ITALY vs UK


Last week my peers and I tried to fill in a questionnaire called YOGA which stands for "Your Objectives, Guideliness and Assessments" (Alvino E. Fantini, Brattleboro, VT, USA 1995) for self-evaluation of intercultural competence. We all found the questions very difficult and in fact Sarah told us that the goal of the YOGA form was to start a reflection above our cultural awareness and cultural competence as students of foreign languages.

We then moved to the analysis of Geert Hofstede who identified five cultural dimensions which enables one to see how countries and regions are similar to or differ from each other; rather then use my own words I prefer to cite Callahan's exahustive definitions of the first four cultural dimensions and cite Hofstede own words to define the main characteristics of the fifth one:

1. POWER DISTANCE which refers to the degree of acceptance of the unequal distribution of power in society (Callahan, E. 2005);
2. INDIVIDUALISM. Individualistic societies (USA, Australia) value personal achievement while collectivistic ones (Panama, Ecuador) emphasize the benefits of working in a social group. People in individualistic countries tend to take care of themselves and their nuclear family. In collectivistic cultures people are integrated in strong groups, which offer protection in exchange for loyalty. The meaning of the family is extended to all blood and in-law relatives. The accomplishments of the group are valued—a person should use his or her skills to advance the group (Callahan, E. 2005);
3. MASCULINITY. Cultures with a high masculine index maintain traditional distinctions between gender roles and perceptions, whereas feminine cultures tend to dissolve gender differences. Masculine cultures, such as Japan and Italy, place values on challenge, advancement, social recognition, and acquisition of wealth, while feminine cultures (e.g., Norway, Sweden) value quality of life, security, taking care of others, and the environment (Callahan, E. 2005);
4. UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE measures the degree to which people tend to stay away from uncertain situations. It is often mistakenly interpreted as risk avoidance, but actually avoiding uncertain situations could be accomplished by setting strict rules, or by actually taking risks to prevent long term uncertainty. High uncertainty avoidance countries (e.g., Greece, Portugal) prefer formal rules and regulations in order to reduce the amount of uncertainty, and are less inclined toward change than countries with a low uncertainty avoidance index (e.g., Jamaica, Singapore) (Callahan, E. 2005);
5. LONG-TERM ORIENTATION: -persistence; -ordering relationships by status and observing this order; -thrift; -having a sense of shame. SHORT TERM ORIENTATION: -personal steadiness and stability; -protecting your ‘face’; -respect or tradition; -reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts (Hofstede, G.).

Now I'd like to try to compare Italy and the United Kingdom: I'm gonna take into account these five cultural dimensions and I'm gonna base my observations on my personal experience; after doing that, I'll compare them with Hofstede's analysis.

1. Power distance. I think both in Italy and in the UK the gap between the wealthy and the poor is getting bigger in terms of basic things like the use of power and the oppurtunity to rise in society. However, in both countries people express their opinions without any restriction and the respect of titles and formality is very high.
2. Individualism. Once again I see Italy and the UK at the same level as regarding the relationship between group and individual: Italian and British people are independent and responsible for themselves and their individual achievement is highly valued. On the other side I consider, for example, some asian countries being high on collectivism.
   
3. Masculinity. The tendency of the two countries to emphasize traditional gender roles is very high, even though women have made much progress and some of them hold top business positions.
4. Uncertainty avoidance. Italian people are certainly more prepare to face and react to uncertainty than the British people; norms and values to create order and predictability are stronger here in Italy than in the UK.
5. Italy is for sure a long-term oriented country where the most important events in life will always occur in the future while the UK is short term oriented where what's of more importance takes place now.
   

Even though Hofstede's model provide a powerful framework to distinguish among national countries, one has always to keep in mind that national countries change every single day. I'd like to report here the ratings of every cultural dimension which refer to Italy and the UK (Hofstede, G.):

1. Power distance. Italy 50 vs UK 35
2. Individualism. Italy 70 vs UK 89
3. Masculinity. Italy 70 vs UK 66
4. Uncertainty avoidance. Italy 70 vs UK 35
5. Long-term orientation. Italy ??? vs UK 25
   

References

• Alvino E. Fantini (1995). A Central Concern: Developing Intercultural Competence. Retrieved March 25, 2007 from http://www.sit.edu/publications/docs/competence.pdf

• Callahan, E. (2005). Cultural similarities and differences in the design of university websites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), article 12. Retrieved March 25, 2007 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/callahan.html

Photo taken from Flickr

2nd Skype Exchange

Last Monday I skyped with Laura, a very nice girl from Tulane University. As I did in the first skype exchange I run the conversation speaking in English while Laura was speaking in Italian and I can say for sure she's really good in Italian and what's more she was very interested in how we recycle in Italy.

She's giving her active contribution to the recycling project at Tulane University: after Hurricane Katrina New Orleans remains submerged by debris and a gloomy and frustrated atmosphere covers the city. Only within the Tulane University they do recycle and for this reason the university and its students are collaborating with the council to develop a plan to clean the city and to help to ready the area for rebulding.

First of all Laura wanted to know my personal point of view concerning the recycling issue but soon after I understood she was mainly interested in how we manage to develop recycling education programs in primary and secondary schools but also within universities. She's really looking forward to find solutions for the current gloomy situation in New Orleans. I think american students are more involved in the matter than we are.

I skyped almost for half an hour ;-) and I also recorded our phone call :-(
It was very strange to listen to our conversation and once again I felt very unfamiliar with my voice speaking in English :-( I had the chance to listen to some of my peers conversations with other Tulane students too and I realized how their voices sound completely different when they're speaking in English even though I could recognize who they were.

I think it's not that easy to share our Skype experiences: I find it quite embarassing but I'm sure it's really a good exercise for our English learning experience ;-)

Alice


Photo taken from Flickr

Talking to... everyone!

There's a world which has been talking with Skype since ages... Well, only yesterday it was my first experience :-) I was very excited because I knew I had to talk with one of the American students who are part of the exchange between Tulane University in the United States and the University of Padova in the north of Italy. It sounds really good, doesn't it?...

What I missed most in skyping was my "very italian" speaking hands ;-) In a face-to-face conversation -and above all when I speak a foreign language- I usually help myself moving my hands a lot but on the telephone the person on the other end of the world has nothing except my voice. So I tried to emphasize some of the words I was saying without being loud and I also tried not to speak that fast especially because of my strong italian accent which could have made the sentences much more difficult to understand.

I wasn't so embarassed because I'm quite familiar with English phone calls: two summers in a row I worked in a Campsite on Lake Garda where I got in touch with a lot of people calling from all over the world. The big difference was the topic of the conversation: it's easier speaking about Mobilhomes, prices, sport facilities, etc... rather than how the States and Italy face the recycling problem.

Moreover Sarah, Marco and I were skyping in conference: that means we were all three speaking on the phone at the same time. It was hard, especially because I was speaking in English not only with an American but also with an italian guy! I guess we all three managed to survive ;-) At the very beginning we introduced ourself a little bit and soon after we moved the conversation to the separated collection both in Louisiana and in Veneto.

I can't wait to see how our skyping exchange will go on ;-)

Alice


Photo taken from Flickr