Generalizations about people are usually a bad idea. There are some generalizations about cultures, however, that can help out the visitor new to a country. A view of a culture ‘at 30,000’ feet will often help you avoid cultural gaffes, as long as you make sure you also pay attention to the specific aspects of each particular situation and individual. It’s OK to say that one culture has a stronger tendency towards this and that, as long as you know that no one person is a “typical” person in that culture. For example, there’s tons of evidence that, overall, the value of individualism is a strong trait of the U.S. culture. But of course that doesn’t mean that every American has that value; some may be rugged individualists, others may find their identity much more strongly tied to their group, their community or their family.
With that caution in mind (Not everyone is ‘typical’ of the culture they live in.) it can really help to arrive in a country with a few good ‘ground rules’ about the culture. You can use these to help you decipher behavior you may find puzzling, and to behave in ways that help your hosts understand you. Consider how you use a roadmap as a tool for a road trip. You definitely can use a roadmap on a trip, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to actually look at the street signs and details as you are traveling. A roadmap of a place is a good tool, but it isn’t the place itself. In the same way, learning some general tendencies about a culture can be a good tool, but you still have to pay attention when dealing with any particular person or situation.
To use a ‘30,000 feet’ view of the culture, here’s a helpful mental shortcut: all cultures have rules. Most of them are invisible to the newcomer. Many are also invisible to the old-timer. The insider knows their own culture’s rules so well, they have become automatic, and outside their awareness. Trying to see your own culture’s rules is like trying to get a fish to see water. If you are surrounded by something throughout your existence, in many ways, it’s not visible to you. You often learn your cultures’ rules only when you first leave the culture.
Since understanding other cultures is a core value for us at UnTours, our first ‘culture clue’ (Every Wednesday on the blog is a Culture Clue.) of the month on the blog will be an overview, a roadmap of sorts, that gives people some general information about a culture. This month we feature Germany.
Here’s an example of a rule that every single culture has: physical proximity when conversing (and a whole host of other body language rules.) . Every culture has a comfort zone — a physical distance that they stand when conversing with others. For example, in Germany, their “comfort zone” for physical distance between acquaintances or colleagues is about arm’s length. (Just slightly more than in the US, and quite a bit more than in many Southern European cultures). In addition, a German would probably not use touch as a gesture in conversation with colleagues or acquaintances,but might with family and close friends.
A fun way to test out this rule in any culture, is to step a little close to someone that you normally would. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the person will unconsciously step back. When you have people of different cultures with different ‘comfort zones’ mingling, you can often see a subtle but distinct pattern of people politely chasing each other around the room. It’s funny, if you know that each culture is just following it’s own rule, but the players have different rule books. If you don’t know there’s an invisible rule operating, you may just think the person stepping up or back is ”distant’, or rude.
Here are a few other initial pointers to help a newcomer adapt when visiting Germany. German culture is relatively more formal, with titles and standard forms of greeting behavior being more important. Rules are more consistently observed. As well, German culture, (along with many of it’s Northern European cultural cousins) has stricter sense of time. Knowing that Germans are relatively more formal probably gets you closer to where you want to be on your visit. But if you happen into a wildly informal party, where every German in the place is first-naming everyone one else, then just go with the flow!
A few examples to set you on the way to being ‘culturally clued-in’:
- When shopping or approaching a sales person, it is courteous e to say “Guten Tag” [“hello”] upon entering an establishment, and “Vielen Danke, auf Wiedersehn” [“thank you, goodbye”] to the main sales person when leaving. But greeting a stranger on the street, however, with a “hello” or “Guten Tag” would not be commonplace in most situations.
- Germans are likely to use “Wie geht es Ihnen?” [“How are you?”] as a literal question. An American might well say “How’s it going?” to simply meaning “Hi”. and keep going. A German, when asked, “How are you?” may give answer factually, including what’s not going so well! If you use “How are you?” just as a greeting, and move on before hearing the answer, you’ll probably discombobulate your German host.
- There is a proper time for every activity. In Germany, when the business day ends, you are expected to leave the office. If you must remain after normal closing, it indicates that you did not plan your day properly. “Fashionably late” to a party is not usually so fashionable in German culture. You might get away with it at a large informal gathering. A dinner party, on the other hand, should you need to be more than 15 minutes late, a phone call alerting the hostess would be considerate. Even more considerate…..not being 15 minutes late!
Each Wednesday this month, we’ll delve a little deeper into German culture, so you’ll be prepared for optimal cultural harmony on your next German Unto at the Castle, or on the Rhine. Next week we’ll talk about high and low context, and why they are such helpful guideposts on a roadmap of a culture. The following weeks, we’ll get specific about greetings and how to glide through a dinner invitation by a German host.