Callum: Hello and welcome to the eighth programme in our series ‘Who on Earth are we.’ In the last programme Marc Beeby began an investigation into the differences between cultures where the individual is seen as central – individualist cultures – and those where the group is the most important unit – collectivist cultures. Today he looks at more of these differences but to begin, here’s Rebecca Fong a teacher of inter-cultural communication at the University of the West of England, with a summary of some of the main points we heard last time. Rebecca Fong What does it mean to be individualist or collectivist? We've seen that within individualist societies there's a social pattern of people being linked very loosely - people are independent in these kinds of societies, whereas in collectivist societies they tend to be a lot more interdependent - dependent on one another. In general individuals in individualistic cultures value autonomy and their personal goals, as we’ve said, take precedence over group goals, and their personal emotions, their personal happiness are very important. In the collectivist societies the group goals are more important - the norms, the duties, the obligations of the group are very, very important and these are the things which people are expected to behave in accordance with. Marc: Rebecca Fong, summarizing some of the main points from our last programme on individualist and collectivist cultures. Last time, we also heard that it’s very important to remember that cultures are not simply ‘individualist’ or ‘collectivist’. Rather, cultures tend to have either more individualist – or more collectivist – characteristics. So, where does your culture fit on the scale between extreme individualism and extreme collectivism? To help you decide, Rebecca Fong guides us through some more of the main differences between the two, with help and comments from a group of people from around the world. Rebecca begins with the things people value… Rebecca Fong Some of the values that are upheld by individualist societies are individual freedom and choice, self-sufficiency, equality. And these tend to be associated with things like education and affluence and social and geographic mobility. Devon Krohn I was brought up just outside London, and when I was 18 I went to university and I moved away from home and part of the reason why I chose Exeter University which is where I went was because it was a good distance away from home and that in our society that is part of the point of going to university. So I left home at 18 and I was out of university and qualified by the age of 22 and when I went to teach in Germany there were lots of surprised faces that I was a teacher at the age of 22. Rebecca Fong Individualist societies tend to be more modern - people as a function of education have become more socially mobile and more geographically mobile as well and the emphasis is perhaps a bit more on personal achievement, the affluence that comes with that, much more than on family values or group spirituality. James Keegan In a society where you don’t have the hierarchies of royalty and structures of that kind, you actually do seem to produce another substitute. And that substitute is wealth and possessions. In the United States, a great deal of value is placed on how you present yourself, what you have achieved. Rebecca Fong Collectivist cultures on the other hand uphold tradition to a much greater extent. Security is very important, and good social relationships are very important. And often religion and a belief in the cycles of nature is important. Rajni Badlani Religion is extremely important in India even today, even among the very well educated. ... Группа Learning English. Продолжение текста: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/scripts/whoonearth/tae_whoonearth_08_080619.pdf