Sensitivity to Cultural Norms Chris Ball

What is it? Sensitivity to cultural norms is being aware and accepting of other cultures.

Communicating When communicating with other cultures, it is very important that you have awareness on what you are trying to translate and what their language interprets your translations as. Here are some examples.

Latte In Italian, latte means milk. In English it is a coffee that is made with espresso and steamed milk. Tons of people take morning latte breaks from school or work to wake themselves up or to get out of the work/school environment. However you must be careful what you say in other countries. This is why. In Germany however, latte is a well known word that means Erection! So when you say “ morning latte ” in Germany, you are saying what they refer to as waking up with an erection. Now the word break in German means destroy, so when you take a “morning latte break”, the people in Germany think you are trying to destroy your morning erection. That’s why it’s SO IMPORTANT to properly communicate with other cultures!

What’s the big deal? Being Sensitive to cultural norms is important because a lot of the time what seems acceptable to us in Canada can be derogatory in others. Cultural sensitivity is crucial in todays world, especially where people are becoming increasingly multicultural.

How did all of this start? This is one of the bigger moral issues than anything else. The history of Sensitivity to Cultural Norms is very complex.

Early Civilization Way back in history, everybody was isolated by race, religions, and cultures. There weren’t any minorities. That being said, there was not really anything people would be culturally sensitive about.

Exploring When people started exploring new lands, they eventually found new civilizations and cultures. They discovered their differences, began fighting, and started wars with each other over power and land.

Later on As the years went by, we began to slowly accept each others differences and start welcoming each other. We finally realized that humans are all humans despite their background, religion, ethnicity, etc.

Therefore Cultural norms were created by different civilizations in our earlier history. The sensitivity to cultural norms occurs because of the way society is structured throughout different eras of our history.

Today Countries in the world are becoming more multicultural. i.e. (Canada) That being said, People are gaining a lot of knowledge and understanding for other races and cultures. We are all learning more about everyone else everyday.

Who Cares? The massive increase in multiculturalism has caused us to naturally learn about the different people that live around us. How does this relate to being culturally sensitive? How is any of this useful for you?

IMPORTANCE It is very important because if you all want to live a happy, healthy life, with a lot of friends, and support, you need to learn how to respect the people around you, regardless of what culture, country, background, race, or religion they are. If a business man is travelling to a different country to get a deal done, it is crucial that he knows how to be polite and respectful in their country or they will greatly lower the chance of completing the deal. Say you’re applying to a job. If the person hiring you sees that you are a person who has cultural sensitivity, you will have an immensely improved chance of getting hired. This is because you will be able to interact and understand a lot more people than someone who is not culturally sensitive who could offend people of different cultures.

Legal Issues Unfortunately there isn’t a way to prove that someone is racist in court. However if someone is proven to be discriminating, the consequences could include a fine, jail time, or compensation. The proper consequence is up to the judge of the court to choose upon.

Future Predictions

I think that as the world progresses, we will learn that the only way to prevent wars, disagreements, racism, discrimination, etc. is to live together as a whole. It might be a while down the road but I believe we will one day all live under ONE government. Trying to eliminate countries, races, and other differences, we will all live together as human beings. Future Predictions Continued…