Sep 19, 2012 from Riet

Now that Level I is complete, we start getting at the point to develop the Level II topics more in depth, I guess. So I started working on gestures and what they mean in several countries/cultures. That takes us to the question of how deep / how precise / how in detail we want to go. It would be great to collect all the information from different sources and create a book from it. But I wonder if this research would serve us, because nobody will ever be able to know this in detail (because everyone comes from a certain culture). How are we going to measure cross-cultural awareness? Any ideas?

Patrick's response (Sep21,2012): Yeah! This is time to start working on Level II.

For the precision/detail that we want, perhaps something like what we are publishing in Level I for the North American etiquette. I suppose the idea is not so much demand examinees to be expert in the different countries, but a working knowledge of the differences.

For example, major cultural faux pas in Thailand would be to touch the head of children. This would be something we should specify in our Level II.

For the measurement of cross-cultural awareness, we can set exam questions in asking (using the Thailand faux pas as an example),

What is considered rude in Thailand? (1) Walk barefoot (2) Touch the head of children (3) Pointing with your index finger (4) Initiate conversation with a woman

In other words, we measure awareness with a YES/NO "switch". Either they know it, or they don't know it.

What do you think?

Sep 21, 2012 from Riet

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes this would be great. Just the really important things to know about a culture/country. The so called faux-pas. Even more important would be that they know where to find those important information in case someone is traveling somewhere. There is no such thing as a resource for important things to know for all countries/cultures as far as I know.

I will see that I find a couple of hours to work on these things.