Message-ID: <INTDEV-L%98121622122230@URIACC.URI.EDU> Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 21:06:20 -0600 From: Eric Fenster <mailto:efenster@IGC.ORG> Subject: "Tools" available on Moscow web site To: mailto:INTDEV-L@uriacc.uri.edu
The document, "Tools," which I have just added for download to the Moscow Study Trip web site (address below; then follow the TOOLS link on the home page), may be of interest to anybody who travels abroad for work, study or pleasure--over the holidays or for a longer period. Its intent is to help analyze and understand another society and culture, first of all by applying its techniques to one's own.In Tools you will find illustrative anecdotes plus thought experiments and exercises you can do before and during travel to explore time, space and social relationships cross-culturally.
While generally applicable, the focus is on Russia so as to be most useful on the Moscow Study Trips. Thus attitudes, assumptions and misunderstandings are traced during the East- West conflict and the coming of perestroika. For perspective, there is a hilarious and revealing excerpt from the century-old, "Through Russia on a Mustang" and, more modern, a satirical update on Moscow's public toilets. I have deliberately kept Tools a bit out of date so that people who attend one of the study trips get a sense of what the Soviet Union and Western feelings toward it were like just a few years ago.
For the flavor, here are the opening paragraphs:
Hazards at Culture Gap
More than once, American applicants for these trips have described their previous foreign travel as none--"except Canada," or "unless you consider Canada." Obviously, Canada is a sovereign country, so what people probably meant by these qualifications was that Canada does not seem "foreign" because the people are so much like Americans--culturally. There are real differences, but one has to be more sensitive to pick them up than would be necessary when visiting many other countries.
What can go wrong when there is a cultural misunderstanding? There was a story a few years ago about the early labor negotiations with a Japanese company in the American automobile industry. At one of those hot moments that indicate the talks are getting serious, the union side got angry and staged a walkout. After waiting the appropriate amount of time for this "traditional" play-acting to have its effect, they returned to the table... to find that the Japanese company representatives had left--assuming that the talks had broken down--and had not the slightest intention of coming back! Honor had been offended. Neither side knew the other's cultural rules, and it took explanation and persuasion by intermediaries to get the sides together again.
Luckily, both cultures at least accepted the concept of mediation. What of a culture in which suggesting mediation would be considered an insult or cowardice--fear of confronting one's adversary directly?
In Farsi, the language of Iran, the word "mediation" has the connotation of "meddling," or interfering in an unwanted manner. So, some years ago when UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim said he came to Iran to "mediate" the American hostage situation, it caused a riot. (L. Copeland and L. Griggs, Going International, Random House, New York, 1985, p. 79) .... +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Eric Fenster mailto:efenster@igc.org Moscow Study Trips 08 May-07 June 1999 19 June-12/19 July or 26 June-19 July 1999 Anecdotal accounts from 1992-1996, FAQs, sample daily schedule and photos: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/efenster