If you wish to dispute what has been written, send an email to convictwally@hotmail.com
Common criticisms
The cultural comparison pages have been scrutinised by a diversity of people around the world. For example, in 2010, the page comparing Australia to America received 28,604 unique page views. This gave 28,604 people the opportunity to dispute what was written.
The majority of these people did not give feedback. A minority engaged in a dialogue, which led to aspects being changed. Another minority complained that the comparisons were "opinions" not facts. They didn’t state which "opinions" were incorrect.
To say the cultural comparisons are opinions is a fair comment, but perhaps not a fair criticism. All forms of analysis are opinions. Irrespective of whether an analysis is made by a professor of sociology or Joe the Cameraman the conclusions are still only opinions.
"Facts" usually come in the form of statistics that are sold as being above criticism. In truth, statistics are often more misleading and less credible than opinions. For example, an American survey in 2010 found that 34 per cent of Americans strongly favoured “homosexuals” serving in the military, but 51 per cent strongly favoured “gay men and lesbians” in the military. Rather than reveal what Americans thought, perhaps the most valuable aspect of the surveys was that they showed how they could be manipulated to define what people think.
In another example of a flawed use of a survey, in 2008 in China I met a German man doing a PhD in cross-cultural management. He was surveying different nationalities to work out their cultures and then using his survey results to develop communication strategies that were tailored to those cultures. I asked him what his survey results were showing in regards to the differences between China and western countries. He said the Chinese put the group first. I then asked him whether, as a man living in China, he had ever seen Chinese put themselves first. It then clicked in his mind the folly of his survey. Everywhere you go in China someone is putting him or herself first. This is to be expected. China is a third-world country where the majority of individuals are struggling to attain a better life. It is far easier to think of others when you are not hungry and cold. The German man had placed so much faith in the numbers of his survey that he had blinded himself to the world around him.
Admittedly, the lack of a state welfare system in China forces individuals to be more dependent upon families to survive sickness, unemployment, old age or to receive an education. The increase in family dependence also leads to greater expectations of family responsibility and pressure on individuals to consider others when making their decisions. In Australia, the provision of state welfare enables individuals to free themselves from family expectations. This doesn’t mean that Chinese individuals put the group first, rather, it means that are more mindful of that they are in a series of relationships where their decisions affect others. The problem with surveys is that short sentences often don’t accurately communicate exactly what is going on and then become misleading. With time, they may create myths of behaviour.
After I pointed out the obvious problem with his survey results, the German man didn't want to talk to me anymore. That was a shame because it meant I never got the chance to explain that his research was not a complete waste. Specifically, his survey results showed that Chinese have a stereotype that they put the group first and that stereotype can be exploited in cross-cultural management. For example, I used to teach classes of up to 30 Chinese professors. Sometimes I would have a trouble maker in the class and to deal with them, I would say that I was surprised that a Chinese person was not putting the group first. With an "individualistic" westerner evoking the group-first myth promoted by the Communist Party, the troublemaker would usually de-individualise themselves and act in accordance with the group-first identity. As a teacher, I had seen that in China there is the same diversity of personalities as there is in any other country. However, by evoking a stereotype, I was able to make a myth of behaviour temporarily become a fact of behaviour.
In my experience, cultures are about 95% the same but use the 5% of difference to define their identity. Some individuals in each culture don't care about a cultural identity and wish to be treated as individuals. Other individuals in the culture believe in the cultural identity and want it respected in their discourses with other cultures. So important is culture to them that they will give up their individual personality traits to adopt the social stereotype.
Being effective in cross-cultural situations requires knowing when to consider the characteristics of the culture, and knowing when to consider the characteristics of the individual. The comparisons made in this site reference the kind of issues that an Australia may consider when encountering someone from the compared country. When travelling, “where are you from?” is usually one of the first questions asked and the individual is defined by the character of their country before being defined by the character of their personality. Even if perceived social characteristics are not applied, no one has ever been offended by a traveller or host appearing to know something about the other's country. At the most basic level, knowing something is just an act of politeness.
The cultural comparisons in this site are argumentative. They can be disputed and a thousand different dimensions could have been used for each nation comparison. Furthermore, culture is not stagnant and it means different things to different people at different times. Despite the potential for conflict by making cultural comparisons, they are important comparisons to make because they encourage a greater cultural awareness when dealing with people from other cultures. Even if the reader disagrees with what is written, as long as it provokes the reader to think about the topic, then there is value in what has been written.
Hey Hey it's Saturday and the Jackson Jive
Why comparisons are important
An episode of Hey Hey its Saturday (see above) showed some of the problems with an eglitarian ethic in which everyone is treated the same, irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. The show failed to consider the cultural background of the American judge, and brought a great deal of criticism upon itself and Australia as a result.
Because the show was filmed in Australia for an Australian audience, a case could be made that the producers were under no obligation to change their ways to consider the views of a minority of viewers or the American judge. Equally; however, a case could be made that the network suffered commercial damage by not being more culturally aware. In which case, a bit of consideration would have been in its self-interests.
Quite often, considering the cultural background of an individual will be unnecessary because the individual does not have a strong cultural identity and therefore doesn't want any acknowledgement of their background. For example, some Australians are very individualistic and being Australian is irrelevant to them. When dealing with such Australians, it would not be necessary to show any understanding of Australian movies, poetry, painting or perceived national characteristics. However, for other Australians, being Australian is important and the perceived attributes of Australia need to be acknowledged when dealing with them. Not only do the perceived attributes influence their behaviour, they also influence how they want to be treated. Same goes when dealing with Aborigines, Koreans, Italians, Christians or Muslims. It matters for some individuals but not for others.
Of course, there is also a danger of considering culture and applying it to an individual in an inappropriate circumstance. For example, in Australia, there have been cultural awarness classes that have advocated Indigenous learning styles. This gets into quite dangerous territory because it links behaviour with genetics, which can lead to teachers applying a behavioural stereotype onto an individual that it should not apply to. This seemed to have occured in 2010 which a silly curriculum writer proposed using rocks and leaves to teach Indigenous perspectives in a maths lesson. Even worse, a principle instructed a teacher to issue rocks and leaves to an Indigenous student as part of the program. (Other students in the class were given calculators.) The principle did not consider whether the Indigenous student preferred leaves and stones over calculators. Even if the student did, there is merit in learning how to use a calculator. In any cultural group, you have a range of individual personalities and learning styles. No one should ever link behaviour to racial genetics.
Ironically, because the site has been objective when making the comparisons, it is highly unlikely that there will be agreement on the comparisons. One of the near universal traits of humanity is that people want comparative assessments to be made in ways that are favourable to themselves. For example, the Australia versus America page has been criticised by Americans as being biased to Australians and by Australians as being biased to Americans. In other words, both Americans and Australians say it is biased towards the other. (The New Zealand versus Australia page was biased against New Zealand. Old habits die hard.)
Because the majority of readers come from Australia, there would be advantages for the site if it were more biased towards Australia. Specifically, the bias would make the pages more popular, which would also result in more links and more traffic. Furthermore, because the author is an Australian, he could derive some emotional gratification from saying Australia is the best nation on earth in every field of endeavour. Despite recognising these advantages, the author is patriotic enough to appreciate that there are benefits in having the humility to learn from other cultures. Although some Australians may not want to admit it, in many fields, Australia performs poorly.
German man talks image problems of Australia, but strengths of Australians. Q&A gives different perspectives.
