A classic cross-cultural clash story which fellow intercultural communications trainers will be mentally filing for use in future seminars: Half Spanish, half British, rather posh Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, history professor at Tufts University, Massachussetts, USA, jay walked in Atlanta, Georgia in order to get from one part of a conference to another and ended up being wrestled to the ground by a cop and arrested.
First up we have the Universalist versus Particularist cultural difference. Universalist cultures (there is a rule and it applies to everyone, everywhere, every time, regardless) are the USA, Germany, Switzerland (you'll see in the comments at the end of the BBC story linked to above that reactions to jay walking in Germany and Switzerland are discussed). This incident shows clearly that the UK is more particularist (there may be a rule, and whether it is obeyed depends on the situation and the people involved). The most extreme particularist culture I have ever come across in terms of crossing the road is Indonesia, specifically Jakarta, where if you want to cross the road, you just start walking, and hope the cars stop.
The story even connects into the phenomenon of universalist, dictatorial regimes trying to impose on normally particularist cultures - for example China (including Hong Kong) and Spain under Franco. Prof Fernandez-Armesto is old enough to remember life under Franco, and indeed referred to how nobody dared cross the road except at the designated crossing under Franco in his interview on the BBC Radio 4 this morning. I wonder whether this doesn't intensify his desire to disobey the rules when he deems it appropriate. Having lived under oppression, you wish to express your freedom of choice whenever you can. Certainly people in South Korea and former communist Eastern European countries are usually particularist, with a strong mistrust of authority such as courts and policemen, and would lie on behalf of family and friends if necessary. This is in flux now in Eastern Europe - a mix of fear of breaking the law as a hangover from communism, a wish to show individual freedom and now an increasing respect for authority under a more democratic administration (although the latter of course depends on which country we're talking about). Again, there are some interesting stories in the comments on the BBC link above on this.
Then there is the class issue. Prof Fernandez-Armesto mentioned in his interview on the radio this morning that he did not take any notice of the cop telling him not to cross the road, because he was wearing a bomber jacket over his uniform which looked 'raffish', with 'arrogance' and 'menace'. So when the policeman asked him to identify himself, Fernandez-Armesto asked him to identify himself first. At which point the policeman kicked his legs out from under him. Further lessons in class difference followed when Fernandez-Armesto spent 8 hours in a cell, befriending Atlanta's underclass.
He freely admits he learnt a lot about cultural differences from this incident. Perhaps undergoing a pre or post expatriation training course from my professional colleagues would have been a less painful way of achieving the same end.
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