TASK 4 : SOCIO-ETHNOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE and REPORT
THIRD YEAR ENGLISH MODULE: “English for intercultural communication”
Fabio Di Cocco GROUP: F 14/01/2007
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
TC=Trinity College students
I=Interviewees
POWER DISTANCE lower_____TC_I_______________higher
INDIVIDUALISM more individualistic______TC_I______________more collective
MASCULINITY more femminine__________TC_I__________more masculine
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE weak________TC_I____________strong
These are the positions in which I would have put Trinity College students if I would have found Hofstede's cultural dimensions. After having talked with them I confirmed my opinion for which american people rarely allow big distances in work relationships. After a conversation we had about getting a job, indeed, they said that all people have most of times the same chances of getting a job. It seldom happens that you fall in discrimination circumstances or something like that.
My hypothesis concerning the individualism topic were quite wrong. I thought that american people lived in a society in which you have to “grow up” by yourself, with your strength, and that's almost true, but it's also real,that americans live in a society where being helped by the others is a quite common thing too, so it would have been a bit odd for me when they said something linked with this(there are associations which help you in getting a job etc).
As I predicted americans have a society in which men and women have an high degree of equality(they can get the same jobs, have the same rights and dues, have the same possibility of having a good instruction etc) even if, as it “normally” happens in all societues, there are contraddictions in the US too.
If I would have made a prediction about this dimension I would have surely made a wrong one. Indeed I was really convinced that american people, just like italians, would have had a strong will in avoiding uncertainty, on the contrary they demonstrated me, being very friendly, making no problems about not knowing us and so on, that they had a really weak will of doing it.
Consequently my predictions were the same when I had to prepare them for my interviewees but obviously they were more correct since I had learned something from by my experience with Ttrinity College students.
I think that questions number 4,6 and 9 would confirm or invalidate my hypothesis.
Interviewees:
Christy, 21, philadelphia, irish background
Amy, 21, philadelphia, polish german and lithuanian background
Rachel, 20, philadelphia, italian and english backgrounds
Barbara, 20, philadelphia, american
1) Do you read newspapers or watch the news? How often do you do it?
- everyday
- every other day
- from 3 to 5 times a week
- twice a week
- sometimes
- hardly ever
- never
amy: reads newspapers and watches the news once a week
christy: reads newspapers and watches the news once a week
rachel: reads newspapers and watches the news once a week
barbara: reads newspapers and watches the news once a week
2) What are the best things you like reading on newspapers or listen to on the news?
- new inventions about engineering, technics, health care, environmental protection etc
- gossip
- other countries' news
- law stuffs
- other
amy: protection of the environment, other countries' news, other
christy: comics
rachel: comics, protection of the environment
barbara: only agrees with the others
3) What are the worst things you won't never read on newspapers or listen to on the news, or at least, you don't like to read or listen on them?
- crime news
- war
- ethnic or social problems
- other
amy: reality tv, politics
christy: politics, reality tv
rachel: politics
barbara: war
4) What is the thing or the moral/social value you think well reflects your country?
amy: materialism, conservatism
christy: materialism, conservatism
rachel: materialism
barbara: only agrees with the others
5) Do you have a flag of your country hanged somewhere in your house?
- yes
- no
amy: no
christy: no
rachel: no
barbara: no
6) What is the best thing you like of your country? And the worst?
amy: best: equality for women, equality among people, chance for everyone to study, choice
worst: ignorance of social problems, to be lax
christie: best: freedom, indipendence
worst: too much work, a too heavy conception of fidelity to the job (“you have to live to work instead of work to live”)
rachel: best: choice
worst: too much work
barbara: only agrees with the others
7) Do you agree with the building of nuclear research stations? Why/why not?
amy: no, they defile too much, we already have alternative solutions to produce energy
christy: no, there's no need of them, they defile too much
rachel: no, there already are clean energy methods
barbara: only agrees with the others
8) What do you think about war in Iraq? I mean, besides the fact that it is a war, what do you think about it?
amy: it has been a complete failure, it has been a wrong war and very bad planned
christy: it has been a very big error, the government didn't let people express their opinion, the government imposed it without any chance of objection
rachel: it has been a very big error, the government didn't let people express their opinion, the government imposed it without any chance of objection
barbara: only agrees with the others
9) Is there another country where you would like to live? What counttry is it? Why would you like to live there?
amy: italy, jamaica, because of the weather and the fact (in jamaica) that you have no problem and conduct an easy-going life
christy: italy, jamaica, because of the weather and the fact (in jamaica) that you have no problem and conduct an easy-going life
rachel: italy, because of the weather and the beauty of the country
barbara: only agrees with the others
10) Are you really proud of being an american citizen? Why?
- yes
- no
- maybe
- other
amy: so and so because her heritage isn't fully american so she doesn't feel a real american citizen, consequently she can't really say if she is proud of a country which she doesn't feel to belong to
christy: yes in the theory but not in the practice, she is proud of being an american citizen thanks to the values which lay beyond the american culture, but practically these values aren't always realized so she really doesn't feel proud of her nationality, moreover she has irish ancestors and doesn't feel herself completely american. She said that if someone asks her where's she from she answers she's irish
rachel: in thoery but not in the practice, she is proud of being an american citizen thanks to the values which lay beyond the american culture, but practically these values aren't always realized so she really doesn't feel proud of her nationality
barbara: only agrees with the others, concerning “the theory and the practice”
Descriptive questions:
1) Can you repeat what you have just said? they repeat what they have just said making the concept she wants to expose more clear and easy to understand
2) I didn't catch what you said, can your repeat it please? they repeat what they have just said making the concept she wants to expose more clear and easy to understand
3) Pardon? they repeat a word or a phrase slower, louder, more clear
4) Do you like reading newspapers or watching the news? All of them answered “so and so”
5) What do you think about american medical services? I didn't ask this question
6) What about the educational services? I didn't ask this question
7) Would you bring improvements in it or do you think they are efficient enough? I didn't ask this question
Structural questions:
1) In Italy by medical services we mean all the facilities, structures, burocratic procedures managed by the Ministry of Health, is it the same in the US? I didn't ask this question
2) Does the word “gossip” refer to that kind of news about celebrities' weddings, private life affairs and so on in the US too? I didn't ask this question beacause they immediately understood what i was saying
3) Can you see what I mean saying law stuffs? I'm talking about the passing of a law, or about politicians talks among each other etc. I didn't ask this question beacause they immediately understood what i was saying
4) When I talk about ethnic and social problems I mean racial problems, low social classes economical problems. I didn't need to ask this question
Contrast questions:
1) I can't ask questions if I don't know what the enterviewees will anser me
CONCLUSIONS:
Behind the sociometric questionnaire I prepared lays the american social model according to which american people are generally enough or much proud of their nationality and country. A model according to which men and women have the same rights and dues, according to which everyone has the same chances of the others, according to which they live in a country which assures welfare and prosperity but that is passed through big contraddictions too.
As a metter of fact, this assumption has been easily confirmed by my sociometric questionnaire which, thanks to the answers I received and the real empathetic relationship I was able to create has confirmed my supposition. To demonstrate all of this I have the answers to my sociometric questionnaire, the suppositions I made about my interviewees' answering and my testimony of the empathetic relationship I created.
As an evidence of my empathetic intuitions I have:
the fact that the girls I interviewed immediately showed interest in what I was saying after i genlty asked them if I could ask them some questions;
the fact that they were very pleasant, curious and friendly;
the fact that 3 of the 4 girls I interviewed showed a lot of interest in my interview and answered me with long answers, expanding them even when I didn't ask her to do it and letting me understand better what they were saying if I showed signals of misunderstanding and not stopping theirselves to “yes/no” answers;
the fact that they laughed during all the conversation showing thus they were enjoing this strange new experience;
the fact that the day of the interview was right the day of their arrival in Italy so their excitement for having such a strange experience in this day was surely bigger than the one they would have felt if they would have been interviewed when they were in Italy already for 2 weeks or 40 days.
Thus, having a big probability of having acquired “real”, sincere, true answers is by itself the evidence that the american social model which lays behind my questionnaire is a quite right one, that my data are trustworthy and that my initial opinion that american people ar generally proud of their country is true. Because all of this I really can say to have a real awareness of the objectivity of my data, which won't surely be completely objective, but get at least pretty closer to it.