Protocol in different cultures.

[Mark Nimar]

The articles' treatment of Americans frustrated me in the article.
Yes, we may do things differently than other cultures, but that does
not make Americans an inferior people. If I were writing the article,
I would not have emphasizes American's alleged impoliteness, but would
have emphasized the diversity of customs and protocol among different
cultures. So, I guess my question is this: How is how we judge other
cultures' customs a reflection of our society?

[Sloane.Brazina]

In response to Mark’s post, I agree the article strongly implied
American ignorance towards customs of other cultures. While this is a
great generalization and probably very offensive to many Americans, I
would argue there is some legitimacy to the label Uncle Sam bears.
Due to geography, it is much easier for a citizen of, say, Germany to
be considered “worldly” or of commendable cultural etiquette. The
nations of Europe are, on average, small in size, enabling relatively
easy access to neighboring countries. Also keep in mind most
Europeans are at least bilingual, greatly simplifying frequent
“foreign” travel. It is no wonder Europeans are often considered
sophisticated when it comes to etiquette; they are constantly
subjected to unique customs. To simplify with a cliché, “Practice
makes perfect.” When you are within close proximity of diverse
nations and frequently subjected to their lifestyles, it is very easy
to pick up on the various “How-To”s.

Contrast with the typical American. We live in a very large
country with only two neighboring nations, making regular
international transportation expensive and difficult. Although
Spanish is spoken widespread, from coast to coast our primary language
is English and English alone. In the States, it is very possible to
successfully live your life without uttering a single word of a
foreign tongue. If you are traveling outside of the United States,
however, it would be VERY wise to do your research beforehand,
especially since many of us live in 'worldly isolation.' In summary,
I am arguing Americans can’t be blamed for our “ignorance” of other
cultures because we are simply not subjected to them on a regular
basis. You are ignorant, however, if you were to travel without at
least some sensitivity and respect towards the practices of that
nation.

[Sophia Hantzis]

I agree with Mark and Sloane I think that the author was making
Americans seem impolite and stupid. I also agree that the author
should have focused on the diversity of customs in different
countries. But i also agree with the quote from Tufts' Salacuse. Its
important to make sure you know a countries customs before you travel
there. This prevents anyone from coming off as rude or impolite and
shows that you made a effort to try and learn their customs.

[richard...@comcast.net]

Mark i dont think he was trying to say that americans are inferior. I
think he was trying to say that the majority of american citizens are
not as traveled and do not know the cultures as well as they could.
And going to Sloan's point in europe countries are smaller and close
together making travels easier, whereas in the states it is more
difficult. Although we do have a disadvantage in the U.S., i believe
we still can do better job understanding the cultures of countries we
are about to visit. Espically now with the internet its very easy.

[janzer]

Mark, this is a very interesting question. You definitely looked at
this issue differently from me.
I saw it as the author taking note of the perception of Americans
around the globe, rather than voicing his own opinions on the behavior
of American travelors and businessmen. However, I agree that he did
bring a very negative tone to the commentary. I did like how he was
very factual in his opinions, as that leaves much of the
interpretation up to the reader. The way he wrote it, the reader can
use his or her own inference based on the facts. I like this, because
it is a piece from USA Today, where the reader will likely be familiar
with American culture already, and can take a variety of messages from
the article. I think this behavior could be an effect of
globalization, as it may simply be too much information for an average
person to memorize. That said, I completely see your point, and agree
with you, to a degree.

[Lucy Fandel]

To Mark's question:
I agree that this article is focusing too much on the
"harmful" mistakes of many influential Americans. It makes it seem
that we find no importance in preparing ourselves to enter into
different cultures. Near the end of the article though the author
mentions some companies that educate employees before sending them
into foreign situations, in order to protect their business relations.
This seems like the better solution. If the only goal of the traveler
is to make good deals then yes the companies should worry. Look at
recent slips such as Michelle Obama's, in visiting the Queen of
England, though. If you don't remember, she warmly put her arm around
the Queen's shoulders for a picture. Apparently you never touch the
Queen, who just laughed it off, even though the press obsessed over
it. It was great though because it shook everyone up a bit, they
didn't have to be so up-tight about every little gesture.
I think if that sort of thing could happen to other countries,
where they are a little shocked into seeing the other cultures' though
processes, "wrong" behaviors would no longer be so terrible. Countries
kept in isolation,won't understand and will be less tolerant.

[Alex Steinroeder]

Lucy, I also enjoyed when the Queen of England just thought that
Michelle Obama's mistake was comical. If more people were like her,
the cultural arguments would not surface as much. I understand that
certain nations feel very strongly about their rituals and the U.S.
should acknowledge this and be respectful of them, but the nations
should not get so angry by the careless actions of the american
businessmen. Now if the businessman fails to correct himself after the
first mistake, then it is reasonable for the nations to get mad
because failing to do something meaningful to another person after
they have already asked once is just obnoxious. After all of the
mistakes that have occured by american businessmen, the other
countries should somewhat expect americans to know all of their
cultural mannerisms and politely remind them of it. If that does not
work then they have a right to end negotiations.

[Maya Allen]

I agree with Mark and Sloane, as well. The author of the article is
definitely focusing more on how AMERICANS offend those from other
cultures, and how AMERICANS need to learn how to respect other
countries' customs and formalities. The article mentions nothing
about all of the foreign business people who offended Americans or
people of any other country. It is not only Americans who must adapt
to the ways of those who they must do business with. If adapting to
other people's customs shows respect, then they must return that
courtesy. It is a give and take, not a take and take. This also
brings up another question I have that this article somewhat gives
evidence of, but it's a little bit off topic: If there are all these
stereotypes about people from India, Germany, Africa, etc., why are
Americans deemed the bully of world? Is it because of our invasion of
other countries? Or maybe the fact that they are bitter of our
success? Do you think that many nations' decisions to be "Anti-
American" is a way for them to join forces and find things in common?

[btay...@colonial.net]

Richard, I partially agree with what you said. I think that the author
is definitely not trying to say that Americans are inferior people,
and he is saying that we are just not very savvy to other nations
customs. We could be better, but again, I found in the article some
aspects of other cultures that would not be accepted here (slurping
noodles as loud as possible?). Yet this specific aspect and other
aspects of other cultures mentioned were not said to be impolite in
the article when in fact they are. If we are supposed to learn other
customs, it seems that it should have been mentioned that other
cultures have aspects that would not be accepted here.

In response to Lucy, I agree that we need to have all nations,
including our own, exposed to the customs of other nations more than
we are now. With familiarity comes understanding, and if you
understand that a faux pas was probably unintentional and not meant to
be harmful, then these cultural and etiquette problems would not be as
widespread. This article did a somewhat good job in exposing the
customs of others to us, yet i feel our customs should be exposed to
other nations better in possibly this format so that there will be
more mutual understanding

[Alex Steinroeder]

Here is a link to a youtube clip about how childish it was that the
media were all stirred up about Michelle Obama touching the queen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQoaNxcYgo

On Sep 8, 9:59 pm, "btaylo...@colonial.net" <btaylo...@colonial.net>
wrote:

[Dominic Ryder]

I agree that this article seems overly focused on the mistakes of
Americans, and ignoring the mistakes others may have made. An article
such as this should, in my opinion, give information from various
sides of an argument, or event. I did find it easy to see, however,
why Americans have a bad reputation when it comes to courtesy. Some of
the blunders in the article seemed to me like shouldn't have happened,
even going by an american system of courtesy: one simply does not
swear in an important meeting, or refuse to greet an important guest
in person. It seems to me that Americans' reputation for bad manners
is, in part, well deserved.

[Maya Allen]

As a response to Alex's link that showed Michelle Obama touching the
Queen's back, I think that they newscaster was correct in saying that
the gesture was acceptable. As Alex pointed out, the Queen laughed it
off even though the media and everyone made such a big deal out of
it. People hosting have to respect the visitors, just as the visitors
respect the host. If someone does something offensive in your own
culture, you also must be aware that it could be "good" or
"acceptable" in THAT person's culture. You should be able to tell not
only what's offensive or bad in other cultures, but also what is good,
so that you will be less offended by something that, to that person,
is a compliment or acceptable.

On Sep 8, 10:01 pm, Alex Steinroeder <alsteinroed...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Here is a link to a youtube clip about how childish it was that the

> media were all stirred up about Michelle Obama touching the queenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQoaNxcYgo

[jmcke...@colonial.net]

I agree with Maya in that I think cultural exchanges have to go both
ways. Meaning that both sides must make an effort to accept cultural
differences between the two, while also trying to conform to their
standards. If they do not conform to the other's standards it should
only be seen as a mistake, as the link earlier suggested.

I'll also agree with Mark in that I do believe the article had a
somewhat one sided view of the issue, whether warranted or not.

[Dixie Morrison]

Even though the author presented facts, he was very selective in how
he chose which facts to present, and he consistently chose ones that
showed Americans as the bumbling offenders. This article is biased.

That said, I think the author inadvertently revealed shortcomings in
other countries' cultures, ones that Americans should not have been
expected to anticipate, most notably the left-handed scandal in India.
One out of ten people is left-handed. They can't help this. Europeans
figured out hundreds of years ago that there is no point in fighting
this particular chromosomal arrangement. If a left-handed person is
scolded in India for using the hand with which they are most likely to
do a competent job, I think they are quite within their rights to
inform the Indians that labeling left-handedness "inauspicious" (and
something that almost killed a deal? Come on!) is, I'll say it,
downright backwards.

This wasn't mentioned in the article, but what about the many
countries with which America does business where women or minorities
are legally second-class citizens? Should a woman representative
travel to one of these places, would they refuse to do business with
her based on her gender? Maybe not. But maybe so. Just because a
country has a "culture" doesn't always mean that all aspects of said
culture should be respected. And yes, that goes for America, as well.