The Cultural Comparison between Azerbaijan and Portugal - Case Study Example

The Cultural comparison between Azerbaijan and Portugal Student’s Name: Grade course: Tutor’s Name: Date: Introduction This paper focuses on the cultural differences between Azerbaijan culture and Portuguese culture. It mainly focuses on compares these two cultures in regard to the following factors, the language used, time keeping, the cultural diversity as well as the dining etiquette. It also uses Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions which comprises of the power distance, the individualistic, the masculinity, uncertainty avoidance as well as the long term orientation to compare the Iran cultures to the Portuguese cultures. It discusses these factors in details so as to indicate how each one of them affects the cultural differences. Language The official language of Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani or the "Azeri", which is a Turkic language. The Azerbaijani language is part of the 'Oghuz', or the 'Western Turkic' a collection of Turkic languages, together with the Anatolian Turkish as well Turkmen. The difference in dialect between Azerbaijani and Anatolian Turkish has been majorly accredited to Mongolian and Turkic effects (Guliam 2003). In Portugal the official language is Portuguese which is spoken by over ten million people. The Galician and the Mirandese are usually spoken in the northern part of the country, alongside the Spanish border, by a few thousand people, although they are technically classified as separate languages (Burton & Robinson 1999). Dinning etiquettes When dinning in an Azeri home one is expected to remove shoes before entering the house. One is expected to dress casually and not to wear tight or clothes that are revealing. The arrival time is not usually significant but arriving within thirty minutes of the specified time is considered acceptable socially. Also one is expected to shake everyone’s hands upon arrival. The table manners are usually justly formal. One is expected to stay standing until requested to sit down. The guest is supposed to keep the elbows off the table as well as the hands above the table while eating. The hostess usually serves the food to everyone on the dinner table, with the elderly being served first, then the visitor and lastly the children. The guest is supposed to use the right hand to eat as well as pass things only (Nikiforova 2001). While in Portugal the guest is supposed to dress in a conservative manner. One can arrive to a dinner no more than fifteen minutes of the specified time. One should not discuss business matters in social situations. The table manners are usually formal. The guest is expected to stay standing until requested to sit down. One should not start eating until the hostess utters "bom apetite ". One should not rest the elbows on the table although the guests hands should at all times remain visible. A lot of the food is usually eaten with the utensils including the fruits and cheese. The guest is expected to keep the napkin on the left side of the plate while eating. One should not on the laps. When one is done eating the napkin should be moved to the right side of the plate. The guest should lay the knife and the fork parallel to the plate, with the tines facing up, once the guest is done eating (Burton & Robinson 1999). Time keeping The Azeri of Azerbaijan is not good at keeping time as well as punctuality. This is shown when one is invited for dinner and they do not mind if the guest comes late. Punctuality is not usually important while the Portuguese are very good time keepers whenever there is specified time to be met. The Portuguese insists on arriving within fifteen minutes of the specified time and one should arrive earlier than the specified time (Guliam 2003). Diversity Azerbaijan culture consists of Azeri, Dagestani, Russians, Armenia, Ukrainian, Laks, Greeks and Kurdish. The main religions in Azerbaijan are Muslim, Russian orthodox, Armenia orthodox and Judaism. Portugal culture comprises of similar Mediterranean stock, citizens of black African origin who moved to the mainland during the decolonisation period as well as Europeans from Germany, France, England as well as Spain. The main religion in Portugal is the Roman Catholic which is practised by the 94 per cent of the population (Nikiforova 2001). Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions Hofstede in his study recommended sequences of cultural dimensions in a determination to better describe the variability in patterns of communications between cultures in consideration to social anticipations and expectations. This paper mainly focuses on the five of Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions so as to identify the cultural differences that exist in the various societies and analyse them into the following dimensions. Power distance This is the degree to which the less influential members of the society and organisation within a certain country believe and agree that authority is distributed unequally. Iran culture indicates or rather shows higher power distance when compared to Portuguese culture which means that the people of Iran are more likely respect those who holds most powerful positions in the society than those who holds less powerful positions. In Iran which has high power distance there is a higher tendency of the organisation only having closed meeting which only top officials are allowed to attend and the information is passed only to the top management alone while in Portugal which has low power distance, there is tendency to share information with everyone and the meetings involves various people from different levels of the organisation (Open Societies Institute 2002). Individualistic This is the extent of interdependence that a society upholds among its members. The individualist societies the ties between the individuals are loose. People are supposed to look after themselves as well as their direct family while collectivist societies people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families. Iran is collectivist society. Therefore it the people prefers the close relation with the immediate family members and the extended family while the Portugal society is also a collectivist society but in comparison to Iran it has lower dimension scores as compared to Iran. Therefore, Portugal is an individualistic society (Guliam 2003). Masculinity This is the extent to which the society values and sticks with the traditional male as well as the female roles. The most important thing is what motivates the people in a society, which is yearning to be the best which masculine or liking what you do that is feminine. Iran scores highly in this dimension which indicates that it is a masculine society. Men in this society are supposed to work to provide for their families and there are specific roles for men and women. While Portugal sores less in this dimension, therefore, it has less masculinity and the people do not have a lot or any specific jobs reserved entirely for men and women (Girlando & Claire 2001). Uncertainty avoidance This refers to the degree of anxiety that the members of the society feel whenever they are in uncertain or unfamiliar state. The societies that scores highly in this dimension, tries as much as possible to avoid uncertain circumstances whenever possible. The societies are run by rules and order as they seek a collective truth. The societies that scoreless in this dimensions shows that the society enjoys novelty and values differences. Iran scoreless in this dimension and therefore it has a low preference of avoiding uncertainty while Portugal scores highly and therefore; it has a very high inclination to avoiding uncertainty (Open Societies Institute 2002). Long term orientation This is defined as the degree to which the society values the long term tradition as well as values as opposed to the short term traditions and values. Iran society scores less in this dimension which indicates that it values long term tradition and values. Therefore, this means that these people value very much their tradition and vales. While Portugal scores highly in this dimension which indicates that the people values short term tradition and values. Therefore, the provision social obligations as well as avoiding embarrassment are considered to be of great significance. This further suggests these cultures one can expect anything in terms of innovative expression as well as novel ideas (Girlando & Claire 2001). Conclusion The discussion focusses on the comparison of two cultures of Azerbaijan and Portugal in regard to the following factors, the language used, time keeping of the two cultures, the cultural diversity as well as the dining etiquette. It also discusses the Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions which comprises of the power distance, the individualistic, the masculinity, uncertainty avoidance as well as the long term orientation to compare the Iran cultures to the Portuguese cultures as well as how these factors affects the way these cultures operates, functions as well as how they relate to each other and carry out their daily activities. The Hofstede five cultural dimensions mainly focus on identifying the cultural differences that exist in the various societies. References Burton, D. & Robinson, J., 1999, “Cultural Interference - Clashes of Ideology and Pedagogy in Internationalizing Education.” International Education. 28(2) 5-30. Girlando, P. & Claire, J., 2001, “Cultural Differences between U. S. and Russian Students: An Investigation of the Stability of National Work Values.” Journal of East-West Business. 7(3), 73-90 Guliam, S., 2003, “Education in Uzbekistan Today.” Russian Education and Society, 45(7), 62-77. Open Societies Institute, 2002, “Education Development in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.”http://www.soros.org/initiatives/esp/articles_publications/publications/development, (accessed 5 November 2014). Nikiforova, V., 2001, “Small Educational Structures.” Russian Education and Society, 43(12), 34-45 Read More