A cross-cultural study of the smile in the Russian- and English-speaking world

Abstract Although the smile is a universal facial expression, the use of smiles in communication varies across cultures. This may lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication. Both Americans and Europeans experience the same frustration and communication failure when they do not find smiling faces in Russia. At the same time, it is common for Russian people to perceive the smiles of Westerners as artificial and insincere. What is the reason for such a difference in perception? Why don’t Russians smile in some situations? The study of the use of the smile as a non-verbal sign in a few chosen communicative contexts across Russian, European and American cultures showed the difference in its meaning and distribution according to the cultural tradition. The reason could stem from the difference of Russia’s history when compared to that of Western Europe, as well as in the specific restrictions in Russian Orthodox Christianity and the traditions of laughter in Russia. All the meanings and specific cases of distribution are clearly retained and expressed in the languages. If we compare the Russian улыбка and улыбаться with the English smile, we can see both common and distinctive semantic elements and different connotations.

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Corpus-based analysis of the collocational profiles of the terms denoting the mentally challenged

Linguistik Online ◽

10.13092/lo.81.3647 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 81 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Liana Markelova

Keyword(s):

Public Perception ◽

American English ◽

Public Attitude ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Web Pages ◽

Gradual Change ◽

Web Based ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Difference ◽

Semantic Prosody

The present study aims to trace the evolution of public attitude towards the mentally challenged by means of the corpus-based analysis. The raw data comes from the two of the BYU corpora: Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) and Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). The former is comprised of 1.8 million web pages from 20 English-speaking countries (Davies/Fuchs 2015: 1) and provides an opportunity to research at a cross-cultural level, whereas the latter, containing 400 million words from more than 100,000 texts ranging from the 1810s to the 2000s (Davies 2012: 121), allows to carry on a diachronic research on the issue. To identify the difference in attitudes the collocational profiles of the terms denoting the mentally challenged were created. Having analysed them in terms of their semantic prosody one might conclude that there are certain semantic shifts that occurred due to the modern usage preferences and gradual change in public perception of everything strange, unusual and unique.

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Validation of the CPI Femininity Scale in Korea

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1968.22.1.155 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 155-160 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Harrison G. Gough ◽

Kitaek Chun ◽

Yang-Eun Chung

Keyword(s):

The United States ◽

Ninth Grade ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Theoretical Rationale ◽

Cross Cultural Study ◽

Males And Females ◽

The Difference ◽

Ninth Grade Students ◽

Psychological Inventory ◽

Femininity Scale

The 38-item Fe (Femininity) scale of the California Psychological Inventory has validly differentiated between males and females in American, French, Italian, Norwegian, Turkish, and Venezuelan applications. Also, from studies in the United States, a theoretical rationale of the scale as diagnosing nurturant, forbearing, compassionate femininity vs venturesome, autonomous, and dispassionate masculinity has been evolved. Further cross-cultural study therefore seems warranted. A Korean translation was administered to 156 female and 155 male eighth and ninth grade students in Seoul. Means of 21.18 and 18.05 were obtained; the difference of 3.13 was statistically significant ( p < .001). 30 items differentiated in the proper direction, 8 showed reversals. Although Fe functioned validly in this Korean evaluation, its level of efficiency was somewhat lower than in previous applications.

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Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves: A cross-cultural study of five English-speaking versions of a British quiz show format

Communications ◽

10.1515/comm.2005.30.2.129 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Amir Hetsroni

Keyword(s):

Cultural Study ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cross Cultural Study ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Waves

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Exploring Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies among University Students in Four Nonnative English Speaking Countries

International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education ◽

10.14434/ijlcle.v2i0.26892 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 97-118

Author(s):

Yoo‐Jean Lee ◽

James Chamwada Kigamwa ◽

Suphawat Pookcharoen ◽

Vichea In

Keyword(s):

University Students ◽

Reading Strategies ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Self Report ◽

Think Aloud ◽

Online Reading ◽

Survey Tool ◽

Cross Cultural Study ◽

Support Strategies ◽

English Speaking

In this cross‐cultural study, the researchers investigated metacognitive online reading strategies of students from four countries: Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, and Kenya. An online self‐report survey of reading strategies (OSORS) was administered to 132 university students from the four countries. The self‐report survey tool was then complemented through a think‐aloud procedure administered to eight randomly selected students. The students were instructed to “speak out” their thoughts as they navigated around an online text. ANOVAs were applied to examine whether there were significant differences in the students’ use of strategies from the different countries. The researchers also analyzed the think‐aloud outputs from each student to determine the strategies that were used. The findings show that the students from the four countries differed significantly only in their use of global online reading strategies, but not in their use of problem‐solving and support strategies.

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Cross-Cultural Study of Korean Leadership in Indonesia By Using Kluckhohn-Strodbeck's Framework

AFEBI Management and Business Review ◽

10.47312/ambr.v2i02.101 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (02) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Suharnomo Suharnomo ◽

Ndaru Risdanti

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Study ◽

Cultural Study ◽

Management Practice ◽

Research Data ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

South Korean ◽

Cross Cultural Study ◽

The Difference ◽

Perception Of Time ◽

Performance Results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how South Korean expatriate manager interact with Indonesian subordinates and what the difference about their culture perspective in Semarang garment enterprises and identify how the difference of culture could affect their ability to manage staff and doing their job normally. A qualitative study was conducted. Triangulation methods are used to examine the validity of research data. The result indicated South Korean manager characteristics with Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck’s dimension. There are contrast differences between South Korean manager with Indonesia employee in perception of time and space, which required adjustments in management practice for better performance results. Keywords: Expatriate Manager, Leadership, National Culture, Organizational Culture

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Understanding the Terminology for Snack Foods and Their Texture by Consumers in Four Languages: A Qualitative Study

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods8100484 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 484 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rajesh Kumar ◽

Edgar Chambers

Keyword(s):

Cultural Studies ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Consumer Responses ◽

Snack Foods ◽

Food Industries ◽

Food Properties ◽

Cross Cultural Study ◽

Cultural Research ◽

English Speaking ◽

Cross Cultural Studies

The choice of food products is affected by the combination of food properties, consumer motives, emotions, and context, especially in cross-cultural studies. The designs of cross-cultural studies involve several limitations such as conceptual perception and linguistic and cultural differences in response style. These factors confine the validity and generalizability of such study models. In this study, we have combined linguistic and contextual perception together to generate consumer texture terminologies. Four focus groups discussions were conducted with consumers from nine different countries in English, Hindi, Mandarin, and Spanish. Vocabularies for sixteen texture terms were generated. Consumers provided a single consensus term that they typically use to describe contextual sensory perception. The results show that consumers use several terms to describe texture, and terms are very specific to product and related perception. The English translation of words like “snack”, “texture”, and other sensory texture terms are meaningless for non-English speaking cultures. Researchers are encouraged to validate (test) the structure of cross-cultural study models before application. Practical application: The findings of this study present a model which can be utilized to conduct cross-cultural research studies. The results can contribute to generate accurate consumer responses, acceptance, preference, and addressing consumers concerns. Food industries could leverage these by using our methodology in product development, finding consumer insights, effective communication, and products testing in international settings.

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