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WEEK 7 - CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY

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  German and Italians are different. Of course, they are. However, it doesn’t matter when we are fallen in love. Right? Yep! I had my first embarrassment and sadness in one month of marriage. My husband’s family and mine were in our apartment to have lunch with us that Sunday. After talking to each other a lot, we were ready to have our snack at four o’clock. I set the table exactly what my mom used to do. Suddenly, my husband stood up, opened the drawer, and took several table knives, one for each person at the table. I was so embarrassed. Why did he do that? I said nothing at that moment, but everything was a mess in my mind. At night, I asked him why he did that. He, very surprised, looked at me and said: “Honey, you put only one table knife, but everybody needed one. In my family, we used to have a knife for each person”. Cutting a long story short, I said to him in tears. “In my family home, we used only one table knife, not one for each person.” My husband insulted my family ...
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WEEK 7 - DIFFERENCES IN MANNERS

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  It seems unbelievable that cultural manners change so much from country to country, but they do. Mr. [1] Ivers repeated this advice: “ Try to see how everyone else is doing that !” referring to differences in manners. We learned from our parents the cultural etiquette, and we apply it naturally till today. My mom used to say, “ Little girl, cover your mouth while yawning .” Yes, in Brazil it is considered rude if you don’t cover your mouth when yawning. There are many cultural manners around the world, and we must respect them if we visit or live abroad. Mr. Ivers spoke about some of these etiquettes.  In the United States , if someone asks you a small object and you are far from the person, you can toss it.  In other cultures , you bow and then presents the small piece in your hands, and the other person will pick it up.  As a Brazilian person , I will toss the object too, but only if the person is young. In the United States , if you are eating at the table, put ...
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WEEK 7 - CROSS-CULTURAL STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM

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  Ceará is a state in Brazil located in the northeastern part of the country. Due to a governmental agreement, some university students came to Caxias do Sul to know the culture of the south. On the first days, they were upset because gaucho students were disrespectful and insulted them to go back to Ceará. Cruel words such as "you are lazy people, and the south feed your state." Our professor had heard the rude comments and brought those students to take part in our class the entire week. By doing so, gauchos and cearences compared both cultures and learned from each other. Fortunately, our professor was smart enough to see they had important things to teach us. We found out that cearenses enjoy singing their typical songs and dress in their typical clothes as gauchos do. They sang, danced, and laughed all the time at recess. They always talked to each other happily if the professor was not in class, but if he was there, everybody was in silence. Even though they were noisy ...
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WEEK 6 - ATTRIBUTIONAL TENDENCIES

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  A friend of mine said that her car broke as she was going home after work. It was dark, and she was alone. Suddenly she saw a shabby young man with long hair and tattooed. "He is a pothead. I am sure he is a dangerous person", she thought. Her fear was huge, and she was trembling as that young man approached her. He walked directly to the vehicle, opened the car hood, and fixed what was broken. He said no word and started walking away. She thanked him in a low voice, got in the car, and went away. Did she make incorrect attributions? Well, it seems she did! But what did she see is from her life experience or attributional tendencies, according to her culture? “ Each culture has different attributional tendencies to one degree or another. Sometimes they are similar, but they are always a little different. It depends on what culture it is, [but] in all cultures, we are always attributing things to other things, ” said Mr. [1] Ivers. What are attributions? They are labels, jud...
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WEEK 6 - PERSONAL SPACE DIFFERENCES

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  (https://www.loteagency.com.au/how-does-your-culture-affect-personal-space/ ) When I read the title of the assignment this week, I immediately remembered a picture that I saw on social media. I laughed a lot because it was impossible to be true. Then I did a quick search to find it. Look at it. Bizarre! Nathan Destro designed and entitled it “The Personal Space Protector”. The street test took place in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Don’t worry. It is only a Wits Digital Arts postgrad student testing the “un-useless” invention. Maybe he had the idea by reading what [1] MedRxiv defined as the personal space, “ the area surrounding the body “into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort ”. Well, after hearing Mr. Ivers telling some experiences of sacred personal spaces, I concluded that Nathan’s apparatus is not so crazy. All kidding aside, I know that is a serious issue, and everybody must respect each other spaces eve...
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WEEK 6 - INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM

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  Listening to Professor [1] Ivers teach about individualism and collectivism, I wondered why this subject was necessary if we had already studied cultural paradigms, cultural differences concerning time, and cultural miscommunication. Then, I watched the entire video and discovered the great importance of understanding cultural diversity for my work as an ESL teacher and for business people who deal with multicultural negotiation. Professor Ivers said that in an individualistic oriented-society, people have tolerance for individual mistakes, and in a collectivistic-oriented society (group-oriented society) they have a responsibility for everyone. I could understand better what he said when I read Empada Uhedra's words – a Filipino lady: “ In America (…), a person is encouraged to be independent, to make up his or her mind, and to stand up for his or her rights. Individualism is encouraged among the American youth. (…) However, among Asians [and Latin America] group unity, together...
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WEEK 6 - DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIVITY.

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  I grew up among Italian women speaking loudly, gesticulating wildly during the conversation, and talking to everybody at the same time. It was very messy, but they understood each other. I miss those days a lot because there was a lot of emotion. For sure, my emotional experiences and expressions were shaped by Italians. Well, I got married to a descendant of Germans, and if you can, try to imagine his mind when he started attending my home. Some weeks after his first visit, he asked me if those people were fighting or just speaking. Funny? Yes, I know that! Believe it or not, we are a very happy couple. We found our balance to live well as a family as we were willing to respect low (his) and high (mine) expressivity tolerance. But what is emotional expressivity? According to Professor Ivers, it is the misinterpretation of “ people’s emotions from one culture to another ”.  See the picture below to understand countries that have low tolerance expressivity and high toleranc...
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