A compendium of current news and headlines with commentary providing unique cultural insight into global affairs, business and daily life around the world.

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Check out CultureWizard Digest #28 here!

* “Festival of Errors”
* Asia Focuses on Inheritance Planning
* Thinking in Other Languages
* Refugees of Forte Wayne

CultureLinks
+ India’s $35 Laptop
+ Would you outsource yourself?

CultureTips
+ Negotiation in Brazil, Japan and the US

RW-3.com

Here is a brief summary of a tactic Japanese organizations are utilizing to save money, according to the New York Times, which poses an interesting employment model for other countries:

Under fierce pressure to cut costs, large Japanese companies are increasingly outsourcing and sending white-collar operations to China and Southeast Asia, where doing business costs less than in Japan. But while many American companies have been content to transfer work to, say, an Indian outsourcing company staffed with English-speaking Indians, Japanese companies are taking a different tack. Japanese outsourcers are hiring Japanese workers to do the jobs overseas — and paying them considerably less than if they were working in Japan.

This strikes me as an issue of culture and language: Japanese companies are motivated to hire native Japanese speakers, of which there are few outside of Japan, to service Japanese-speaking customers in low-cost cities and countries. Culturally, customer service is unique to Japan, and the satisfaction of Japanese customers is hinged on mutual expectations. Cities around Asia like Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei have been chosen for these outsourced individuals. According to the article,

“Even foreign citizens with a good command of the Japanese language…may not be equipped with a sufficiently nuanced understanding of the manners and politesse that Japanese customers often demand.

While Japanese companies could save even more if they hired only locals overseas — some experts say locals could be hired at half the cost — the preference for Japanese nationals is likely to endure, said [Kazuyuki Ichikawa of Pasona Global].

‘You say one thing and Japanese employees will understand three things,’ he said. ‘In Western cultures, you might be straightforward with what you want your staff to know, but a Japanese manager would want you to understand it without having to say it.’”

Thus, a Japanese team working in a call-center in Bangkok already has the necessary cultural awareness a team of Indians would have to learn in order to successfully interact with the American customers of its US-based client. However, the cultural experience of relocating to a new country is another topic.

According to the article, many young Japanese are choosing to move overseas to work for companies based at home, while those same companies opt to send their younger employees abroad. Would you elect to move or “outsource” yourself to a city outside your home country for work? Would your outlook on this change if you were unemployed? What would you expect in terms of training or preparation to do so?

Click here to read the story on the New York Times.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

A brilliant article by Lera Boroditsky in the Wall Street Journal makes an important link between cognition and language, a link many of us have experienced. One reader’s comment on the article sums up the feeling:

That language embodies different ways of knowing the world seems intuitive, given the number of times we reach for a word or phrase in another language that communicates that certain je ne sais quoi we can’t find on our own.

An old language tree

Noam Chomsky’s contribution to the idea that languages around the world contained a “universal grammar” is debunked by new research on the ways we experience space, time and causality. Below are some examples from the article of how language affects our perception of the world.

Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.

Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.

The Piraha, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities.

In one study, Spanish and Japanese speakers couldn’t remember the agents of accidental events as adeptly as English speakers could. Why? In Spanish and Japanese, the agent of causality is dropped: ‘The vase broke itself,’ rather than ‘John broke the vase.’

Words in Chinese and Japanese for specific positions within a family’s hierarchy, e.g. oneesan (“older sister”) and otoutosan (“younger brother”), convey the importance of knowing one’s role, which impacts the cognitive process. The use of kinship terms like “mother” and “brother” between strangers in Arabic-speaking countries is connected to the predominant sense of family and community. It seems that examples abound for the argument that language informs and reinforces culture and logic, which means our thought processes vary according to the language we speak.

What kinds of challenges does this idea pose to global business and cross-cultural interaction, even if people can speak in the same language? How does this affect the minds of multilingual people? Are they able to switch modes of thought, just as they switch from one code or language to another?

Grayson

RW3 CultureWizard

The chart above was used at an INSEAD conference on international management to demonstrate the different ways US Americans, Brazilians and Japanese would negotiate by counting the incidence of various verbal and non-verbal actions. It is surprising to see how the subjects observed from the US and Japan are much closer to each other than they are to the Brazilians in terms of behavior.

We can see how the idea of personal space is very different in Brazil because of their inclination to physically touch their colleagues during the negotiating process, while silence was employed on a frequent basis by the Japanese and not at all by the Brazilians. Interruption, rather, resembles a sign of great interest and enthusiasm for the Brazilians, while silence has a similar affect within the Japanese context.

Can you add to this chart with your own experience? What have you found unique about these three cultures during the negotiation process?

Kapil Sibal (above), India’s human resource development minister, told the media the first group to receive the touchscreen computers, which resemble Apple’s $499 iPad, are over 100 million schoolchildren. The goal is reduce the cost of production to $20, and ultimately to $10. India’s development of this computer is symbolic of the country’s power to influence and change the world. How will this affect the country’s enormous illiterate population? According to UNICEF, 34% of the adult population and 18% of youth were illiterate in 2007, compared to a rate of 7% and 1%, respectively, in China. With a total population of over one billion, these numbers exceed the total population of the United States.

How do you think this will change India’s burgeoning population and workforce? How will an increase in literacy and access to internet affect India’s role in the global marketplace?

Read more on Indian Express.

RW3 CultureWizard

Use Expatistan, an interesting web tool, to compare the cost of living across a number of areas between two cities. It’s easy, and it is also based on the input of users around the world. The tool describes itself as a

Collaborative database of prices around the world. You enter the prices, we make the comparisons.

RW3 CultureWizard

In Paris, a veritable celebration of mistakes was hosted last week by a group of academicians from a number of France’s educational institutions. The Guardian writes on the concerns of many professionals in the education field:

…The French school system is leaving children bereft of creativity, flexibility of thought and – crucially – confidence in their own mental abilities…’A large part of the French school system is based on the idée reçue that errors are negative, when in fact it is by this very process of learning … that you make progress,’ said Maëlle Lenoir, of the Association Paris Montagne.

French history is full of great inventions and inventors, artists and architects, too many to mention here. How long has this style of teaching been in practice?

The article gives a few “great mistakes” to demonstrate the power of making errors, like Columbus’ search for India, which led him to the Americas. According to the article, many young French students fear answering questions incorrectly, and are afraid of taking risks. Many of our beliefs on these issues stem from culture, which is instilled in all of us from a young age, and especially at school. Now, educators in France are looking to change these ideas with the hopes of increasing students’ propensity to be innovative and creative. The event’s leaders “hope to demonstrate to young participants the potential wonder of making mistakes through a series of science-based workshops.” This festival strives to give young students the courage to think creatively, without worrying about making mistakes.

In the US, for example, asking questions, intense curiosity and failure are all seen as important learning experiences. Curiosity can lead to failure, but failure is one way of learning, and can also lead to breakthroughs in all subjects (e.g. via the trial and error method). In the professional realm, many managers expect failure before mastery, and employees can easily recover from a loss of face due to mistakes, so long as they learn from them. Conversely, in countries like China, where the learning process is heavily based on rote and process, mistakes can cause significant loss of face, and failure is often very difficult to recover from.

What is your experience as a schoolchild? Do you remember having exploratory activites in class, like “show and tell,” were you expected to learn through repetitive action, or was there a different method?

We’re interested in hearing from you.

Charlene

RW3 CultureWizard

Let’s take a look at a New York Times article on inheritance planning in Asia, and more specifically in China. According to the article, many of the “modern first generation of wealthy Asians” are interested in estate planning for their children.

William Lexmond, a managing director with UBS in Singapore, said that because family values were stronger in Asia, high-net-worth individuals between 30 and 40 years old — those with at least $1 million in investable assets — were more likely to do estate planning than their Western counterparts ‘because they feel they have the obligation to do so.’

Why is this obligation felt so strongly? Below is the Chinese character for family, which can also mean home. The character itself, etymologically, represents a pig under a roof, symbolizing the importance of avoiding scarcity as the most important function of family. The very center of Chinese life is family, and each person within a family has a specific role, of which the objective is to maintain their well-being. In most cases, there is a great sense of mutual dependence across members of a family. So, the idea of inheritance and estate planning is amenable to the Chinese ethos.

The Chinese Character for family or jiā.

‘Rather than to rely on someone else, i.e., the state, to take care of your family, there is more of a desire to make sure something is set aside,’ [Lexmond] said. ‘It’s more of a self-help type situation to provide some support.’

Lexmond underscores the centrality of maintaining stability for the family, even after one passes away. The article also mentions the relative sophistication of inheritance planning in Asia because of the stronger demand for the service. What is your take on the role of the family in China and the measures taken after a member passes away? It would be interesting to know if the Asian finance industry in general would benefit from an awareness of these aspects of culture, from which more attractive products could be created and marketed.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Home to a large refugee population, and the largest Burmese community in the US, Fort Wayne, Indiana has experience teaching new arrivals about local culture, as NPR tells us.

Nearly all refugees in Fort Wayne frequent the Refugee Resource Center. It offers services and classes in everything from how to clean a home, to proper indoor plumbing etiquette. These are sometimes new concepts for people who have only lived in rural villages or refugee camps.

While the Refugee Resource Center has focused on the basic building blocks of etiquette and protocol, where are the lessons that provide a deeper level of understanding? How can immigrants and refugees begin to understand the reasons behind typical behaviors in the US without some orientation to its history and values? And, how can those helping refugees from places like Burma, Darfur and Bosnia better understand the culture in which they’ve been socialized? We often receive questions from businesspeople working across cultures like “what should I do and not do?”, and the answer is generally a list of actions or expressions that exist outside of a cultural context. As a result, individuals have to memorize the do’s and don’ts, versus gathering a certain sense of the key values and beliefs of a culture, which informs etiquette, protocol, behavior and more.

The image below was taken inside a laundromat in Fort Wayne, where ethnic Burmese frequent. Betel nut, or the areca nut, is the seed of a palm tree native to many parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. It is chewed, much like tobacco, for it’s effects as a stimulant, much like the effects of drinking coffee. However, the nut is chewed and disposed of, not swallowed. If a coffee-drinking individual were to walk into a laundromat with a sign displaying “No Drinking! No Coffee!”, I believe the person would be compelled to question why the sign existed.

Erika Celeste/NPR

Fort Wayne has won the All-America City title thrice, and the work of the Center is an important resource to refugees. Do you have experience with a similar center? Have you worked with refugees? If so, what are some of their dilemmas in relation to cultural adjustment? Please let us know!

Click here to listen to the NPR story online. Click here to learn more about the tradition of chewing betel nut.

RW3 CultureWizard

An Iranian official talks about men's haircuts to an audience in the grooming business. Reuters

A recent New York Times article reminds us how extensive the government’s influence is in Iranian society. A “haircut catalog” was published by the Ministry of Culture outlining the types of haircuts appropriate for men in the Islamic republic, and impermissible haircuts, which generally represent a strong “Western” style. According to the article,

The haircut catalog is part of the Iranian government’s long-running battle against Western cultural influence. Every summer, the country’s morality police renew their crackdown on ‘un-Islamic’ dress and styles, including loose veils on women and long hair or ponytails on men.

Jaleh Khodayar, a member of the Ministry of Culture, told the semiofficial ILNA news agency:

We do not intend to reverse the culture…we want to preserve our culture and respect Iranian tradition and come up with hairstyles that confront Western cultural invasion.

These acts to fortify Iranian culture, which demonstrate a widespread control over daily life, are met with resentment by many young individuals in Iran who prefer to make these decisions without the government’s input. What do you make of this? Is there a similar example of this kind of government-cum-cultural arbiter role in other countries?

Click here to read the article on the New York Times website.

RW3 CultureWizard

Click here to read an interesting story in the People’s Daily that stems from the time zone difference between China and South Africa, where the World Cup is being held this year. The games are so important to many workers in China, they spend all evening watching the game, and have been experiencing extreme fatigue at the office in days following major matches.

What do you think of their strong desire to watch the games?

A compendium of current news and headlines with commentary providing unique cultural insight into global affairs, business and daily life around the world.

Check out CultureWizard Digest #27 here!

* Vuvuzela
* UNIQLO: Unique Clothing
* Ears and Eyes
* Cultural Force: The World Cup

CultureLinks
+ Hp Replaces 6,000 Jobs
+ Global Wal-Mart
+ “How the Gulf crisis made BP British again.”

CultureTips
+ South Africa

RW-3.com

In its efforts to expand globally and compete with brands like H&M, Fast Retailing, owner of Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo, is establishing stronger international roots. Recently, the firm has opened stores in new cities including Paris, Moscow and Shanghai. The intercultural challenges and implications of these moves are plentiful, but the brand has already begun to tackle one obvious issue: in order to appeal to culturally distinct audiences, Uniqlo designers are collaborating with Jil Sander, a German fashion designer. In relation to this collaboration, The Economist writes

it will have to manage a multicultural, multilingual workforce—an area where Japanese firms often trip up. And merchandise will need to be tailored to national tastes, so scale will be harder to achieve.

In addition to the cross-cultural hurdles the project will present, founder Tadashi Yanai

is also unable to delegate, say Fast Retailing executives. He controls all decisions, down to approving samples and colours. Mr Yanai defends his meddling. ‘A good business manager’, he says, must ‘pay attention to the details.’

His behavior has influenced the departure of executives at Fast Retailing, which has made it hard for the company to name a successor, which is traditionally fulfilled through primogeniture. Nevertheless, micromanagement is a trait of hierarchical cultures, and Mr. Yanai’s intensive, “hands-on” approach fits the cultural tendency. Strong hierarchy is an important dimension of Japanese culture, and it is even built into the Japanese language. Modifiers and special words exists to differentiate between people of lower and higher status and age. In fact, according to RW3′s Country Profile on Japan,

these rules are taught at school where children learn to address other students as senior to them or junior to them. The more senior students are spoken to with respect and reverence. This carries into business. If two people from the same school work in the same organization, the more senior person is expected to mentor the more junior.

Do you think Uniqlo’s line of clothing has the potential to be successful around the world? What is your take on Mr. Yanai’s management style?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

+ Known as the “Rainbow Nation,” the government officially recognizes 11 languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Shangaan, Sotho, Tsona, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. English is widely used for business purposes.
+ The black South African concept of “African time” intimates that time is flexible and is viewed in a relaxed manner. Most white South Africans think time is something that can be controlled. In general, they expect people to arrive on time for both business and social occasions.
+ Two phrases frequently used in South Africa are “I will do it now now” and “I will do it just now.” Although they sound very similar, they are quite different. “I will do it now now” indicates that the task has a high priority, while “I will do it just now” means that the task has a low priority and will be postponed.
+ South Africa is a high-context communication culture, which means people use non-verbal body language to enhance their spoken words.
+ Greetings: shake hands with everyone upon arriving and upon leaving. Maintain eye contact while shaking hands and wait for a woman to extend her hand.
+ Because the country was closed to outside influences for many years, some older Afrikaners, who speak Afrikaans, remain suspicious of anyone who might dilute their culture, including foreigners.
+ South Africa has a medium tolerance for change and risk. Changes are made, albeit slowly, and require considerable amount of thought, planning and evaluation.
+ In conversation, do not compare cities within South Africa. Most people are proud of their city and do not appreciate being told that another city is better. Do not raise controversial subjects such as race relations or local politics. Also, Capetonians have a strong sense of proper decorum and view off-color humor as distasteful. Discretion is advised.

- from RW3′s CultureWizard® Country Profiles

RW3 CultureWizard

I recommend reading The Arab Ear and the American Eye: A Study of the Role of the Senses in Culture, by Sharif Kanaana and translated into English by Ibrahim Muhawi, along with several thoughtful responses. The researchers explore the relevance of seeing versus hearing in American and Arab cultures. The abstract describes how Kanaana

seeks to establish the hypothesis that in Arab culture the ear is more significant than the eye as a guide to belief. While [Dundes'] “Seeing is Believing” is about American culture, in using its categories as a basis for the study of the Arab ear, this article brings to the fore its implicit comparative perspective. The theoretical point at issue is the determining power of culturally established cognitive patterns.

Furthermore,

The analysis elaborates upon the metaphorical significance of the eye in Arab culture, showing that the Arab fear of the eye may be justified in view of the manipulative power that resides in images. Translated in terms of culture, it may be that the reliance on the eye breeds a need for visual stimulation and constant change, while reliance on the ear leads to reliance on tradition and fear of change.

Jewelry people commonly wear in many countries (pictured below), which provide protection from the “evil eye,” is one of the first items that comes to mind. The belief is that the desirous eye of a person has the power to inflict harm on whatever it sees. So, many people wear amulets to deflect the gaze of the evil eye, thus confounding it and averting any harm.

For protection against the evil eye, charms are commonly worn in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond

What are your thoughts on the preference Arabs give to hearing versus seeing, and vice versa for Americans? Do you agree with the argument that relying on hearing has caused Arab countries to stagnate, while a preference for the visual has inspired innovation and growth in the US?

Special thanks to Marion Burgheimer for sharing this research with us.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard