Students need actual experience with other cultures to gain anunderstanding of them, a speaker said Monday afternoon.
Keynote speaker Judy Lane, who lived in Europe for several yearsand worked with businesses overseas, spoke at the Culture Mattersevent sponsored by the Miller College of Business.
The United States needs to seek innovation partnerships withother world cultures, Lane said. Wind research in Denmark, literacyin Cuba and the privatization of social security in Chile are areasthat the countries have succeeded in and that the United States hasnot, she said. If the United States fails to establishmulticultural partnerships for innovation, it will lose in theworld market, Lane said.
"If you're only going to know your own culture, that really isan artifact of a preglobal age," Lane said. "We have moved into aglobal age and it is a real liability if you don't make an effortto understand another culture."
Understanding another culture is not just academic, Lane said,it is basic survival skills.
"Multicultural understanding doesn't have to be for a businessstudent, it's everybody," Lane said.
Throughout the presentation, Lane used several activities toillustrate the importance of multicultural understanding.
One activity, entitled 'Teamwork,' asked the student to envisionhimself as a person from a culture in which teamwork and theimportance of group success are valued higher than individualsuccess.
Through this exercise, Lane taught students to understand how aperson from another culture might be confused by the American'semphasis on self-reliance. The activity also taught students howaccepting from others is a sign of weakness to Americans.
Lane said students need to find out what the accepted mode is inother cultures, especially when dealing with businesssituations.
"We are all foreigners," Lane said, "and you will be workingwith multicultural employees and sometimes employers."
Students can seek a deeper cultural understanding at theInternational Festival from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in the L.A.Pittenger Student Center Cardinal Hall. Admission is free.
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