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