I have always had a very large interest in Russia. Maybe that is because I find it interesting because the country is so different from our own. Therefore, I wanted to take the time and talk about some of the really interesting things about Russia.

 

 

Russian Language

I have always found the Russian language to be very interesting. I had even taken some time to look into how to speak it. The language itself if very different from our own. When we look at Spanish, they use the same alphabet that we do, however in the Russian language, they use different letters altogether. According to the Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (n.d.), Russian is the primary language of Russia, but it also is the second language for other countries in the Soviet Union. I found this to be interesting, because I thought that with as much influence that Russia has, Everyone would speak that specific language.

Communism

Russia is considered to be a Communist country. According to CES (n.d.) Communism is “a political ideology and type of government in which the state owns the major resources in a society.” In other words, the government is able to control the information that the people who are living in a country receive. This is a very large problem because people should be able to know what is really going on in their world. However, if the government does not see the information as worthy of sharing with the people, in a communist country, they will never learn about it.

Moscow

One of the most notable things about Russia is Moscow. Moscow is the home of the Kremlin as well as St Basil’s Church. I personally find both of these buildings quite beautiful because of their the architecture. Specifically, I believe that St. Basil’s church is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture there is because of the colors.

References

CES. (n.d.). COMMUNISM: KARL MARX TO JOSEPH STALIN. Retrieved from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: https://europe.unc.edu/iron-curtain/history/communism-karl-marx-to-joseph-stalin/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Russian language. Retrieved from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Russian-language

 

 

 

This week, I wanted to take a different approach to our conversation. I would like to dive into a country that is discussed in the text, but not necessarily a country talked about in the course commentary. Recently, my best friend had made a move to South Korea on orders through the United States Army. More specifically, I wanted to dive into the differences through the perspective of an American soldier, living in another country. According to our text, “The American armed forces have a real physical presence in South Korea,” (Moran et al, 2014, p. 443). This is in order to ensure the peace between North and South Korea. I have always found this interesting that the armed forces of our country allocate units to stay in this area when there is no immediate conflict happening. While conflict is expected to happen should we pull our troops away, I always found interest in this subject.

 

United States Influence

When a service member goes to South Korea on orders, they have the opportunity to learn about a totally different culture. I have heard many stories about how different life is in South Korea compared to how we live here. For instance, their streets are not as clean as the standards that we have here in the United States. Their food is also very different, even when we are talking about fast food places that are available here. With that being said, how difficult is it for a service member to acclimate him or herself to the different culture? I believe that this is where cultural synergy plays a big role in one’s life. According to Pennsylvania State University (2020), cultural synergy can simply be described as two cultures working together in order to make a livable environment. For example, there have been aspects of American life taken over to South Korea. A common example of this would be fast food restaurants. While they may not be the same, they are inspired by the western world.

Religion and Spirituality

Another topic that I wanted to cover is religion and spirituality in South Korea. Our text mentions that “the underlying ethic of Korea is Shamanism,” (Moran et al, 2014, p. 449). Shamanism is also described as “the religion of ancient Koreans.” In South Korea, the people also have religious freedom. When I was interviewing my best friend, I found this particularly interesting because he mentioned that he has not seen one religious church or building of the sort his entire time being there. I find this interesting because this shows that people have the freedom to practice what they believe, however there are not concrete buildings to persuade people to believe in any certain thing. This is very different from the United States because there are many different types of religious buildings throughout each and every town, and there are also many people who allow religion to dictate their lives.

This topic is important to point out because by doing this, there is not a large religious influence on politics in South Korea, unlike here in the United States. I personally believe that this is a breath of fresh air because I am one of those people that thinks religion has no place in politics. While this is my own personal opinion, our politicians work with many different people of many different countries. With that being said, by working with many other countries, there are also many other religions. Therefore, when we are working with other people that believe in a different “higher power,” we have to respect that, and by allowing religion to dictate our politics it may cloud our ability to do business with others. Because of this, I like that South Korea does not allow their religion to dictate their politics.

Introductions 

The next topic I am going to cover is introductions. When I was speaking with my best friend, he mentioned that when you are speaking to someone in Korea for the first time, one would offer a type of greeting and slightly bow their head to show respect. I found this interesting because it is something that we do differently here in the United States.

Etiquette & Respecting Elders

A very interesting topic to discuss is etiquette. In the text, it mentions that South Korea is considered to be one of the most polite countries in the world (Moran et al, 2014, p. 450). My conversation seemed to take a different turn when we were talking about this topic because my friend stressed the etiquette of the country. He confirmed for me that the people

of South Korea are some of the nicest people that he has ever met. If he had a question about anything, he would be able to talk to them and get the answer that he was looking for. Another interesting thing that he mentioned was that there is not a sense of time. For example, when he was getting his internet set up, they mentioned that they would be there at 1PM, however had someone show up 45 minutes before. This is congruent with the text because it talks about business people to not run by any sort of time, they will arrive when they get there.

Finally, I would like to talk about how South Koreans have a massive Respect for their elders. This is very evident when I was speaking my friend because this would seem like a foreign concept to our current western culture. While I do not mean to say that we, as Americans, do not respect our elders, the call to do so is not as prominent as it is in South Korea. According to Moran (et al, 2014, p. 450), “elders in Korean society are always honored, respected, pampered and appeased.” In Korea, my friend mentioned to me that whatever an elder says, goes. In the United States, it is common for someone to question an elder as to why we are doing something, but in Korea, that is not even an option. I found this interesting because of how polar opposite it is from our culture.

In conclusion, I like to say that my conversation went very well. I was able to learn a lot about another culture and have a much greater respect for the people who live there. I can say for certain that when I started this lesson that I did not know a lot about the country, but when I walk away from it, I will have a lot more respect for the people who live there.

References

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9 ed.). London: Routledge.

Pennsylvania State University. (2020). Synergy. Retrieved from Leadership in a Global Context: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697181

 

While culture a term that is known globally, each person has a different picture of what culture looks like. For example, I, as a white female american, have a very different picture of culture than someone who would live in the Middle East. I am used to wearing whatever I want, saying whatever I want, and doing whatever I want. However in countries like the Middle East, woman do not have those types of luxuries. For this discussion, I am going to discuss Saudi Arabia. I have a particular interest in this country because my father had actually visited this country when he was in the military and has a lot of stories he likes to tell us. In particular, he likes to tell us about the people and their culture, which is where my focus will be today.

Religion – Islam vs. Christianity. 

According to Moran (et al, 2014, p. 324), “Islam permeates Saudi life.” The text continues to talk about how Allah is often a topic in many conversations. This is significant because when the religion is the topic of many conversations, Islam will then, turn into the law (Pennsylvania State University, 2020). This is the case in Saudi Arabia because there are a lot of laws that are influenced by the religion itself. Conversely, the primary religion in the United States is Christianity. Unlike Saudi Arabia, the United States of America has freedom of religion where we are allowed to believe whatever we want to believe. Our government is also minimally influenced by Christianity. By this, I mean to say that we mostly observe Christian holidays, however we do also observe others as well.

While talking about holidays, I would also like to talk about the differences between two major, but similar holidays: Ramadan and Lent. Cohen (n.d.) describes Ramadan as being a fast from sunup to sunset. In this time, Saudi Arabians are not able to eat, drink, or smoke, among other things. This is similar to Christianity’s Lent because Christians give up something for a set amount of time. However the two differ because of the different beliefs.

Music – Folk vs. Pop

Another very interesting difference, and one that I find the most intriguing, is the differences in music between the two countries. As someone who has a great appreciation for all types of music, I found it interesting that both countries have different music. In Saudi Arabia, everything is inspired be the old folk music and the past that has been handed down (Culture & Art | The Embassy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, n.d.). Whereas in the United States, there isn’t really a large influence from history. Most musical artists write from feeling or actions. While there are songs from the past in the United States, it is not necessarily in the forefront of out culture.

Dress Code – Modesty vs. Non-Modesty

The final factor I wanted to discuss was the different dress codes between our two countries. In Saudi Arabia, women are required to dress very modestly. According to Cohen (n.d.) “Saudi Arabian women are required, according to Islamic law, to cover their bodies in abaya (black robes and face coverings) as a sign of respect for Muslim modesty laws.” This means that they are not able to show any part of themselves to the public. While they may have recently relaxed these rules a little bit to allow women to wear another color or a few other changes, they still mostly choose to keep themselves covered (Reynolds, 2020).

This is very different from the United States because our women have the ability to wear whatever we want. In fact, in the United States of America, there are many women who choose to hardly wear clothes at all. I found it interesting to read in a few locations that there are policies in place that even in someone outside of the country would travel to Saudi Arabia, they would still have to respect their dress code and wear something modest, even if that person is not Islamic.

In conclusion, there are many differences between Saudi Arabia and the United States. While there are other things that make our two countries different, these are three that I found the most interesting. I always find things to be very interesting when we have the opportunity to look into the culture of another country and see how they work. I look forward to the next opportunity to learn something new about someone else.

References

Cohen, G. (n.d.). Cultural Traditions in Saudi Arabia. USA Today. https://traveltips.usatoday.com/culture-traditions-saudi-arabia-16963.html

Culture & Art | The Embassy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (n.d.). The Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. https://www.saudiembassy.net/culture-art

Moran, S. V., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Routledge.

Pennsylvania State University. (2020). Focus on Saudi Arabia. Leadership in a Global Context. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697188

Reynolds, A. (2020, March 21). I’m a female traveler who spent 3 weeks backpacking around Saudi Arabia — and discovered it’s not for the casual vacationer. Here’s where I went and what I experienced. Business Insider Nederland. https://www.businessinsider.nl/female-solo-traveler-went-to-saudi-arabia-heres-what-i-saw

Through time, communication has been known to be a two-way street. In politics, communication is spectated and scrutinized by outside parties that may not be involved. This creates a difficult situation for those involved because no matter what that person would say or do. There will always be outliers who will provide opinions which ultimately makes communications even harder. For this discussion, I will be analyzing the communication styles of President Donald J. Trump. By no means am I taking a political position in the post. As I do not personally follow his political views, I thought that it would be a good exercise to be unbiased for evaluation.

According to Pennsylvania State University (2020), communication is “the exchange of information between individuals.” Communication is essential to our lives because it is how we are able to move forward. I cannot think of a more important profession to be skilled in the art of communication than the President of the United States. I say this because he or she is responsible to leading the country through peacetime and wartime, but also negotiating with foreign countries about any subject. I think that everyone can say that Donald Trump is the most unconventional president that we have had in our history because he is a businessman, rather than a politician which our country is used to. His communication style is also very unconventional, as it is the topic of most news channels as well as the topic of many conversations, be it good or bad.

In an article from Forbes, Lipman (2018) talks about four principles of Donald Trump’s communication style. As a reader, I found the most interesting principle to be to never admit fault. The author continues to elaborate on this topic by stating no matter the consequences of a decision, Trump will not admit that he was wrong. He will find some way to communicate to the public that he did the right thing. Quite frankly, I believe he is quite skilled at it. However, this can also be very dangerous because while he may be able to fool supporters or the American people, there are serious consequences from outside sources if information is perceived differently.

The next topic that relates to Donald Trump’s communication is self-interest. According to research from Abramson (et al., 2014, p. 63), self-interest is “a strategy for using power to influence a weaker other to provide what one wants even at the other’s expense.” Take, for example, the wall that Trump wanted to build between the United States and Mexico to prevent unlawful immigration. This was a classic example of Donald Trump using his power to further his desired agenda, but at the expense of Mexico, whom he said was going to pay for the wall. Another example falls within current times regard Tump’s handling of the Coronavirus throughout the United States. Corb (2020) discusses that Trump’s dangerous self-interest is affecting those throughout the country because of his lack of listening to the scientists who are advising information on the virus, but he chooses to not listen and follow his own plan. These two examples are prime support to show his communication skills on two different subjects. At this point, his communication is not resonating with many people throughout the country and creating a lot of division. This is dangerous because be dividing the country, we are not able to effectively work together and come to a conclusion that everyone is happy with.

Finally, I would like to talk about Donald Trump’s communication strategy. In an article from Kalb (2017), he discusses how Trump’s strategy was working. One thing that stood out to me as important was that he talks as though he is a teenager. There are a lot of ways that this is very resonating to the American People. A lot of us do not understand rhetoric used in high levels of law and government. Therefore, I can see how it is quite appealing to have a president speaking where one can understand every word of which he is talking about. While I say this, I do not mean to say that some things are not misleading, but it is refreshing that we can understand the communication. Abramson (et al., 2014, pp. 78-79) also discusses the framework for international business negotiations. These talk about the different ways that we negotiate. I believe that these two relate quite well because even though he speaks as though he is a teenager, he is still able to portray many of these qualities such as bases of trust, decision-making and basic conception of the negotiation process. Furthermore, by using his business background and knowledge in these areas, he is able to clearly and blatantly state exactly what he is trying to say.

In conclusion, communication is a necessary party of our lives. It is even more important when one is in the political environment. We need to be able to communicate with those that we are working with, but also be able to effectively communicate with foreign countries. While there is a lot of controversy that surrounds Donald Trump and his presidency, we cannot deny that he communicates with the American people.

References

Abramson, N. R., Moran, R. T., & Moran, S. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Routledge.

Corb, B. (2020, June 26). When leaders choose self-interest over science, the consequences are deadly. ASBMB Today. https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/opinions/062620/when-leaders-choose-self-interest-over-science-the

Kalb, I. (2017, May 29). Five Reasons Trump’s Communication Strategy Is Working. Huffpost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-reasons-trumps-commu_b_10188374

Lipman, V. (2018, June 16). The 4 Principles Of President Trump’s Deceptive But Effective Communication. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2018/06/15/the-4-principles-of-president-trumps-deceptive-but-effective-communication/#6dc6cc2c5274

Pennsylvania State University. (2020). Defining Communication. Penn State. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697168

Hello Everyone!

My name is Christina Spangler and I am currently reside near Baltimore, Maryland. There are a lot of things that have changed in my life recently, not just because of the COVID Pandemic.  I know that everyone has felt the pressures of this pandemic, and my heart goes out to everyone that has been put into very difficult situations.

Unfortunately, this is actually not my first time taking this class. I attempted to take it back in the Spring semester right before all of this started, but things got hectic very quickly. First, my daughter’s school had dismissed classes in person indefinitely and my husband and I had to come up for a solution for that while we were both still working. Then, we had received bad news about my mom. I had ended up taking the summer off from school because I decided I needed to focus on helping my mom, and now she is going through a bone marrow transplant.

To add on to my craziness, my husband has also decided to rejoin the military (I am a veteran of the active army and he is a national guard vet). So now I have that whirlwind going. After a lot of thought and consideration, my husband and I came to the conclusion that I needed some type of regulation in my daily curriculum so here I am!

I am currently in the Academic Program for Organizational Leadership and I am hoping to graduate at the conclusion of the summer semester next year. I know that there is a lot of things that we are all going to have to accomplish and I look forward to working with everyone in order to do the best we can! Best of luck this semester!