Cultural Sensitivity: Training The YEO Dennis White dkwhite@itol yeoresources

2. Cultural Sensitivity: Training The YEO Dennis White dkwhite@itol.com www.yeoresources.org

3. Or … What every YEO should know about training YE participants about culture

4. This presentation and all others of mine at this conference may be found at www.yeoresources.org When viewed on line, clicking on any of the underlined hyperlinks will take the viewer to additional articles, presentations and resources.

6. The ultimate in Multi-tasking? USA Canada YE Network Conference March 9-11, 2006 Houston, Texas

7. The best preparation is to try to understand the concept of culture and the idea of cultural differences

8. Who needs training in understanding cultural differences? IB, OB, RB, Parents, Host parents,YEOs Everyone in YE

9. What is culture?

10. Culture is learned behavior, not hereditary or genetic. • Culture is the acquired knowledge (not indigenous or instinctual) that groups use in order to interpret the world around them, to generate social behavior, and to decipher the behavior of others.

11. Culture is everything that is not a part of nature. As an example, a tree is part of the natural world whereas a wooden chair, made from the tree, is part of the multiple inventions and manifestations of culture.

12. Communication, particularly language, is the foundation of culture. Language labels, creates, maintains, and transforms culture.

13. Language is not only the way culture is transmitted – it is one of the lenses through which culture is created

14. What do they mean? • I slaughter myself twice daily. Israeli butcher You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid. Japanese hotel • Ladies, leave your clothes here and have a wonderful time. French laundry

16. “Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I‘d bear” “Gladly, the cross-eyed bear!”

17. “Sleep in heavenly peace.” “Sleep in heavenly peas!”

18. “Round yon virgin mother and child.” “Round John Virgin, mother and child!”

20. What is culture?

21. Culture An integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristic of any given society or group. It refers to the total way of life, including how people think, feel and behave.

22. Metaphorically, culture is the lens through which we see the world.

23. Think of color-blindness as culture-blindness

26. You can’t trust your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Mark Twain

30. Ethnocentrism: The universal tendency for any culture to see its own values and practices as natural and correct.

31. Native American/First Canadian terms for themselves: Human Beings • The Mediterranean Sea • “China” means “middle earth” • In Ecuador, the monument at the equator is roughly translated as “The middle of the world”

33. “Americans are a very patriotic people. They are very open and they wear their hearts on their sleeves. They don’t stand on ceremony. They take people as they are. They make no distinction about a person’s background.

34. They say what they mean, with real forcefulness. They invite you to visit them in their homes from the moment they meet you. They are irrepressible, good-humored, ambitious and brimming with self-confidence in any company...

35. … Aside from all that, I have nothing against them.”

37. Ethnorelativism: The acquired ability to see many values, beliefs and behaviors as cultural rather than universal.

38. Developing Intercultural Sensitivity The Experience of Difference Acceptance AdaptationIntegration Denial Defense Minimization Ethnocentric Stages Ethnorelative Stages dev interc sensit non Rotary.ppt One World or Many.doc

39. Developing cultural sensitivity and competence requires moving from Ethnocentrism to Ethnorelativism

40. “The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being like you. They are unique manifestations of the human spirit ”. Wade Davis

41. Defensiveness Recognizing a cultural practice as different but labeling it wrong or inferior. Or, by labeling one’s own practice superior.

42. Our own culture, or sub-culture, comes to us as naturally and unconsciously as our handedness. We generally don’t think about what hand we will use to write our names. Changing our cultural point of view is about as hard as changing our handedness. Both are possible, but neither is easy. .

43. More easily perceived differences, in language, food, dress, etc., may obscure deeper, more subtle differences in values and thinking patterns.

44. The Cultural Iceberg Conscious behaviors 1/8th above the surface Unconscious beliefs and values 7/8ths below the surface

45. Fundamentals of Understanding Cultural Differences understanding cultural differences.ppt Understanding Cultural Differences - YEO Preconference.doc

46. Individualism Group Orientation Formality Informality Past Future Directness Indirectness Change Permanence

47. Change Permanence

48. Individualism Group orientation

49. Case study: The development of the personal listening device. Walkman – Discman – MP3 – Ipod

50. Individualism Change Permanence Many Middle-Eastern cultures Group orientation