Working with Kluckhohn's Variations in Value Orientations / Language Lesson 2

 

Today was a great day to get some coffee at the Central Station and chat about how well we adapted to the student life in the Netherlands so far. During our coffee break we talked about the financial situations of our representative countries and compared living costs. Unsurprisingly, Switzerland turned out to be the most expensive one. Patrick often gets confronted with people assuming that all Swiss people are simply born rich, although this is not matching reality. Salaries are indeed among the highest in the world, but so are the living costs, which equal out the economic situation in Switzerland.

Although all of our group members live in rather nature dominating cultures, Luka, Patrick and Nils consider their cultures characteristics in view of the relationship to nature as Harmony (live with nature), while Lee defines his culture's characteristics towards nature as Mastery (dominating nature) We found this out by having a closer look at the major cities in South Korea, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland. For example, cities in Switzerland and Croatia focus on harmony and balance of nature by keeping a lot of green spaces in the city center and building around mountains and rivers to sustain the natural environment.  However, cities in South Korea definitely focus more on what benefits the people rather than nature. 

Furthermore, in the case of relationships with people, Luka, Patrick and Nils on the one hand are shaped by individualism. We were all raised with the idea that individual success, materialistic possession and social status are of high importance. Lee, on the other hand, sees his culture formed by collectivism, which means that a sense of belonging and togetherness is valued far higher than individual success, which is called we-oriented. In Europe and North America, where individualistic tendencies are strong, the relationship between ordinary people is horizontal, and in countries in Asia, where collectivism tends to be strong, hierarchy is important.   

Language lesson 2

Once again, we exchanged basic expressions of our languages with the other participants of our group. This time, we learned the following sayings:

Croatian (Luka)

Dobro jutro = Good morning

Dobar dan = Good afternoon

Dobro večer = Good evening

Swiss German (Patrick)

Guete Morge = Good morning

Guete Tag= Good afternoon

Guete Obe = Good evening

Korean (Lee)

좋은 아침입니다 = Good morning

안녕하세요 = Good afternoon / Good evening

German (Nils)

Guten Morgen = Good morning

Guten Tag= Good afternoon

Guten Abend = Good evening