San Diego State University Qatar Traditions and Culture Report

Making Acquaintances: Differences and Similarities

1.Each student will provide a brief cultural write-up relating to his/her representative country (chosen for Making Acquaintances: Do’s and Don’ts): (20 points)

1. Historical background
2. Communication styles (language, both verbal and non-verbal)
3. Beliefs (religion, family, nature, etc.)
4. Society structure (gender equality, role of children, family, ethnic groups, leaders, government, political ideologies, hierarchies)

VERY IMPORTANT – your final score will greatly depend on this.

In the next sections, associations SHOULD be made with the value orientations addressed in the Values portion of this course:

• Human Nature (Universalism-Particularism, Good/Evil, High-Context/Low-Context, Uncertainty Avoidance)
• Relation to Nature (Subjugation, Harmony, Mastery, Inner-/Outer-Directed)
• Activity Orientation (Achievement/Ascription, Doing-Being-Being-Becoming)
• Human Relationships (Affectivity/Affective Neutrality, Instrumental/Expressive, Self (Individualistic)/Collective (Collateral)/Linear, Egalitarian/Hierarchical, Power Distance)
• Relation to Time (Past-Present-Future, Monochronic/Polychronic, Low-Context/High-Context

2. Each student will provide a list of ‘Reasons for Codes of Cultural Behavior’ for tourists visiting his/her representative country. This list will explain to tourists why it is important that they follow each of the Do’s and Don’ts (that you listed in your Making Acquaintances: Do’s and Don’t’s assignment), from the hosts’ cultural (values of the culture) perspective, and should include the following: (40 points)

1. Five major ‘Do’s’ for tourists
   1. At least one appropriate value orientation of the culture for each ‘Do’ (20 points) (Describe in detail one distinct value orientation for each Do. Do not repeat value orientations for the items on the list of Dos.)
2. Five major ‘Don’ts’ for tourists
   1. At least one appropriate value orientation of the culture for each ‘Don’t’ (20 points) (Describe in detail one distinct value orientation for each Don’t. Do not repeat value orientations for the items on the list of Don’t’s.)

3. Each student will provide APA-style citations within the text whenever applicable and compile a list of APA-style references (reference page) for all resources used in his/her write-up (5 points).

4. On the ‘Making Acquaintances Part 2’ discussion forum, each student will post his/her findings about the representative country in a thread by the due date.

5. Each student is required to read the findings of one other student and respond to the posting of the other student by identifying the following, on or before the response due date (10 points):

1. One major cultural value commonality between his/her country and the other country (5 points)
2. One major cultural value difference between his/her country and the other country (5 points)

NOTE: Students’ responses to the postings should consist of complete sentences. In the response, each student should compare the other country with their country in terms of value orientations mentioned above as well.

See sample: Sample of Making Acquaintances Differences and Similarities.pdf Sample of Making Acquaintances Differences and Similarities.pdf – Alternative Formats