Communication Between Cultures

continually asked to answer questions inthe classroom, a competitive nature is

encouraged among American children. People are ranked, graded, classified, and

evaluated so that everyone will know whois the best. The media continually pro-

vide“Top 10”lists of people, schools, hospitals, movies, vacation locations, and

endless other topics. The Internet has allowed people publicly to rate almost every

commercial and public entity. The U.S. economic system—free market enterprise—

is based on competition, and the U.S. government is constantly touting free and

open markets. The assumption is that individuals, left to their own means, can

more ably and quickly achieve their desired goals. This idea is behind the frequent

call to“let the market work.”Moreover, the system is considered“fair”because

everyone purportedly has the same opportunity.

This competitive spirit can create problems for Americans when they interact

with people who do not share the value. For instance, in some cultures, a person’s

social and economic stature can be a product of family connections, schools

attended, length of time with an organization, or even age. In these cultures, com-

petition based on personal merit may

become a secondary consideration.

Additionally, cultures that promote

interdependency and cooperation

take a negative view of intragroup

competition.

Future Orientation

An old adage holds that Americans are not especially interested in history because

they have so little of it. While that is somewhat an overstatement, it does point out

that in the United States, what lies ahead usually takes precedence over the past.

What is going to happen holds the greatest attraction because, it seems, whatever

we are doing is not quite as good as what we could otherwise be doing or will be

doing in the future. Change, taking chances, a stress on youth, and optimism are all

hallmarks of U.S. culture and reflect the value placed on the future. As a people, U.S.

Americans are constantly thinking about tomorrow. Very young children commonly

play with the toys (dolls, cars, guns, and so on) that rush them toward and prepare

them for adulthood. What you want, you want now, so you can dispose of this

moment and move on to the next. In the classroom, U.S. students impatiently

watch the clock as it counts the minutes to the end of class—and cues them to

move on to another class or activity. Elementary students are eager to get to high

school, then they look forward to college, during which they focus on getting into

the workforce, after which they start looking ahead to retirement. Adler and Gunder-

son aptly capture the U.S. forward-looking focus when they observe,“Future-oriented

cultures justify innovation and change mostly in terms of future economic benefits.”^26

We will return to this topic when we discuss the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s value

orientations later in the chapter and again when we examine the use of“time”as

employed by each culture.

Action/Work Orientation

Soon after meeting for the first time, people frequently ask each other,“What do you

do?”or“Where do you work?”Embedded in this simple query is the belief that

CONSIDER THIS

Emphasis on the individual leads to a short-term future orientation.

Kohls’“The Values Americans Live By” 211

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