Cross Cultural Understanding

Western Culture : Give Us Threat or Opportunity

By :
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Bibit Purnomowati
Carolina
Choirunnisa
Devi Ismira
Devinta Rizki
Dinda Yulia Putri
Intan Indah P.
Rahmania Amira
Vicia Evodia

(K2213013)
(K2213014)
(K2213015)
(K2213017)
(K2213018)
(K2213020)
(K2213033)
(K2213056)
(K2213073)

Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

English Education Department
2013
Introduction
Culture is a way of life that developed and owned jointly by a group of people and passed
from generation to generation. Culture is made up of many complex elements, including

religious and political systems, customs, languages, tools, clothing, buildings, and works of art.
Language, as well as culture, is part and parcel of human dignity that many people tend to think
of inherited genetically. When someone is trying to communicate with people who difference
culture and adjust differences, proving that culture is studied.
Culture is a holistic lifestyle. Culture is complex, abstract, and broad. Many aspects of
culture helped define communicative behavior. The elements of socio-cultural and multi-spread
human social activities.
Contain a view on its merits alone. "Image of the force" took different forms in various
cultures such as "rugged individualism" in America, "individual harmony with nature" d Japan
and "collective compliance" in China. Cultural image force is equipping its members with
guidance on appropriate behavior and set the logical world of meaning and value that can be
borrowed its members the most humble to gain a sense of dignity and coherence with their lives.
Thus, that provide a coherent framework for organizing the activities of a person and allow
predicting the behavior of others.
Definition of Culture
Culture is closely connected with the community. Melville J. Herskovits and Bronislaw
Malinowski argued that everything contained in the society is determined by the culture of which
is owned by the community itself. The term for that opinion is Cultural-determinism.
Herskovits view culture as something handed down from one generation to another, who then
called super organic. According to Andreas Eppink, contains the entire understanding of the
culture of social values, social norms, and overall knowledge of social structures, religious, etc.,
in

addition

all

intellectual

and

artistic

expression

that

characterizes

society.

According to Edward Burnett Tylor, culture is a complex whole, that it contains the knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities from any person as a member of society.
According Selo Soemardjan and Soelaiman Soemardi, culture is a means of work, taste, and the
copyright community.
Of the various definitions, it can obtain an understanding of the culture is something that
will affect the level of knowledge and includes the system of ideas or the ideas contained in the
human mind, so that in everyday life, the culture is abstract. While the embodiment of culture are

objects created by human beings as a cultured form and behavior of objects that are real, for
example, patterns of behavior, language, equipment life, social organization, religion, art, etc.,
which all of which is intended to help establish a life in human society.

Elements of Culture
According Koentjroningrat, cultural elements consist of :
1. System of religion and ritual
2. Systems and community organizations
3. Knowledge systems
4. Language
5. Art
6. Livelihood systems of life
7. Technology systems and equipment
Bronislaw Malinowski said there are four basic cultural elements include:
- System of norms that allow cooperation between the members of the public to adjust to the
- Economic organizations
- Tools and institutions
- Organization of power (politics)

Content
Every culture has positive side that will be good impact and negative side that will be bad
impact. Good impact as opportunity and bad impact as threat for other culture.
Positive side
1. Charity. Surprise: it's not a universal value. In Asian cultures, the family comes first, then
friends. Strangers are 'not my problem'. The idea that anyone would go out of his or her way to

care for a total stranger, or offer him aid, is completely alien and incomprehensible to most
Asians. That's part of the reason orphans are not well taken care of in China and Korea. If it's not
my child, why should I care for it? It's only national pride and embarrassment which has
prompted Koreans recently to encourage adoption within their country.
2. Courtesy to strangers. In Canada, if you walk through a door behind someone else, you expect
the person in front of you to at least make sure that it doesn't swing shut in your face. In China or
Korea, you can't assume that. And when I hold the door open for strangers in China or Korea,
they are dumbfounded. In China, if you want to get off a crowded bus, you just push and elbow
aside anyone in your way. Nobody is offended or surprised. Also, lying to or cheating a customer
(as long as he's a stranger) is considered in no way immoral.
3. Waiting in line. Yes, believe it or not, queuing is not a universal practice. If you've ever seen
Chinese at a bus stop or train station, you'll realize this. The result is absolute chaos, and
occasional injury.
4. The honour system. Corruption in Africa, Latin America and Asia is staggering. In many
countries it is impossible to get any business done without bribing someone. Cheating at many
Asian universities is so bad that a degree is virtually meaningless. Even driver's licenses and
(probably) pilot's licenses can simply be bought. Forget about getting justice in court, if your
adversary is richer than you.
5. Civic responsibility. Oddly enough, in a supposedly socialist country like China, there is no
sense of civic or communal responsibility. People just throw garbage in any communal space,
and no-one thinks of cleaning it up, except the paid street sweepers. Even in apartment buildings,
the common areas (stairwells, etc.) are often filthy and in terrible disrepair, and no-one seems to
bother about it, because it's not their own private space.
6. Addresses. This is a small thing, but surprisingly in many parts of the world they haven't
figured out how to do street addresses. In China, they don't commonly have street signs- except
perhaps for major thoroughfares. In Korea, building numbers are chronological, not
geographical. In other words, the first building erected on a street is 'one', the second is 'two'- so
on a typical street the addresses would be: 1, 42, 105, 3, 14, 7, 189.

7. Planning ahead. One of the infuriating things about working in China, and to a lesser extent
Korea, is that they are incapable (it seems) of forethought. If I'm teaching university classes on
Monday, no matter how much I beg them to give me my timetable on Friday, they won't.
Because it hasn't been composed yet. When I handed a syllabus to my students at the beginning
of the semester, telling them what I would be teaching everyday for that semester, they were
astounded. How could anyone plan so far ahead?
There are other virtues: sanitation, punctuality, etc.,

Negative side
Lifestyle
Their freedom to life with illegimate spouse, indecent outfits according to Asian culture
Impact of Western Cultures entry into Indonesia
The entry of foreign culture to Indonesia due to one of them because of the poisoning of
globalization crisis Indonesia. The effect is running very fast and related to various fields of life.
Of course, these effects will result in a very broad impact on the cultural system. How quickly
the foreign cultural influences lead to culture shock (culture shock), which is a state where
people do not able to hold various cultural influences that come from outside so that there is an
imbalance in the society concerned. The existence of uptake of foreign cultures are handled
quickly and not through a process of internalization can lead to profound discrepancy between
the form in the show and the values which it rests or so-called cultural inequality.
The technology developed in the affect social and cultural character of the social environment.
According Soerjono Soekanto (1990) the entry of foreign culture into Indonesia has the effect of
a very sensitive and has both positive and negative.
1) Positive Impact
Modernization is happening in Indonesia is growing development in Indonesia can
change Indonesia's economy and achieve a just social order of life, progress, and prosperity.
It expected will realize a prosperous society both mental, physical and spiritual.

2) Negative Impact
Culture into Indonesia as the dress code, ethics, relationships and more often cause many
social problems including; socioeconomic inequality, environmental degradation, crime, and
juvenile delinquency.
a) Socio-Economic Gaps
Socio economic inequalities is an unbalanced situation in the social and economic life of
the community. This means that there is huge gap between the rich and the poor, due to
uneven development. If this gap is not promptly addressed and cause envy people that
can lead to social unrest in social community. Social inequality itself will result in the
following:
Birth of the particular social group like a lot of singers who roam the streets leading to
the presence of the singers are disrupted and often cause problems that can be disturbing
people around besides that there is also a group of unemployed who are increasingly
growing and if not addressed quickly it will give rise to a case or crime
b) Environmental Damage
Contamination that occurred in the community have an impact as follows:
Air pollution, causing shortness of breath, eye pain and blurry eyes.
Pollution of land, causing land to be damaged.
Pollution of water, causing the water is not clean and unhealthy contents
c) Crime Problems
Crime is an act that violates the law or the things that are crimes, such as corruption,
theft, fights, murder, rape and others. In criminology crime due to the conditions and
social processes that generate the same social behavior. That is, the relationship between
variations in the crime rate and the variation of the organization.
d) Adolescent Delinquency
For example, fighting, destruction of public property, sexual perversion and abuse of
narcotics and illegal drugs. Juvenile delinquency can be caused by several factors,
namely

external

and

internal

factor.

1. External factors are factors derived from the teen or teenager's own personal
circumstances. For example, negative attitudes and traits are controlled like that also
leads to mischievous deeds. In addition, the juvenile may be due to the fulfillment of

basic needs that are not balanced by the desire teens giving rise to the conflict itself
and the unqualified teenager adjust to the environment.
2. External factors, ie factors that originate from outside the teenager's meaning, derived
from environmental teens. For example, family life, schooling, social, and media. A
person living in families that are not in harmony tend to be less well have behavior and
deviate from the norms and values that are in the community. For example, a child
who often see their parents fight to escape the drugs because he could not stand seeing
her parents quarrel.

Analysis
Foreign culture into Indonesia a huge impact in the lives of young people today . not all
foreign culture a positive impact on today's young generation, for that we as young people
should be able to sort out foreign culture into indonesia. in addressing the culture that we should
seek to mitigate them go so that our identity as children of the nation are not damaged.
The number of crimes committed today are also not free from foreign cultures entered,
crime, drugs, fights, rape, promiscuity occurs because our younger generation according to
imitate foreign culture that they are not taboo anymore to follow. This is a phenomenon that
occurs in our young people today can not sort out the effect of foreign culture enter . in this
government and we as the younger generation from now, do not just accept the foreign culture in
order to enter Indonesia's young generation is not destroyed and we all Indonesia can build a
country forward without the influence of a foreign culture.
Of all the underlying problem is that globalization is not irreversible. Globalization so
quickly penetrated into the community, especially among the young. The influence of
globalization on young people was so strong. The impact of globalization has made many young
people we lost ourselves as a nation of Indonesia personality. This is indicated by symptoms that
arise in the everyday life of young people now.
From how to dress many of our teens dress up like a celebrity who tends to Western
culture. They use material skimpy outfit that shows part of the body that should not be visible. In
terms of dress code is clearly incompatible with our culture. Not to forget their hairstyle dyed
various colors. In short if people prefer to be someone else in a way to cover his identity. Not

many teenagers who want to preserve the national culture by wearing decent clothes according to
the personality of the nation.
Internet technology is a technology that provides unlimited information and can be
accessed by anyone. What else for a young internet has become their daily meals. If used
properly of course we are benefiting useful. But if not, we will incur losses. And now, many
students who use improper. Eg to open porn sites. Not just the internet, there's more they are
required to handle the phone. Social sense of the society into nothing because they prefer using
the phone busy.
Judging from the attitude, many young people whose behavior is not known manners and
tend to ignore no sense of care for the environment. Due to globalization embrace freedom and
openness so that they act at their leisure. Example of a real motorcycle gang of young people
who commit violent acts which disturb the peace and comfort of society.
If the effects on the left, like the young what happens? Moral generation of people
become corrupted, anarchy arose among youth groups. His relationship with the value of
nationalism will be reduced because there is no love for their own culture and sense of care for
the community. And the younger generation is the successor to the nation's future. What are the
consequences if the nation does not have a sense of nationalism?

Comparison Western Culture and Indonesian Culture

1. Time
Western
Western people really appreciate the time, they always use the time appropriately.
Other than that they do not like to waste much less time for things that are not
important. They never by-play time to do a job and they really do not like people who
do not appreciate the time, throw waste of time especially if you promise not keep.
Day of the week if they prefer to stay home to work on something that should be

compared to the crude out of the house for things that to important .
Indonesia
In Indonesia well-known less appreciate the time that there is sometimes not
appropriate appointment time. They also sometimes wated time and no discipline in
the time, therefore they are often late.

2. Cleanliness
Western
Western people are very concerned with the name of cleanliness and every 10 meters
there is trash on the roadside is not just that the west is also always maintain hand
hygiene, they always wash their hands after using each work on something for

example after using the bathroom and wash your hands after holding the cell phone.
Indonesia
Do you know that our beloved country that has the most garbage in Indonesian
hygiene in the world. In Indonesia still become problem, because Indonesia has not
been able to overcome the toughest hygiene. Garbage still a problem in our country.
We have not creative ways to recycle waste, whereas in other countries are able to
overcome the problem of waste such. should be we can follow the way of another

country which can recycle garbage to be somethingmore useful.

3. Education
Western
Education west of the western people also place great importance on education and
prioritize hen studied for 5 to 6 years, then they proceed to secondary school or junior
high school for 3 years, then move on to senior high school until 3 or 4 years. After
completing high school (twelfth grade), they can continue their learning to the college

or university.
Indonesia
Indonesian is one of country not advanced in education of all country. This problem is
caused as many problem education has not solved. Like as payment of school is very
expensive, reducing even distribution education in Indonesian, the low quality
education, medium and pra-medium, the low of teachers prosperity, the low of
students prestation in their school, and others. The public Indonesian choose of public
school because the payment cheaper than private schools. The education of Indonesian
have special characteristics is system of direction from senior high school is IPA and
IPS and too pressed on theory. The students not looking for knowledge but they

looking for a job.

4. Politeness
Western
American people are very individualistic ,namely that people who belong to this group
have a egoist, do not like mutual help, not to be family, and always keep theirself when
they meet with someone they just met. The American peoples charactheristics orther is

arrogant, open-minded, efficient and practical, they only know their country (UScentered), easy going, straight to forward and straight to the point ,and they like is

good with us.

Indonesia
The Indonesian country is pluralistic country that is diverse and rich countries will
race, religion, language, culture, and custom. The peoples Indonesian is very
politeness. When they meets hand someone always shacking and tey also warm
friendly. The Indonesian peoples charactheristics other is conscientious, lazy,
superstitous, no planners, slow, infecien, lacking, discipline, ruber time, familyoriented, do not follow rules, unwilling to confront, silent in meeting, told someone in

back us, and always smile when meets someone.

5. Invitation
Western
The west if there is a party, invited guest who will come clear how much, because if
they want to come or not they will be given directly notify the person who invited him,
so the food provided will not be wasted, because if it would correspond tothe number

of those who attended in party.

Indonesia
In Indonesia if there is a celebration or a party of Indonesia prefers to invite as many
people as possible, if not little taste afdol or many not be legitimate. For example in
the wedding, very wasteful.

Closing
Every culture is unique, so it is definitely different between the culture in each country.
Not all of culture in each country is perfect. It is always has a good and bad impact that also give
the bad and good impact for the other culture. We should filter the other culture goodly. Take the
good value and throw the bad one.