Say Anything to Anyone, Anywhere: 5 Keys To Successful Cross-Cultural Communication

Chapter 5

The Chicken or the Egg of Culture

Which Came First? Climate and Environment or Language and Behavior?

Culture is a bit like the chicken and the egg scenario in that no one really knows what came first in cultural development. Cultural science looks at how mother tongue languages, different climates, and environmental factors affect communication and behavioral styles. The big question is: Did mother tongue languages develop because of the climate and environmental factors, or did the cultures that spoke a particular language settle in climates and environments that best suited their communication and behavior styles? This is truly a fascinating topic to ponder, especially when you consider the multitude of languages, alphabets, symbols, and hieroglyphs around the world.

Fascinating though it may be, when it comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we develop a basic understanding of how and why cultures became what they are today. We can accept what we understand, but it’s difficult to accept what we don’t. All too often, we’ve heard attendees in our cross-cultural courses say they had simply been told, “Do this or that,” for various cultures. They had no understanding of why they were supposed to do this or that, which made it a challenge for them to remember and act on. For example, if you don’t understand the purpose of the long pauses and silence in conversations in Asia, you will tend to act instinctively and quickly say something to interrupt ...