- Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.
As Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, their culture is considerably different than the one in the United States. I want to talk about different cultural distinctions that may contribute to potential issues during the project. The first and foremost thing I want to comment on is language. Mainly, people there speak Kazakh and Russian, leaving out English as a third language for an average Kazakhstani. That is why English is not widespread, especially among the older generation. This may cause obstacles in communication, for example, in cooperating with local authorities. Moreover, Kazakh language is not as linear as English. People talk more in indirect fashion, implying things they want to say rather than being straight up about it.
There is also a contrast in the social organization. Personally, I would describe the system as hierarchical, meaning the individuals, who are older or hold higher social status, have more power and authority. Undoubtedly, the youth talks about their opinions and ideas, but the important decisions are made predominantly by the people that are on higher rungs of hierarchy. This cultural distinction may cause following issue. Older generation are conservative by nature, preferring to stick to older ideas and they might not approve the suggestions made by our team that may result in unsupportiveness of whole public or community.
The last point I want to mention is that people might value individual benefits and interests more than the community’s. This includes concepts like corruption, bureaucracy, and opportunism. Most of the governmental institutions are corrupted, making a lot of systems fail. This may again cause difficulties in working closely with authorities. The bureaucracy is a big element in society too, causing difficulties in fluidity of the project progression.
- Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe at least three such situations.
I have experienced almost all of the social issues I talked about at home as my home country borders with Kazakhstan. We share a lot of history with Kazakhstan and used to be the part of Soviet Union together. That is why we have a lot in common in terms of culture.
During high school I had a keen interest in Chemistry. I studied this subject a lot and once got qualified for the Regional Olympiad in Chemistry. I was confident in my knowledge of the subject, but something I was even more sure about was the justice coordinators would have for us, participants. However, I was very disappointed when I found out that some other participants bribed coordinators and bought 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, preserving themselves a place in the National Olympiad. At first I did not want to believe it, but it was confirmed when they completely failed at the National Olympiad.
There was another situation when I had my friends visiting from Russia. They caught a taxi coming from the airport. The taxi driver charged twice the price they regularly charge because they know that tourists are not familiar with the local prices and they want to benefit from it.
One of the worst cases with bureaucracy I encountered happened to me when I was getting my driving license. Even though I knew the rules and was able to drive, they would not let me take neither a theoretical or practical exam. I was supposed to go through three months of practices just to repeat everything I knew.
- Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community / market problems.
Among many cultural practices, there are the ones that benefit society as a whole. For example, the custom of denying your will to satisfy the opposite part. It is commonly done not to genuinely please the counterpart but as a way of complying with customs and being polite. Real life example of it is when someone tries to help me, sacrificing his/her own time and any other valuable resources, I have to deny the offer first, even though I might actually be in need of assistance. This cultural distinction comes in handy when you are trying to achieve mutual understanding in a certain community and want the members of it to respect each other.
Also the huge part of our culture is talking about topics that are not right here in the United States. For instance, people back in my home country talk a lot about politics and any other social situations in the country. It does not matter if you are close to the person you are communicating or you just met them. This cultural aspect helps the community to stay informed about any recent updates. It is essential when cooperating with the community: they communicate openly and get involved in social life.
There is also a strong evidence of powerful sense of national identity. People are patriotic and ready to take actions to benefit the country’s well-being. It makes creating incentives for community engagement more straightforward.