Left-right: various cultures associate different meanings to the word: right is often correct,
just, while left is sly, incorrect, dishonest. In order to avoid the already existing
marginalization due to differences from the majority culture, these meanings must be
remembered.
Visual or audio-tactile: these senses are closely related to human communication means,
with significant differences between cultures regarding the preferential means of message
reception / delivery. Some people are oriented towards visual messages, while others are
more open to audio-tactile stimulation. In western cultures learning is mainly done
through reading written texts, which particularly develops visual memory, while in other
cultures and in poorly literate traditional societies “the majority learned from stories,
anecdotes, song, allegories and fables narrated by story-tellers, parents, priests, etc. who
thus convey knowledge, values and beliefs... people also exercising their memory”.
(Garcea, 2005, apud Launikari and Puukari, 2005). Traditional societies are identified by
McLuhan (1962, ibid) as being dominated by listening and defined by intuition and the
prominence of the group, and modern technological societies are associated to sight,
rationalism and individualism.
As regards time perception, in the East it is mainly oriented towards the past (historic
characters, traditional norms), in Southern Europe and Latin America it is oriented
towards the present, and in the West towards the future (objectives achievement).
The five specific cultural values identified by Hofstede (1988, ibid) are:
- power distance expresses the difference in status and attitude between various
hierarchic levels, which results in degrees of respect towards parents, teachers,
superiors, elderly, etc. Among the cultures with a long power distance are the
Asian, where the emperor, leader or manager are viewed with particular
respect, while in Western societies the status of a person within an institution
may change throughout his or her career; - avoiding uncertainty represents the extent to which people try to avoid
uncertain or unpredictable situations. “People with very organized lives panic
easily when something goes wrong , while others, apparently less organized,
can be more flexible in solving unpredictable situations” (ibid). Hofstede
identifies three ways by which man tries to avoid uncertainty: technology as
protection of citizens against disasters and wars; legal norms created to control
human behaviour; and religion targeting metaphysics and spirituality; - individualism vs. collectivism targets the relationships between individuals and
community. In individualistic societies people tend to be mainly concerned
with themselves and their families, while collectivist societies have stronger
social bonds and form stronger and more cohesive groups; - masculinity vs. femininity refers to the role of gender-specificity in society.
Male-oriented societies present a clear role separation. A man must be
assertive, strong, centred on material success; a woman must be modest, gentle
and centred on life quality. In woman-oriented societies there is no clear role
separation;