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INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
Conflict is usually defined as involving a perceived or real incompatibility of goals, values, expectations, or outcomes between two or more interdependent individuals or groups. An example of intercultural conflict can be seen between people sorting or assembly plants along the Mexican – U.S. border. Because Mexicans and U.S. Americans work alongside one another, intercultural conflict inevitably occurs. For example, some Mexican managers think that the U.S. American managers are rude in their dealings with each other and with the workers. While both Mexican and U.S. American managers have common goals, they also have some different expectations and values, which leads to conflict. The Mexican managers expect the U.S. American managers to be more polite and to value harmony in their relationships. The U.S. American managers expect the Mexicans to be more direct and honest and not to worry so much about the “face” and feelings of other managers and workers. These conflicts have roots in the history of U.S. - Mexican relations, a history characterized by economic and military domination on the part of the United States and by hostility and resentment on the part of Mexico.
There is often a great deal of ambiguity in intercultural conflicts. We may be unsure of how to handle the conflict or of whether the conflict is seen in the same way by the other person. And the other person may not even think there is a conflict. However when we encounter ambiguity, we quickly resort to our default style of handling conflict – the style we learned in our family. If your preferred way of handling conflict is to deal with it immediately but you are in a conflict with someone who prefers to avoid it, the conflict may become exacerbated as you both retreat to your preferred styles. Thus, the confronting person becomes increasingly confrontational, while the avoider retreats further.
Language issues may be important ones. Language can sometimes lead to intercultural conflict, and it can also be the primary vehicle for solving intercultural conflict. When you don’t know the language well, it is very difficult to handle conflict effectively. At the same time some silence is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it provides a “cooling off” period during which the participants can calm down and gather their thoughts.
Types of Conflict
Common categories of conflict include:
1. affective conflict;
2. conflict of interest;
3. value conflict;
4. cognitive conflict;
5. goal conflict.
Affective conflict occurs when individuals become more aware that their feelings and emotions are incompatible. For example, suppose someone finds out that his or her romantic feelings for a close friend are not reciprocated. Their different levels of affection may lead to conflict.
A conflict of interest describes a situation in which people have incompatible preferences for a course of action or plan to pursue. For example, one student of described an ongoing conflict with an ex-girlfriend: “The conflicts always seem to be a jealousy issue or a controlling issue, where even though we are not going out anymore, both of us still try to control the other’s life to some degree. You could probably say that this is a conflict of interest”.
Value conflict, a more serious type, occurs when people have differing ideologies. For example, suppose that Ruben and Laura have been married for several months and are starting to argue frequently about their views on when to start their family and how to raise their children. Laura believes strongly that one parent should stay at home with the children when they are small, so she would like to wait until they have saved enough money and she can stop working for a few years. Ruben wants to have children immediately but does not want Laura to stop working; he thinks their children will do fine in day care. This situation illustrates value conflict.
Cognitive conflict describes a situation in which two or more people become aware that their thought processes or perceptions are in conflict. For example, suppose that Ruben and Laura argue frequently about whether Laura’s friend Bob is paying too much attention to her. Ruben suspects that Bob wants to have sex with Laura, but Laura doesn’t agree. Their different perceptions of the situation constitute cognitive conflict.
Goal conflict occurs when people disagree about a preferred outcome or end state. For example, suppose that Marissa and Derek, who have been in a relationship for 10 years, have just bought a house. Derek wants to furnish the house slowly, making sure that money goes into the savings account for retirement. Marissa wants to furnish the house immediately, using money from their savings. Marissa’s and Derek’s individual goals are in conflict with each other.
Assignment 14
Fill in each of the blanks with the word that best fits the sentence. Change the pat of speech when necessary.
autonomy
career
self-reliance
assert
instill
prevailing
generations
managing
For women in my mother's________________, taking care of the home and child raising were viewed as the most important functions for women. The ____________________view in society when she was growing up was that women should not work outside the home. This attitude was________________in my mother at an early age. By the time mother was 25 she had five children.
Last year the youngest child left home to go to college. At that time Mom decided that she wanted to be more_____________________, more independent. Now, she is the____________of a children's de partment in a large store. Her new_________ ______in management has enabled my mother to___________________her independence and develop financial skill. She says that earning her own money and helping dad pay the bills makes her feel____________________.
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS IN CONFLICT SITUATIONS
The ways in which people respond to conflict may be influenced by their cultural backgrounds. Most people deal with conflict in the way they learned while growing up – the default style. Conflict resolution strategies usually relate to how people manage their self-image in relationships. For example, they may prefer to preserve their own self-esteem rather than help the other person save face. Or they may prefer to sacrifice their self-esteem in order to preserve the relationship.
Although individuals may have a general predisposition to deal with conflict in particular ways, they may choose different tactics in different situations. People are not necessarily locked into a particular style of conflict strategy. There are at least five specific styles of managing conflicts:
1. dominating style;
2. integrating style;
3. compromising style;
4. obliging style;
5. avoiding style.
The dominating style reflects a high degree of concern for oneself and a low degree of concern for others, such that an individual might use forceful behavior to “win” the argument. For example, suppose that “tom and his ex-wife, Lynn, often argue about how much child support he should give her for their children. Tom usually ends the argument by saying, “You’ll get what I give you, and that’s that” and then leaving before Lynn can say anything. This dominating style is often associated with loud, forceful expressiveness, which may be counterproductive to conflict resolution.
The integrating style reflects a high degree of concern for both the self and the other person. This style involves an open exchange of information in an attempt to reach a solution that is acceptable to both parties. It is the style that involves collaboration, empathy, objectivity, recognition of feelings, and creative solutions. This style thus requires a lot of time and energy, but it is seen as most effective in most conflicts because it attempts to be fair and equitable.
The compromising style reflects a moderate degree of concern for oneself and for others. This style involves sharing information such that both individuals give up something to find a mutually acceptable solution. For example, suppose that Jim likes to spend money on what his partner Donna considers frivolous things, such as fast cars and nights on the town. Donna prefers to put most of their disposable income into savings for retirement. But they agree, after long hours of discussion, that Jim will contribute some of his salary to the couple’s retirement fund in exchange for being able to spend a portion of his salary in any way he wants – with no objections from Donna. Thus, they each give up something in using a compromising style to resolve the conflict. This style can be less effective than the integrating approach because people may only reluctantly give up something they value.
The obliging style describes a situation in which one person in the conflict plays down the differences and emphasizes commonalities that satisfy the concerns of the other person. An obliging style may be most appropriate when one person is more concerned with the future of the relationship than with the issue at hand. For example, suppose that Jennifer hates to do housework and doesn’t help her partner, Lindsay, very much around the house. However, Lindsay doesn’t mind doing the extra work and loves Jennifer very much, so she is content to use an obliging style. This style is common in hierarchical relationships in which one person has more status or power than the other, with the person with lower status using an obliging style in conflicts.
The avoiding style reflects a low degree of concern for the self and others. In the dominant U.S. cultural contexts, a person who uses this style attempts to withdraw, deny the conflict. However, in some cultural contexts, this is an appropriate strategy that, if used by both parties, may result in more harmonious relationships. For example, Amish children are taught that it’s much better to avoid conflict than to damage relationships by open conflict. From a traditional Asian perspective, obliging and avoiding styles do not have negative connotations of being passive or elusive. Thus, avoiding can be an effective way for Amish or Asians to deal with one another; but it may be less effective when they are in conflict with people who don’t share their approaches to conflict resolution. For example, Yuko, a Japanese exchange student, used an avoiding style when she had some small conflicts with two American friends while on vacation together. “We talked about what we were thinking, and they said to me “you should express more what you think”. With some discussion, they solved their problem and became better friends.
We tend to prefer a particular conflict style in our interactions for many reasons. A primary influence is our family background; some families prefer a particular conflict style, and children come to accept this style as normal. Sometimes people try very hard to reject the conflict styles they saw their parents using. For example, suppose that Lauren’s parents argued loudly when she was growing up, and her mother often used a controlling style of conflict management. Lauren has vowed she will never deal with conflict that way with her own children and has tried very hard to use other ways of dealing with conflicts when they do arise in her family. It is important to recognize that people deal with conflict in a variety of ways and may not have the same reasons for choosing a certain style.
Assignment 15
Choose the word that best defines the italicized word.
1. The elderly are beginning to demand rights for themselves.
a. parents
c. aged
b. couples
d. children
2. Her peers were her worst critics.
a. students
c. teachers
b. equals
d. parents
3. The glorification of youth has created negative feelings toward the elderly.
a. happiness
c. creation
b. education
d. adoration
4. What should be done about the citizens' indifference to the international situation?
a: lack of interest in
c. lack of agreement about
b. lack of knowledge of
d. lack of understanding of
5. New students trying to meet friends on crowded campuses often feel alienated.
a. ignorant
c. alone
b. awkward
d. poor
6. Only 5 percent of the workers, a small segment of the company, voted in the last election.
a. office
c. line
b. part
d. department
7. Close family ties help children feel secure.
a. homes
c. relationships
b. bows
d. circles
8. Working mothers have obligations to the family.
a. needs
c. expectations
b. responsibilities
d. compromises
9. Communal living works best for people who have similar beliefs.
a. communistic
c. independent
b. individualistic
d. group
GENDER, ETHNICITY AND CONFLICT
Our gender and ethnicity may influence how we handle conflict. Men and women in the United States seem to have different communication styles. These different ways of communicating sometime lead to conflict and can influence how men and women handle conflict. The problem area involves what is known as “trouble talk”. For example, women typically make sympathetic noises in response to what a friend says, whereas men may say nothing, which women interpret as indifference. Or women commiserate by talking about a similar situation they experienced, whereas men follow rules for conversational dominance and interpret this as stealing the stage. And in telling stories, men tend to be more linear, whereas women tend to give more details and offer information, which men interpret as an inability to get to the point.
Men and women also talk about relationships in different ways. Women may express more interest in the relationship process and may feel better simply discussing it. But men are more oriented toward problem solving and may see little point in discussing something if nothing is identified as needing fixing.
How does ethnic background affect the way males and females deal with conflict? In one study, when African Americans, Asian Americans, White Americans, and Mexican Americans were asked to describe how they dealt with conflicts they had had with a close friend, they gave different kinds of answers. African American males and females generally said they used a problem-solving approach (integration style). One respondent said: “I told him to stay in school and that I would help him study”. Another explained: “We decided together how to solve the problem and deal with our friend”.
White males and females generally seemed to focus on the importance of taking responsibility for their own behavior. Males mentioned the importance of being direct, using expressions like “getting things in the open” and “say right up front”. Females talked about the importance of showing concern for the other person and the relationship and of maintaining situational flexibility. One woman explained: “She showed respect for my position and I showed respect for hers”. By contrast, Asian Americans generally used more conflict-avoiding strategies than did White Americans.
Mexican American males and females tended to differ in that males described the importance of talking to reach a mutual understanding. One man wanted to “make a better effort to explain”; another said that he and his partner “stuck to the problem until we solved it together”. Females described several kinds of reinforcement of the relationship that were appropriate. In general, males and females in all groups described females as more compassionate and concerned for feelings, and males as more concerned with winning the conflict and being “right”.
In any case, it is important to remember that, while ethnicity and gender may be related to ways of dealing with conflict, it is inappropriate and inaccurate to assume that any person will behave in a particular way because of his or her ethnicity or gender.
MANAGING INTERCULTURAL CONFLICT
BECOMING MORE INTERCULTURAL
What happens when there is conflict in intercultural relationship? One option involves distinguishing between productive and destructive conflict in at least four ways. First, in productive conflict, individuals or groups try to identify the specific problem; in destructive conflict, they make sweeping generalizations and have negative attitudes. For example, in an argument, one shouldn’t say: “You never do the dishes”, or “You always put me down in front of my friends”. Rather, one should state the specific example of being put down: “Last evening when you criticized me in front of our friends, I felt bad”.
Second, in productive conflict, individuals or groups focus on the original issue; in destructive conflict, they escalate the conflict from the original issues and anything in the relationship is open for reexamination. For example, guests on talk shows discussing extramarital affairs might start by citing a specific affair and then expand the conflict to include any number of prior arguments. The more productive approach would be to talk only about the specific affair.
Third, in productive conflict, individuals or groups direct the discussion toward cooperative problem solving (“How can we work this out?”); in destructive conflict, they try to seize power and use threats and deception (“Either you do what I want, or …”).
Finally, in productive conflict, individuals or groups value leadership that stresses mutually satisfactory outcomes; in destructive conflict, they polarize behind single-minded and militant leadership. In many political conflicts, such as those in the Middle East, people seem to have fallen into this trap, with leaders unwilling to work toward mutually satisfactory outcomes.
Intercultural competence is the degree to which an individual is able to exchange information effectively and appropriately with individuals who are culturally dissimilar. Individuals vary widely in their ability to communicate with culturally unalike others.
The purpose of most research, training, teaching in the field of intercultural communication is to improve the intercultural competence of individuals. One of the most important skills for cultural competence is the ability to suspend our assumptions about what is “right”. The greater the range of alternatives to which we are exposed, the more choices we have for deciding what makes sense for us. Knowing another culture gives you a place to stand while you take a good look at the one you were born into. Anthropologists are taught to be nonjudgmental about cultural differences. Even though they may study a culture that has sexual practices considered bizarre by European/North American standards, anthropologists seek to understand the functions fulfilled by these sexual practices from the point of view of the culture in which they occur.
We live in a world that is increasingly diverse in a cultural sense. Large cities, for example, have diverse population. Improved communication technologies and transportation make intercultural contact increasingly common. This trend will continue in the future; the “global village” becomes more real every day. If individuals could attain a higher degree of intercultural competence, they would become better citizens, students, and so forth. Society would be more peaceful, more productive, and become a generally more attractive place in which to live. Individuals would be better able to understand others who are unlike themselves. Through such improved understanding, a great deal of conflict could be avoided, the world would be a better place.
If you want to become more interculturally experienced you should learn about individuals unlike yourselves, make friends with them, take vacations in other nations (go on student exchanges, study at foreign universities). Contacts with culturally different people provide an opportunity to become more interculturally competent, but they do not guarantee it. Our ability to learn from other individuals depends on our ability to overcome the barriers of culture.
Willingness to expand one’s skills to include intercultural communication is an essential first step in overcoming barriers to intercultural communication. Intercultural contact in many cases leads an individual to become more ethnocentric, prejudiced, and discriminatory. Even when we are aware of the barriers that make intercultural communication particularly difficult, we may mistakenly attribute problems to other people rather than examining our own skills or lack of them. Misunderstandings are as likely to result from intercultural contact as are understandings. Thus one of the most important barriers to intercultural competence is ethnocentrism.
ETHNOCENTRISM
Ethnocentrism is the degree to which other cultures are judged as inferior to one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism can lead to racism and sexism. Racism categorizes individuals on the basis of their external physical traits, such as skin color, hair, facial structure, and eye shape, leading to prejudice and discrimination. Sexism is the assignment of characteristics to individuals on the basis of their sex, such that the genders are treated unequally. In many cultures, the female gender is treated as inferior and subjected to prejudice and discrimination.
How can ethnocentrism, racism and sexism be decreased or eliminated? Decreasing ethnocentrism is usually not just a matter of increased information but rather one of bringing about an emotional change on the part of the individuals involved. Greater contact between unalike individuals may be one means to lessen ethnocentrism. Many individuals study other national cultures or travel to visit them because they think that closer contact will help them toward better understanding of an unalike culture. However, the nature of such intercultural contact is an important determinant of whether such travel decreases or increases ethnocentrism toward the culture that is visited. Many tourists who visit another culture for a brief period, often without knowing the language, become more ethnocentric toward that culture. Language competence, contact over a lengthy period of time, and a more intense relationship with members of the foreign culture (such as through close personal friendships) can help decrease ethnocentrism. The key is that only positive contacts produce positive feelings about another culture.
The various elements of a culture are integrated so that each element generally makes sense in light of the other elements. When a stranger encounters only one cultural, independently of the other elements, it may seem exotic, unusual. Only when the outside observer experiences and understands all the cultural elements, does that culture make sense. This level of cultural understanding can be achieved more fully if an individual has fluency in the language that is spoken and has had extended personal contact. Only then can the stranger perceive all of the elements of an unfamiliar culture and understand that the totality is coherent.
The nature of contact also applies to the case of ethnocentrism toward another religion, race, or any outgroup within one’s own society. Just as most individuals have only limited, and socially distant, contact with foreigners. Direct, personal (one-on-one) contact with an unalike other can decrease ethnocentrism.
More individuals today have the opportunity to meet people from another culture. Frequently the reasons for increased contact are related to studying or working abroad. The special cultural patterns created, shared, and learned by individuals who have lived in a culture other than their own have been termed “third culture”. Someone who was born in the United States and then lived in India has a third culture experience in common with another individual who was born in Japan and then sojourned in Mexico.
Most people learn the third culture as adults when they sojourn abroad. Their children may learn the third culture by accompanying their parents on the sojourning experience. Third culture young people have much in common and, in fact, often marry each other. Third culture individuals are unusually tolerant and understanding of cultural differences. They are less likely to think in terms of borders between ingroups and outgroups.
Some individuals have a third culture from birth. Biracial children, for example, can often operate effectively within each of their parents’ cultures and can connect the two. Biracial people, who never leave their home nation, have a third culture. In the United States, the number of interracial marriages is increasing, as is the number of multiracial children. Today there are more than two million people of mixed racial ancestry in the United States; this number may be a substantial underestimate.
Ethnocentric attitudes are firmly entrenched in cultural norms and thus are extremely difficult to change. Change is not, however, impossible. One means of decreasing ethnocentrism is intervention through training. There are courses designed to help individuals understand the nature of their ethnocentric beliefs.
Intercultural communication training must be highly experiential in order for it to increase intercultural competence. Thus intercultural communication courses often use simulation games, exercises, videos, and other types of learning in which another culture can be experienced by the learner. In other words, if intercultural communication training is to have an effect on individuals’ behavior, the unalike culture must be experienced. One cannot just talk about intercultural communication. One has to do it.
The variable of ethnocentrism versus ethnorelativism is marked by a series of stages through which an individual may pass.
1. A denial of cultural differences, in which there is little contact with unalike others.
2. An evaluative defense against understanding cultural differences, because they may be threatening to one’s view of the world. An individual may say, “I don’t want to understand what those people think. They are so different from us”.
3. A minimization of cultural differences, through which cultural similarities are stressed.
4. The acceptance of cultural differences, which are acknowledged and understood.
5. The adaptation of one’s thinking and behavior to cultural differences.
6. The integration of cultural differences into one’s own worldview, so that one’s identity is both a part of, but apart from, the different culture, and a new “third culture” perspective replaces the native culture perspective.
Assignment 16
Choose the correct word form for each sentence. Make verb tense changes, make nouns singular or plural, and use active or passive voice as applicable.
1. (to) impose, imposition, imposing
a. Her domineering father continually_____________________his will on his daughter.
b. Albert Einstein, one of the world's greatest scientists, was an _____________________figure in physics.
c. The unexpected guests who "dropped by" were an ____________________ on the busy man's time.
2. prescribed, prescription, (to) prescribe
a. Several ____________________ for medicine were given to the patient.
b. Some offices have____________________rules for proper dress and behavior.
c. The medical student was not authorized______________________ medicine because he hadn't received his degree.
3. (to) preserve, preservation, preservative
a. The mummies in the pyramids of Egypt have been ____________________ for many years.
b. Chemicals are used as____________________in food.
c. Environmental groups are devoted to the_____________________of wild animals in danger of becoming extinct.
4. professional, professionally, profession
a. Although she had played tennis for only five years, she was already a____________________ .
b. A social worker's _____________________ is demanding but re warding.
c. The office worker was competent_____________________, but she wasn't well-liked.
NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES. ANXIETY
A second challenge in intercultural relationships is negative stereotyping. As we have already discussed, stereotypes are a way of categorizing and processing information, but they are particularly detrimental when they are negative and held rigidly. Sometimes it takes work to get individual information, information that can counteract the stereotype.
An African American professor describes the beliefs and stereotypes about White people passed along to her in her family: (1) White people are often violent and treacherous; (2) White people probably have some kind of inferiority complex, which drives them to continually "put down" Blacks and anyone else who is not White; (3) White men are usually arrogant; (4) White women are lazy; and (5) there are some good White people, but they are the exception. More important, she goes on to describe how she did not let these stereotypes become a "prison" that determined how she felt about herself or all White people. And because of her open-mindedness, her beliefs changed and her reliance on stereo-types decreased. She learned that race was not a predictor of intelligence, but that income and opportunity were. She learned that all people, regardless of color, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. And she made definite choices about how to relate to others and about the importance of having a variety of friends, not just African Americans.
A third challenge in intercultural relationships involves overcoming the increased anxiety commonly found in the early stages of the relationship. (Some anxiety always exists in the early stages of any relationship.) This anxiety stems from fears about possible negative consequences of our actions. We may be afraid that we will look stupid or will offend someone because we're unfamiliar with that person's language or culture. For example, our student Sam has a lot of friends who speak Spanish at home, and he has studied Spanish for five years in high school and college. But when he visits with his friends' families, he's often anxious about speaking Spanish with them. He's afraid he'll say something stupid or reveal his ignorance in some way.
Differences of age are not usually cause for discomfort, but relationships that span differences in physical ability, class, or race may engender more anxiety.
The level of anxiety may be even higher if people have negative expectations based on previous interactions or on stereotypes. For example, some White and African American students seem to have more difficulty discussing intercultural issues with each other than they do with international students, perhaps because of negative stereotypes held by both groups. By contrast, intercultural interactions in which there are few negative expectations and no history of negative contact probably have less anxiety associated with them. For example, one student tells of traveling to New Zealand as an 18-year-old on a sports team. He had no negative preconceptions about New Zealanders and no real language barrier. While he experienced a little anxiety at the beginning, he quickly found similarity with people he met, and it was "truly an unforgettable experience."
ASSIMILATION AND ACCULTURATION
Assimilation is the degree to which an individual relinquishes an original culture for another. When individuals are assimilated into a mainstream culture, they lose their previous culture. The assimilation process usually occurs as an immigrant gradually learns the language of the host culture, forms friendships with a network of host nationals rather than with fellow immigrants, becomes increasingly exposed to the mass media of the host nation, and gradually cuts ties and identification with the original homeland. This assimilation process may occur over two or more generations. Some cultures resist any acculturation into the host society even after many, many generations. Examples in the United States are Orthodox Jews and the Old Order Amish, who maintain their original culture. The Gypsies are another example.
Native Americans have suffered greatly from attitudes toward "strangers" and from earlier concerted efforts to bring about their assimilation. We have read briefly about the forced marches to reservations where Native Americans were isolated from the society that took their lands but rejected the people. Labels such as the "Five Civilized Tribes" were applied to the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole because of their strong cultural heritage, Christian influences, and "cooperation" with relocation efforts. In 1953 Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 108 to terminate aid and protection to Native Americans. The belief was that Native Americans should leave tribal identities behind and assimilate into the general population. The only concrete results of the policy to assimilate were more lands lost by Native Americans.
Acculturation is the process through which an individual is socialized into a new culture while retaining many aspects of a previous culture. In contrast to assimilation, the acculturated individual becomes a mixture of two or more cultures. The process of acculturation incorporates similar stages as the stranger modifies some aspects of the original culture, retains others, and adopts some of the norms of the new culture. Acculturation involves a less complete integration of an individual into the host culture than does assimilation.
READING
Most misunderstanding passenger
As the plane left runway, the German tourist bolted from his seat, shoving aside a flight attendant who tried to stop him He had to go to the bathroom, he later told a judge.
But on that January flight from Fort Lauderdale to Hanover, Germany, something got lost in the translation.
“The roof is going to go!” was what the flight attendant said she heard him say, as he made a sweeping gesture with his arms as if to indicate a gigantic explosion.
The plane was brought back to Fort Lauderdale, and the passenger was arrested on federal charges of interfering with a flight crew and making a bomb threat.
The tourist spent nine months in jail, until a German-speaking judge released him. Apparently, The German expression “then the roof flies” is slang for having to use the bathroom.
1. What was the reason for miscommunication?
2. Was the punishment fair? Why?
3. Why do language expressions like “The roof is going to go!” might become barriers in understanding messages?
4. How are such expressions called?
5. When is it proper to use them?
CASE STUDY
In your culture, how would you react if:
– someone arrived yearly for work? Exactly on time? 20 minutes late? One hour late?
– a train arrived at the station earlier than expected? Exactly on time? 20 minutes late? One hour late?
– a guest arrived for dinner 15 minutes earlier than invited? Precisely at the time specified by the host? 20 minutes late? One hour late?
Here are some American expressions that have to do with time. Which statements match up with which of these American values about time?
American Values
– Time is money.
– Time is a limited resource.
– Time is a valuable commodity.
English expressions
– Do you have any time to spare?
– Thank you for giving me your time.
– The plane lost time due to the strong prevailing winds.
– There isn`t enough time to do that now.
– How did you spend your free time?
– I need to put aside some time to catch up on my correspondence.
– Don`t waste my time making excuses.
– She`s investing a lot of time in her new job at the bank.
What are some common Russian/Kazakh expressions that reflect our society`s ideas about time?