B e t w e en

f f e r e n c e
t u r a l Di I n d ia
Cu l &
USA
TITLE
 Agenda/Topics To Be Covered

• What is culture?

• Why cultural differences are important?

• American culture

• Indian culture

• Some Important cultural differences

• Some solutions
 So what is culture?
What are different types of
culture?

90% of communication is nonverbal

Nonverbal communication is heavily culturally influenced
A lens – a frame
“master of reference
of destiny” viewpoint
Through which we view and interpret human interaction
“A dynamic mix of national/geographic, organisational, and professional
or disciplinary elements in constant interaction with one another”
Example
(Heaton, 1998)
“Those are my principles – if you don’t like them, I have others”
 Types of culture

• Organisational Culture

• National Culture
 Organisational culture

• Company history and tradition

• Leadership

• Technology

• Missions, visions, resources

• Values and beliefs

• Procedures and policies

 National culture

“A shared set of beliefs, attitudes,

norms, values, and behaviour
organized around a central theme and
found among speakers of one
language, in one time period, and in
one geographic region”
Why cultural differences
are important?
 Why cultural differences
are important?

Context

Speed: fast and slow messages

Time
Space

Information Flow
WELCOME TO AMERICA
 How many number of
states are there?

50
Salient Points On America ……
 The US has long been known as a “melting pot”
- because many of its people are descendents of settlers who came from all
over the world

 The American people are always on the move

 Today three out of four Americans live in towns, cities or suburbs : over 57
million live in rural areas.

 New York City is America’s largest city.

 Chicago is the second largest city, Los Angeles is third, and

Philadelphia is the fourth largest.
 Salient Points On America ……
 Each city has a downtown and suburbs.
- Downtown is where the largely affluent and yuppie crowd stays. It
is more expensive than living in the suburbs though the suburbs have
large bungalows.

 Which is National Capital of America?

- Washington D.C is seventeenth in population. Specially planned
and built as a national capital, Washington was laid out by a French
architect in the 18th century

 What is current population of America?

- Population : 306,747,000 (3rd most populated, 4.5% of total)
- Area : 9629091 square km (3rd most sized, 6.5% of total area)
Who Found America?
 America was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus

 The British pilgrims colonized America in 1620

 The United States was formed in 1776

Standard Time Zone
Standard Time Zone
 Daylight Saving Time (DST)
 DST - is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more
daylight and mornings have less

 Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and
adjusted backward in autumn

 Start: Second Sunday in March

 End: First Sunday in November

 Time: 2 am local time

 Ex: In 2009, it starts on March 8 and will end on November 1 at 2am

WORK CULTURE
 Work Culture

 In US, the work environment is both professional and causal as well

- Don’t be surprised if you see people bring their pets to work!

 Schedules are flexible, and the atmosphere is informal

- There is no apparent hierarchy between managers and their subordinates
- Employees are treated as equals, and independent views are welcomed

 American work culture involves a lot of meetings

 Normal office timings go from 8 AM to 5 PM. You do need to maintain a

minimum of 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week.

 Americans are very particular about time-management

- They come to office early and leave on time. You will rarely find them
working late hours, or on weekends
 American Behavior
 Generally, Americans are very polite, friendly and helpful, but have no
patience with interference in their private lives

 You may find it difficult to discuss everything with an American friend, at

least, when you are getting to know each other

 Exercising is important, and they usually go for aerobics, swimming, tennis

or a jog a few times during the week

 Don’t be surprised if strangers greet you. Be polite and greet them back

 They are particular about their leisure time, health and hygiene
 Living standards
 Americans spend money freely and make purchases on credit when
necessary to buy things they want
- More money is being spent on education, medical care, services, travel and
recreation while a smaller percentage of income goes for food, clothing and
automobiles

 Clothing Styles
US HOLIDAYS AND
FESTIVALS
 US Festivals and Holidays

 Some of US holiday customs were brought here from other countries

 Other holidays and festivals are related to the history and the culture that
developed in the United States itself

 How many National Holidays are there in America?

- Constitutionally, there are no "national holidays" in the US, as Congress
only has authority to create holidays for federal institutions

 Currently, there are 11 U.S. Federal holidays, most (but not all) of which are
also State holidays
 US Festivals and Holidays
 List of US holidays

Date Holiday Name

1st January New Year's Day
20th January Inauguration Day
3rd Monday in January Martin Luther King Jr Day
3rd Monday in February Presidents' Day/Washington's
Birthday
Last Monday in May Memorial Day
4th July Independence Day
1st Monday in September Labor Day
2nd Monday in October Columbus Day
11th November Veterans' Day
4th Thursday in November Thanksgiving
25 December Christmas Day
Sports and Games
Sports and Games
American Lacrosse
 Answer

Bulls Chicago
Cowboys Dallas
Phillies Philadelphia
Lakers Los Angeles
Blue Sox Los Angeles
Redskins Washington
Raider Orlando
Celtics Boston
Magics Chicago
WELCOME TO INDIA
 Salient Points On India ……
 World’s first university in Takshila –700 B.C

 Ayurveda- earliest school of medicine known to humans

 Sanskrit Language –most suitable for computer software

 Yoga- Made in India

 5,000 year old civilization

 325 languages spoken – 1,652 dialects

 Indian Railways ,the biggest employer in the world

 Salient Points On India ……
 18 official languages

 28 states, 7 union territories

 3.28 million sq. kilometers – Area

 Population-1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est.)

 Population growth rate - 1.548% (2009 est.)

 Birth Rate - 22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

 4th largest economy

 Fastest growing IT super power

 Salient Points On India ……
 Death Rate - 6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

 Literacy rate - 61.0%

 Unemployment rate – 7.8 %

 Religions - Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.8%,

Buddhists 0.8%, Jains 0.4%, others 0.7%, unspecified 0.1%.

 Parliamentary form of Government

 Secular democratic constitution

 Worlds largest democracy since 55 years

 You can shake hands with people, or better still stick, to the traditional
Namaste, the popular Indian style greeting.
 Indian Culture
 The culture of India is one of the oldest and unique.

 The South, North, and Northeast have their own distinct cultures and
almost every state has its own cultural.

 There is hardly any culture in the world that is as varied and unique
as India. India - God’s own country, has more than 65 festivals

 India is a vast country, having variety of geographical features and

climatic conditions.

 India is home to some of the most ancient civilizations, including four

major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.
 Culturally Rich Inventions

 The digit zero and the numbering system

 Chess

 Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus

 The decimal system

 The game of Snakes and Ladders

 The value of “pi”

 Noble prizes in Literature, Physics, Economics, Peace and Medicine

 Indian Marriage

 In Indian society wedding is treated as the most important social

Function.

 Wedding is a ceremony which celebrates the beginning of a

marriage.

 Wedding Traditions and customs are varied from culture to culture,

religion to religion, society to society and place to place.

 Arranged marriages are still very common in India

 Most of marriages within cast

 Indian Family Value
 A young person should touch the feet of his/her elders

 He/she should never speak in a high or rude tone to those who are
older to him/her.
 He/She should always give respect to elders and refer to them as
'aap'.

 He should not consume alcohol and tobacco or smoke cigarettes.

 He should respect women

 He should always speak truth and try to engage in non-violent

behavior

 Treating guest as god

Important Cultural
Differences
Can any one guess the most
important cultural difference
which we try to illustrate in
most of our previous slides?
National Flag as a Indicator of Culture
 Indian Flag
 What saffron color indicates?
- courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation

 What white color indicates?

- unity, purity, and peace

 What green color indicates?

- fertility and prosperity of the land

 As a religious symbolism, Saffron represented Hinduism and green stood

for Islam. White represented the minority religions

 Also indicates unpolluted democracy, unbiased equality and uncensored

justice

 The wheel - "Ashoka Chakra" has 24 spokes and each spoke depicts one
hour of the day, portraying the prevalence of righteousness all the 24 hour
of it
 American Flag
 How many stars are there in US Flag?
- 50, indicates 50 different states

 The thirteen stripes - 7 red stripes that alternate with 6 white stripes
- started with only thirteen colonies that stood against the oppression
of the British Empire

 Stripes indicates proud beginning and freedom from British

 The field of blue represents the freedom to expand and explore the
world and beyond

 The stars represent the hope and prosperity that exists in the fifty
states that make up our nation
Some Differences…..
Some Differences…..
 More differences….
 Eating – US have their own plate of food, but Indians usually has all
dishes on the table and every one shares

 Business Lunch
- In US lunch, if you are late they find it insulting
- “Let’s go Dutch” : each person pays his own bill or one of the guest
is paying the bill and gets money back

 Openness

 Personal Questions
 More differences….
 Marriages – arrange marriage or love marriage

 Family bonding – Joint family

 US people not like to be too close during interaction, especially of

same gender
Some Differences…..
 Popular American Phrases

 I hate that show-off, always shooting her mouth off

- She’s talking too much

 After dinner the old man would just hit the sack
- Go to sleep

 I think I goofed it up again!!

- Embarrassing mistake

 Act your age

- Behave maturely

 Ain’t that the truth

- I agree, Ain’t means it is not
 Popular American Phrases

 Beats me
- I cannot figure out

 Cut it out
- Stop doing that

 Don’t beat around the bush

- Get to the important matter

 Dig up
- Listen carefully

 Hang in there
- Have patience things will work out
 Popular American Phrases

 I’m all ears

- You have my attention

 It’s on me
- I will pay the bill

 Let’s talk turkey

- Lets get down to business

 Just give me the bottom line

- Don’t bother me with lot of details

 That’s it, in a nutshell

- That’s all there is to tell about something

 It’s walk in the park

- It’s something that’s easy to accomplish
Some Differences…..
Some Differences…..
 Solutions
 Don’t judge culture
– No culture is more or less valuable or efficient than any other

 Understand your own cultural framework

 At work or elsewhere while talking, if you want to say Yes, just say "YES".
Don't nod your head up and down. Moving your head side to side is found to
be very confusing, and its mostly taken as NO

 Never, ever talk in your native language in presence of Americans during a

gathering

 Don't say "The Phone was engaged", as engaged means getting engaged.
Instead say "There was a busy tone".

 Don't say "I'll ring you back." or "I'll give you a ring later". Here ring is the
engagement ring, rather say "I'll call you, or buzz you".
Solutions…..
 Solutions
 Don't offer chewing gum, or a breath freshener to others. It gives
them a message that they have a bad breath

 “How are you? “Should not be taken too seriously. Just answer
“great! “, because no one really wants to know

 Be interested – study – the cultures you work with

 Move slowly and softly

– Ask, listen, observe

 Be brave and have fun!

THANK
YOU..