CROSS CULTURE UNDERSTANDING

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1. Background

Culture is the power of the mind in the form of copyright and flavor, while culture is the result of a copyright sense, initiative, and a sense of the Koentjaraningrat (1976:28). Culture is owned by every nation, and therefore the culture of every nation are mutually different. Although sometimes there are similarities as well as family and race .. As in discussion is that how can we facilitate a positive impression of the people of different cultures with us, of course we must first understand their culture so as not occurred clash culture between our culture with their culture.

We realize that in Indonesia has a lot of western culture in and it was seen by our own eyes, one example is the dress code, many Indonesian people, especially the youth who had imitated the western way of dressing, without them knowing that they are influenced culture outsiders. Therefore how can we understand first culture them and do not let us to simply accepted it.

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

      1.    What is culture?

Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.

Culture according to point of view of our group is about a set of things use by human to adapt in the new environment or new life, because adapting with it is very important, as a new comer, for example.

    2.    Teachers definition

According to teachers’ definition, culture is something that can be taught and also can be observed through many ways because culture is something real. Culture is about a thing that can be taught to our students because it is real and has a part to analyze, for example, the culture of Toraja and Parepare is very different. That is why teacher should teach the difference between two different cultures, in order that the learners can understand the difference and apply it to their daily life in home and also in their environment.

It is important to take a closer look at these distinctions, and others not included above, which are also relevant to what is acquired in the name of culture. For example, some aspects of culture are not only non-observable, but they also elude explicit description, such as aspects of cognitive interpretation and affective reactions. Other aspects of culture may elude identifications because their essence is a dynamic, symbolic process of creating meaning.

    3.    A behaviorist definition

According to behaviorist point of view, culture something that consist a sets of behavior and also a sets of values which used by human to adapt to their environment. From the behaviorist point of view, culture consists of discrete behaviors or sets of behaviors, e.g., traditions, habits or customs, as in marriage or leisure. Culture is something which is shared and can be observed. So that is why according to behaviorist definition, culture is something that need to follow, because it has many good values.

Behaviorist definition emphases that culture is needed by every human, every people in their life, particularly for college students like us. In the language classroom, this concepts of culture often leads to study of discrete practices or institutions such as “a study of the family; how the French spend their leisure; buying foods in the market,” etc.

    4.    A functionalist definition

According to the functionalist point of view, culture is something that cannot be directly observed and taught (like teachers definition) because functionalist point of view emphases that culture should be an approach to people as a functionalist.

The functionalist approach to culture is an attempt at making sense out of social behaviors. Again, culture is viewed as a social phenomenon. However, what is shared are reasons and rules for behaving. While the function or rules underlying the behavior cannot be directly observed, they are inferred from the behavior and may be explicitly described.

Recall that the functionalist perspective is based upon the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system with interrelated parts that serve specific functions Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski suggests that culture helps people meet their needs

Biological needs (eg. food, procreation)

Instrumental needs (eg. law, education)

Integrative needs (eg. religion, art)

The assumption is that by understanding the reason behind a particular event, be it eating different foods, speaking in loud voices, or speaking in close proximity, learners will better understand and tolerate the person who is participating in the event. 

       5.    Benefits and inadequacies of behaviorist and functionalist definitions

Everything has a benefit and also an inadequacy for each, same with the behaviorist and functionalist, which seen though its definition. Behaviorist and functionalist approaches facilitate cultural description and awareness of why some people act the way they do. Students are helped to recognize and anticipate cultural behavior, both linguistic and non-linguistic. However these approaches are insufficient is several ways. They assume that cultural behaviors and their functions can be objectively identified; that awareness and anticipations lead to greater coping; and that the important concerns of culture, i.e., what is shared, can be observed directly or inferred from observable behavior.

First, different perceptions and interpretations of behaviors by different observers, be they cultural anthropologists, bilingual teachers, language students or textbook writers, result in a methodological problem for designating exactly what constitutes cultural behavior.

Second (assuming that accurate identification of cultural behaviors is possible), anticipation of cultural behaviors which newcomers perceive as negative may actually increase anxiety rather than cushion culture shock, even if the newcomer understands the reason.

Third, behaviorist and functionalist concepts of culture assume that what is shared in the name of culture may be directly observed or inferred from observations. Some anthropologists have suggested that too much emphasis on empiricism.

    6.    A cognitive definition

According to the cognitive definition, culture is described as a system or a mechanism that same as a machine or computer that process the values to the real act. The process is called an adapting to the new culture to prevent a negative side. The cognitive definition shifts attention from the observable aspects of what is shared to what is shared “inside.” The “cultural actor.” What is shared is a means of organizing and interpreting the world, a means of creating order out of the inputs. The idea of culture as world view is related to this definition. According to cognitive approaches, culture is not a material phenomenon

To adapt to the specific needs of their students, teachers may also incorporate other stories into the suggested critical incident format. To do this, teachers can either use stories of cross-cultural miscommunication that they might have heard of from their students or describe the situations that they have experienced themselves. If they choose to do so, teachers should be cautious about stereotyping and reinforcing misrepresentations about people from other cultures.

            ( http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Stakhnevich-Critical.html )

The cognitive approach emphasizes the mechanism of organizing inputs. That is culture itself is a process through which experience is mapped out, categorized and interpreted. From this perspective, culture is like a computer program. The program differs from culture to culture. The program refers to cognitive maps.

    7.    A symbolic definition

According to symbolic definition student should learn about the symbolic meaning of culture itself, because it is very important to learn, very different with cognitive definition which emphases to the cognitive, study to knowing what culture really is trough the cognitive aspects. Cultural understanding viewed as processing within the learner leads to a symbolic definition of culture. While cognitive anthropologists focus on the mechanism for processing i.e., the cognitive map, symbolic anthropologists focus on the product of processing, I.e., the meanings derived.

            In many two-thirds world cultures, a deep relationship does not begin until there is debt and reciprocal obligation. We have found that one of the best ways to signal our desire for a deeper relationship is to ask others for help. This phase of the relationship causes much stress to many westerners. For self-sufficient westerners, asking for help is much more difficult than giving it, yet asking is the most important step in initiating relationships in many non-western cultural contexts.

            This concept f culture as a creative, historical system of symbols and meaning has the potential to fill in the theoretical gaps left by behaviorist, functionalist and cognitive theories. This dynamic notion theoretically dwells on the interdependence between the derivation of meaning within the learner and cultural experience.

                             As a result, Symbolic Interactionism does not provide an outline to analyze how we shape culture and how it in turn shapes us. It fails to take into account the larger, macro- level social structures (eg. social class) that are considered in the Functionalist and Conflict perspectives

                                                            BIBLIOGRAPHY
Roobinson Nemetz Gail L. Cross Cultural Understanding.
Deregowski, J. B. (1980). Illusions, Patterns and Pictures: A Cross-cultural Perspective.
Jahoda, G. (1982). Psychology and Anthropology.
Segall, M. H., Campbell, D. T., and Herskovits, M. (1966). Influence of Culture on Visual Perception.
Triandis, H., et