The readings “Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context” by Geert Hofstede, “How Cultures Collide” by Edward T. and Elizabeth Hall and “The Role of Culture and Perception in Communication” by Marshall Singer present different models, terminologies and definitions to expose the phenomenon of culture according to each’s author individual perspective. By understanding what culture is, one can also comprehend the meaning and importance of intercultural communication.
Hofstede compares the spectrum of cultures with his five cultural dimensions model. This model uses femininity vs. muscularity, individualism vs. collectivism, the distribution of power, weak-strong uncertainty avoidance and short-long term oriented societies to …show more content…
I highly support Singer’s point of view in terms that culture is individual because forging a “culture” to a group of people eliminates certain aspects of self-identity. Connecting this thought to Hall’s perspective allows us to get in touch with characteristics that represent a society such as high-low context culture. For me, this is a subject that makes us retrospect and think about our own particular cultures. Coming from Puerto Rico and being part of the United States creates a big confusion for the Puerto Rican people because we are considered to be a high context culture. We use many hand gestures in a conversation, patriotism allows to trust ourselves as Puerto Ricans because we like to believe that we are all in this together as a group of people. However, since the United States has being molding little by little our society, businesses and government we are slowly loosing our Puerto Rican identity and becoming more like the American people, which means that now we are in the middle of the line of high-low context. Being in the middle has made certain Puerto Ricans change some of their ways of expression and communication because it’s something we have learned over the years of this transition. This relationship is not only causing us to be in the middle of the line but it is also giving each person a different individuality, some of us are now going through a mono chronic process. Even though we can still differentiate the American culture with the Puerto Rican culture with Hofstede 's five dimensional model it’s an ongoing process that we are going through. This is the reason why I support Singer’s idea more than the others just because it gives each individual the opportunity to be unique without categorizing them in a classification, all of us go through different situations and experiences that allow us to be
Hofstede compares the spectrum of cultures with his five cultural dimensions model. This model uses femininity vs. muscularity, individualism vs. collectivism, the distribution of power, weak-strong uncertainty avoidance and short-long term oriented societies to …show more content…
I highly support Singer’s point of view in terms that culture is individual because forging a “culture” to a group of people eliminates certain aspects of self-identity. Connecting this thought to Hall’s perspective allows us to get in touch with characteristics that represent a society such as high-low context culture. For me, this is a subject that makes us retrospect and think about our own particular cultures. Coming from Puerto Rico and being part of the United States creates a big confusion for the Puerto Rican people because we are considered to be a high context culture. We use many hand gestures in a conversation, patriotism allows to trust ourselves as Puerto Ricans because we like to believe that we are all in this together as a group of people. However, since the United States has being molding little by little our society, businesses and government we are slowly loosing our Puerto Rican identity and becoming more like the American people, which means that now we are in the middle of the line of high-low context. Being in the middle has made certain Puerto Ricans change some of their ways of expression and communication because it’s something we have learned over the years of this transition. This relationship is not only causing us to be in the middle of the line but it is also giving each person a different individuality, some of us are now going through a mono chronic process. Even though we can still differentiate the American culture with the Puerto Rican culture with Hofstede 's five dimensional model it’s an ongoing process that we are going through. This is the reason why I support Singer’s idea more than the others just because it gives each individual the opportunity to be unique without categorizing them in a classification, all of us go through different situations and experiences that allow us to be