Cultural Differences

Different Cultures -different space meanings

• Asian and Arab people tend to stand very close to one another. 
• Western and American people leave more space and find it rather threatening when people stand to close to them.

According to Hall's proxemics:
Western countries are characterised by three primary zones of space

• The intimate zone (0-45 cm)
• The personal zone (45 -100 cm)
• The social zone (1-2 m)

Within Europe differences concerning optimal space also appear:

• The further south you go, the smaller the distance gets.
• Northern Europeans, the English and Americans are said to have a low-touch culture, demonstrating low contact in public.
• Southern Europeans, Arabs and Eastern Europeans are said to have a high-touch culture.

It's not because a culture has a high-touch culture, theire are some subtleties in touching rules in advertising.
Touching a woman is usually a more sensitive area. In Arab countries this may cause problems.

Who touches whoe also depends on the culture.
In Europe it is usual to see people of the opposite sex (a couple) walking hand in hand on the street.
This is not the case for many Asian and Arab countries. Here you would rather see people of the same sex (not a couple, but acquaintances) holding hands.

As mentioned in the previous message...
Non-verbal or body language plays a huge role in the cultural differences.
In every country, state or continent they are other meanings for certain non-verbal languages. They are some similarities. But most of the time they have various meanings.

Non-verbal language includes:

• Timing
• Space: special orientation
• Gestures
• Touch
• Colours
• Eye contact

I don't have to tell you that they are a lott of different languages. As you know countries and culturs have different uses of verbal or body language. Theire are some similarities in both.

Even if two countries speak the same language (ex. USA/UK):

• they have some different meanings for words, 
• different pronunciations, 
• different uses, 
• different dialects, 
• different values and so on. 

And these subtle differences in both countries may convey totally different meanings.

For example: In Thailand and Japan; language differs according to who is speaking.

• Thai women use different suffixes than Thai men
• In Japan the level of formality of the language depends on:
• the gender and 
• the status of the speaker.

• 25 % more space is needed when translating from English - Roman language
• 30 % from English-German

The major components in culture.

• Values and attitudes
• Language
• Religion
• Sense of humour
• Gender roles