The
Way Others See Us
Christina Johansson Robinowitz
When
the war in Iraq started, I was doing a presentation
in Gothenburg for a group of Swedes, who worked extensively
with Americans. Wishing to quickly identify some of
the cultural differences between Swedes and Americans,
I wrote on a flip chart the headings, "Blix"
and "Bush," then asked the audience to name
specific personal traits they felt described these two
gentlemen. It was an interesting exercise. Hans Blix
was described as patient, thorough, calm and cautious
and George W. Bush as impatient, power hungry, nationalistic,
and theatrical. I then asked them which list they preferred;
not surprisingly just about everyone said they preferred
the Blix list!
I
then told them that if the audience been American, I
was sure the response would have been different. Chances
are that many Americans would have found the characteristics
listed under Bush preferable to those listed under Blix.
Let's
look at this a little closer. An American, describing
Blix might see him as indecisive rather than patient,
too picky instead of thorough, dull rather than calm
and lacking nerve rather than cautious.
On
the other hand an American might describe Bush not as
impatient, but daring to take a stand, as a strong leader
rather than power hungry, patriotic and proud rather
than nationalistic, and inspiring rather than theatrical.
The
point is that most of us don't realize how the way we
act and what we do may look from other perspectives.
Underlying values and beliefs color our actions, as
well as our interpretation of what others do and how
they do it. Because of this, we are often surprised
to find out that someone from another culture completely
misunderstands us.
In
the current political climate, where the dirt is flying
in every direction and the division between Europe and
the U.S. has been growing, it would be helpful for all
of us to take a deep breath and try to understand what
the other side sees. If we are willing to look and listen
we can probably find that many explanations can be found
in our cultural differences. And it certainly would
behoove politicians around the world to brush up in
this area as well.
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