Krakow as an intercultural environment: a photoessay

The photograph shows me and a friend toasting drinks. It was taken on the 6th of November. That night, a few friends and I were watching football while having some drinks in a bar. After we received our drinks, we toasted. The toast in the photograph above is staged, as I did not think of taking a picture the first time. The issue with the eye-contact came up later and that is when I asked my friend to pose his drink for me. I noticed that two of the Slovak guys who were sitting on our table looked the person they were toasting in the eyes, while the Romanian guy with us did not. In Macedonian drinking culture, not looking the person you are toasting in the eye is seen as insulting, or more specifically, as far as I know, is insulting towards your mother. I asked the guys if looking people in the eyes while toasting is common in their culture. The Slovak guys replied yes, while the Romanian was confused. We explained to him how eye contact is very important when toasting. The Romanian found this act of nonverbal communication amusing and pointless. It was interesting to see his reaction to an act that seems very normal and commonly known in my culture. Although, there is no real use of the act, in Macedonian culture it is seen as necessary to show your respect for your companion. The act is usually seen as common sense in Macedonia, and apparently in Slovakia as well. Yet, common sense differs across culture, as it is formed through experiences. Specifically, through experiences within a certain culture. For the Romanian in our group, eye contact seemed silly, and he jokingly asked us what he would have to do if several people toast at once. Would he frantically try to look everybody in the eye?

While explaining the act, the Slovak guys and I realized we were giving different meanings. Although, eye contact while toasting is present in their culture, it was for a different reason than in my culture. In other words, avoiding eye contact in Macedonian culture is an insult, while in Slovak it means bad luck. The different interpretations of this act show a glimpse of the two cultures which are embedded in our unconsciousness. Various assumptions can be made on a person’s culture concerning his interpretation of an act. For example, I may assume that because the act in Macedonia is done to avoid insulting my companion that respect is a valued factor where I come from. Being shown a glimpse of Slovak culture, such as acting to avoid personal misfortune, can lead to an assumption that it is a more individualistic society. Certainly, these assumptions can be debated and argued, they are simply examples of how one can gain a glimpse of another person’s culture through communication.

I have also noticed some differences in verbal communication concerning cultural frameworks. The same friends as before and I had been telling each other jokes about various nationalities and ethnicities (of course, none of us taking the jokes seriously). Nationality and culture-based humor is one that is hard to grasp and understand, because the line of what is allowed and what is not is very thin. It also is very closely tied to a person’s own culture and cultural contact. I told a common joke in Macedonia about an ethnic minority (to which I belong to, in my defense as an anthropology student). The guys did not find it funny, and did not understand the joke. The fact that the joke was funny to me, yet not for the guys turned out to be a funnier situation rather than the joke itself. I tried to explain the meaning of the joke, which is tied to stereotypes about that ethnicity in Macedonia, yet the joke still was not funny. This minor miscommunication struck me as very interesting. Here, the common language of discussion between my friends and I is English. All of us speak the language quiet well, so we have no problem of understanding each other. However, the cultural frameworks of the way we communicate are different.

The “translation” of communication in languages can be difficult. Translating the phrases or explaining them structurally may be easy; however the ability to translate the cultural reference and meaning can be quite difficult. Our native language is interwoven with our native culture, and it affects our way of thinking on a high level. Thinking in a certain language means thinking through a certain cultural background. English was a second language for all of my friends in this case, thus we all had to take the effort of translating whatever we were saying into what we deemed would be understandable and in return translating the communicated messages according to our own way of thinking. People are not always conscious of their culture and differences, especially when they seem to have found a common language. Taking into account that a certain message may not have been communicated or understood exactly the way we would assume it to have been is certainly helpful in such situations. Understanding a new language and culture completely is a long task, and one that certainly cannot be accomplished in one night.

Source used: Lewis, Richard D., When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures, Nicholas Brealey International, 2006.

Gutterman, Alan S. , Trompernaars’ and Hampden-Turner’s Seven Dimensions of Culture, Organizational Management and Administration: A Guide for Managers and Professionals, Thompson Reuters/West, 2010.

Eda Starova