ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME, KEY ACTION 2

CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Furthering International Relations Capacities and Intercultural Engagement to

Nurture Campus Diversity and to Support Internationalisation at Home
(FRIENDS)

Unit 3: Dimensions of culture - cultural distances between countries:

identity, power, gender, uncertainty, time and gratification of needs
Part 3
Prof. Michael Minkov
TRANSCRIPT

The major consequence of these cultural differences is that whenever cultural differences in
education, more precisely educational achievement, are measured across the world, we
always see the same picture. The East-Asian nations always score on top. It's always one of
the Chinese speaking countries, either Singapore or now China or Taiwan or Hong Kong.
Japan also scores very high, Vietnam also does very well. And then it's usually Russia scoring
next in some North-European countries, whereas Latin America and Africa and the Arab
world, and unfortunately, the Balkan countries where I am from, are at this extreme, this
gore is almost like Latin American countries on this dimension.
Unfortunately, we are not so good in education, which can be explained as an outcome of
these different cultural attitudes. On the other hand, we must remember that nothing is only
good or bad. This axis, the East-West axis is also the axis of happiness, life satisfaction, which
I discussed previously. Happiness is measured as joy and good moods. Good moods are most
prevalent in Latin America and Africa and least frequent in East Asia. One of the explanations
is that when people have low self-esteem, when they live with this feeling that they're not
very good, then they must constantly strive to improve this imperfect self. They must study
for very long hours. Children in East Asia study a lot instead of playing. The outcome of this
is a human self that is not very happy.
Another unfortunate outcome is depression and relatively high suicide rates, versus good
mood in Latin America, in Africa - vice versa. Another outcome of these differences in culture
and education is that unfortunately, Latin American and Africa have the highest violent crime
rates in the world, measured in terms of homicide killings per 100000 people. As for assault

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 1
and robbery, whereas the East Asian countries and northern Europe and South Europe as
well are the safest countries in the world in this respect.
This is a complex issue, but it has to do with this dimension and it has to do with differences
in education. One of the explanations is that when people are not well educated, they cannot
find jobs. And when the environment is poor and they don't have opportunities, they turn to
crime. It's much more complicated than this, of course, but this is just a simplification.
Another important implication of this cultural map is gender relations and the position of
women in society. All over the world, even in the Scandinavian countries, women complain
that they're not equal to men, that they don't have the same opportunity, that there is sexism
in societies. But when this is measured objectively in terms of the percentage of women in
parliament and the rights that women have and the abuses that they suffer. In reality, we see
that gender egalitarianism is greatest in North European countries and lowest in Africa and
the Middle East, although some Asian countries - Japan. In this particular aspect, resemble
the countries in Africa and the Arab world. It is well known that in Japan, women have never
held high ranking managerial positions. They don't participate in government as political
leaders. Japan is quite conservative in this respect. There are many other cultural differences
that cannot be explained in terms of this map but I hope that by now you realize the
implications and the significance of study and culture and the cultural differences across the
world.
Cultural differences exist at the level of whole societies, but they exist inside families, inside
schools, inside companies. To understand all of these, we need to look at families and schools
and organizations and what people do in the streets, how they drive, to what extent they
follow the laws and norms of their countries. It's very complex. But at the end of the day, we
can understand cultural differences. If we are smart enough, we can find ways to live
together and cooperate and improve our cross-cultural understanding and finally, ultimately
live in a better world.
Thank you very much!

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 2