is difficult to say.

To make a person more acceptable in a vast array of cultural settings I would think that knowledge of many culture's nonverbal communication traits would be of the utmost advantage. Body language can tell so much about what a person is thinking without having to say a word such as being able to show respect or graciousness without having to master all of the languages. This way even if you do not know all about the culture you do not appear rude.