Some of us love the variety of culture that we experience as we travel, while others feel more comfortable just staying home where life is simple. Whether we enjoy cultural differences are seek to avoid them. We will experience cultural misunderstandings as we relate between cultures. Sometimes these cultural differences will result in confusion and perhaps even conflict. When a cultural misunderstanding occurs, we need to know why. The more we understand the sources of confusion and conflict, the better we'll be able to adjust and even enjoy the variety and beauty of a cultural differences around us.

We have found the tree to be a helpful metaphor in understanding culture and the sources of cultural misunderstanding. The trees living organic Which is growing and changing. In the same way cultures are not static, but are in a continuous process of change. And so we'll need to continually observe cultures will need to continually be learning about cultures. The India that I'm living in now, in many ways is a different India than the India I came to in 2001. When we first moved to India, first of all look at cultural expressions and behaviors, the leaves of our tree which visibly identify this tree from other trees.

In India we have the people tree, we have a variety of trees, the US Maple oak, you look at the leaves and you know, immediately what kind of tree it is. When we look at cultural expressions, we're looking at things that include language, gestures, food, buildings, houses, monuments, shrines, markets, fashions art, the variety of symbols that are basically pointing to something deeper within the culture. prejudices mostly start on this symbolic and observable level of culture. An example, when you were a child and your father was disciplining you, where did you put your eyes? When I asked a group of Indians, I'm training they almost always say, we looked down. My dad always told me when he was disciplining me, looked me in the eye.

Can you can imagine, child moves from Delhi to New Jersey, with his family, and he does something naughty in class. The teacher calls him to his desk and says, what's happening here and he looks down What is he communicating to his American teacher? The value that he wants to communicate is respect. But his expression, the fact that he's looking down may in reality, be communicating disrespect. One source of cultural confusion and conflict is when we think we're communicating one thing by our actions, but in reality, we're communicating just the opposite. norms and values.

The trunk of our tree, which is the support structure of the tree tells us what is acceptable and desirable within a culture. As you look at the trunk of a tree, it's a little hard to make out which tree it is just by looking at the trunk. And so the distinctions are more subtle, the distinctions are a bit more blurred and bless it is with cultural values and norms. norms are the mutual sense of group has of what is acceptable within society. it embraces the reality of the way things are, it's just done or it isn't done. Do you stop at a red light in Delhi and a red traffic light after 11:30pm 1130 at night?

Probably not. Although the value is to stop the value is obey traffic regulations. The accepted norm is to proceed with caution. If you do stop, you might be back end and buy a car. And so sometimes norms are just the way things are sometime with reasons sometimes without much reason. When we look at values, we're looking at the concepts or principles a group holds regarding what is desirable.

These are the ideals shared by the group and determine what we consider to be good and what we consider to be bad. We have a tendency to Accept the norms in our own society when they are different from our values. But when we see people from another culture, talking about a value, but accepting something less as the norm, we are likely to be critical of them. The American value of egalitarianism is held very strong by most Americans. So when we see someone going to the front of the line, we get very upset. Who do they think they are, is a common refrain.

It's not what you know, but who you know, is a complaint that you'll often hear. If a favor is done for someone without going through the proper processes. It's not fair in the American mind. And yet there are times when it is acceptable to bypass the system. If you're a frequent flyer, you are a high value customer and you'll be given preferences. After a while you'll begin to accept the norms even though they may not be in line with our values.

Everyone knows it's okay. Notice the roots of our tree are hidden below ground, which feed the rest of the tree. And in our analogy represent a culture's worldview, or foundational understanding of life. This picture was part of a tourist campaign in Delhi airport. I think we would all panic if we thought we were going to drown. But the idea of worldview comes through somewhat comically, that life doesn't end after death.

Your Life goes on in a different life form or as a different person. an atheistic materialistic worldview might consider complete cessation of life after death. A Christian worldview looks forward to resurrection this same person but a new body. Maybe Jane defines worldview in this way. worldview refers to a set of interrelated assumptions and beliefs about the nature of reality, the organization of the universe, the purposes of human life, God and other philosophical issues that are concerned with the concept of being. In short, our worldview helps us locate our place and rank in the universe.

A cultures worldview includes both implicit and explicit assumptions, underlying values, norms, myths and behaviors of a group of people. worldview is closely connected with theologies and philosophy. But it's much more than these. The Germans believe that the world functions best when there is order. And so they can be very particular about maintaining that order as a deep sense of mission. As the way things should be.

Confucian cultures, often from East Asia, believe that stability in society is best achieved through a hierarchy based upon on equal relationships between people, each with very clear duties. worldview ideas always seem logical and obvious to the people of a culture holding them. The ideas seem obvious, and we have a hard time thinking how anyone could think differently. For those who hold these ideas, they appear as to be beyond dispute. It's just the way life is. for success, we must understand more than the surface cultural differences, we must understand that the values and even those deeper assumptions represented by the roots of the tree also will impact those around them.

Cultural blunders happen when the cultural expressions are not known or understood. But cultural disasters happen when we fail to understand the values and norms and worldview of a group