Activity 1: What Is Culture? What Are Cultural Differences?

1.1 Art Appreciation Exercise using Paul Gauguin’s painting

According to Wilenius (2006, 45), cultural competence can be looked from three different angles:
- firstly, it can be seen as the ability to develop products related to cultural capital
- secondly, cultural competence is cultural literacy, which refers to the ability to read the signs and symbols of cultures
- thirdly, it is the ability to create an organizational culture allowing for the emergence of creativeness and innovativeness

Art appreciation can be used for multicultural group of students in order to understand their decision making process, which is influenced by the culture. By sharing their opinions with others, teachers and students will have better understanding on differences in learning.

Instruction: Click the below Paul Gauguin’s painting and put your attention on it. Here it is important to be totally receptive. Suspend the judgment. Just look at and receive. Please find three different elements from the painting and share your findings at Padlet wall (http://padlet.com/wall/6me7y4dwor) with other students.

Write the reason why you have selected 3 elements from your own cultural perspective. Notice, that culture does not mean only national cultures, but you can consider also regional, religious, professional, etc. cultures.

Reference:
Wilenius, M. 2006. Cultural competence in the business world: a Finnish perspective. Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 27, no. 4, 43-49.

1.2 Write to your blog a short (max one page) answer to questions: 

- What is meant by the word "culture"? 

- What is meant by the concept "cultural differences"? 

Use sources, but include also your personal perspective to the topic. Post a link to your blog post here below to the comments.

Possible sources:

·        Watch video: 1.4.1 Various Definitions of Culture  http://moniviestin.jyu.fi/ohjelmat/hum/viesti/en/ics/7

·        Laakkonen Anne, Construction of the Entrepreneurial Identity in the Family Business Context- A Cross-Cultural Study, Chapter 5.3 The meaning of culture for identities (p90-91) http://bit.ly/1cbszNz