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Post 6

I learned a lot during my 6-week stay in France this summer. I obviously improved my French significantly thanks not only to the intensive course at the Alliance Française in Paris but also to the numerous interactions with real Parisians. For example, during the weekends, I had the opportunity to help out in a Parish and interacted thus with many different people. I also learned many things about French culture and history by visiting numerous museums and historical sights in and around Paris, like the Louvre, the cathedrals of Chartres and Reims, and the chateaux of Fontainebleau and Chantilly. Primarily, however, the modules of the Summer Language Abroad Program and the blog posts I wrote during the summer helped me become more aware of cultural differences and how to deal with difficult situations, such as the critical incident I described in a previous blog post. In conclusion, I highly recommend that any student take advantage of the Summer Language Abroad Program at Notre Dame and thank all the people involved in the program and all the benefactors who have made this possible. 

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Individualism and Uncertainty Avoidance in the Republic of Georgia

When I first arrived in Georgia, I noticed how much more family oriented the Georgian people were compared to Americans. I lived in an eight person apartment with one bathroom and three bedrooms, and the family structure was very cohesive, all centered around the head of the household (My host Babushka). As the metrics show, Georgia tends to exhibit less individualism and more uncertainty avoidance than the US, and my experience firsthand revealed it to me. There is little culture of independence and moving out of the house upon reaching adulthood. Job stability and simply working to earn a paycheck to live rather than trying to become a 1%er was much more the norm among the populace from what I gleaned, especially compared to Notre Dame students aiming for wall street. Perhaps because Georgia is such a small and relatively homogenous country, there is also a much stronger sense of community in shared values, national history and ethnography. Since the inception of the US individualism as been one of our most cherished national values, and compared to Georgia I believe we tend to exhibit much more individualistic qualities in terms of acquisition of wealth, family, and more. This goes hand in hand with uncertainty avoidance as Americans are in general much bigger risk takers as individual actors, whereas in Georgia preserving old customs through social cohesion and strong communal families seems to be more normal.

I will say there was a sense of yearning among the youth that tended to be more progressive and Europe-oriented for moving to bigger cities and finding prestigious careers, and in this sense it was more western and individualistic. I wish I was thinking more about these cultural dimensions when I was in Georgia, but I think they have their limitations. Applying numbers to culture seems to me like a very mathematical way of viewing the world, and while useful and insightful I do not think everything can necessarily be measured or “metriczised”. The generalized information definitely led to me making some stereotype, but as I said it is important to understand the limitations of the model and my own capabilities of judgement. I think moving forward whenever I find myself in a new place I will try to better understand how my behaviors and values as an American differs and what that means for how our cultures are distinct.

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#4 What’s in a city?

As I’m approaching the final week of my language program I find myself walking around Yerevan more and more, exploring its corners, committing them all to memory. Every evening after classes I go for a long walk—the kind of walk where a purpose would get in the way.

As I walk I become a part of city life.

This city lives in the evenings. The evening crowd is a city landmark sui generis as it moves through open squares, parks lined with art, and streets where elderly men and women sell fruit out of tired baskets. Everything is open: restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacies, supermarkets. Major city buildings, shop windows, streets both wide and narrow light the way around the city. Strong evening winds rustle the leaves of the many trees that line the streets of Yerevan. Stray dogs come up to people looking for love and tenderness. They lean into open palms as people offer them the little bit of time they have on their way to joining city life. The evening walk seems like a ritual event. Men, women, and children dress up just to roam around this city. This city thrives on their energy. And it’s so safe here.

This city sings in the evenings. There’s so much talent on the streets, both immigrant and native. Every few meters a new artist catches your eye. A young band living on a prayer; a group of older men playing traditional Armenian music on traditional instruments; a young classically-trained man trying his hand at street performance. Music blaring from bars and restaurants: Armenian here, Russian or English there, occasionally Persian in between, as city life and history blend into one. The fountains on the central Republic Square put on a show every evening from 9pm for an hour. Lights, water, music—and every night the crowd is huge as people laugh, talk, and celebrate this city against the backdrop of the National History Museum.

But this city also protests in the evenings. Every few days crowds with banners, flags, and megaphones gather on one of the major streets and make their way around this city. Because while Yerevan lives, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh face violence and famine. The lives of Nagorno-Karabakh haven’t been safe, or even guaranteed, in decades. And so few people in the world know of their plight, and even less care. “A tiny place in constant conflict since the 1990s,” said Vice News about Nagorno-Karabakh just a day or so ago. It’s not a tiny place “in conflict”. It’s a place that is home to around one hundred and fifty thousand people—real lives, who have been resisting genocide for decades. Those are Armenian lives, constantly threatened by Azerbaijan who is currently blocking humanitarian aid to the region. People have started dying of starvation and related illnesses. Trucks with food and medicine wait to be let through into the area. But Nagorno-Karabakh lies within the borders of Azerbaijan, and their answer is “no.” So when Yerevan comes out to protest it shouts for those whose voices are silenced by Azerbaijan and the oil money it hands out to critics like ear plugs.

And when Yerevan lives in the evenings, it lives loudly—because it lives in protest.
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“Hearts with one purpose alone   
Through summer and winter seem   
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,   
The rider, the birds that range   
From cloud to tumbling cloud,   
Minute by minute they change;   
A shadow of cloud on the stream   
Changes minute by minute;   
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,   
And a horse plashes within it;   
The long-legged moor-hens dive,   
And hens to moor-cocks call;   
Minute by minute they live:   
The stone’s in the midst of all.”
—W.B. Yeats Easter, 1916

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Post 5

I would like to compare France, my host country, and Germany, my home country, on two dimensions using the Hofestede Insights Country Comparison Tool, namely the Individualism and the Uncertainty Avoidance scale.  On the Individualism score, both countries score rather high, that is 71 for France and 67 for Germany. However, it is very interesting that France also has a rather high score on the Power Distance scale (68) when compared to Germany (35) or other countries that score equally high on the Individualism scale. As written in the Hofstede Insights Country Comparison Tool, a typical reflection of this high Power Distance contrary to formal obedience is the total rejection of those in power as there is no way to change by evolution but only by strikes, revolts, and revolution. I certainly noticed that in France employers and trade unions strike more often and more violently than in Germany. Similarly, I was told several times during my stay in France, that companies in France are more hierarchically run than in Germany. 

            On the Uncertainty Avoidance Scale, both countries are among the uncertainty avoidant countries; their scores are on the high end, but France scores significantly higher (86) than Germany (65). Yet again, as one can read in the Hofestede report, given the high score on Power Distance in France, which means that power holders have privileges, power holders don’t necessarily feel obliged to follow all those rules which are meant to control the people in the street. This is I think rather different than in Germany and more similar to other Latin countries.