The following was prepared in 2002 Jan- Feb at IIM A for possible publication as a movie review. Most movies that I like involve some kind of cross cultural difference that deliberately or inadvertanly the director portrays...
Developing sensitivity to cultural differences - movie as a tool
The student of cross cultural management, the prospective migrant or the expatriate employee needs to develop a sensitivity to cultural differences.
A discussion on culture mainly provides two difficulties. First, many have not had the opportunity to observe various cultures, as to understand the subject from an objective point of view. And even when someone had the prospect, they may not have looked at the same from a cross-cultural perspective. The layperson is likely less sensitized as to understand why values, norms and practices are different elsewhere at a given time.
A juxtaposition of different cultures in real life would be an aid in such an understanding, but in real time, such contrasts are difficult to capture.
A second difficulty is that everyone trying to explain cross culturism are themselves talking from a cultural paradigm of their own. The difficulty is more, when the exponent and the listener belongs to the same cultural milieu. A better alternative would be a third person explaining the difficulties faced while dealing with different cultures. This goes very well with the observation that it is when a foreigner comments on one’s own culture that one become aware of the peculiarity or even absurdity of one’s own culture. This approach of viewing at culture from the outsider’s point of view is called the ‘etic’ perspective as opposed to the ‘emic’ perspective that looks at the culture from the insider’s point of view.
For instance, the comments about the lack of regard for time and timeliness by a westerner would come as a surprise to many an Indian. “Why should someone be concerned about the tardiness? (For example in the post office.) Are they not incidentals that need to be factored in”? These might be the reaction of the Indian. To the westerner nurtured in a culture where time is a resource to be utilized or saved or spent productively, this attitude might be inscrutable, as many an anecdote by foreigners testify.
Understanding a culture involves to a great degree an understanding of one’s own cultural biases. To form a basis for understanding one’s own cultural biases, the best way is to be exposed to a completely different culture. The more discrepant one’s own culture and the culture one is newly exposed to, the more one will be able to appreciate the difference without the bias of one’s own culture.
Another method is to live among the people of the culture one is studying as a participant observer. This posits certain obvious limitations. In participant observation, the outsider living with a view to study the host culture, some subtle pressures to conform to the host culture, make it difficult to observe the culture in the true objective sense. Besides the host culture may even be inhibited in the presence of the ‘etic’ outsider.
Since anecdotal illustrations by a person already exposed to another culture, capture the interest for a brief moment, a more convenient tool is found in movies that deal with multiple cultures. Many movies are representations of their times in a particular place of a particular time; in other words, the culture of a period. There are some movies that have elements of cultural juxtapositions. These movies can be used to raise sensitivity to aspiring students, prospective migrants, and the expatriate manager.
According to the world culture report, 2000 of the UNESCO, “one of the ways of keeping a community’s culture is to translate its cultural expression into images. However this capacity exists only in about 100 countries around the world. Over a third of all countries representing almost 465 million persons have no cinematographic image to reflect their own culture”. Surely movies showing cultural juxtapositions will be even less in number.
The above observation clearly illustrates movie as a scarce but potent preservation of national cultures, which may be tapped for cross cultural study.
A case illustration of use of movie as a vehicle to cultural sensitivity
The movie “Witness”, in which Harrison Ford and Kelly Mc Gillis star is a story set amidst the Amish community of Pennsylvania in the US contrasting sharply with the mainstream American culture. The movie depicts in a very subtle way the differences of the mainstream American ways of individualism and the collective living of the Amish. The student, particularly one from a third culture, properly oriented should be able to discern the cultural contrasts.
Most are aware of the mainstream American culture. However, the Amish are a religious group who live in settlements in different states of the USA and Ontario, Canada. The members of the Amish community stress humility, family and community, and separation from the world. They have mixed European ancestry. They differ in matters of dress, technology, language, form of worship, and interpretation of the Bible.
Although the Amish look like they stepped out of the rural nineteenth century, in fact they do change. Their lives move more slowly than the mainstream. They choose to examine change carefully before they accept it. This brings out the continuity aspect of culture; culture tries to preserve itself, at the same time it seeks to adapt and change. Too fast a change is what Alvin Toffler referred to as resulting in culture shock.
If a new idea (symbolic part of culture) or gadget (material part of culture) does not assist in keeping their lives simple and their families together, the Amish probably will reject the same. Old order groups of Amish all drive horses and buggies rather than cars, do not have electricity in their homes, and send their children to private, one-room schoolhouses, all images well brought out by the movie.
Language is an important symbolic dimension and transmitter of culture. Most Amish are trilingual. They speak a dialect of German called Pennsylvania Dutch at home; they use High German at their worship services; and they learn English at school. They speak English when they deal with anyone who is not Amish.
Culture is defined as a shared set of beliefs values and norms. The Amish are a private people who believe God has kept them together despite pressure to change from the modern world. They are not perfect, but they are a strong example of a community that supports and cares for its members, an aspect that strongly contrasts with the individualistic mainstream. They are a people apart; they are also a people together and therefore ideally suited for a meaningful juxtaposition.
The Amish feel their distinctive clothes encourage humility and separation from the world. Their clothing is not a costume; it is an expression of their faith, an example of how the material aspects of culture are an expression of values.
The cultural differences depicted in the movie
The movie brings out the competitive, fiercely individualistic, experimenting, opportunistic, irreverent, anxiety ridden, elements of American mainstream life, which sometimes treats life as secondary to gain.
On the other hand the Amish are portrayed as leading a peace loving, collectivistic, traditional, value based, pious people, celebratory and respectful of life, and more preservative of culture than the mainstream.
The movie can be a potent introduction to developing a sensitivity to cultural differences. Being a movie, the differences are deliberately accentuated to some extent. Although, it may not be directly useful to the student in the business environment, it nevertheless can sensitize the student to look for cultural differences. And being an otherwise enjoyable movie, it is expected that it would be an innovative way of disseminating the concept.
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