The civilization of people at large has evolved at totally different rates primarily thanks to their geographical position and this has set their culture aside from one another in numerous ways. Nowadays we live in a world filled with cultural diversity and every culture differs from the opposite by varied means and is endlessly evolving.
Matsumoto (1996: 16) describes culture as the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviours shared by a bunch of individuals, communicated from one generation to another (sited in Spencer-Oatey, H. 2012). This determines how each of the members interprets each other’s behaviour and also behaviour of people from another culture. This can cause misinterpretation. Quappe and Cantator explains these misinterpretations can happen when individuals lack awareness of their own beliefs and rules and overlays them on others (Quappe and Cantator 2005).
Which means cultural self-awareness is a prerequisite to being culturally intelligent Throughout the history several scholars have tried to outlined culture however as culture isn’t physical and may solely be felt, it is hard to describe human culture as Spencer-Oatey (2012) express that, Culture cannot be outlined because it is a troublesome term to outline. Therefore, we must be aware of the multicultural society we live in and make an effort to understand other cultures around us. Quappe & Cantatore (2005) explains cultural awareness as the foundation of communication and involves the capability of standing back from ourselves and observing our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions.
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Achieving cultural awareness makes us culturally intelligent because individuals who understand hisher cultural values, beliefs and perception will be able to understand others as well. Our perspective is influenced by our cultural background and knowledge and understanding how other people’s behaviour is influenced by their culture and experience will raise our cultural intelligence (Lieberman, 2012). Therefore, cultural self-awareness is an important step towards being culturally intelligent because if we do not understand how our culture and experiences have influenced our behaviours then we can never understand the same for individuals from a foreign culture.
People from totally different culture react to their surrounds differently as their background and knowledge differs from each other and therefore their perspective is also different . Before coming back to Australia for my higher studies I once visited Japan and I was stunned by the distinction of how these 2 cultures views and reacts to alcohol consumption and the way they behave when drunk. Drinking in Japanese culture is incredibly necessary and principally began as a part of their ritual rites and for these reasons individuals in Japan drink very responsibly and with respect like sake being the foremost respectful alcohol thanks to its wide and intensive use in most ritual rites, whereas from what I observed in Australia, drinking here is principally seen as a recreational activity and in most cases individuals tend to over drink.
Studies by Peele and Brodsky (1982) shows groups that views drinking as a ceremonial act have low possibility to develop several alcohol-related issues of any type, whereas another group, that sees alcohol primarily as some way to flee from stress or to demonstrate one’s strength, is at high risk of developing issues with drinking. As for my culture drinking is seen as a taboo and so individuals tend to cause problems when under the influence of alcohol. Although both the cultural group is drinking similar substance and should behave similarly, but their real-world reaction is influenced by how the individuals and their community perceives alcohol.
The lack of cultural knowingness is common for people traveling to a foreign country for his/her 1st time. After I came to Darwin, Australia the first issue I faced was the inaccessibility of Halal (Denoting to meat ready as prescribed by Muslim law) foods in Woolworths (Casuarina). And since I am a Muslim this was an huge deal for me as I am not allowed to eat Haram (not halal) foods. I accustomed complain all the time as a result of I couldn’t perceive why they might not sell Halal foods. I felt if halal food is accessible in my country then why not in Australia where individuals from totally different religions and cultures live together.
But when I started working for Woolworths, I discussed the issue with my manager and realized that the demand for halal meat is so low that it is not worth the further hands and resources required to organize halal meat since the proportion of Muslim in Darwin is barely about 1.5% (City of Darwin, Community profile 2016). According to Quappe and Cantatore (2005) this cultural behaviour where individuals suppose that their method is the only way is termed the ‘Parochial stage’. Here I was doing the same mistake and blaming others without knowing their side of the story.
However, People’s behaviour is the outcome of the culture they’re raised in and also the experiences they had throughout life and so it’d be wrong to judge individuals from totally different culture as their way of thinking and analysing a situation is different from ours. we need to consider that what’s polite in our culture may be rude in numerous cultures. That’s why we need step down from our position and try to realize their culture, their values and place ourselves in their shoes for higher understanding of their perspective. This makes us a lot more culturally self-aware.
Cultural self-awareness empowers us with the information that we must always judge foreign culture in accordance to their own standards and respect all culture respectively. If we cannot respect other’s cultures how can we expect others to respect ours. This knowledge makes us better culturally intelligent as we are able to cope up with multi-cultural setting. Therefore, being culturally intelligent is convenient for all of us, as all social and business events today have become a lot more globalized and as a result more culturally diverse. This way we will become a lot of globally connected although we are separated by our culture.
References
- Intelligence Brislin, R., Worthley, R., & Macnab, B. (2006). Cultural: Understanding Behaviors that Serve People’s Goals. Grsdsdoup & Organization Management, 31(1), 40-55. https://cdu-edu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo- explore/fulldisplay?docidsd=TN_proquest203375021&context=PC&vid=61CDU&search_sc ope=default_scope&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US
- Lieberman, S. (2012, December 7). Five Wssdays to Build Cultural Intelligence [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.contrarianconsulting.com/five-ways-to-build-cultural-intelligence/
- Peele, S. & Brodsky, Alcohol and Society. How Culture Influences the Way People Drink. Retrieved from http://www.peele.net/lib/sociocul.html
- City of Darwin. Community Pdsdrofile (2016). Religion. Retrieved from https://profile.id.com.au/darwin/religion
- Quappe, S., & Cantatore, G. (2005). Whs is Cultdural Awareness, anyway? How do I build it?. Culturosity.com, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.culturosity.com/pdfshat%20is%20Cultural%20Awareness.pdf
- Spencer-Oatey, H. (2012). What is culture. A compilation of quotations. GlobalPAD Core Concepts https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/globalpad/openhouse/interculturalskills_old/global_p ad_-_what_is_culture.pdf
