By Rene Keijzer
Observing Cultures: Be cool, be expressive, be both!
The most common difference between people from the North and people from the South has to do with the way each people expresses their feelings. Weather conditions here remain the main reason for this difference.
On the one hand, people from the North such as English, Dutch, German, Scandinavians, people from the Baltic, being influenced by an environment characterized by less sunlight and rather low {lower} temperatures throughout the year, are usually more closed and constraint, as far as the expression of feelings and reactions is concerned, not only on the level of verbal expression but also on the level of body language.
On the contrary, Mediterraneans, such as Spanish, Italians, Greeks, Turks (mainly from Anatolia), are in general more open more expressive and often more sociable also.
The scheme appears to be like this in abbreviation: Northerners appear to be cooler while Southerners appear to be more passionate. One more widespread stereotype but again with roots in reality.
An example easy to notice about this difference in expression has to do with the gestures. Southerners tend to use their hands while talking, much more than Northerners. In addition to that Southerners tend to touch more the people around them in their every day communication, as physical contact is an integral part of the way they communicate, while people from the North in general are more reluctant to touch the people around them in their communication, because touching is for them something closely related to a stricter form of intimacy-not to be shown in public, whereas for the Southern that is not the case. It is worth noticing at this point that the more we move to the North, the more touching can be seen as an act of offense as well.
The difference in ways of expressing and communicating between the two parts of Europe can also be noticed easily in multiethnic groups. At the beginning at least, usually the people from the North hang out together, forming a core with people sharing the same more or less way of communicating, accepting the same unseen communication codes. The same happens with Southerners who have the tendency to form big companies again with people from the South, as if each part of Europe recognized its people:-) Of course in the process further and better integration of these groups may occur.
The challenge and its beauty lie always in being eager to surpass your own habits and limits and make a try to reach the “other side”… This, by itself is a learning experience for people from both sides.
Understanding cultures: Save the Siesta!
Lately a big debate has been going on concerning the famous Spanish “siesta” and its role in the unified economic system of the European Union. It seems that the people from the North have a quite different work time schedule than people from the South, and the Spanish in this case can provide us with the best example of this difference. The working hours in Spain seem to contain a short break of some hours within the daytime, the so-called siesta time, after which the Spanish come back to their working places and continue their work till late afternoon/evening. The same system applies also in many parts of Greece. Unlike this customary time schedule of the South, in the North people have chosen a model of continuant working hours, which starts in the morning and ends in the afternoon without any really long break in between. Problems may occur when companies from different countries {ex. Spain and the Netherlands) need to do business together, and the difference of the working hours schedule seems to set some obstacles in the coordination of their work.
Some people have the impression that the “Spanish siesta” is a practice that shows a kind of laziness or anyhow a too relaxed way of working that cannot be compatible with the current demands of the unified market and the economic system. However this is not true. The fact that the Spanish have included “siesta” in their work schedules, doesn’t mean that they work less than the rest of Europeans, only that the division of their working hours is different.
The “siesta” was there and still is there for some reason! Some call it just culture, or mentality of the Spanish people, some others a matter of weather conditions. It seems that the real reason lies somewhere there in between. Long days and sunlight throughout most of the year, plus increased heat, have formed different needs for rest and recreation for the people of the South. Every day life is formed according to these needs, the working hours as well.
The need to have “siesta time” may not be so easy to fathom for people from the North, but it remains a fact. The real challenge lies in finding the best way to combine the two systems, without forcing the one to extinct on the benefit of the other, as they both serve different needs and purposes
Combining cultures: Greek – German football alliance
“We really have a lot to learn from each other”…This is a line that could have been easily said by Otto Rehagel to the national Greek football team the very first minute he started coaching it…
In summer 2004, after this team won the EURO Championship – against many opposite forecasts- media in Greece kept on promoting the motto “ The Greeks need their German”, a funny wordplay which nevertheless implies a lot about the stereotype of two divergent mentalities between the two countries: Germany on the one hand, representing the people who are very organized, disciplined and follow faithfully certain prefixed standards, rules and structures in order to attain a goal and Greece on the other hand representing the people who are more loose in programming and abiding by the rules, backing more on their ad hoc initiative, motivation and innate passion for reaching an aim.
“Where there is a smoke there is a fire”, says an old saying. These two stereotypes are not so far from reality, though on the other hand of course they cannot be considered as given facts or everlasting general truths.
Not being a football expert myself, I had a more theoretical sight of that football victory, an intercultural interpretation not really based on sports terms and techniques, one interpretation which many more Greeks seem to share as well; in my eyes that championship was a living proof of what the “marrying” of two divergent in some main aspects cultures may accomplish. The German coach provided the Greek team with discipline, good planning and a strict programme while the team itself put in its spirit, deep-rooted will and strong passion. The outcome of this combination was a so-called sports-miracle, a triumph to be well remembered in the history of football.
“We have a lot to learn from each other”… Indeed. All we need to do is have our ears and eyes wide open and be really willing to learn.
and really think we are going to be capable to make an unforgettable event.
