Comparing Cultures - A Role Play

Introduction

As a practical examination of cultural stereotypes, we made a role-play in which three people each presented a different culture. Our aim was to present a naturalistic situation which didn't reveal the cultural identifications by obvious statements or hints but by behaviour and habits. The other students in the course were to examine and guess which person represented which culture. With this role-play we opened up a discussion about necessities and difficulties of cultural stereotypes.

Morrison - “Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands” - The Brazilian Culture

For the preparation of the role-play we read the parts of Morrisons “Kiss, bow, shake hands” that referred to the certain culture we would present. For the brazilian culture, which I represented, Morrison suggests the following information for a better understanding of the brazilian way of communication and habits.

Negotiation Strategies

- Brazilians tend to approach problems indirectly, allowing their feelings to dictate the solution

- Facts are admissible as evidence but they may change with the needs of the negotiator and they seldom overrule subjective feelings

Value Systems

- Family loyality is the individual's highest duty

- A big circle of relatives gives the individual a great sense of stability

- The catholic church is an essential part of the culture and social life

Business Practices

- Lack of punctuality

- brazilians conduct business through personal connections and expect long-term relationships

Negotiation Guide

- Be patient. It will usually require several trips to get through a bargaining process

- During negotiations be prepared to discuss all aspects of the contract simultaneously rather than sequentially

- Sometimes Brazilians find aggressive business attitudes offensive – do not expect to get right to the point.

- Avoid confrontations and hide any frustrations.

- It is normal for a conversation to be highly animated, with many interruptions, many statements of “no” being interjected and great deal of physical contact.

- Soccer is always a topic for conversation

Greetings

- Greetings can be effusive, with extended handshakes common during the first encounter, progressing to embrace once a friendship has been established.

- Women often kiss each other on alternating cheeks.

- It is polite to shake hands with everyone present in a group, both upon arrival and upon departure

Gestures

- Brazilians communicate in extremely close proximity. They may keep in physical contact by touching arms, hands or shoulders during the entire conversation

- The sign for “okay” in North America (a circle of first finger and thumb) is totally unacceptable in Brazil. It is considered vulgar.

- To signal “come here”, extend your palm face down and wave your fingers toward your body.

- Snapping your fingers while whipping your hand up and down adds emphasis to a statement or can indicate “long ago”.

- To invoke good luck, place your thumb between your index and middle fingers while making a fist.

- Flicking the fingertips underneath the chin indicates that you do not know the answer to a question.

My own experiences with the certain culture

As I have spent 15 months living and working in Bahia, Brazil, I tried to complement the given information with some subjective impressions that I found useful for the role-play:

- In Brazil it is rather unusual to provoke a bad mood. You usually want nobody to feel offended or insecure, that is why you seldom confront someone critically but try to always keep a good mood during the conversation.

- When greeting people or saying goodbye women generally kiss on both cheeks.

- It is rather usual to invite people to your house although you don't know them that well yet.

- Going to the beach as an afternoon activity can be pretty usual in places close to the coast.

- Many brazilians don't feel similarly interested in historical buildings or churches as people from other cultures do. I sometimes heard the words: “That is a very old and dirty building, how come you find it pretty?”

- People much more use their hands to communicate. Verbal expressions are often accompanied by rather loose gestures.

During the Play

For the role-play we were a group of three people representing the Brazilian, the Russian and the North-American culture. Although the guidelines given by Morrison are rather useful for business situations we decided to choose a situation that we felt more experienced with. Therefore we presented a scene in which three students from three different countries meet in a foreign country, getting to know each other and trying to plan a weekend trip together.

As the brazilian part I was the one coming a bit to late but then greeted the others very effusively. When we talked about our last weekend I told the others about my family that came visiting me. I said I had a boyfriend that I was soon going to marry and that then we would move together in the house next to his family. I also acted very interested in getting to know more about the other's families. I showed a lot of pictures from the last weekend and when it was about to plan for an activity together I was very intent on going to a beach or a typical tourist attraction. I showed that I didn't like the idea of traveling to an old castle. During the whole conversation I acted very opened and interested in everything the others said. I made some compliments, invited both to my marriage next year and tried to gesture a lot and have more body contact than I am used to in conversations.

Experience, Reaction and Discussion

Both preparing and performing the role-play made me feel very uncomfortable. I realised that a role-play like that can not be done without exaggerations and stereotypes. As I have already experienced the brazilian culture in a more diverse way than I could present during this play it didn't feel satisfying to me present it in such a simplified way.

While presenting the three different cultures it didn't take a long time until the other students guessed who of us represented which culture. Most of the comments and movements we made in order to present our culture provoke a laugh. Later on during the discussion the other student explained how it was funny to watch the play, because they recognised their own stereotypes they had about the certain cultures.

Through that we started discussing what stereotypes are, what advantages and disadvantages they have:

Stereotypes are mental simplifications of complex qualities and habits of groups of people. We need stereotypes in order to orientate ourselves in a complex surrounding and in order to simplify our interaction with other people. Stereotypes are not realistic but always an attempt to take the quality or habit that is shared by most people of a group as a generalisation for the whole group. Therefore using stereotypes is a very ordinary and common procedure and shouldn't be seen as something negative in general. What is important and necessary is to always be aware of the simplification and reduction of reality while speaking or thinking in stereotypes.

Comparing stereotypes and prejudices we came to the following conclusion:

A prejudice is usually not based on actual experiences or perceptions of something (as stereotypes are). It is rather an unreflected emotional judgement and therefore generally to be seen as something more negative.

Literature

Morrison, Terri/Conaway, Wayne A.: “Kiss, bow or shake hands : The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries” 2nd Edition, Adams Media (2006), pp. 63-70

Documentation of the Role Play

by Tabea G

August 25, 2013

Comparing Cultures

Documentation of the Role Play

Frederike R representing Brazil

Leon V representing Russia

Tabea G representing North America

I chose the culture of North American because I have visited the United States several times, and during each stay I found many characteristics which irritated or amused me, although most of the characteristics were things I already knew from stereotyping and prejudices.

One is quickly lead to the idea of Americans being completely different than Germans, but when taking a closer look at the basic values and cultural beliefs of America you will soon find out that they differ less from the Germans in many aspects. One of the shared values (especially in business surroundings) is e.g. punctuality.

Seeing the differences and shared values at the same time I found it interesting to act out in this culture we all think to know so well.

Characteristics I found:

• It is very important to be in a good mood (to be uplifted, energetic, see the positive).
• It is preferred to agree than to disagree and to welcome new ideas.
• Being polite (be nice!) often is more important than to be honest.
• Many U.S. Americans have a strong connection with their country. (Which often is accompanied

by not knowing about other countries, little geographic knowledge)

• Most Americans have a strong need for security. They try to make things as safe as possible. For

reasons of “safety” and the identification with the country, many support the army and the idea of patriotism.

• Americans are fascinated by old things (buildings, etc.). Probably because their culture

(civilization) is still so young that they don't have very old things.

• Things should be easy, quick, effective and efficient.
• Time is money. So don't waste it.
• It is important to be reliable.
• In the USA there's an immense range of products for every need.
• In the average woman talk in a higher, men in a lower voice than Germans.
• Young people very often use the word “like” as a fill word.

Characteristics from Terri Morrison1:

Greetings

• Compliments are exchanged very often. They compliment something that a person has (clothing,

etc.) or has done (sports, work, etc.).

• Until they know someone very well they avoid discussing controversial topics such as religion,

money, politics.

• Common topics of conversation are a person's job, travel, foods (and dieting), exercise, sports,

movies and books.

• The standard greeting is a smile, often accompanied by a nod, wave, and/or verbal greeting.
• In business situations a handshake is used. It is very firm. Weak handshakes are taken as a sign of

weakness. Men usually wait for women to offer their hand before shaking.

• Good friends and family members usually embrace, finishing the embrace with a pat or two on

the back.

• In casual situations a smile and a verbal greeting is adequate.
• If they see an acquaintance in the distance, a wave is appropriate.
• The greeting “How are you?” is not an inquiry about ones health. The response is short, such as

“Fine, thanks.” Gestures

• Direct eye contact shows that you are sincere, although it should not be too intense.
• The standard space between conversation partners should be about two feet.
• When sitting, U.S citizens often look very relaxed. They may sit with the ankle of one leg on

their knee or prop their feet up on chairs or desks.

Gifts

• As U.S citizens tend to be wrenched at geography, any gift that describes the location of another

country is a good choice: a colorful map, a globe, etc. Appointments

• Punctuality is highly emphasized. If they are delayed, they call to let their contact know.
• It is necessary to fix appointments beforehand (e.g. by calling).

1 Terrri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway, George A. Borden, Ph.D.: Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands. How to Do Business in Sixty Countries. Adams Media Corporation. Holbrook, Massachusetts 1994

Looking at the characteristics listed I can't find any inconsistencies - but a lot of supplements. My list is more or less a cluster of facts I think of daily situations I experienced with Americans. The book on the other hand contains information with a special focus on business practices, which was quite interesting to find out about as this is an area I haven't had much contact with yet. For the role play (and the list above)

I only took those points into consideration which were relevant for a demonstration of three young students meeting in an informal surrounding.

During the preparations of the role play we realized how difficult it is to demonstrate these points in this short amount of time without completely exaggerating the characters. When we tried to play them authentically in our rehearsal we had to admit that this way no audience would manage to find out which nationalities we are representing. So finally we decided to dare some stereotyping for the sake of recognisability.

The group enacted the following situation:

Three Erasmus students meet for the second time in a foreign country and make plans for the weekend together.

Tabea (T) is already waiting for the others to come. She checks her watch.

Leon (L) enters. T waves from the distance and puts on a big smile, greeting with “Hi” and “How are you?”. L is a little irritated a reserved.

They start a small conversation about the bus and the traffic.

Frederike (F) enters with a noisy “Hello”, trying to kiss L and T. They both hesitate, T gives in, L stays distant, making it impossible for F to reach him.

After talking about what they did the few last days, the three students enter a conversation about the subjects of family, living environment in their home country and marital status. F is constantly touching her counter persons, talking very positively and interrupting the others several times. T comments everything that's said with positive adjectives (“Oh, that's so cool,...”). L acts very passively at the beginning of the conversation but loosens up in the procedure, talking about himself a little more.

T tries to bring the topic to their planning for the next weekend. They have different preferences and start a small discussion but in the end they find a solution together.

F complements T's hair while touching it. T states that she uses great hair products.

T wants to fix an exact time for the meeting, the other give her a “around four or five”-answer.

They say goodbye with confusion if to wave, kiss, hug or shake hands and part.

Stereotypes used (USA):

being on time, wanting to make plans fix, not knowing about other countries, finding everything “so wonderful”, saying “like” all the time (“Well, you know, it's just like so much traffic here!), wanting to see all the “old stuff” of the foreign country, being very “girly” and bubbly, superficial, having a boyfriend who “serves the country” as a soldier.

The audience was able to match our characters with nationalities very quickly (or at least cultural groups – they allocated Frederike with “Latin American”) and could also reason their guesses. Most of the audience laughed in several situations. They afterwards confirmed that they enjoyed the moments when they could recognize certain characteristics and that these moments were experienced as “funny”. Some critiqued the exaggeration saying that it gave a negative or wrong impression of the nations.

As the characterization of a culture can only be done if you look at a group of people you always have do make generalizations. Individuals only show certain aspect of the considered culture and often live aspects from other cultures, so a culture can never be reflected by one person. (It is questionable if it is possible to find a “pure” culture at all.)

The presentation ended in a discussion about stereotypes and if they are avoidable or simply part of human nature.