culture differences essay

Concept of Cultural Differences in Society Essay

Introduction, the secret life of bees, cultural factors, cultural differences, cultural identity and cultural bias as displayed in the film, the concept of cultural patterns, verbal and non-verbal intercultural communication.

The history of cultures is as old as human existence and generally involves the values of a community, society, or a group of people living or working together.

People’s way of interpreting issues including verbal and non-verbal communication signals or body language, events, dressing modes, and general lifestyles lead to creation of a particular cultural pattern of a specific community or social set up.

These similar attributes of a particular lifestyle to a specific community or group of people contribute to the cultural identity of that community. People with the same cultural identity interpret experiences the same, behave the same, lead a similar lifestyle, and understand the world from a similar point of view.

However, cultural identities differ from one community to another and from country to the other. With little knowledge on the cultural differences, one can easily assume some conventions, notions, and taboos and interpret them differently not knowing that different values mean different things across different cultures.

In cases where one culture assumes other cultures, then cultural biasness hulks which in most cases causes adverse effects including frustration even in public.

Cultural differences also are of importance in the business world; for instance, during or after business negotiation, a handshake may signify different things in different cultures. In some cultures, it may mean a deal has been sealed or an agreement reached while others may interpret it as the start of serious negotiations.

The aspects of cultural differences remain of great importance to the peaceful coexistence of different people of the world, good business performances, healthy families and good relationships.

Many films and movies together with many volumes of books seeking to exemplify the importance of upholding and acknowledging the diversity of cultural differences focus on bring out the cultural factors and dimensions of cultural patterns across different communities and societies.

One of the many films of such calibre is “The secret life of bees.” This film contains a story of Lily, a fourteen-year-old girl and the setting of the story is South Carolina in 1964 directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The story entirely revolves around the lives of Lily, her caregiver Rosaleen, and her father T. Ray.

Lily’s mother dies when Lily is just four years of age. The death of Lily’s mother leaves Lily under the care of her father and a caregiver, Rosaleen.

The relationship between Lily and her father is poor and at the age of fourteen, Lily and the caregiver run away from the family especially the father to other town. Lily’s family is probably nuclear because there is no mention of her uncles, aunts or anyone else from an extended family.

This insight might underscore the reason why upon the death of Lily’s mother, she remains under the care of an unloving father. According to Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural patterns, this family practised individualism, it lived separated from the extended family and only integrated between the members of the nuclear family.

The resources of this family provided only to its members. Moreover, the events surrounding the death of Lily’s mother indicate strongly that the family is nuclear.

Shortly before the death of Lily’s mother, Lily sits close to her mother and immediately her father comes in, a quarrel ensures and lily’s mother packs her belongings ready to leave the house and probably the estranged marriage.

Amidst the heated quarrel, Lily’s mother picks a gun ready to kill her husband but the gun ends up in the hands of Lily’s father then to the floor and finally in the hands of Lily who shoots her mother and this typifies Hofstede’s individualistic cultural pattern.

Conventionally, many societies, communities, and cultures hold that men should be superior to women; that is before the emergence of the affirmative action that ‘threatens’ manhood as many men would love to think.

From Lily’s family, it is clear that, their culture is deeply rooted in this believe. Lily’s mother wants to kill Lily’s father but she fails utterly for no apparent reason; perhaps being a woman, she is weak to kill a man.

Given the cultural misconstrued conceptions of male dominancy and superiority, Lily’s father has to struggle under all means and get the gun out of his wife’s hands and he succeeds to the chagrin of the berated woman.

Furthermore, this aspect of masculinity dominance spiced with chauvinism comes out clearly, when Rosaleen is beaten and arrested; she admits, “…I was beaten by Posey and other men” (Prince-Bythewood).

Rosaleen insults some men playing cards and in retaliation, the best way for these men to punish seemingly uncouth woman is by beating her thoroughly.

Lily hates the punishment her father gives her of kneeling on the white grit on the kitchen floor for going to the peach orchard. All these uncalled mistreatment of women typifies a society characterized by chauvinism.

Another major cultural factor, which many cultures look into, involves avoidance of uncertainties. This factor rotates around the search by the members of the society to know the truth about why things are the way they are.

Lily in this film runs away from her father to another town, which bears the history of her mother. In that town, she even cheats by claiming that she is orphaned simply because she fears to tell the truth but she looks for ways of acceptance as she seeks the truth about her mother. Lily says, “…that’s what I knew about myself.

She was all what I wanted but I took her away…” (Prince-Bythewood, 2008). By the time Lily’s mother dies, Lily has known little about her and this fact is among other reasons why she chooses to run away.

She wants to know more about her mother; a cultural factor that most cultures withhold. Cultures often seek to establish issues like their origin among other things and Lily follows the same line when she seeks to know the truth regarding her mother’s ancestry and origin.

According to Edward Hall’s perspective, cultural differences occurring across cultures involve context, time, and space. Some cultures have their values and beliefs explained clearly and in details in what Hall terms high contextual culture while others assume many details with no clarity of the cultural values and therefore, every person views the world differently to form the low contextual culture.

Lily’s culture is in the low contextual culture because, what Rosaleen tells her about bees is what she believes. Rosaleen tells Lily that bees’ swarms are omen that usually heralds death. Lily believes this version of story simply because her culture does not give details and meaning of bees swarming.

The August house where Lily and Rosaleen are living is a big house with many cots, beekeeping area, and honey processing chambers. The cots are spacious and the entire territory remains under the custody of a woman called August.

Some people naturally want to dominate in terms of space such as owning a big house, big car, big office and/or even big living room, which is the culture in Augusts’ house.

This family is also different from the family, which Lily has known since birth. August lives here with her sister keeping bees for their livelihood. People here love one another and culture of relationships with opposite sex is allowed. Lily’s gets a boyfriend and nobody punishes her contrary to what happened back at home when her father finds her in the peach orchard garden at night only to think she is with a man.

In the August’s community where Lily and Rosaleen live after running away from Lily’s father, has unique identity. Women are actively involved in beekeeping and to the Lily’s surprise; the honey from bees is used in many ways apart from what Lily thinks. Lily says, “They eat it, bathe in it, take it as medicine and make candles with it” (Prince-Bythewood).

Most cultures use honey as food but they do not bathe in it, but in this culture, things are different. In this community also, women work; they are not homemakers only. Lily says, “I enjoyed learning how to tend to August honey making machine” (Prince-Bythewood, 2008). These are specific cultural identities for the August’s community.

On the other hand, Lily’s community is characterised by male superiority leading to male biasness both in power leadership and in economy.

Community cultural patterns also come out in the film through worship and people’s beliefs. In Lily’s community, nothing is said concerning worship whatsoever.

Therefore, presumably most of the people in this (Lily’s) community are atheists. Nevertheless, to the August’s community, worship forms part of their lifestyles; the honey containers bear the image of Virgin Mary.

Back in the August’s house, there is also the statue of the ‘black’ Mary where people from the community come to pray during turbulent times. For instance, Zach’s mother prays before the black Madonna when Zach disappears from home. Zach finally comes back even though May has killed herself because of Zach’s disappearance.

The Lily’s community bears a unique characteristic of people running away from sour marriages and poor performing families. Those running away normally have little instinct of coming back.

In a conversation between Lily and her father, the father says, “…your mother was packing to go away and never return back to us” (Prince-Bythewood, 2008).

The mother wanted to ran away from problems in her marriage and family other than solving them. In addition, Lily and her caregiver run away from the unloving father and when the father finds her in August’s house, Lily refuses to go home with him and this prompts her father to give August the permission to take care of her.

Placing the long statue of Virgin Mary in the living room signifies and conveys the message that the family believes in one true God. This phenomenon non-verbally shows that, members of the community worship a heavenly being whose mother was Virgin Mary.

On verbal communication, Lily looks straight to her father’s eyes and says, “People who tell lies like you should burn in hell” (Prince-Bythewood, 2008) which shows boldness and sincerity of the heart; in fact, Lily is tired with her father and so she simply puts her feelings plainly.

To some communities, it is a taboo to talk straight to the eyes of elders especially parents but Lily’s culture seems different. However, in August’s community, things are different; people write the things disturbing them in pieces of paper and paste them in cracks of a wall that typifies a notice board.

People like May die out of frustration which would have otherwise been solved by speaking out of her mind if the culture allowed such. The forms of communication highlighted in the two scenarios, relate to the acculturation and the adjustment theory of intercultural communication in that, Lily and Rosaleen, from a different culture adjust their cultural patterns to fit in August’s culture.

On a more general overview on the economic growth globally, many modern multinational and multicultural organizations are now in existence comprising employees from different diverse communities.

In such organizations, therefore intercultural communication becomes of great importance. Acceptance, understanding and appreciating other cultures in these organizations creates a sense of belong which culminates into friendship, togetherness and good performance.

As Lusting & Koester observe, “The international business world contains a mix of diverse cultural backgrounds and work experiences resulting in the demand to know what the other culture is all about” (2010, p. 279).

Good Intercultural relations created by good intercultural verbal and non-verbal communication among the different cultures in these organizations would help good business performance and economic targets realization.

Cultural differences do exist between different communities and these differences in most cases cut across all communities and societies locally and internationally.

Cultural patterns strengthen the cultural values and beliefs, which comprise the cultural identification of a particular community. The differences in the cultures across communities call for a clear understanding of the cultures before one can interpret an experience to avoid cultural biasness and frustrations because different things mean or signify different issues in different communities.

Furthermore, in businesses and work places, cultural differences remain an important aspect of concern because signals in one culture might imply something different in another culture.

Lusting, M., & Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal Communication Across cultures (6 th Ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon.

Prince-Bythewood, G. (Director). (2008). The Secret of Bees. [Film]. USA: Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, January 20). Concept of Cultural Differences in Society. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cultural-differences/

"Concept of Cultural Differences in Society." IvyPanda , 20 Jan. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/cultural-differences/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Concept of Cultural Differences in Society'. 20 January.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Concept of Cultural Differences in Society." January 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cultural-differences/.

1. IvyPanda . "Concept of Cultural Differences in Society." January 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cultural-differences/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Concept of Cultural Differences in Society." January 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cultural-differences/.

Rosaleen and Zach in "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
Secret Life of Bees Movie and the Story of Ruth
Honey's History and Trade
How Honey Is Made Overview
“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd
Honey Bees: Reasons of Disappearance
The Depth of Identity in “Good Country People” and “Better Be Ready ‘Bout Half Past Eight”
Personal Fulfillment of the Main Character in "The Secret Life of Bees"
Medical Honey Use in Patients with Ulcers
Nike's Margot vs. Lily Ads Series and Marketing
Globalization’s and Culture Relationships
Cultural Diversity Management in the Workplace
Process of Modernization and How It Affected the Cultures of China and Japan
How Culture Builds Everyday Life
Saint Leo’s Core Value of Respect and Socio-Cultural Impacts on Tourism

15 Cultural Differences Examples

cultural differences examples and definition, explained below

Examples of cultural differences include differences in values, norms , beliefs, mores , rituals , mannerisms, and expressions between different societies.

We can also identify cultural differences in eating and drinking habits, religious beliefs, moral beliefs, rituals, time management, sanitation, greeting, gift giving, exchange, conformity , rebelliousness, sports, language, work ethic , marriage, and so on can all be cultural.

It is common to apply Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory to analyze different dimensions of cultures (Hofstede, 2011).

Cultural Differences Examples

Kinship – Kinship principles generally form the basis of societal organization. Families consisting of at least one parent and one child are customary in all societies, but there are many differences beyond this.
Marriage – Marriage and families seem to be human universals, but there is significant variability in customs related to these aspects of social life.
Sexuality – Interestingly enough, societies vary significantly in the degree to which they encourage or discourage intimacy and its different forms at different stages of life.
Art – Virtually all societies have some forms of art. Visual art, music, song, dance, literature, etc. of different cultures vary significantly.
Religion – Religious beliefs and practices are features of all known societies, but they vary significantly between cultures.
Gender – Categorizing children into the binary categories of female and male is fairly common, but there is significant cultural variability in the toleration of switching categories and the number of genders .
Sports – Games and sports seem to be human universals, but the types of games and sports played by different cultures vary.
Dwellings – Different societies, often due to environmental as well as cultural reasons, have very different types of houses or dwellings.
Celebrations – Cultural celebrations in different cultures include New Years Eve, Chinese new year, birthdays, and Diwali.
Cultural taboos – While there are some universal taboos, you’ll also notice that some cultures consider certain things you consider ‘normal’ to be very much taboo! For example, some cultures encourage eye contact while other cultures find it offensive.
Rites of passage – Rites of passage can include the walkabout in Indigenous Australian culture, baptisms in Christianity, school graduation ceremonies, and so forth.
Worldviews – In broad strokes, Western nations like the modern United States have had a strong history of individualism , while Indigenous cultures often embrace communalism and stewardship of nature.
Dress codes – When you travel the world, you quickly learn that some cultures encourage conservative dress, such as covering your shoulders and knees in public.
Food and eating habits ( foodways ) – This includes not only what you eat, but when. Go to Spain, for example, and learn all about very late dinners!
Educational methods – In 21 st Century Western nations, we are accustomed to formal education in classrooms and standardized testing. But go to Indigenous Australian communities, and we can see that they have their own learning styles heavily reliant on story sharing, symbolism, and non-verbal cues.

Thought Bubble: Are We Really All That Different?

Some anthropologists and biologists have argued against the empirical assumption that cultures are as variable as we might think.

These anthropologists argue that there are cultural universals – concepts that unite all cultures.

Kinship, mourning, birth, the experience of empathy and sympathy, fear, concepts of luck, the use of grammar, exchange, cooperation, competition, aggression, reciprocity, and the biological needs, are some of the constant elements of human experience that go against the assumption that world cultures are fundamentally different (Brown 2004).

Common Categories of Cultural Difference

Unlike many other mammals, human adults rarely live alone. Families are the basic building blocks of any society.

How big these families are and how they are composed varies significantly between cultures.

Consider this example: you are a parent worried about your children no longer living with you when you’re too old for productive work. Some children will grow up and get married. Once they’re married, some children will have to stop living with their parents.

It is, therefore, necessary to decide who lives where. Rules that determine this are called marital residence rules. They differ significantly between cultures (Ember, 2022).

The two most common marital residence rules specify the gender expected to stay and the one expected to leave. When the rule states that the daughter must stay and her husband must move to where her family resides, it is called a matrilocal residence rule.

The inverse is called a patrilocal residence rule. These account for around 85% of the cases social scientists know about, but patrilocal residence is far more common among cultures.

2. Marriage

Different cultures have varying rules for how many people one can be married to simultaneously, what kind of marriage partner one is allowed, and so on.

In virtually all societies known to social scientists today, it is prohibited to marry one’s brother, sister, or parent. Most societies extend this to include the entire kin group.

There are, however, significant cultural differences regarding community exogamy/endogamy, cousin marriage, arranged marriage, polygyny/polyandry, and so on (Ember, 2021).

Let’s take the example of community exogamy and endogamy. Community exogamy refers to marriage with a spouse from another community. Endogamy refers to marriage within the community.

The most common rule is to allow marriage both within and outside of the community, as it is accepted in, for example, European countries. Community exogamy occurs in around 33% of the world’s societies, while endogamy occurs in 7.5% (Kirby et al., 2016).

Another example of cultural variation can be observed in rules concerning the toleration of cousin marriage. Some societies, like the Selk’nam of Tierra del Fuego, are averse to marriage between related people (Gusinde, 1931). Others, like the Komachi of southern Iran, prefer being married to their kin (Bradburd, 1990, p. 115).

There are interesting differences regarding the arts of different cultures that can be seen through analysis.

For example, since egalitarian societies tend to value sameness and stratified societies tend to value hierarchies, the art of egalitarian societies will often contain more repetition than the art of stratified ones (Fischer, 1961).

4. Religion

Religious beliefs and practices vary significantly from culture to culture and change over time.

Different societies have different gods, spirits, types of rituals , and supernatural forces.

Religion itself appears to be common across many cultures, but the specifics are not. According to Émile Durkheim and his followers, religion is the glue that holds societies together (Atran & Henrich, 2010).

The vast body of research conducted by social scientists about human societies and cultures allows us to find, compare, and analyze human cultural universals and differences. If there are different cultures, there are differences between them. It is the task of social scientists to research those differences.

Atran, S., & Henrich, J. (2010). The Evolution of Religion: How Cognitive By-Products, Adaptive Learning Heuristics, Ritual Displays, and Group Competition Generate Deep Commitments to Prosocial Religions. Biological Theory , 5 (1), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.1162/BIOT_a_00018

Baghramian, M., & Carter, J. A. (2022). Relativism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2022). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/relativism/

Boas, F. (1940). Race, Language, and Culture . University of Chicago Press.

Bradburd, D. (1990). Ambiguous relations: Kin, class, and conflict among Komachi pastoralists . Smithsonian Institution Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=mgRuAAAAMAAJ

Broude, G. J. (1980). Extramarital Sex Norms in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Behavior Science Research , 15 (3), 181–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/106939718001500302

Broude, G. J. (2004). Sexual Attitudes and Practices. In C. R. Ember & M. Ember (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World’s Cultures Volume I: Topics and Cultures A-K Volume II: Cultures L-Z (pp. 177–186). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-29907-6_18

Brown, D. E. (2004). Human universals, human nature & human culture. Daedalus , 133 (4), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.1162/0011526042365645

Ember, C. R. (2019). Sexuality . https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/summaries/sexuality

Ember, C. R. (2021). Marriage and Family . https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/summaries/marriage-and-family

Ember, C. R. (2022). Residence and Kinship . https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/summaries/residence-and-kinship

Fischer, J. L. (1961). Art Styles as Cultural Cognitive Maps1. American Anthropologist , 63 (1), 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1961.63.1.02a00050

Gusinde, M. (1931). The Fireland Indians: Vol. 1. The Selk’nam, on the life and thought of a hunting people of the Great Island of Tierra del Fuego . https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/cultures/sh04/documents/001

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture , 2 (1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014

Kirby, K. R., Gray, R. D., Greenhill, S. J., Jordan, F. M., Gomes-Ng, S., Bibiko, H.-J., Blasi, D. E., Botero, C. A., Bowern, C., Ember, C. R., Leehr, D., Low, B. S., McCarter, J., Divale, W., & Gavin, M. C. (2016). D-PLACE: A Global Database of Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Diversity. PLOS ONE , 11 (7), e0158391. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158391

Lenard, P. T. (2020). Culture. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/culture/

van de Vijver, F. (2009). Types of Comparative Studies in Cross-Cultural Psychology . Online Readings in Psychology and Culture , 2 (2). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1017

Tio Gabunia (B.Arch, M.Arch)

Tio Gabunia is an academic writer and architect based in Tbilisi. He has studied architecture, design, and urban planning at the Georgian Technical University and the University of Lisbon. He has worked in these fields in Georgia, Portugal, and France. Most of Tio’s writings concern philosophy. Other writings include architecture, sociology, urban planning, and economics.

Tio Gabunia (B.Arch, M.Arch) #molongui-disabled-link 6 Types of Societies (With 21 Examples)
Tio Gabunia (B.Arch, M.Arch) #molongui-disabled-link 25 Public Health Policy Examples
Tio Gabunia (B.Arch, M.Arch) #molongui-disabled-link Social Interaction Types & Examples (Sociology)
Tio Gabunia (B.Arch, M.Arch) #molongui-disabled-link 25 Common Good Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link 25 Positive Punishment Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link 25 Dissociation Examples (Psychology)
Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link 15 Zone of Proximal Development Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link Perception Checking: 15 Examples and Definition

How to Write an Essay About Cultural Differences

How to Write Research Papers From Start to Finish

Starting your cultural differences essay can be a challenging undertaking. After all, the traditions and social expectations of any culture are so broad that it can be difficult to find a starting point. Choosing a specific aspect of two cultures to research narrows down the topic, leaving you one or two issues to focus on in detail.

Pick Your Topic

When writing an essay on cultural differences, the first question to address is which cultures to write about. The assignment you are given may ask you to compare and contrast two different cultures, or to compare your own culture to a culture with which you are unfamiliar. Pick a culture you are interested in, within the constraints of your assignment. This could be a culture that exists side by side with yours in your town or city, or a culture that exists on the other side of the world. If you are already partially familiar with that culture, pick an aspect of the culture you would like to know more about to ensure that you are engaged in your research.

Conduct Your Research

An encyclopedia may be a good place to begin your search. While an encyclopedia does not go in-depth into the particulars of a culture, it provides a general picture of topics you might want to investigate. These reference books often direct you to more specific references on your topic of interest, such as books, journal articles and online sources. You are likely to find, for example, a variety of sources about different levels of formality expectations in two cultures.

While doing your research, try to note whenever an aspect of a culture strikes you as strange, and ask yourself whether it is a bias based on your own assumptions. This is especially important if you are writing about the differences between your culture and another culture; you do not want your biases to creep into your writing. If possible, interview a member of the culture you are studying to get input on perceived differences.

Structure Your Paper

The next step is writing a thesis statement -- a sentence that expresses the argument of your paper. Since you are writing about a cultural difference, your thesis statement should mention what difference you want to highlight or explain in your paper. For example, if you are an American comparing your social norms of privacy to those of British culture, your thesis statement might go like this:

"The differences in British and Americans standards of privacy are evident in each culture's approach to personal openness and humor."

Once you have your thesis statement, you can plan out the rest of your paper. Outline paragraphs that compare and contrast the two cultures in regard to the issues stated in your thesis. Describe and explore similarities and differences. If possible, provide an explanation for what about the two cultures causes the differences to exist.

Write Your Paper

Begin your paper with an introduction paragraph that includes your thesis statement and additional sentences that define specific topics your paper addresses. Think of your introduction as a way of letting your reader know the topics your paper will cover. Following a well-argued body with strong supporting examples, end your essay with a conclusion paragraph that restates your thesis and the most important points of your cultural comparisons. Ensure that you cite your sources according to the style guide requested by your instructor.

How to Write an Essay on a Religion

Speech Ideas on Cultural Diversity

How to Write an Essay on Conflict

How to Prepare a Theoretical Framework for a Research Paper

Tips on Writing an Explication Paper on a Short Story

How to Choose a Humanities Paper Topic

A Good Thesis Topic

Spanish Oral Presentation Topics

Fulbright Commission: Cultural Differences
Beyond Intractability: Beyond Intractability: Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences

Jon Zamboni began writing professionally in 2010. He has previously written for The Spiritual Herald, an urban health care and religious issues newspaper based in New York City, and online music magazine eBurban. Zamboni has a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Wesleyan University.

Admission Essay
Statement of Purpose Editing
Personal Statement Editing
Recommendation Letter
Motivation Letter
Cover Letter
Supplemental Essay
Letter of Continued Interest
Scholarship Essay
Role Model Essay
Our Editors
College Admission Essay Examples
College Cover Letter Examples
College Personal Statement Examples
Graduate Personal Statement Examples
Graduate Statement of Purpose Examples
MBA Essay Examples
MBA Personal Statement Examples
MBA Resume Examples
MBA Recommendation Letter Examples
Medical School Personal Statement Examples
Medical School Recommendation Letter Examples
Pricing Plans
Public Health
Dissertation
Research Paper
Thesis Editing
Academic Editing
Motivation letter
Letter of Recommendation
Personal Statement
Statement of Purpose

Essay About Cultural Differences: Writing Guidelines

EssayEdge > Blog > Essay About Cultural Differences: Writing Guidelines

It is often difficult for international students to know what to write for their personal statement for US universities. My advice is to write about what you know best: your dreams and goals. Cultural diversity is a major factor in the composition of many university classrooms, so celebrate your differences while you tell the reader in your personal statement why you want to learn about your similarities by studying abroad.

Celebrate Your Cultural Differences in a Personal Statement - EssayEdge

There are many ways to approach the personal statement, including the most popular: begin with a detailed description of your background, from childhood to now. Where did you grow up? In a small town on a remote mountainside in China, perhaps? In a large family in a bustling city? Describe the location so the reader will be able to ‘see’ it. Give context to your essay’s introduction to capture the reader’s interest.

Write about what you know best – not what you think the reader will want to read. Be yourself – analytical, brave, adventurous, compassionate, driven, quiet, tenacious. Describe your family and cultural background, hardships, and education. Offer a specific single story to create an image in the reader’s mind so strong they will not be able to forget it – for all the right reasons. The story should illustrate your motivation to study in the United States.

If there are people important to your story, tell the reader about them with such care and detail that the admissions representative will be able to see their eye color and work-roughened hands. What are your dreams that motivate you to travel far away from home to study at a foreign university? Everyone’s story is unique. Share the reasons behind your educational goals with the reader. Do you want to teach children in remote villages? Or do you want to start a company or an NGO to fund improvements to the water supply or infrastructure of the country of your childhood? Do you want to study marketing or accounting to be able to take over the family business? If you grew up in a village with no doctor, do you hope to study nursing or medicine to return to help others? Or do you want to create films that will tell the story for you in pictures? Your dreams belong to you.

Be personal, honest, concise, and clear while writing your personal statement. Your own voice should shine through your words, allowing the reader to understand why you want to study in an unknown environment in a different culture. Write as you would talk to someone in a face-to-face meeting and avoid using too many words discovered through the thesaurus. Communicate your motivation, such as studying with outstanding teachers and using cutting-edge technology, having access to advances in laboratory research, and enjoying the opportunity to learn more about the world so that you can have a greater impact on your corner of it.

Need help? Check out EssayEdge editing services:

Near the conclusion of your personal statement, tell the reader what special talents you offer the university, such as leadership abilities, strong communication skills, musical talent, or expertise in mathematics or computer science. What will be your special value to the university? Perhaps you will engage in thought-provoking classroom discussions, sharing a perspective on politics or philosophy or science that the other students had not considered. Or you may introduce your friends to the literature and music of your culture. Write about what you will ‘bring to the table’ of the campus community – not just what you will learn from the experience.

In your conclusion, tell the reader what you plan to do with the degree that you earn from their institution. Will you stay in the US for further education or to work in your field or will you return home to use the degree there?

If you are not sure yet what your long-term plans are, you can offer a few options that you are considering so the reader will know that you are a serious student with dreams and goals. Share your enthusiasm for the adventure of being an international student and feel free to dream big.

As always, I look forward to your comments and questions.

If you’re a foreign student applying to a US college, choosing a topic for an admission essay shouldn’t be a problem. Cultural differences are an amazing theme to cover. It lets you show your background and your knowledge of different cultures and make your personality stand out. If you get stuck with finishing your paper, send it to our essay editing company

You may also like International Students – Do You Want to Fit In Or Stand Out?

Research: How Cultural Differences Can Impact Global Teams

Vasyl Taras,
Dan Caprar,
Alfredo Jiménez,
Fabian Froese

And what managers can do to help their international teams succeed.

Diversity can be both a benefit and a challenge to virtual teams, especially those which are global. The authors unpack their recent research on how diversity works in remote teams, concluding that benefits and drawbacks can be explained by how teams manage the two facets of diversity: personal and contextual. They find that contextual diversity is key to aiding creativity, decision-making, and problem-solving, while personal diversity does not. In their study, teams with higher contextual diversity produced higher-quality consulting reports, and their solutions were more creative and innovative. When it comes to the quality of work, teams that were higher on contextual diversity performed better. Therefore, the potential challenges caused by personal diversity should be anticipated and managed, but the benefits of contextual diversity are likely to outweigh such challenges.

A recent survey of employees from 90 countries found that 89 percent of white-collar workers “at least occasionally” complete projects in global virtual teams (GVTs), where team members are dispersed around the planet and rely on online tools for communication. This is not surprising. In a globalized — not to mention socially distanced — world, online collaboration is indispensable for bringing people together.

VT Vasyl Taras is an associate professor and the Director of the Master’s or Science in International Business program at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA. He is an associate editor of the Journal of International Management and the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, and a founder of the X-Culture, an international business competition.
DB Dan Baack is an expert in international marketing. Dan’s work focuses on how the processing of information or cultural models influences international business. He recently published the 2nd edition of his textbook, International Marketing, with Sage Publications. Beyond academic success, he is an active consultant and expert witness. He has testified at the state and federal level regarding marketing ethics.
DC Dan Caprar is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Business School. His research, teaching, and consulting are focused on culture, identity, and leadership. Before completing his MBA and PhD as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Iowa (USA), Dan worked in a range of consulting and managerial roles in business, NGOs, and government organizations in Romania, the UK, and the US.
AJ Alfredo Jiménez is Associate Professor at KEDGE Business School (France). His research interests include internationalization, political risk, corruption, culture, and global virtual teams. He is a senior editor at the European Journal of International Management.
FF Fabian Froese is Chair Professor of Human Resource Management and Asian Business at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and Editor-in-Chief of Asian Business & Management. He obtained a doctorate in International Management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and another doctorate in Sociology from Waseda University, Japan. His research interests lie in international human resource management and cross-cultural management.

Partner Center

LIT TIME TRAVEL

traveling around places, to periods & inside pages

Empty classroom with the world map showing.

While applying to EPIK this year, I had to write personal statements on teaching as well as encountering cultural differences. Below are my teaching philosophy and thoughts on cultural differences (2 of the 3 EPIK essay prompts).

*But as EPIK essay prompts may change, be sure to always check their official website !

Prompt #1: My Teaching Philosophy (on TEFL)

*TEFL is “Teaching English as a Foreign Language.”

Duties of the Student

Learning cannot be accomplished without the effort of the teacher as well as the students themselves. While teachers provide the necessary tools, tips, and methods of studying, this must be met with the efforts of the students to bring about results. The key to mastering a new language is repetition and memorization. So, students should memorize terms learned in class until they become so accustomed to the words that they can remember them in situations that require them. While students can practice memorizing by themselves, they can’t with conversations. Therefore, teachers should focus on conversations in the classroom, having the students practice amongst themselves and also providing materials with which they can practice listening.

Duties of the Teacher

It is the teacher’s duty to create a learning environment where students feel safe to make mistakes. The most important thing when learning a new language is to not feel bad about making mistakes. So, it is crucial for the teacher to make the class a friendly learning environment. It should not, cannot be a place of immediate mastery and perfection. Such pressure discourages students from answering questions; they become shy, unwilling to share with the class. This should be prevented, as participation plays a big part in students’ absorption and application of new materials. Students should be comfortable about making mistakes as well as asking questions when they do not understand a lesson.

Not Just a Subject

Most importantly, since English is a language, an everyday method used to communicate, EFL teachers should remind the students that while it is a subject to study, English is also something approachable in our daily lives. Showing the students that studying English doesn’t always require studying, that it can be fun in the forms of watching movies and shows in English, listening to pop songs, or even playing games using English will help the students have less burden, less repulse of studying another language and actually enjoy learning to speak the invaluable, universal language.

Prompt #2: On Encountering Cultural Differences

Encountering cultural differences in today’s world is inevitable as well as ubiquitous, as the world has become closely connected through the technological advancements of the past centuries. And more often than not, encountering something that is different from what one is accustomed to is unpleasant or weird. But cultural differences can be understood and respected if the cultures involved communicate and share the history and reasons behind their practices. (And if the cultures learn how and why their traditions can be viewed in different ways than they perceive them.) If cultures communicate and understand one another, then cultural differences won’t divide different peoples or lead to hatred and stereotypes.

This is why I want to teach English to South Korean students. So that they, too, can learn the language of the world to communicate with the rest of the world. That when they encounter different cultures, they may understand others as well as be understood. That they may become cosmopolitan individuals that share, work, and live with others around the world.

Advice to EPIK Applicants

Like how I did, you will need to answer the following EPIK essay prompts:

Answer both why you want to teach EFL AND why you want to teach in Korea.
Explain your teaching philosophy briefly. How will you connect your background skills and experiences to teaching English in your classroom? How do you plan to further develop your teaching skills?
Share your thoughts on encountering cultural differences. How do you plan to adapt to Korean school life and culture?

I hope my essay/personal statements give you some ideas and thoughts to write about. But I highly discourage plagiarizing or using my thoughts word-for-word since…

#1: The EPIK team already read my essays and know the contents.

#2: Plagiarism is against the law.

Good luck applying to EPIK!

P.S. To read about my EPIK experience, check out my post HERE .

Experiencing Different Cultures: My Personal Experience

Categories: Cultural Identity Culture and Communication Intercultural Communication

About this sample

Words: 2461 |

13 min read

Published: Apr 8, 2022

Words: 2461 | Pages: 5 | 13 min read

Introduction, cross cultural experience (essay example), nature of international communication and universal systems, contrasting cultural values, culture shock, language and written communication patterns.

Adler, P. S. (1975) 'The transitional experience: An alternative view of culture shock,' Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 15, 13-23.
Bullock Ch., Oswald Sh., Wang J. (2002). Expatriate Selection: The Key to International Success. International Business & Economics Research Journal, Vol. 1 (11), pp. 69 – 78.
Fantini, A. E. (2000). A central concern: Developing intercultural competence. (School for International Training Occasional Papers Series, (1), 25-42. Retrieved from http://www.brandeis.edu/globalbrandeis/documents/centralconcern.pdf
Genelot, D. (1998), Manager dans la Complexité, Réflexions à l’Usage des Dirigeants, 2nd ed., INSEP Éditions, Paris, .
Hall, E. (1959). The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday.
Hall, E.T. (1990). Understanding Cultural Differences. Germans, French and Americans. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Doubleday.
Hofstede, G.H. (1980). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills,
Oberg, K. (1954). Culture shock. (Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences, A-329). Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
Oberg.K. (1960). Culture shock: Adjustments to new cultural environments. Practical Anthropology, 4, 177-182.
Stadler, S. (2011). Intercultural Competence and its Complementary Role in Language Education. In Perez-Llantada, C. and Watson, M. (eds.), Specialized Languages in the Global Village: A Multi-Perspective Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Press, 259-284.

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Provides a foundational overview, outlining the historical context and introducing key information that will be further explored in the essay, setting the stage for the argument to follow.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

Expert in: Sociology

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

5 pages / 2486 words

3 pages / 1349 words

2 pages / 1111 words

5 pages / 2295 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Experiencing Different Cultures: My Personal Experience Essay

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Intercultural Communication

The concept of intercultural encounters has gained immense significance in our increasingly interconnected world. These encounters refer to the interactions between individuals or groups from different cultural backgrounds, [...]

In a world that constantly brings individuals from diverse backgrounds together, the complexities and implications of interacting with strangers become increasingly relevant. This essay delves into the intricate dynamics of [...]

Intercultural communication is a vital component of our increasingly interconnected world, enabling individuals to effectively navigate diverse cultural environments and interact with people from different backgrounds. In [...]

The international classroom is a dynamic and enriching educational environment that brings together students from diverse cultural backgrounds to learn and collaborate. In today's globalized world, the importance of cultivating [...]

The term “Gung Ho” is an Americanized Chinese expression for “Work” and “Together”. Gung Ho is a 1986 comedy film which was directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton. The movie is a very good reflection of the real time [...]

I never moved schools, not even once. For the past 18 years, I have always lived in a densely packed town called Bandar Lampung – a city on the southern tip of Sumatra Island, Indonesia. I had always been surrounded by familiar [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.

Essay Database >
Essay Examples >
Essays Topics >
Essay on Culture

Cultural Differences Essay

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Culture , Conflict , Belief , Cultural Differences , Community , People , Management , Bachelor's Degree

Words: 1700

Published: 07/07/2021

ORDER PAPER LIKE THIS

Think of a person or group that is culturally different from you in some way, with whom you have experienced a conflict that you now realize may have had cultural differences at its root.

Being social beings, humans interact with one another and stay in a community. The interaction among people of the society is one of the key dynamics that holds the world population together. However, I have come to face quite a lot of conflict with my neighbor over some issues. The dislike and conflict has only got enhanced over time, and in retrospect, I have come to believe that the conflicts have their roots in the cultural difference that I have with the neighbor of ours. He is Mohammad Iqbal, a Muslim person who has been living in this country for over two decades now. It has become quite clear to me that the differences that we have in our opinion and the conflict rise from the fact that while I belong to the cultural milieu of the Christian community of the country, he is an Islamic person who has a totally different culture, and is the cultural minority of the country. According to Schubert (2015), differences are there in the world and they give rise to cultural conflicts.

Now, it goes beyond saying that there are vast differences between the Christian culture and the Islamic culture. There are huge differences in worldview, rituals, norms, ideals, and practices that shape the two cultural communities. Culture is shaped by the religious belief of the individual, and it is also influenced by the community’s characteristic practices and beliefs. Moreover, literature and upbringing also play their part in shaping the cultural mindset of a person. Culture plays a major role in shaping the identity of a person. It is intertwined with ethnicity, nationality, and religious belief. As such, it can be understood that although my neighbor has lived in the cultural ambiance of the country for so many years, he has held on to his cultural identity of being a Muslim.

I could zero in on a few specific issues of conflict that is there between me and him, and these conflicts rise from the cultural differences that is there between us. Since we live in the same locality, there are times when we have attended the same event or party at someone’s place. I have noticed that he does not like the fact that I am a huge lover of pork. While I used to find it quite strange in the beginning, thinking that the person was being too nosy on commenting or judging my choice of food. I believed that it was my personal choice. However, I could later realize that he has grown up in a culture where pig meat is prohibited from consumption. On the other hand, there was no such taboo or prohibition in my culture with regard to consumption of pork. This can be described as an example of secondary conflict as it involves less fundamental beliefs. While I was not doing anything wrong, he was seeing me from the perspective of his cultural values and propriety- something that gave rise to the conflict.

Then again, I found it to be extremely backward on his part to wish for Muslim women to wear specific types of non-western clothes, and the burqa as well at times. I have heard him speaking on the matter in such meetings as mentioned above. I took this to be too overpowering and patriarchal on his part. I just could not understand how he could wish his wife to dress like that. Later, I came to realize that he was trying to follow the cultural practice of Islam. This can be said to be a primary conflict between us as it involves clash of fundamental ideas. While he was endeavoring to comply with the cultural practice of Islamic tradition and was speaking on the matter from his own perspective of Islamic culture, I was viewing the same matter from the perspective of my culture. Thus, I was oblivious of the fact that there could be cultural differences in this regard that could shape the respective notions on the same issue.

However, it has to be taken into account that conflict management in matters of cultural differences is of primary importance as one needs to understand that cultural identity and practices for the respective person is of primary importance. According to Thomas (2006), at the time when people are in conflicts, the behaviors can be taken to be of independent dimensions that are assertiveness and cooperativeness. In our context, as per Thomas’ opinion, there has to be a mesh of assertiveness and cooperativeness in approach. This means that both of us would stick to our own cultural practice, but yet there would be an ambiance of cooperation with one another in matters of difference. One has to explore the ways in which the conflicts can be neutralized. It has to be taken into reckoning that one of the most important ways of resolving such conflict arising from cultural differences is to know about the normative practices and beliefs of the other culture. One has to be accommodating. According to Dontigney (2013), as per the accommodation strategy, the opposing side should be given what it wants. This way has been proven to be one of the most significant ones in the resolution of such conflicts among people or groups in the world population. It has to be comprehended that conflict management is the necessary step after identification of the cause of the conflict.

Moreover, acceptance of the other person or group’s practices, beliefs, and cultural roots can be another very effective way of resolving the situation of conflict between two entities or groups. Hence, compromising can be an option of resolving conflict. One has to take into consideration the fact that there are many communities and cultures that differ from one another in beliefs and ways of life. So, one might very well come across some practice that might seem alien to him or her since he or she has not been exposed to the action or belief previously as it is not within the boundary of the cultural identity and practice of the mentioned person in context. Apart from this, another way of dealing with such a conflict in context is to simply let go of the opinion of the other person who is not in compliance regarding the matter. Thus, avoiding can be a good option for resolving conflict. According to De Dreu et al. (2001), this would mean that there would be not mutual understanding of the issue at hand, there would be lesser friction between the persons or groups as either side would tend to avoid any situation of conflict and abide by their own practices and beliefs as usual. In cases of cultural differences, it becomes all the more necessary.

For the purpose of resolution of the cultural conflict that has been explicated, understanding the culture and beliefs of the other person, and thus reach a position of acceptance of the difference would be very essential and helpful. Thus, it would be a good idea to be accommodating of the other person’s beliefs. While as someone from the dominant culture, I could take initiative of comprehending the practices and norms of the Islamic culture, my neighbor could also put down his guard to consider that the ways of the American culture are different from his own. Neither of us should be judgmental about the other’s culture, and rather come to respect the differences that might be there. There is simply no point in being in clash with one another for reasons of cultural difference between us. Hence, compromise can be another effective option for resolution of conflict. However, there can be opposition from his part as he might think the attempt is made with the ambition of exercising the influence of the dominant culture of the American society on him and his beliefs. He might think that it is an attempt to hinder his cultural identity by making him exposed to the propriety of action in the dominant culture of the society in context. Thus, he might have a mental block to discussion and comprehension of the fact that it is fine to h e such cultural differences and they are no valid cause for giving rise to conflict between people or groups.

It has to be understood that different cultures and communities have existed in the world from past times, and we as people are simply born in a specific culture. As people come of age, they imbibe the cultural identity and the ways of life of that specific culture. Nonetheless, it is of primary importance to delve deep into the commonality of human race and propagate the message of human unity. Cultural differences would prevail, but they cannot be the cause of friction, and proper attention should be given to the matter so as to spread the word of harmony and mutual respect among the people of the society. Cultural barriers cannot impede the process of attaining human unity in this world.

De Dreu, Carsten K. W., & Arne Evers & Bianca Beersma & Esther S. Kluwer & Aukje Nauta. (2001). A theory-based measure of conflict management strategies in the workplace. Journal of Organizational Behavior 22.6: 645-668. Dontigney, Eric. (2013). 5 Conflict Management Strategies. Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-conflict-management-strategies-16131.html Schubert, Jessica. (2015). What Is Culture Conflict? - Definition, Theory & Example. Study.com. Retrieved from http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-culture-conflict-definition-theory-example.html Thomas, Kenneth. (2006). Making Conflict Management a Strategic Advantage. CCP website. Retrieved from https://www.cpp.com/pdfs/conflict_whitepaper.pdf

Cite this page

Share with friends using:

Removal Request

Finished papers: 105

This paper is created by writer with

ID 286770334

If you want your paper to be:

Well-researched, fact-checked, and accurate

Original, fresh, based on current data

Eloquently written and immaculately formatted

275 words = 1 page double-spaced

Get your papers done by pros!

Other Pages

Example of total quality management report, report on st peters convenience store ccs, review of the initial pdp essay sample, geometry of plane shapes report example, free literature review on plant mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum, example of ancient to medieval art greece roman empire essay, example of remote access protocols case study, entrepreneur daniel mitchell course work example, example of course work on petals the rose, case study on natural law worldview on population and contraception issues, their eyes were watching god research paper examples, essay on mother daughter bond, sexism in schools and society essay examples, content area literacy essay, example of us military history essay 2, research paper on ludwig van beethoven theories behind the deafness of the maestro, critical thinking on sociology individual essay, case study on googles strategy, hazard mitigation vulnerability assessment critical thinking examples, example of modernity and traditional in purple hibiscus and polygamy in indonesia essay, example of essay on india budget deficit, buss499 case study examples, recession in ireland essay examples, why it is beneficial to teach sign language to healthy infants and young children personal statement, accounting failures in the media presentation example, free definitions and their influence on scientific research presentation example, bothell city articles example, coorss competitive advantage article examples, example of article on dubai city, free foodborne disease article example, free presentation on clinton impeachment trial, free article on world war two, good presentation about workers compensation in california, retired person essays, sanskrit essays, sanhedrin essays, geomorphic essays, therapeutic recreation essays, fleay essays, doctor patient relationship essays, amounting term papers, catastrophes term papers.

Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]

Use your new password to log in

You are not register!

By clicking Register, you agree to our Terms of Service and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

Now you can download documents directly to your device!

Check your email! An email with your password has already been sent to you! Now you can download documents directly to your device.

or Use the QR code to Save this Paper to Your Phone

The sample is NOT original!

Short on a deadline?

Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED

No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline

Home Essay Examples Sociology Cultural Differences

Cultural Differences At Work Matter

Category Sociology
Subcategory Cultural Differences

In today’s world where everyone is constantly traveling and living around the world, people are exposed to multicultural settings in their daily lives, including at work. This might enable people to adapt to other cultures and thus cultural differences will cease to exist which then makes it inconsequential or unimportant. I disagree with this view, because interactions with other cultures do not make you simply adapt to them. Facing cultural differences at work has its challenges which makes an individual’s job experience tougher. This would then lead to implications faced by employees and teams at work, ultimately affecting the organization as a whole. Therefore, cultural differences cause a wide range of issues, which makes it significant at work and thus cultural differences indeed matter. I will explain my view in the rest of the essay, which will be structured as follows: First, I will discuss why cultural differences still exist despite people living and traveling all over the world. Second, I will elaborate on the challenges that arise due to cultural differences. Third, I will discuss the negative consequences directly affecting employees and teams. Lastly, I will discuss the implications faced by organizations.

Indians and Chinese, in their native cultures, traditionally have low achievement motivation but outside their native cultures, they tend to achieve a significant amount of economic success (Sanchez-Runde and Steers, 2001). Although this suggests that people are able to break away from their native culture and adjust to the environment they are currently in, it is not always straightforward. Cultural differences at work will not be easily eliminated and they still exist as people do not easily adapt to their surroundings and lose their cultural beliefs or practices. Schein (1985) recognized that culture is deep and multi-layered into: observable artifacts, values and norms, and underlying assumptions. The deepest layer explains that culture is something that is ingrained deep within an individual, beliefs that they are not even aware of holding them. Therefore, an individual’s cultural beliefs are not easily altered once they travel or move to another part of the world as those beliefs make an individual into the person they are. For example, as put forward by Tannen (1995), men and women have different linguistic styles as we learn ways of speaking growing up as children, and children tend to play with their same gender. Boys tend to learn conversational practices that concentrate on status dimension while girls concentrate on rapport dimension of relationships. As we can see in today’s world, even with frequent interaction between men and women, the differences in linguistic styles between the two genders still exist. This proves that an individual’s practices and beliefs that were built since a young age will remain as one’s identity. Moreover, adapting to the nation’s culture takes time and, in the case, where an individual manages to adapt to a number of practices or beliefs of the residing country, he would still need to work with other people who have not yet adapted, as people will be constantly moving and traveling in today’s dynamic world. Therefore, cultural differences at work will always exist and they matter.

Our writers can write you a new plagiarism-free essay on any topic

Having established that cultural differences at work exist, this essay will now consider the challenges that arise due to these differences that create barriers to a team’s success. Firstly, communication problems. Brett et al. (2006) identified direct versus indirect communication and trouble with accents and fluency at the workplace. In addition to that, Tannen (1995) suggests that there are different linguistic styles, social dynamics of language, conversational rituals and ways of negotiating authority. These differences could cause confusion and miscommunication between two parties as they misunderstood each other’s words when a party is being indirect but the other party is used to direct communication or simply due to not understanding another person’s accent. Also, there could be a problem of not being able to voice out and thus not getting heard because of differences in turn-taking versus interrupting habits or differences in pause duration that is considered ‘long enough’ to permit interruption. Secondly, difference in power distance. This issue has been highlighted by Brett et al. (2006), Witt and Stahl (2016), Rockstuhl et al. (2012) and Cole et al. (2013) which proves its significance at the workplace. A compatibility in leader-team power distance values would mean that both entities accept similar approaches in hierarchical decision making (Cole et al., 2013). Therefore, incongruence in power distance values will cause tension within the team as team members with low power distance would get offended if their leader does not include the team in decision making or a leader with high power distance not tolerating disagreement from team members. Thirdly, contrasts in beliefs about their obligations toward various stakeholders. Some people would prioritize shareholders’ goals while some would prioritize the needs of other stakeholders such as employees and customers. Also, different organizations would have different goals as some would give primacy to economic success while some aim to achieve the “triple bottom line” which focuses on economic, social and environmental sustainability (Witt and Stahl, 2016). This would influence the degree of an organization’s commitment to its corporate social responsibility (CSR) as we can see in today’s world where there are companies that focus on giving back to society more than others. Witt and Stahl (2016) mentioned that senior executives’ expectations about the two subjects will be shaped by the dominant native cultural values. Therefore, employees’ and leaders’ contrasting priorities would cause disruptions at work as different entities are working for different goals and beliefs. Lastly, different perspectives on diversity at work. Ely and Thomas (2001) identified three perspectives, integration-and-learning; access-and-legitimacy; discrimination-and-fairness, and they place different levels of value on workplace cultural diversity. Therefore, those who do not value cultural diversity would perceive other cultures as competition and this would cause distrust and tension within the team. As cultural differences at work create challenges as mentioned earlier, this would inevitably lead to negative consequences which directly affect employees and teams.

Building on from the idea that cultural differences causes challenges at work, this section will illustrate how those challenges negatively affect employees and teams in organizations. Firstly, it affects the procedural justice climate (PJC), which Cole et al. (2013,p. 963) defined as “an emergent state that reflects how fairly the team as a whole is treated procedurally by authority figures.” The fairness perception of employees would especially be affected by a mismatch in power distance levels when they perceive leaders as violating their expectations of discussing and consulting the team before deciding, which would disrupt leader-team interactions. Cole et al. (2013) found that PJC will fall more abruptly when the leader’s power distance is higher than the team’s. Therefore, when the leader’s power distance is lower than the team’s, it will cause employees to feel uncomfortable to work with their leaders but are treated fairly while in the situation where the leader’s power distance is higher than the team’s, employees feel disrespected and are treated unfairly and thus PJC declines more sharply. Secondly, weak leader trust. The level of trust employees has for their leaders relates to the quality of relationship and treatment received. (Rockstuhl et al., 2012). Therefore, poor leader-team relationship would cause distrust within the team and it would be difficult for the team to work collectively in completing a task. Thirdly, lower quality of intergroup relations and weak organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Conflict resulting from miscommunication, contrasts in beliefs about obligations toward various stakeholders and different perspectives on the value of cultural identities which includes differences in point of view and perceived level of power and status could negatively affect employees’ relationship with each other. These conflicts will create barriers between team members and it would be difficult for them to get along and agree on certain matters. This would then lead to weak OCB among the employees and could cause a team to collapse as the five OCB facets which are altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue (Cole et al., 2013) are extremely important for a team to work effectively. Fourth, feeling less valued and respected. For those with access-and-legitimacy and discrimination-and-fairness perspectives, employees of color feel less respected and devalued just because they are minority racial/ethnic groups at work (Ely and Thomas, 2001). Also, having a contradicting belief about the salience of different stakeholders and CSR would cause an individual to feel his beliefs are devalued and disrespected by the firm as it does not fit with the organization’s culture. Lastly, the consequences faced by employees mentioned before would definitely cause job dissatisfaction and decreases group functioning. This is because employees would have low morale and would not enjoy their job as much as they would like due to the cultural barriers which stem from one’s identity. It might seem like a dead-end problem as changing an individual’s habits and beliefs is not a menial task. These consequences on employees and teams listed earlier will then affect the bigger picture, which is the organization.

The implications faced by organizations will be elaborated in this section and it would explain why cultural differences at work matter. Firstly, work motivation of employees will drop. Employees would only be motivated to work if they receive a fair reward, which includes benefits beyond their salary. If cultural differences at work causes challenges and consequences that lowers employees’ job satisfaction, they might be less motivated to work to their best abilities. The level of achievement motivation within a nation influences the extent of entrepreneurial behavior and economic development (Sanchez-Runde and Steers, 2001). This suggests that the level of work motivation relates to a company’s success in achieving its goals. The reason behind it is, an individual’s level of motivation affects the amount of effort he puts into completing a task which would be reflected in the quality of work. Therefore, a high level of motivation would result in high-quality work and ultimately achieving the company’s goals. This shows a strong relation to the second implication, lower work performance, but the relationship is not always straightforward. Sanchez-Runde and Steers (2001) acknowledged that high performance is not affected by motivation alone but employees require other performance contingencies such as personal skills and the necessary tools and technology for task completion. However, employee motivation remains an important factor in ensuring work performance as Cole et al. (2013) explained that employees are more likely to fulfill their roles and exert effort that would benefit the group when they feel their interests are safeguarded. Therefore, problems caused by cultural differences would threaten employees’ welfare, resulting in loss of interest to genuinely help the organization and give their best potential. This might cause them to be a liability to the organization, instead of an asset. Lastly, work attitude of workers will be negatively impacted. A positive work attitude would lead to higher commitment levels compared to a negative work attitude. For example, after-work socializing among Japanese workers (tsukiai) is a common culture (Sanchez-Runde and Steers,2001). This strengthens the relationship among themselves and thus with the company, but it is not always straightforward as Rockstuhl et al. (2012) found that members with high power distance has stronger role-based loyalty and thus leaders’ treatment towards them has less effect on work attitude compared to employees with low power distance. However, Sanchez-Runder and Steers (2001) mentioned that their commitment may decrease in an increasing emphasis on performance-based pay raises. This shows that incongruence in power distance values long with other challenges and consequences of cultural differences will cause negative work attitude and employees to distance themselves from other workers and the organization which would then result in weak relationship ties between the stakeholders of the firm. The implications which organizations face that were explained earlier show that cultural differences at work would affect a firm’s functioning and the process in accomplishing its goals.

In conclusion, as people are traveling and living around the world, this is the exact reason why cultural differences exist in the first place. Being in multicultural settings does not make an individual adapt to other cultures because adapting takes time and culture is an individual’s identity that cannot be easily altered. Therefore, this causes challenges faced at work such as communication problems, incongruence of power distance values, contrasts in beliefs about their obligations toward various stakeholders and various perspectives on diversity at work. Furthermore, negative consequences are faced directly by employees and teams due to the cultural difference challenges. PJC is negatively affected, leader trust weakens, quality of intergroup relations declines, poor OCB and individuals feel less respected and devalued. This would then inevitably bring implications to organizations as work motivation along with work performance declines and work attitude becomes increasingly negative. Therefore, cultural differences at work matter and they need to be addressed in order to improve the organization’s functioning. An example would be structural intervention by reorganizing teams to reduce interpersonal friction or remove a source of conflict. Moreover, managerial intervention to solve team problems or set guidelines so the team have effective processes when faced with challenges. Consequently, if the issues caused by cultural differences at work are not managed, it will diminish the benefits of having a multicultural setting and ultimately weaken the organization.

We have 98 writers available online to start working on your essay just NOW!

Cultural differences essay

The only thing permanent in nature is ‘change’. As the time passes, the world evolves. One of those recent waves of change is that of globalization. The impact of globalization is more far reaching and lasting than any other trend. On one hand globalization provides an opportunity to business world, at the same time, it poses a great threat to people interacting with each other. The trend of globalization is therefore of particular significance to the business community. Since it expands the market, business try to go global.

However, this results into an interaction with a culture that may be quite different from the previous one. This issue is particularly for multinational companies as they send their managers on international assignments. This report is going to inquire and explore the challenges being faced by the expatriates in those assignments and how to deal with them. In the given case, there is the international assignment of a US manager in China. This assignment would definitely be full of challenges with respect to the cultural differences, as mentioned above.

To identify and analyze those challenges, it is important to overview the cultural differences that exist between the two. One of the most popular tools for analyzing the cultural differences is the set of 9 dimensions of cultural differences identified in the findings of project globe. These are performance orientation, uncertainty avoidance, humane orientation, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, assertiveness, gender egalitarianism, future orientation, and power distance. First of all, let us look at the dimension of performance orientation.

In US, the core focus is on individual performance and is therefore highly rewarded. As an implication, people try to give best of their performance, with giving much regards to what the group achieves as a whole. However, this is not the case with China. It is a collectivist society, where the efforts of group are more recognized, as compared to the individual ones. Therefore, if the manager is assigned to China, after reaching there, first of all, he should try to get adjusted and get in sync with his colleagues. Moreover, while motivating his staff, even then, he would need to keep this factor in mind.

Related essays:

Homosexuality and Nurture essay
The migration of Chinese laborers to the Hawaiian Islands in the 19th century essay
China media industry essay
Food Culture in San Francisco essay

In term of uncertainty avoidance, China lies at moderate level, but slightly more inclined towards uncertainty acceptance, to an extent. This factor is quite similar in the two countries. Humane orientation is the extent to which the organization rewards and recognizes a person who values fair treatment with fellow workers, altruism and other such values. The humane factor seems more working in Chinese society as compared to the American society, thus, the expatriate will need to inculcate these features while interacting with the local people.

There is a sharp contrast in the two cultures in terms of individualism. American culture ranks quite high on individual values, while Chinese values are very much inclined towards collectivism. This is true for both, in-group collectivism as well as institutional one. On the measures of assertiveness too, we can see the Chinese are comparatively less assertive than do American. This feature will particularly. Gender egalitarianism is a bit higher in US than in China, thus, the manager on international assignments needs to take care of this since his subordinates would have both, males and females.

In terms of future orientations, there is a remarkable difference in the Chinese as well as the Americans. There is quite high long term orientation among Chinese than do Americans. The Chinese are more long term planner. Thus, while making the strategies and tactics, the long term orientation of the Chinese should also be kept in mind. In terms of power distances too, there is a sharp contrast, there is a high power distance in China, but this is not the case in United States. The power distance therefore calls for more respect and formal interaction with the bosses, quite contradictory to the informal business environment in America.

From the above discussion of the cultural differences at China, one can deduce the major challenges that the manager in the given case might encounter. First of all, while working in groups, he would need to focus on group achievements and should therefore move forward with his whole group, as this will matter the most in that culture. Secondly, the long term orientation of the Chinese culture would pose another challenge. While making future plans, strategies and tactics with his colleagues, he would need to reconcile his short term orientation with the long term ones with his Chinese colleagues and counterparts.

Moreover, this would be the behavior of general public as well, so if he belongs to some discipline that requires interaction with general public, in such case, this difference would become a huge challenge. Another important feature is power distance. In Chinese set up, the power is considered to be the decisive factor for level of formality. One cannot expect the Chinese youth to be very informal with their parents, which is often the case in America. Thus, the manager needs to be conscious about it in his workplace, especially while dealing with seniors. Thus, these are the major challenges that need to be taken care of by the manager.

There are few biggest cultural shocks that would be faced by the expatriates in the given case. Furthermore, the Chinese colleagues may also be realizing the cultural differences in terms of power distance, collectivism, and planning orientations. In order to avoid the situation of conflict due to cultural differences, several actions need to be taken. Top most priority for the actions to be taken depends on the profession and the industry of the expatriate. For this report, it is assumed that the expatriate will be relocated as the marketing manager for a FMCG.

Since marketing manager needs to decide for the product’s marketing mix which includes product, price, place and promotion, he would need to be extremely careful, especially in terms of whatever his brand communicates. This as well as other needs would require a number of proactive initiatives to be taken. Few of them will be discussed in this paper. First step that should be taken is to make expatriate selection process more thorough. Second being train the expatriate and the third is to keep a constant contact with the expatriate after he has been relocated.

It is estimated that the expatriate failure rates range between 16% and 40%. Such a high rate is on account of a number of reasons. So, first important thing is to ensure selection criteria that give weight to the cultural values of the host country. For example, in the given case, the human resource department should choose such an individual who, besides the required technical skills, do posses greater level of collectivism and other such traits which are prevalent in the Chinese culture. The second action that can be taken is to provide the pre-departure training about the cultural norms in China.

It should also include the teaching of Chinese language. The third aspect can be to keep constant contact and support mechanism, possibly a post-arrival session as well, after he has reached China. These steps may help in removing the cultural differences. Moreover, he should consult his Chinese fellows as well before making any crucial organizational communication. To sum up, the course of action required to minimize cultural shocks are careful selection procedure, pre-departure and post-arrival trainings and constant support through local people of targeted countries.

Sichelschmidt, H. , & Selmer, J. (1999). Culture shock in China? – Adjustment pattern of western expatriate business managers. International Business Review. 8, 515-534. Castro, S. , & Peterson, M. (2006). Measurement metrics at aggregate levels of analysis: Implications for organization culture research and the GLOBE project [An article from: The Leadership Quarterly]. St. Louis : Elsevier. Etheredge, J. (1989). The expatriate experience: Toward a model of cultural adjustment (BRC working paper series). Shatin Hong Kong: Business Research Centre, Hong Kong Baptist College. Hofstede, G. (2003).

Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. Mcginley, J. (2008). Expatriate Adjustment: Resources, Responses, and Outcomes. NYC: Vdm Verlag. Selmer, J. (2006). Language ability and adjustment: Western expatriates in China. Thunderbird International Business Review, 48(3), 347-368. The little firm that made it in China.. (2007, July 16). Australasian Business Intelligence, 3. To succeed in China, think Chinese; It’s a different culture; Western ways won’t cut it. (Viewpoint essay). (2007, September 3). Automotive News, 4.

Share full article

Supported by

Guest Essay

The Troubling Trend in Teenage Sex

A pile of bed linens on a night stand next to a bed.

By Peggy Orenstein

Ms. Orenstein is the author of “Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New Masculinity” and “Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape.”

Debby Herbenick is one of the foremost researchers on American sexual behavior. The director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University and the author of the pointedly titled book “Yes, Your Kid,” she usually shares her data, no matter how explicit, without judgment. So I was surprised by how concerned she seemed when we checked in on Zoom recently: “I haven’t often felt so strongly about getting research out there,” she told me. “But this is lifesaving.”

For the past four years, Dr. Herbenick has been tracking the rapid rise of “rough sex” among college students, particularly sexual strangulation, or what is colloquially referred to as choking. Nearly two-thirds of women in her most recent campus-representative survey of 5,000 students at an anonymized “major Midwestern university” said a partner had choked them during sex (one-third in their most recent encounter). The rate of those women who said they were between the ages 12 and 17 the first time that happened had shot up to 40 percent from one in four.

As someone who’s been writing for well over a decade about young people’s attitudes and early experience with sex in all its forms, I’d also begun clocking this phenomenon. I was initially startled in early 2020 when, during a post-talk Q. and A. at an independent high school, a 16-year-old girl asked, “How come boys all want to choke you?” In a different class, a 15-year-old boy wanted to know, “Why do girls all want to be choked?” They do? Not long after, a college sophomore (and longtime interview subject) contacted me after her roommate came home in tears because a hookup partner, without warning, had put both hands on her throat and squeezed.

I started to ask more, and the stories piled up. Another sophomore confided that she enjoyed being choked by her boyfriend, though it was important for a partner to be “properly educated” — pressing on the sides of the neck, for example, rather than the trachea. (Note: There is no safe way to strangle someone.) A male freshman said “girls expected” to be choked and, even though he didn’t want to do it, refusing would make him seem like a “simp.” And a senior in high school was angry that her friends called her “vanilla” when she complained that her boyfriend had choked her.

Sexual strangulation, nearly always of women in heterosexual pornography, has long been a staple on free sites, those default sources of sex ed for teens . As with anything else, repeat exposure can render the once appalling appealing. It’s not uncommon for behaviors to be normalized in porn, move within a few years to mainstream media, then, in what may become a feedback loop, be adopted in the bedroom or the dorm room.

Choking, Dr. Herbenick said, seems to have made that first leap in a 2008 episode of Showtime’s “Californication,” where it was still depicted as outré, then accelerated after the success of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” By 2019, when a high school girl was choked in the pilot of HBO’s “Euphoria,” it was standard fare. A young woman was choked in the opener of “The Idol” (again on HBO and also, like “Euphoria,” created by Sam Levinson; what’s with him ?). Ali Wong plays the proclivity for laughs in a Netflix special, and it’s a punchline in Tina Fey’s new “Mean Girls.” The chorus of Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me,” which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for six nonconsecutive weeks this winter and has been viewed over 99 million times on YouTube, starts with, “I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll choke you, but I ain’t no killer, baby.” How-to articles abound on the internet, and social media algorithms feed young people (but typically not their unsuspecting parents) hundreds of #chokemedaddy memes along with memes that mock — even celebrate — the potential for hurting or killing female partners.

I’m not here to kink-shame (or anything-shame). And, anyway, many experienced BDSM practitioners discourage choking, believing it to be too dangerous. There are still relatively few studies on the subject, and most have been done by Dr. Herbenick and her colleagues. Reports among adolescents are now trickling out from the United Kingdom , Australia , Iceland , New Zealand and Italy .

Twenty years ago, sexual asphyxiation appears to have been unusual among any demographic, let alone young people who were new to sex and iffy at communication. That’s changed radically in a short time, with health consequences that parents, educators, medical professionals, sexual consent advocates and teens themselves urgently need to understand.

Sexual trends can spread quickly on campus and, to an extent, in every direction. But, at least among straight kids, I’ve sometimes noticed a pattern: Those that involve basic physical gratification — like receiving oral sex in hookups — tend to favor men. Those that might entail pain or submission, like choking, are generally more for women.

So, while undergrads of all genders and sexualities in Dr. Herbenick’s surveys report both choking and being choked, straight and bisexual young women are far more likely to have been the subjects of the behavior; the gap widens with greater occurrences. (In a separate study , Dr. Herbenick and her colleagues found the behavior repeated across the United States, particularly for adults under 40, and not just among college students.) Alcohol may well be involved, and while the act is often engaged in with a steady partner, a quarter of young women said partners they’d had sex with on the day they’d met also choked them.

Either way, most say that their partners never or only sometimes asked before grabbing their necks. For many, there had been moments when they couldn’t breathe or speak, compromising the ability to withdraw consent, if they’d given it. No wonder that, in a separate study by Dr. Herbenick, choking was among the most frequently listed sex acts young women said had scared them, reporting that it sometimes made them worry whether they’d survive.

Among girls and women I’ve spoken with, many did not want or like to be sexually strangled, though in an otherwise desired encounter they didn’t name it as assault . Still, a sizable number were enthusiastic; they requested it. It is exciting to feel so vulnerable, a college junior explained. The power dynamic turns her on; oxygen deprivation to the brain can trigger euphoria.

That same young woman, incidentally, had never climaxed with a partner: While the prevalence of choking has skyrocketed, rates of orgasm among young women have not increased, nor has the “orgasm gap” disappeared among heterosexual couples. “It indicates they’re not doing other things to enhance female arousal or pleasure,” Dr. Herbenick said.

When, for instance, she asked one male student who said he choked his partner whether he’d ever tried using a vibrator instead, he recoiled. “Why would I do that?” he asked.

Perhaps, she responded, because it would be more likely to produce orgasm without risking, you know, death.

In my interviews, college students have seen male orgasm as a given; women’s is nice if it happens, but certainly not expected or necessarily prioritized (by either partner). It makes sense, then, that fulfillment would be less the motivator for choking than appearing adventurous or kinky. Such performances don’t always feel good.

“Personally, my hypothesis is that this is one of the reasons young people are delaying or having less sex,” Dr. Herbenick said. “Because it’s uncomfortable and weird and scary. At times some of them literally think someone is assaulting them but they don’t know. Those are the only sexual experiences for some people. And it’s not just once they’ve gotten naked. They’ll say things like, ‘I’ve only tried to make out with someone once because he started choking and hitting me.’”

Keisuke Kawata, a neuroscientist at Indiana University’s School of Public Health, was one of the first researchers to sound the alarm on how the cumulative, seemingly inconsequential, sub-concussive hits football players sustain (as opposed to the occasional hard blow) were key to triggering C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease. He’s a good judge of serious threats to the brain. In response to Dr. Herbenick’s work, he’s turning his attention to sexual strangulation. “I see a similarity” to C.T.E., he told me, “though the mechanism of injury is very different.” In this case, it is oxygen-blocking pressure to the throat, frequently in light, repeated bursts of a few seconds each.

Strangulation — sexual or otherwise — often leaves few visible marks and can be easily overlooked as a cause of death. Those whose experiences are nonlethal rarely seek medical attention, because any injuries seem minor: Young women Dr. Herbenick studied mostly reported lightheadedness, headaches, neck pain, temporary loss of coordination and ear ringing. The symptoms resolve, and all seems well. But, as with those N.F.L. players, the true effects are silent, potentially not showing up for days, weeks, even years.

According to the American Academy of Neurology, restricting blood flow to the brain, even briefly, can cause permanent injury, including stroke and cognitive impairment. In M.R.I.s conducted by Dr. Kawata and his colleagues (including Dr. Herbenick, who is a co-author of his papers on strangulation), undergraduate women who have been repeatedly choked show a reduction in cortical folding in the brain compared with a never-choked control group. They also showed widespread cortical thickening, an inflammation response that is associated with elevated risk of later-onset mental illness. In completing simple memory tasks, their brains had to work far harder than the control group, recruiting from more regions to achieve the same level of accuracy.

The hemispheres in the choked group’s brains, too, were badly skewed, with the right side hyperactive and the left underperforming. A similar imbalance is associated with mood disorders — and indeed in Dr. Herbenick’s surveys girls and women who had been choked were more likely than others (or choked men) to have experienced overwhelming anxiety, as well as sadness and loneliness, with the effect more pronounced as the incidence rose: Women who had experienced more than five instances of choking were two and a half times as likely as those who had never been choked to say they had been so depressed within the previous 30 days they couldn’t function. Whether girls and women with mental health challenges are more likely to seek out (or be subjected to) choking, choking causes mood disorders, or some combination of the two is still unclear. But hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation — judging by what research has shown about other types of traumatic brain injury — could be a contributing factor. Given the soaring rates of depression and anxiety among young women, that warrants concern.

Now consider that every year Dr. Herbenick has done her survey, the number of females reporting extreme effects from strangulation (neck swelling, loss of consciousness, losing control of urinary function) has crept up. Among those who’ve been choked, the rate of becoming what students call “cloudy” — close to passing out, but not crossing the line — is now one in five, a huge proportion. All of this indicates partners are pressing on necks longer and harder.

The physical, cognitive and psychological impacts of sexual choking are disturbing. So is the idea that at a time when women’s social, economic, educational and political power are in ascent (even if some of those rights may be in jeopardy), when #MeToo has made progress against harassment and assault, there has been the popularization of a sex act that can damage our brains, impair intellectual functioning, undermine mental health, even kill us. Nonfatal strangulation, one of the most significant indicators that a man will murder his female partner (strangulation is also one of the most common methods used for doing so), has somehow been eroticized and made consensual, at least consensual enough. Yet, the outcomes are largely the same: Women’s brains and bodies don’t distinguish whether they are being harmed out of hate or out of love.

By now I’m guessing that parents are curled under their chairs in a fetal position. Or perhaps thinking, “No, not my kid!” (see: title of Dr. Herbenick’s book above, which, by the way, contains an entire chapter on how to talk to your teen about “rough sex”).

I get it. It’s scary stuff. Dr. Herbenick is worried; I am, too. And we are hardly some anti-sex, wait-till-marriage crusaders. But I don’t think our only option is to wring our hands over what young people are doing.

Parents should take a beat and consider how they might give their children relevant information in a way that they can hear it. Maybe reiterate that they want them to have a pleasurable sex life — you have already said that, right? — and also want them to be safe. Tell them that misinformation about certain practices, including choking, is rampant, that in reality it has grave health consequences. Plus, whether or not a partner initially requested it, if things go wrong, you’re generally criminally on the hook.

Dr. Herbenick suggests reminding them that there are other, lower-risk ways to be exploratory or adventurous if that is what they are after, but it would be wisest to delay any “rough sex” until they are older and more skilled at communicating. She offers language when negotiating with a new partner, such as, “By the way, I’m not comfortable with” — choking, or other escalating behaviors such as name-calling, spitting and genital slapping — “so please don’t do it/don’t ask me to do it to you.” They could also add what they are into and want to do together.

I’d like to point high school health teachers to evidence-based porn literacy curricula, but I realize that incorporating such lessons into their classrooms could cost them their jobs. Shafia Zaloom, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, recommends, if that’s the case, grounding discussions in mainstream and social media. There are plenty of opportunities. “You can use it to deconstruct gender norms, power dynamics in relationships, ‘performative’ trends that don’t represent most people’s healthy behaviors,” she said, “especially depictions of people putting pressure on someone’s neck or chest.”

I also know that pediatricians, like other adults, struggle when talking to adolescents about sex (the typical conversation, if it happens, lasts 40 seconds). Then again, they already caution younger children to use a helmet when they ride a bike (because heads and necks are delicate!); they can mention that teens might hear about things people do in sexual situations, including choking, then explain the impact on brain health and why such behavior is best avoided. They should emphasize that if, for any reason — a fall, a sports mishap or anything else — a young person develops symptoms of head trauma, they should come in immediately, no judgment, for help in healing.

The role and responsibility of the entertainment industry is a tangled knot: Media reflects behavior but also drives it, either expanding possibilities or increasing risks. There is precedent for accountability. The European Union now requires age verification on the world’s largest porn sites (in ways that preserve user privacy, whatever that means on the internet); that discussion, unsurprisingly, had been politicized here. Social media platforms have already been pushed to ban content promoting eating disorders, self-harm and suicide — they should likewise be pressured to ban content promoting choking. Traditional formats can stop glamorizing strangulation, making light of it, spreading false information, using it to signal female characters’ complexity or sexual awakening. Young people’s sexual scripts are shaped by what they watch, scroll by and listen to — unprecedentedly so. They deserve, and desperately need, models of interactions that are respectful, communicative, mutual and, at the very least, safe.

Peggy Orenstein is the author of “Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New Masculinity” and “Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

An earlier version of this article misstated the network on which “Californication” first appeared. It is Showtime, not HBO. The article also misspelled a book and film title. It is “Fifty Shades of Grey,” not “Fifty Shades of Gray.”

How we handle corrections

IMAGES

Cultural Diversity Essay
Cultural Differences And Similarities Of Two Artists Essay Example
Organizations And Its Cultural Differences
Culture, Subculture, and Their Differences
Cultural Differences Essay
Essay on cultural differences roles and core values

VIDEO

Educational Achievement Gaps: Causes and Impacts
Experts Speak
Two Worlds
Cultural Differences: How They Impact Every Aspect of Life
Essay on The Importance of Cultural Diversity
Europe vs American Culture And The UNSPOKEN Differences

COMMENTS

Concept of Cultural Differences in Society Essay
One of the many films of such calibre is "The secret life of bees.". This film contains a story of Lily, a fourteen-year-old girl and the setting of the story is South Carolina in 1964 directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The story entirely revolves around the lives of Lily, her caregiver Rosaleen, and her father T. Ray.
Cultural Differences Essay
Cultural Differences Essay: Variety alludes to the traits that individuals use to affirm themselves as for other people, "that individual is not the same as me." These properties incorporate segment factors (race, sexual orientation, and age) just as qualities and cultural standards. Cultural variety is the nature of various societies, instead of monoculture, the worldwide monoculture, […]
15 Cultural Differences Examples (2024)
15 Cultural Differences Examples. Examples of cultural differences include differences in values, norms, beliefs, mores, rituals, mannerisms, and expressions between different societies. We can also identify cultural differences in eating and drinking habits, religious beliefs, moral beliefs, rituals, time management, sanitation, greeting, gift ...
How to Write an Essay About Cultural Differences
Pick Your Topic. When writing an essay on cultural differences, the first question to address is which cultures to write about. The assignment you are given may ask you to compare and contrast two different cultures, or to compare your own culture to a culture with which you are unfamiliar. Pick a culture you are interested in, within the ...
Cultural Differences Essay
Cultural Differences Essay. Sort By: Page 1 of 50 - About 500 essays. Decent Essays. Cultural Differences And Cultural Beliefs In The United States. 1191 Words; 5 Pages ... The Theory of Cultural Differences The theory of cultural differences revolves around 7 concepts, Individual and Collective Orientation, High- and Low-Context Cultures ...
The Differences Of Culture And Culture Essay
Satisfactory Essays. 2234 Words. 9 Pages. Open Document. The Differences of Culture. Culture is part of each of us; its characteristics are defined by a combination of multiple conditions such as language, religion, places, people, lifestyle, etc. People in different societies have different cultures, sometimes they can be significantly ...
Essay About Cultural Differences: Writing Guidelines
EssayEdge > Blog > Essay About Cultural Differences: Writing Guidelines. Updated: April 8, 2024. It is often difficult for international students to know what to write for their personal statement for US universities. My advice is to write about what you know best: your dreams and goals. Cultural diversity is a major factor in the composition ...
Cultural Differences Essay
Cultural Differences Paper. Cultural Differences Paper Cultural Differences Introduction Many people throughout the world indentify themselves by their cultural background. It is common knowledge that there are many different cultures throughout the world. Each culture has its similarities and differences.
Analyzing and understanding cultural differences
The findings suggest that Hofstede's dimensions of cultural differences play distinct roles in influencing the TAM. For example, high uncertainty avoidance decreases the pace of individual ...
Research: How Cultural Differences Can Impact Global Teams
The authors unpack their recent research on how diversity works in remote teams, concluding that benefits and drawbacks can be explained by how teams manage the two facets of diversity: personal ...
Essays About Cultural Differences
Cultural Differences Essay Examples. Type of paper: Essay. Topic: Culture, Development, Human, Evaluation, People, Progress, Wish, Superiority. Pages: 2. Words: 350. Published: 01/06/2020. It is true to argue that we usually do not accept human differences without judging them as to whether they are bad or good.
Cultural Differences Essay Examples
Essays on Cultural Differences. Role of Integrity, Respect for Diversity and Professionalism in Promoting Gender Equality by UN Women . that are required from applicants (UN Women Leadership, n.d). The organization uses an ethnocentric strategy in recruitment as the headquarter sets out the selection strategy which creates an unified culture ...
EPIK Essay: Thoughts on Teaching & Encountering Cultural Differences
Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton. While applying to EPIK this year, I had to write personal statements on teaching as well as encountering cultural differences. Below are my teaching philosophy and thoughts on cultural differences (2 of the 3 EPIK essay prompts). *But as EPIK essay prompts may change, be sure to always check their official website!
Experiencing Different Cultures: My Personal Experience
Introduction. Introduction: Today, people with different cultures and countries work together at the workplace, more international students are on their journey to acquire academic knowledge and more people are travelling the world. Hence, it is fundamental to understand these cultural differences to avoid any miscommunication. Working together in a diverse culture has not been easy.
Essay On Cultural Differences
According to Schubert (2015), differences are there in the world and they give rise to cultural conflicts. Now, it goes beyond saying that there are vast differences between the Christian culture and the Islamic culture. There are huge differences in worldview, rituals, norms, ideals, and practices that shape the two cultural communities.
Cultural Differences At Work Matter: Essay Example, 2195 words
Having established that cultural differences at work exist, this essay will now consider the challenges that arise due to these differences that create barriers to a team's success. Firstly, communication problems. Brett et al. (2006) identified direct versus indirect communication and trouble with accents and fluency at the workplace.
Cultural Differences Essay
These differences are ideology, socialization, discourse, and face systems. These four cultural differences served as motivation and explanation for the rejection of tourism by the Toraja people. Scollon and Scollon describe ideology as the groups…. 707 Words. 3 Pages.
Cultural Differences Essays & Research Papers
The Kite Runner' and Escape from Afghanistan: Essay. Cultural Diversity Racial Realism The Kite Runner. This project is going to review The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. He is an Afghan American novelist and his first novel Kite Runner published in 2003. He was born in Afghanistan but moved to America in 1980.
Cultural differences essay Essay
Cultural differences essay. The only thing permanent in nature is 'change'. As the time passes, the world evolves. One of those recent waves of change is that of globalization. The impact of globalization is more far reaching and lasting than any other trend. On one hand globalization provides an opportunity to business world, at the same ...
Bees, like humans, can preserve cultural traditions
Essay; Schools brief; Business & economics. ... is the clearest demonstration yet of cultural differences spontaneously appearing in insects. Insect culture would once have been thought impossible ...
Opinion
The Troubling Trend in Teenage Sex. Ms. Orenstein is the author of "Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New Masculinity" and "Girls & Sex: Navigating the ...