31573 01 i-xxiv 1-176 r13rm 8/18/05 2:56 PM Page 22

22 WHEN CULTURES COLLIDE

Our second task, once we realize that we, too, are a trifle strange, is to under-
stand the subjective nature of our ethnic or national values. While Scots see stub-
bornness largely as a positive trait, flexible Italians may see it as mainly
intransigence, the diplomatic English, possibly a lack of artfulness or dexterity.
We also make assumptions on the basis of our subjective view and, even worse,
assumptions about other people’s assumptions. The Italian who assumes that
French people feel intellectually superior also assumes that the French therefore
think Italians are suitable mainly for manual labor when emigrating to France.
Finns who judge Swedes as snobs also assume that Swedes stereotype Finns as
rough and rustic. There may be a grain of truth in many of these judgments and
assumptions of assumptions, but the danger involved in making them is only too
obvious!

It Depends on Our Perception

Our perception of reality (what a word!) may be assisted if we can wear someone
else’s shoes for a moment—if we can see how he or she views some issue in a way
very different from how we see it. Let’s take, for example, the differing view-
points of Finns and Spaniards on legality and illegality.
Both nationalities agree that trafficking in drugs is bad and that laws against
drunken driving are socially beneficial and justified. When it comes to restrictive
immigration laws, the Finns’ subjective view is that the fragile, delicately balanced
national economy must be protected, while semiconsciously their instinct is to
protect the purity of their race. Spaniards, born in a country where no one dares
trace his or her ancestry further back than 1500, have a reflexive distaste for pro-
hibitive immigration policies that hinder the free movement of Spaniards seek-
ing better wages abroad. Such policies or laws they see as negative, or simply bad.
As a second example, a Finn consistently making expensive telephone calls
for which she need not pay will ultimately fall victim to her own inherent sense
of independence, not least because she is building up a debt to her friend in
Finnish Telecom. The Spaniard, on the other hand, would phone Easter Island
nightly (if he could get away with it) with great relish and unashamed glee.
It is by considering such matters that we realize that all that is legal is not nec-
essarily good, and everything illegal is not necessarily bad. Swedes, Swiss and
Germans do not make this discovery very easily. Americans, Belgians, Hungari-
ans, Koreans and Australians can accept it without losing too much sleep. Latins,
Arabs, Polynesians, Africans and Russians see it clearly from the beginning. A