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>> My name is Orlando Kelm, and today,
we're going to talk a little about some
of the cultural issues that are going to come
up when people go abroad.
Now, one of the problems of culture
when you go abroad will be that, you know, there's just,
it's different, or it's weird,
but how do you actually categorize,
or identify what are the cultural things
that are going on?
That's what we're going to talk about for a few moments,
and the way we do that, we have a model,
which is called the LESCANT Model.
LESCANT is an acronym to teach you seven categories,
where cultural things are going to come up.
So, the handout that I gave you as we started talks about how
to go into this site, and how to add your photographs
to our database, it's not to be a flicker
of every picture you take in Hong Kong, but as we talk
about these cultural issues,
if you find that yourself taking a picture of something
that really, really, really shows one
of these culture issues, we invite you to stick it
on that database, okay?
So, what I'm going to do is talk about this acronym LESCANT,
it's just a really great way to have you identify what goes
on when you're abroad, the L stands for language,
that is when you are abroad, there will be times
when language issues come up, what do you do
in those language issues?
Number one, let me say that the world has been nice enough
to learn English for you to speak English with them,
when you have your course in Hong Kong,
what language are you going to use?
English, everybody that you're going to interact with,
it's going to be in English.
Now, it would be nice you knew how to speak Chinese,
or a little bit of even Cantonese, but think about this
for a second, the whole world speaks English for you.
Be nice to them, speak a little slower,
repeat yourself a little bit, sometimes writing things
down really helps, because what you're going to find
out is people that have studied English for six, seven years,
they write English pretty well, but when you start talking
to them, their comprehension really drops.
And so, when you're abroad, you're going to be using a lot
of English, just be aware that when you just fly
with them 100 miles an hour, you're leaving them behind,
help them out a little bit.
The other thing is just little social niceties,
learn how to say hello, goodbye, those sort of things,
you'll make a lot of mileage.
But language issues are going to come up,
that's one gigantic area, so in LESCANT,
the first thing you think of is
when does language become an issue?
The photographs you're going to take, great examples
of the way English is used in public, strange translation,
things that you don't understand,
things that are written on T-shirts, you're going
to find wonderful examples of the way English is used,
just look at menus when you get to restaurants
in China, they'll be awesome.
The next category in LESCANT, the E stands for environment,
that is, there are physical things that are different
when you're in another country, right now, for example,
you're eating with a fork on a plastic plate with a cup,
just think of even those things being different
when you get there, the room we're in,
the way we have air conditioning,
the way we have tables, the way we have carpeting,
all those sort of things are physical things
that are different.
You know, I often feel sorry for our Chinese students that come
to the U.S., because then they have to drink cold drinks
with ice in them, and they suffer, they suffer, man,
that idea of making that thing so cold it's going
to make you sick, I have great pictures at home
of my Chinese mom, who showed pictures of her colonoscopy
as evidence as to why I shouldn't have cold drinks,
and I'm going, why are you showing me these pictures for?
Because you're drinking cold things, you're going
to get sick, so that's a physical thing,
have ice in your drinks.
In China, it's the opposite, you're going
to have warm drinks, and even the hot drinks all the time,
it's 100 degrees outside, and they give you a boiling water
to drink, and that sort of thing, that's a physical thing.
Population density, that's a physical thing, you are going
to be in a country that is very vertical,
because the population is all concentrated
in a very small area, what does that mean
for how people get around?
You are not going to see Hummers driving down the street,
you're not going to see a gigantic parking lot in front
of a Walmart because space is really, really precious,
so keep your eyes open for how does the physical nature
of things around you effect that,
and when you get a great picture of a million people in a subway,
that's a picture you want to send to our database,
because you will not believe how crowded it can be.
The S in LESCANT stands for social organization,
how is society put together, and you know, think about it
for a second, you are here as students,
there's a whole infrastructure of what we do with education,
who goes to school, how you get to school,
how you group yourself in schools, the difference
of two year colleges, four year colleges, prestigious schools,
society puts it together by education.
We also put ourselves together by families,
what is the family unit, what do you put grandma and grandma
and cousins and uncles all in the same pot, or are they kind
of considered a little bit different?
Each country has a different concept of families, one really,
really quick example, we think of everybody being fair,
in being fair means nobody should have an advantage,
that's not fair, and if I hire my brother, or my wife,
or my sister, that's not fair for other people,
we have a very negative impression of nepotism,
because it's favoritism.
Most of the world will say, hey, who am I going to trust more,
a total stranger, or my wife, my uncle, my cousin, my brother,
who's going to be more loyal to me?
My family.
So, you see something as simple as how we look
at family will effect professional operations
in business and other countries.
And so, that's part of how society's put together.
The role of women, children,
those things are how society's put together, religion,
how it plays in the day to day activities, all those are part
of your society, so when you're in Hong Kong,
and you see great pictures
that show how society is put together, that's one you want
to add to our database as well, that is the S. The C
in LESCANT stands for context,
and this one requires a little bit of description, and that is,
smart people that study societies say
that societies can be on two ends of a spectrum,
the one end is, you don't need the context for your behavior,
rules govern your behavior,
the written word governs your behavior,
things we say govern your behavior.
But other cultures say, no, let's look at what's going on,
and have that control our behavior,
let me give you a specific example.
The law says you stop at a red light, everybody's happy
with that concept, right?
And you go at a green light, but let's say, just for example,
it is 3 o'clock in the morning, there's nobody around,
no cameras, no cops, and you're sitting there at a red light,
how many of you go through that red light
at 3 o'clock in the morning?
Go ahead, somebody confess it.
Aha. The person that says, I go through the red light,
what is that person saying?
That person is saying, this situation, nobody here,
3 o'clock in the morning, red light, it is stupid
to sit here, I'm going through.
So, that is a person who let's the context
of the moment control his behavior,
so you are a high context type of person because of that.
[inaudible] My wife, however, she will say,
it may be inconvenient, but society works better
when we all follow the rules, may have to sit here
for a minute, but big deal, that's safer that way,
that is a low context culture.
And so, you are going to see tons and tons of examples
of how Asia is more of a high context culture,
and they're going to give you the reasons for their behavior,
they're not just going to be very blunt, and direct,
and sort of things, where they can explain why you should do
certain things, so that is the difference of high context,
low context culture, and in a second I'll show you some
photographs on that, that is the C of LESCANT.
The next feature is an A, the A stands for authority,
and that is, how do different cultures give power to people?
North America is a perfect example of a country
that exchanges power, I can have power today,
I can not have it tomorrow,
I'm chair of the department this year, next year I'm not,
think for a second that in our country,
we have former presidents of the United States,
that at this moment have zero power, zero.
President Bush doesn't have a vote in Congress,
Clinton has no vote in Congress, they can travel around the world
and be ambassadors, but in terms of actual power, it's gone.
Now, think of another country anywhere, where former leaders
of the country now have no power, and when you get
that sense, you understand wow,
North Americans are pretty unique in their idea
of exchanging power and authority, and it is going
to direct effect your world and business
because your company is going to send somebody
to Hong Kong a million times, they're going to work
with that guy a million times, they like him, they know all
about him, and then suddenly, he's transferred to Spokane,
and they'll say, where's Johnny?
And you'll go, Johnny's in Spokane, but Suzy now,
took Johnny's place, it's going to drive them crazy
because they've got to start all over with a new Johnny,
but you see our American brains say, that's no problem,
so when you get to Hong Kong, think a little bit
about authority, who's controlling the streetlights?
What's the role of the policemen?
Where are the military police?
Who has the power and authority within a position and a company?
How do people walk in?
How do they sit down?
When you look at those round tables in the restaurants
in China, look at the napkins, they're not the same,
somebody's got to sit with the napkin pointing up,
somebody's got to sit opposite the napkin pointing up,
there are all these position things based on power
and authority and who sits where,
be aware of all those things in your restaurants in China.
And, if you don't want to pay,
don't sit with the things sticking up.
Nonverbal communication, this is the next item of LESCANT,
which is when you are in other cultures,
there will be nonverbal things that happen all the time,
for example, colors that you wear, gestures that you make,
emblems that you make with your hands, smells that you have,
all those sort of things are part
of a nonverbal communication, really quick example,
I was one time at a conference, and there were Japanese ladies
who knew each other, they're like on the opposites ends
of this room, and they started running towards each other,
and they were just squealing with delight
when they saw each other, I mean,
there was total true emotion of happiness, right?
And they go, [noise] and they got to each other, they stopped,
bowed at each other, never hugged, never touched,
but their emotion was totally real,
but they did not touch each other, at -- like a week later,
I was in my office, and I met a Brazilian that I hadn't seen
for months, I get up, and we're hugging, and we're kissing,
and we're touching each other's hairs, and [inaudible] shoulders
and elbows and everything, I don't think I was happier to see
that lady than the two Japanese women were, but culturally,
they did not hug, they did not kiss, they did not touch,
be aware of what goes on,
in terms of nonverbal sort of things.
China, by the way, is a great country for luck and fate,
lucky numbers, unlucky numbers, if you get a,
if you get a phone number in China, it has a lot of 4's
in it, nobody wants it, they have to sell that number cheaper
to make somebody buy it.
If you have a phone number with a bunch of 8's in it, oh,
you want that number, it's a lucky number,
they'll charge you more number, more money for that number.
Do we have anything like that?
No way, we don't charge different prices
for how many 4's and 8's are in a phone number,
that's part of nonverbal communication.
Then the final topic of LESCANT is time, and that is,
how do we divide our time?
How do we compartmentalize our time?
Do we do a lot of things at once?
Do we just do one thing at a time?
Some of my friends from Spain said to me, Orlando, you mean,
you know where you're going to be on August 13,
at 3 o'clock in the afternoon?
It's only April, how can you do that?
But we do, don't we?
We actually have things in our agenda books right now,
at the exact hour we're going to do something,
five months from now, that actually freaks out most
of the world, because most of the world is not
that compartmentalized.
I was told I have 15, 20 minutes to talk,
and if I keep going much longer, they're going to go crazy
because we said we want you to leave at seven, you see?
What is amazing about American culture is that even
if we love what we're doing, if the time ends
for it, we stop doing it.
You know, I have Latin American friends that say,
how do you know when a party ends?
Maybe I can understand how you know when it doesn't know when,
when it begins exactly, but you know,
if you're still dancing, do you stop?
Do you say, [noise] 11 o'clock, gone, we do that,
we do that because of, of time.
So, you've just seen the LESCANT Model to describe what goes
on culturally, it's not the answer to everything,
but it's a nice way for you, when you're in Hong Kong to say,
ah, I know what's going on here, it's a language issue.
Oh, I know what's going on here, it's environment, social,
context, authority, nonverbal, time, and when you do that,
you're going to look at everything that's in front
of you with different eyes,
and I promise you you'll see things you've never...