Women, Men and Politeness

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Name: Sze Hwui Yap, Sandra

Tutor’s Name: Bob Fisher

Student No: M00281193

Draft: 1st

Word Count: 1291

Definition of culture

        Culture may be defined as the behaviour and customs of a particular society or organization. However, there are many ways of defining the word “Culture” as according to Gibson, R (2002). Geert, Hofstede(1980) suggests that, culture is

“the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values.” Edgar, Schein (1985), meanwhile, argues that the definition of culture is

“Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment.”

        Culture can also be divided into “explicit” culture and “tacit” culture (Gibson, 2002).  An iceberg model can be used to represent both culture with the obvious and physical behaviour above the surface of the water and traditions and beliefs below the surface of the water. For example, music, clothing, gestures, greetings and table manners can be “explicit” cultures whereas views of family, gender and also approaches to work, sex can be expressed as “tacit” cultures.( Gibson, 2002)

        As according to Gibson, (2002), when interculturalists express the word “culture”, it does not mean national culture but a range of 7 different types of culture. The 7 types of cultures include, corporate culture, professional culture, gender, age, religious culture, regional culture and also class culture. An example of a corporate culture is the culture of a certain company for example, Apple (Mac) or British Airways. It is the way they behave in the office and also the traditions they keep. An example of professional culture includes the culture of lawyers and doctors where they keep a certain code of conduct and also traditions. An example of the gender is the different cultures of men and women. For example, in certain countries, there are different customs for men and women. The different culture of young, middle-aged, and old people illustrates an example of the “age” culture. An example of religious culture is, the culture in Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam. The different culture in Northern and Southern Italy shows an example of the regional culture. An example of class culture is the working class, middle class and the upper class. (Gibson, 2002).

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        In conclusion, there are different views and definition on the word “culture” and it can be divided into several types.

Cultural Profile

        Malaysia has a diverse culture due to different ethnicities  such as the three main ethnic groups which includes the Malays, Indians and Chinese. However, there are also the native people such as the Ibans and Kadazans in Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia).For the past decade, there have been an increase in migration in Malaysia and as a result, there is an increase in foreigners such as Americans, British and Australians. As a Malaysian-born Chinese, different cultures have been ...

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