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Post #3 – Stereotypes

After my first week living in the studio an opportunity arose for me to switch to a host family, an opportunity that I immediately seized. I’m now living with an older lady and her cat. She’s been hosting students from all around the world for around a decade, but does not host a lot of American boys. This makes sense to me, French isn’t particularly popular with American boys. She’s formed a stereotype of American boys from the few that have stayed with her and from the many American girls that have stayed with her as well. Her view of American boys is somewhat negative. She views them as unintentionally rude and less social, often choosing to eat dinner alone. She says that American boys seem generally less engaged than boys from other countries, and definitely less engaged than girls. 

I understand why she views American boys in this way. I know a lot of guys who are generally less engaged and enthusiastic about academic pursuits, especially when compared to girls. I could see this being more pronounced when visiting France, especially in a program like mine which is very female heavy. I doubt that living with a single woman and her cat helped with their enthusiasm. Thankfully, I do not find this to be the case for myself, and am really enjoying living with my host mother. The food is amazing, and the cultural immersion has been doing wonders for my linguistic and cultural comprehension.

I do hold a similar autostereotype of American boys to my host mom. In the context of academics I do view American boys as typically less motivated than girls. From kindergarten to twelfth grade the smartest and most dedicated people in class were generally girls. I remember most boys not really caring about academics except for the one day each year that class rankings were released. Then they really cared but that was only because of their competitive spirit. For me, reflecting on this heterostereotype was not particularly difficult because it is very similar to this autostereotype that I hold. I know that stereotypes do not apply universally, and I can only worry about how I keep this stereotype from applying to myself.

Also, I took up the lady on the train’s offer to visit her countryside estate, it was a fantastic experience.

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Post #2 – Critical Incidents

On the TGV from Paris to Avignon, I sat next to a very nice English lady. We spoke throughout the train ride, and at the end, she offered me a ride with her husband to the hostel I was staying at. Growing up, I was always taught to be wary of strangers, stranger danger! Getting in the car of a stranger on my first day in a country I’d never been to before did not seem like the greatest of ideas. However, I had spoken with this woman for two hours on the train and I didn’t feel any alarms go off. So, I decided to take up her offer. I made it safely to the hostel and even got to meet her new puppy in the car. She’s since invited me (and a friend) to her and her husband’s countryside estate. I think I’ll take her up on the offer.

The critical incident here is the interactions I’ve had with others regarding this offer to the countryside. The other Americans in the program all think I’m crazy. They say this sounds like the beginning of a horror movie. And I do admit that it does seem a little crazy. Going out to the countryside estate of a woman I met on the train in a foreign country does sound like the beginning of a horror movie. But when I speak with someone who’s French, they say that this is a wonderful opportunity. They don’t seem to see any of the red flags my American counterparts do. When I was telling one of my French professors about the opportunity, two of my classmates were laughing about how bizarre the situation seemed to them. My professor asked them why they were laughing.

The culture surrounding strangers and hospitality here in France is completely different from the United States. In American culture there is a sort of fog blocking our view of strangers. A fog that forces us to keep our guards up, instantly labeling strangers as dangerous. This fog disperses for the French. It’s still there, they don’t just blindly trust strangers, but it does not completely cloud their view. Instead of mainly seeing the fog, they see a chance for genuine human interaction. Where Americans see danger, the French see an opportunity for new experiences and connection. In my opinion, this creates a much more cordial society of strangers. A society in which we don’t immediately assume the worst of those we don’t know. A society that encourages kindness towards others.

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Cultural Dimensions

I have known about Hofstede’s work on cultural dimensions since high school when I took IB psychology. And I have always appreciated how useful it was to have some language that helped discuss some of the notable patterns in cultural differences between countries.

However, I believe my thoughts on cultural dimensions have gained more nuance now that I have been able to be apart of culture different than my home cultures for two months.

I specifically want to articulate my thoughts on the Individualism—Collectivism dimension. Costa Rica scores compared to Japan and the US (my home countries) as the following:

Individualism— 15 (CR); 46 (JPN); 91 (US)

As the scores indicates, the US scores the highest relatively on the individualism scale, making Costa Rica the least individualistic out of the three and Japan right around the middle.

Growing up constantly comparing the US and Japan (my two cultures) had manifested Japan as almost a baseline for what I consider to be a collectivistic culture and the US as an individualistic one (although I recognise this is my metacognition being lazy and wanting to simplify concepts).

I can understand why Japan is almost at the cusp between being considered more collectivistic or individualistic as it is not exactly collectivistic perhaps in our traditional sense of family, but more so in regards to company loyalty and the overall population/environment.

I think this is the major difference that made me at first question why Japan scored higher than Costa Rica on this scale. Because to me, Japan is more collectivistic (as in there is a difference to how that is defined to me perhaps compared to the Hofstede Insights team).

From my observations petty crime is much lower in Japan (as there tends to be feelings of obligation to look after others even if they are strangers), whereas petty crime is quite high in Costa Rica. Or even the cities tend to be cleaner in Japan as again, there is a sense of responsibility felt towards how we as individuals are impacting our environments which did not seem to be as prevalent in Costa Rica (and mind you, on a whole the cities in Japan are more populated than the ones in Costa Rica).

However, the way Costa Rica was more collective showed up in their family cultures. Ticos care deeply about their family bonds, often living close to their extended family, spending holidays (even small ones) or weekends with them.

In comparison, I saw my extended family in Japan and even in the US maybe for major holidays once or twice a year only because we all lived far apart from each other. Even on a day to day basis my host parents spent a lot of time with each other, whereas people and parents in Japan typically work extremely long hours every day.

Overall, this has made me think deeply about what makes a culture collectivistic and what “group” responsibilities mean to each culture.

From my perspective, although family priorities can be viewed as collectivistic, this still feels relatively more individualistic than collectivistic for me because you were born into these families, it has become an extension of the self.

In comparison, looking out for your impact towards complete strangers feel more collectivistic because it feels more concerned with the community as a whole than your family that you have perhaps more of a direct care for or stake in.

However, I acknowledge that perhaps as the social contract theory theorises, looking out for strangers come with the trust that they will look after for you in return, so perhaps it is still self-serving in a way.

I wonder if therefore, it would be more beneficial to think about what type of group orientations exist within cultures than to just say that they are relatively more collective as clearly that can appear in many ways. And what cultures count as the extension of the self and therefore we can determine perhaps that some countries are more individualistic than first meets the eye.

All in all, something I have been thinking about a lot regarding the dimensions is how they all work a lot more dynamically together. For example, if Ticos are more family oriented this directly could be influencing also the more indulgent or feminine (nurturant) aspects of the culture I have observed. Specifically, as spending time with family requires a balance with work and the ability to share perhaps more intimate vulnerable parts of yourselves within those circles.

This is all to say, cultural dimensions are clearly a great jumping point and there can be some expansions on the way we even define the dimensions; could cultures even be placed on spectrums or is each country like it’s own constellation (it’s own thing)?

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Critical Incidents Reflection

One cultural difference I noticed almost immediately upon arriving in Germany was how much more cash is used here. If I’m in the grocery store and have to pay with a card, I have to let the cashier know. While this may seem like a very small difference between the U.S. and Germany, it took a while for me to get used to. I don’t often carry much cash on me at home (if any), because in every store or restaurant I go to in America, it is assumed that people will pay with a credit card. In Germany, it’s not incredibly uncommon for a restaurant or shop to only accept cash. 

It was surprising to me that the types of payment people use most frequently are opposite from where I live. I think this difference stuck out to me because it felt scary at first to have more cash with me. I had a conversation with another American student about this fear and we concluded that our culture has probably taught us that a credit card is safer to carry around. Unlike cash, money stolen by the use of a credit card is easily traceable. Talking through this cultural difference with my friend helped me to better understand why this change of payment type was such an adjustment for me.