The Basque people have throughout history endured a prolonged fight for their right to become an independent country and live together in unity. As they are split in two countries, progress seems far away. Furthermore, since they are living in two different countries and, therefore, speaking two different languages communication provides an interesting difference for comparing and contrasting.
This essay shall introduce into the Basque culture regarding their cultural and intercultural issues. Due to the fact that I met last year a Basque from the Spanish side and heard the first time that this culture exists I’ve chosen this topic to find out more about this culture since it seemed really fascinating to me. As it is a small community it is …show more content…
The Basques hold a distinctive language and culture which distinguish themselves from large parts of Europe due to their distinct language. It is one of the oldest languages in Western Europe and the last ancient European language. Euskara, which is the Basque word for the Basque language, is the only western non indigenous language. Even though, there are approximately 2, 4 Million Basques in Spain and approximately 240’000 in France, Basque is spoken by only 25 to 30 percent of the Basque population. And surprisingly there are also 7 dialects, 4 of them in Spain and 3 in France. These dialects can be divided in 25 subdialects. This ethnic group is located in the southwest of France and the northeast of Spain. Since they don’t have their own country they have to live spread over two. Within their region are 7 provinces. Labourd (Lapurdi), Lower Navarre (Baxe Nafarroa) and Soule (Xiberoa) are the French provinces. Biscay (Bizkaia), Guipúzcoa (Gipuzkoa), Navarre (Nafarroa) and Álava (Araba) are the Spanish ones. Therefrom the largest is Navarre which was allowed to have a separate autonomous community. (Basque country) (Morvan, …show more content…
But as they live in Spain and France the following compares Hofstede’s 5 dimensions of both countries. Spain’s high score on Power Distance shows that they are a hierarchical society and accept the hierarchical order. France, on the other hand, has a score which is even higher and indicates the children’s dependence on their parents. This behaviour will be moved to teachers and also superiors later. In this society inequality is accepted to a certain point. The high score of individualism in France is contradictory towards their high score on Power Distance. The children are supposed to take care of themselves and their families. They are taught to be emotionally independent. Spain on the other side is meant to be collectivist, even though, it seems to be clearly individualist. And still teamwork is a natural manner. The score of masculinity is low in both cases. It is sign for equality and that women are important in society. Furthermore, they have the same high amount of uncertainty avoidance and try to evade stress with rules. On the other hand, these rules should not make their lives more complex. In their well-structured lives they try to avoid confrontation and to find emotional safety. Spanish people enjoy living in the moment and don’t think too much about the future, therefore, the long term orientation is on an intermediate score. The French, in contrast, scored higher and are
This essay shall introduce into the Basque culture regarding their cultural and intercultural issues. Due to the fact that I met last year a Basque from the Spanish side and heard the first time that this culture exists I’ve chosen this topic to find out more about this culture since it seemed really fascinating to me. As it is a small community it is …show more content…
The Basques hold a distinctive language and culture which distinguish themselves from large parts of Europe due to their distinct language. It is one of the oldest languages in Western Europe and the last ancient European language. Euskara, which is the Basque word for the Basque language, is the only western non indigenous language. Even though, there are approximately 2, 4 Million Basques in Spain and approximately 240’000 in France, Basque is spoken by only 25 to 30 percent of the Basque population. And surprisingly there are also 7 dialects, 4 of them in Spain and 3 in France. These dialects can be divided in 25 subdialects. This ethnic group is located in the southwest of France and the northeast of Spain. Since they don’t have their own country they have to live spread over two. Within their region are 7 provinces. Labourd (Lapurdi), Lower Navarre (Baxe Nafarroa) and Soule (Xiberoa) are the French provinces. Biscay (Bizkaia), Guipúzcoa (Gipuzkoa), Navarre (Nafarroa) and Álava (Araba) are the Spanish ones. Therefrom the largest is Navarre which was allowed to have a separate autonomous community. (Basque country) (Morvan, …show more content…
But as they live in Spain and France the following compares Hofstede’s 5 dimensions of both countries. Spain’s high score on Power Distance shows that they are a hierarchical society and accept the hierarchical order. France, on the other hand, has a score which is even higher and indicates the children’s dependence on their parents. This behaviour will be moved to teachers and also superiors later. In this society inequality is accepted to a certain point. The high score of individualism in France is contradictory towards their high score on Power Distance. The children are supposed to take care of themselves and their families. They are taught to be emotionally independent. Spain on the other side is meant to be collectivist, even though, it seems to be clearly individualist. And still teamwork is a natural manner. The score of masculinity is low in both cases. It is sign for equality and that women are important in society. Furthermore, they have the same high amount of uncertainty avoidance and try to evade stress with rules. On the other hand, these rules should not make their lives more complex. In their well-structured lives they try to avoid confrontation and to find emotional safety. Spanish people enjoy living in the moment and don’t think too much about the future, therefore, the long term orientation is on an intermediate score. The French, in contrast, scored higher and are