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Cross Cultural Understanding

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A couple of years ago, I happened to make a couple of single-serving German friends for an evening whilst quaffing mulled wine at the Christmas market. Clearly glad to have found a little home away from home the two guys were already fairly well toasted on a selection of their favourite beers etc… somehow or other literature eeked its way into the conversation at some point or other at which point Hans suddenly got extremely excited at the prospect of doing a bit of Bard-bashing. Slamming his beer mug on the long-table in a booming (and only slightly slurred) voice he commenced the debate of Shakespeare Vs Goethe by vehemently stating that “COMPARED TO THE GREAT GOETHE, SHAKESPEARE IS LIKE A LITTLE SCHOOLBOY SAT IN THE CORNER OF THE CLASSROOM, PISSING IN HIS PANTS!” This subtle piece of comparative literary criticism was delivered with such force, that despite a few stifled giggles the point was not debated much further, as an Englishman in the presence of pissed Germans, my spine gave out in the name of retaining cordiality in a rather British, Fawlty Towers, John Cleese “RIGHT, NOBODY MENTION THE WAR!!!” kinda way. (reported by British man) I am astonished that people from Denmark can talk about being homosexual so openly. A couple of months ago several students from Copenhagen came to my university, and one of them didn’t mind telling other students that she lived with her girlfriend and that they’re planning to get married. She claimed it’s a regular topic in Denmark. (reported by a Polish student) At the end of a conversation: in southern Europe they round up the conversation very ‘nicely’ with some nice ‘formulas’ indicating the conversation is nearly finished. In Germany and Holland it’s often stopped really abruptly. As a Belgian, I am probably a bit in between, but it has happened to me more than once that I find people are not polite or friendly at the end of a conversation in Germany and Holland. As one Dutch woman once said to me when I mentioned this: “you are oversensitive”. Afterwards I realized it had to do with conversation habits. Discussion culture. In southern and eastern Europe people wait more often until spoken to and asked for their opinion. English, Belgians, Dutch speak immediately and (try to) think while speaking. (reported by a Belgian woman) Southern European people often say they have the impression that Belgian, Dutch, German people are always angry when they talk: they use a lot of small and short words and are really direct (cf. above). In Spain and Italy there is a lot of talking ‘around’ the subject. Weddings might be one of the ‘in’ conversation topics for many Romanian women. Usually women in different countries are interested in this topic but in Romania many women seem to particularly enjoy discussing the details of their own or their friends’ weddings even with people they do not know very well. They might even ask you to watch with them video recordings of wedding ceremonies. There seems to be an overabundance of shops with wedding accessories in Romania.
A greater prominence of wedding ceremonies in public consciousness might be true not only of Romania but also of some other countries in the southern part of Europe (southern Italy? Spain? Balkans?) (reported by a Polish woman in Romania) The improvement and expansion of the country’s railway network seems to figure high in the list of Swiss conversation topics. The media give extensive coverage to such events as construction of new tunnels or modernization of railway tracks. (reported by a Polish man in Switzerland) No matter how much work they have, the Swiss will keep telling you they are constantly overwhelmed with work. Even if they do not have much to do, the Swiss seem to feel obliged to make the impression that they are constantly busy and stressed. Work seems to be higher on the list of conversation topics in Switzerland than in Poland. Work seems to preoccupy Swiss minds to a larger degree. For this reason the Swiss go to bed earlier so that they have more energy to work the next day. In Poland people seem to be a bit more relaxed in this respect. (reported by a P

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