American Culture as seen through Foreign Eyes

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American Culture as seen through Foreign Eyes

• Dr.
  Balbir B. Bhasin

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Major Languages of the World

• Language Country Millions
• Mandarin China 885
• Spanish Spain/Latin 332
• English UK/USA 322
• Bengali Bangladesh/India 189
• Hindi India 182
• Portuguese Portugal/Brazil 170
• Russian Russia 170
• Japanese Japan 125
• German Germany 98
• Wu China 77
• (1999 Institute of Linguistics)

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What is Culture?

• Set of commonly held values
• A way of life of a group of people includes
• knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs
• and habits
• Everything that people have,
• think and do as members of their
• society
• An integrated system of learned
• behavior patterns that are characteristic of the
  members of any given society

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Stereotypical American?

• Inconsiderate of other peoples cultures
• Racially prejudiced
• Ignorant of other countries
• Shallow, immature, naïve
• Violent, aggressive
• Generous, forgiving
• Always in a hurry

• Outgoing, friendly
• Informal
• Loud, rude, boastful
• Hard working
• Arrogant, proud, insensitive
• Innovative
• Extravagant, wasteful
• Confident they have all the answers

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What are American Values?

• Cornell University
• Individualistic separate individuals
• Moralistic their way is best
• Egalitarian all are equal in society
• Control of nature and environment
• Progress and change oriented
• control of destiny
• Time oriented
• Doing rather than being
• keeping busy

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What are American Values?

• Other Sources
• humor is seen as a feature of national
  characterDaniel Wickberg- The Senses of Humor
• We Americans have a remarkable capacity to say
  one thing and do another. Stephen Carter-
  Integrity
• Americans believe themselves to have a special
  mission in the world.
• Hall Lindholm- Is America Breaking Apart?
• Lacking a national religion, America has made a
  religion of the nation.
• Hall Lindholm- Is America Breaking Apart?

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Personal Control

• Mankind Should Control Nature
• Humans Can Achieve Anything
• Look Out for Own Self Interests
• Be sure youre right, then go ahead.
• Daniel Boone

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Value and willing to Change

• Development
• Improvement
• Progress
• Growth

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Value Time and its Control

• Utmost Importance
• Punctuality
• Use Wisely
• Delayed Gratification

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Future Oriented

• Devalue past
• Unconscious of present
• Planning the future
• Someday

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Egalitarianism and Equality

• Created equal
• No deferential treatment
• Fight for personal rights

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Informal

• Casual with authority
• First name basis
• Hi familiarity
• Shorts, underdressed

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Individualistic

• Demand and insist on Privacy
• We see ourselves as unique
• Need time for ourselves

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Action Oriented Go, go go!

• Workaholics
• Dont just sit there!
• Identify self by profession
• Value labor and hard work
• Problem retiring

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Competitive

• Aspire to be No. 1
• Winner takes all
• Free enterprise
• Be the best
• Willing to take risk

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Directness

• Openness
• Honesty
• Assertive
• Transparency

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Practical

• Efficient
• Pragmatic
• Rational
• Objective
• Effective

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Materialistic

• Ownership
• Private Property
• Bigness Oriented
• Need
• Gadgets, adult toys

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American Culture as seen by Selves

• Wealth, Power, Freedom, Fun
• who attribute listed value as important to
  American culture
• (base value is extremely/very important to
  them)
• Wealth 90
• Power 88
• Freedom 87
• Enjoying life 87
• Having fun 87
• Pleasure 84
• Status 83
• Material security 83
• Ambition 82
• Self-reliance 82
• Sex 82
• Source Corporate Communications Institute, April
  28, 2004

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American Culture as seen by Selves

• Not Faith, Equality, Honesty
• who attribute listed value as important to
  American culture
• (base value is extremely/very important to
  them)
• Modesty 51
• Simplicity 47
• Social tolerance 41
• Tradition 41
• Traditional gender roles 41
• Thrift 41
• Spirituality 37
• Enduring love 37
• Respecting ancestors 37
• Obedience 35
• Stable per. relationships 34
• Honesty 33
• Equality 33
• Faith 33

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Worlds Perception of America

• More Power, Striver Values
• 1999
• Wealth
• Freedom
• Sex
• Having fun
• A varied life
• Health fitness
• Enjoying life
• Adventure
• Power
• Self-reliance
• Material security
• Internationalism
• Source Corporate Communications Institute, April
  28, 2004

• More Power, Striver Values
• 2004
• Wealth
• Power
• Enjoying life
• Freedom
• Having fun
• Pleasure
• Status
• Ambition
• Health fitness
• Material security
• Knowledge
• Self-reliance
• Sex

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Worlds Perception of America

• Most Notable Declines
• Internationalism, Altruistic Values Drop
• Based on consistent values set and total
  population weighting (1999/2004)
• 1999 Rank 2004 Rank
  Change in Rank
• Internationalism 11 29 -18
• Equality 28 42 -14
• Excitement 14 27 -13
• A varied life 5 17 -12
• Adventure 6 16 -10
• Curiosity 16 26 -10
• Sex 3 13 -10
• Justice 26 35 -9
• Social tolerance 43 52 -9
• Social stability 33 41 -8
• Individuality 17 24 -7
• Open-mindedness 24 30 -6
• Preserving the environment 30 36 -6

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Up Close and Personal

• WEST
• External
• Individual
• Noise oriented
• One life
• Fact oriented
• Value Privacy
• Open
• Selfish
• Control
• Short term oriented
• Direct
• Independent
• Doing

• EAST
• Internal
• Communal
• Silence oriented
• Many lives
• Truth oriented
• Nosy and curious
• Hypocritical
• Sharing
• Accept
• Long term oriented
• Indirect
• Interdependent
• Being

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Thank You