Cultural Values
«Urals State Technical University - UPI»
Foreign language department
Thesis
«Cultural Values»
Student: Zaitseva S.V.
Group: PП-4
Supervisor: Hramushina Zh.A.
Ekaterinburg
2004
Table of contents:
Summary
3
Key words
4
Introduction
5
1. Definitions: beliefs, values
7
The value / belief puzzle
8
Contrastive orientations
12
Japanese interpersonal norms
15
2. Japanese and American patterns of social behavior
22
The national status image
25
A Cultural model of interaction
27
Seven statements about Americans 31
3. Factors influencing values
40
Intercultural communication: a guide to men of action
40
Cuisine, etiquette and cultural values
52
Patterns of speech
55
4. Contrast Russian’s stereotypes
58
Nine statements about Russians
58
Middle Eastern interview responses
61
5. American’s view of Russian. Russian’s view of American
65
American interview responses
65
Russian interview responses
75
Conclusion
79
Literature
80
Appendix
SUMMARY
A diploma work contains 80 pages, 2 tables, 1 figure, 4 books are a
source of it.
Key words: cross-cultural communication, values, beliefs, clusters,
stereotypes.
In detail it is said about concept "values", factors influencing
values, the meaning of values in intercultural communication and
understanding between different nations.
In brief it is mentioned differences between beliefs, values.
The actuality and novelty of a theme consist in the following points.
Problems of the intercultural communications and cultural values are
"young". Scientists started to consider them rather recently. In Russia
researches have begun only in the 80th years. In such a way, there is not
enough literature and materials on the given questions. Therefore any new
works and researches make the significant contribution to studying these
problems.
So in my work I tried: to research the influence of cultural values to
attitude one country to another; to explore and to compare Japanese and
American patterns of social behavior; to understand the factors influencing
values; to discover stereotypes between different countries.
In conclusion it is noted that excellent knowledge of language is only
half-affair for successful cooperation with other country. Also it is
necessary to know features of people of other country in negotiating or
their attitude to business. Also it is necessary to take into account
features of dialogue, etiquette, relations with grown-ups and many other
things.
KEY WORDS
Cross-cultural communication is the information exchange between one
person and any other source transmitting a message displaying properties of
a culture different to the one of the receiver’s culture. The source of
such a message can be either a person, in an interpersonal communication
process, or any form of mass media or other form of media.
Values. A value is something that is important to people — like honesty,
harmony, respect for elders, or thinking of your family first. They are
represents what is expected or hoped for, required or forbidden. It is not
a report of actual conduct but is the inductively based logically ordered
set of criteria of evaluations by which conduct is judged and sanctions
applied.
Beliefs are generally taken to mean a mental acceptance or conviction in
the truth or actuality of something. A belief links an object or event and
the characteristics that distinguish it from others. The degree to which we
believe that an event or object possesses certain characteristics reflects
the level of our subjective probability (belief) and, consequently, the
depth or intensity of our belief. The more certain we are in a belief, the
greater is the intensity of that belief.
Clusters are groups of inter-related industries that drive wealth
creation in a region and provides a richer more meaningful representation
of local industry drivers and regional dynamics trends than traditional
methods and represents the entire value chain of a broadly defined industry
from suppliers to end products, including supporting services and
specialized infrastructure.
Stereotype is a fixed set of ideas about what a particular type of person
or thing is like, which is (wrongly) believed to be true in all cases.
INTRODUCTION
The subject of my diploma work is cultural values.
Our perception of foreign cultures is usually based not on their
complex reality, but on the simplified image they project. The clearer and
more sharply defined that image is, the more convinced we will be that we
are intimately acquainted with it: it is a mere outward confirmation of
knowledge we already possess.
All cultures have been designed to meet universal human needs: for
shelter - for love — for friendship. While they have commonalties, they
have great variety too! Values - universal feature of culture, how they
might vary within and between cultures.
One universal feature of culture is values. A value is something that
is important to people — like honesty, harmony, respect for elders, or
thinking of your family first.
We can't see values directly, but we can see them reflected in
people's ordinary, day to day behavior. What we value shapes what we do. If
respect for elders is important to me, I might listen very patiently to
grandmother's stories and not argue with her. In fact, I might turn to her
for valuable and wise advice. If I value honesty, I will hope that my
friends will tell me the truth and not what they think I want to hear. If
harmony is more important to me, I prefer to say things that make people
happy, even if those things are not exactly true.
In the course of human interaction, evaluations are assigned to given
types of behavior, attitudes, and kinds of social contact. Taken together
they form the belief and value system, the cultural premises and
assumptions, and the foundation for law, order, and the world view of given
cultural groups. These systems embrace a number of assumptions about how
the world is put together. Some values and norms, differentiate between
good and evil, right and wrong. Some of these assumptions are made explicit
in the beliefs and myths of the people. Beliefs, value systems, and world
view often combine with other features of social and cultural organization
to provide shared cultural symbols.
The actuality and novelty of a theme consist in the following points.
Problems of the intercultural communications and cultural values are
"young". Scientists started to consider them rather recently. In Russia
researches have begun only in the 80th years. In such a way, there is not
enough literature and materials on the given questions. Therefore any new
works and researches make the significant contribution to studying these
problems.
Objects of research in my diploma work are behavioral samples and
cultural clusters.
1. DEFINITIONS: BELIEFS, VALUES
It is useful at this juncture to make some distinctions between
beliefs and values.
BELIEFS
Beliefs are generally taken to mean a mental acceptance or conviction
in the truth or actuality of something. A belief links an object or event
and the characteristics that distinguish it from others. The degree to
which we believe that an event or object possesses certain characteristics
reflects the level of our subjective probability (belief) and,
consequently, the depth or intensity of our belief. The more certain we are
in a belief, the greater is the intensity of that belief.
This is well attested to in the power of religious beliefs. There are
three types of beliefs, all of which are of concern to us. They are
experiential, informational, and inferential. Experiential beliefs come
from direct personal experience, of course; they are integrated at the
intrapersonal level. The second type involves information. This is
transferred on the interpersonal level and shows great cultural variation.
Here cultural beliefs are stated, transferred, learned, and practiced.
Informational beliefs are connected with what are called "authority
belief," or credible information sources. If a group of people believes
that exercising increases the individual's physical and mental well-being,
these believers may also be willing to accept athletes as authority figures
even though the testimonies of these idols range beyond their physical
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
