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 #47 here!

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE:

* Umberto Eco and European Identity
* Best-Selling Cookie in China
* Telling Time Around the World
* Germans, Brits and Pygmies

CultureLinks
+ Rwanda’s Heart
+ Fluent in 11 Languages
+ Physical Appearance and Language

CultureTips
+ European Culture

RW-3.com

In The Guardian, writer and semiologist Umberto Eco talks about culture being the substance that defines European identity in the modern day. He speaks about its potential as a binding agent for a stronger European market, and a stronger Europe in general.

Eco specifically promulgates the expansion of the Erasmus student exchange system to capture not just students, but virtually everyone, in the process of developing an integrated “European culture”.

The university exchange programme Erasmus is barely mentioned in the business sections of newspapers, yet Erasmus has created the first generation of young Europeans. I call it a sexual revolution: a young Catalan man meets a Flemish girl – they fall in love, they get married and they become European, as do their children. The Erasmus idea should be compulsory – not just for students, but also for taxi drivers, plumbers and other workers. By this, I mean they need to spend time in other countries within the European Union; they should integrate.

Europe is certainly not like the United States or other federations that share a common language and constitution. Eco doesn’t think it ever will or should be. On the other hand, there may be some innately “European” values that exist in many places on the continent (and surrounding isles).

What would you vote for as the most European of values? What makes Europeans as a whole particularly unique as a large cultural unit?

If Europeans are too different to lend meaning to the concept of “European culture,” what makes them so?

We want to know what you think – please share your thoughts in the comments area.

Sean
RW3 CultureWizard

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

Interested in receiving the CultureWizard Digest every month? Click here to sign up.

Check out CultureWizard Digest #38 here!

* Strauss-Kahn Case: Questioning French Identity
* The Culture of Shapes and Colors
* Learning the Local Lingo
* A Spectrum of Cultural Emotion

CultureLinks
+ “3 Tips on Getting to Yes in China”

CultureTips
+ South Africa

RW-3.com

I’m frequently asked—professionally and socially—about our definition of culture—what it is, where it comes from and how culture affects interaction with colleagues. Here is the definition that we find works best: a deep-seated set of values and beliefs shared by a society that define a sense of right and wrong, good and bad, appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

Delving into the meaning of cultural awareness, the “Golden Rule” of “do unto others what you would like to be done unto you” might best be modified to “do unto others as they would like you to do unto them.” Of course, this means you need to know a little about their cultural values and preferences. The important thing is to recognize that culture represents intrinsic beliefs and values, which impact behavior. Combined with personal style, being attuned to these factors allows us to be culturally astute and professionally successful in 2010 and beyond.

Mike Schell

RW-3.com

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 the latest CultureWizard Digest here!

* China’s Internet and the US President
* Linguistic Death
* UK and US Health Care
* Indian Solutions for PepsiCo

CultureLinks
+ Where is hummus from?
+ Global Baseball: Matsui
+ News from Middle Eastern Periodicals

CultureTips
+ South Korea
+ Argentina

RW-3.com