[00:00.00] UNIT 3

[00:29.60]Social Customs

[00:34.46]Integrated Skills Development

[00:40.80]Passage

[00:45.17]Different Cultures and Different Customs

[00:50.44]There are many things that we do in our own culture

[00:56.79]that we never ask questions about.

[01:01.02]We do things without thinking about them

[01:05.38]because we have always done them in the same way.

[01:10.24]When we are in another culture or with people from a different culture,

[01:16.59]we see that people do things in many different ways.

[01:22.26]One of the first differences we notice is the forms of address

[01:28.42]that are used in the culture.

[01:31.98]The language that people use to address each other

[01:37.54]tells us many things about a culture.

[01:42.19]There are many ways of addressing teachers and students

[01:48.43]and introducing oneself in other cultures.

[01:53.58]In many parts of the world,

[01:57.45]students must show politeness and respect to teachers;

[02:03.61]one way of doing this is not to use the teacher's name.

[02:09.07]Some teachers in the U.S. don't think it is rude

[02:14.82]if their students call them by their first names.

[02:19.99]This may be their way of having

[02:24.43]a close informal relationship with students.

[02:29.29]In the U.S.,

[02:32.95]one way to show closeness

[02:37.02]and friendliness is to use a person's first name.

[02:42.98]when Americans greet each other, introduce each other,

[02:49.64]and have conversations,

[02:53.48]they usually stand an arm's distance (about eighteen inches)

[03:00.24]to two feet (twenty-four inches) apart.

[03:05.70]This is not always a comfortable distance for people in other cultures,

[03:12.47]who may prefer less or more distance.

[03:17.12]It is sometimes difficult to know when to shake hands with Americans.

[03:24.70]In business situations men always shake hands

[03:30.86]when they first meet each other.

[03:34.41]Recently, especially in the business world,

[03:39.38]women have begun shaking hands, too.

[03:44.52]In social situations when two people meet,

[03:50.09]they often shake hands.

[03:54.03]You may find that younger women shake hands more often than older women do.

[04:01.29]When Americans shake hands,

[04:06.15]they usually only shake hands for a few seconds.

[04:11.61]When they shake, they shake hands firmly, not loosely.

[04:17.38]"He shakes hands like a dead fish"

[04:22.24]refers to someone whose handshake is not firm enough.

[04:28.41]In American culture, a weak handshake is a sign of a weak character.

[04:36.17]In other countries people shake hands differently.

[04:41.81]They may take the other person's hand loosely

[04:47.16]and may shake it for more than a few seconds.

[04:52.31]Every language has certain rules of speaking

[04:58.55]and every culture has rules about how people

[05:03.91]should interact with each other.

[05:07.75]These rules are not usually written down,

[05:12.89]but are learned by people living together in one culture.

[05:18.82]When you learn about other cultural ways of doing things,

[05:25.49]you start to think about what you've

[05:29.56]been doing in your own language and culture.