INTERCULTURAL AUTO BIOGRAPHY

Running head: INTERCULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
INTERCULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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The aim of this paper is to discuss the intercultural autobiography of two persons that will
reveal the values beliefs and understanding of different culture. This will demonstrate different
cultural frameworks as well as Strategies for intercultural communication (Khan, Pitts and
Williams 2016). There will be mentions of theories of cultural dimensions which will be helping
in in understanding the difference and how these can be mitigated to respect cultural diversity in
any work place or society. In this paper the cultural factors related to the English and Indian
culture will be analysed through the form of autobiography and a cultural profile will be
developed.
In order to understand the cultural factors related to the British people or people having
cultural background of England are completely different from the rest of the world but have a
prominent features seen in most of the Western countries. The knowledge about this culture is
model is evident in many of the countries because of the colonial past. People from England has
donated more than 300 years to the important countries of American, Asia and African continent
(Benomir, Nicolson and Beail 2016). This is the reason why the English language and culture is
quite common and knowledgeable to most of the people in different parts of the world. in order
to discuss the cultural autobiography there are certain factors that are needed to be analysed
which include religion, values, believes, understanding of family, major celebration, values of
social stratification, gender roles, economy, food habits, arts, popular culture and Humanities.
The official state sanction religion in this place is Church of England that is the believer of
Christian protestant faith. There has been huge gap between the roles of the church in Britain
from last few decades and the faith of the people on religion. I have felt that one third of the
population have no connection with religion in their social and personal life but they do not
believe in infringing the rights and scopes of people creating any issue of discrimination (Li et al.

2INTERCULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
2016). As people here do not have much connection with religion therefore major celebrations
are secular I have seen celebrations in our calendar including Good Friday, Queens’s birthday,
New Year’s Day and Boxing Day.
According to the theory of state and his cultural dimension the national culture has a
great impact on the culture of the organisation and Society. Our national culture has a great
support for hierarchy system in which class division is the foremost. The society is differentiated
depending upon the wealth and positions and particular observation of aristocracy can be seen I
have seen high ranking ability with hereditary wealth titles and relations. In my society of
England, there are three major strata of class that includes higher class, middle class and the
lower class. The malicious people have education and hardworking capability to arrange for their
living. Most of them believe in serving various companies and other places but the lower class
people are usually those who do not have much social privilege but very important for all the
business to be happened in this country. The people who are affiliated to the society are mainly
White Collar workers and leave in the Suburban homes with access to higher education however
in last few decades this social structure of England has changed and barrier to self-development
have been Limited the privately e owned homes and access to higher education and not limited to
the people of higher class and Middle Class but people from varied backgrounds are being able
to access these opportunities. The level of wealth distribution is increasing which is allowing
upward mobility. The working class and middle class are becoming homogeneous in nature
eliminating the idea of privilege in the society.
As mentioned in the cultural dimension theory of Hofstede it can be stated that
individualism and collectivism background is leaning towards individualism in my culture. The
family system is so impressive that people only work for themselves and their immediate family.

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The idea of individualism is prominent here where the younger family members take great care
of the elderly relatives but do not indulge in practicing collectivism prominently. At one time
divorce was unthinkable and the idea of accepting same-sex marriage was not permitted however
after globalisation all of these social ideas regarding family system are being lost and people are
becoming more profession centric making it more acceptable in nature.
The cultural values can be seen through the gender roles where the women are getting
similar opportunity as their male counterparts. In my culture women are accepted to work ok and
socialize as much as men. They are accepted in the military and police forces. They are not seem
to be weaker section which was thought in last century. The workplace and pay levels affect that
the government and regulation of my country supports the equal rights among the citizens. This
is estimated that half of the women work in my country and do not face March issue with
harassment regarding their ability and gender. Why British culture have traditional thought
regarding popular culture and arts and we try to impose our preference upon the other. In my
culture cinema is seem to be e a very important stage for public entertainment. We promote
singers, musicians, dancers painters, filmmakers and most importantly authors. I am proud of my
literature that seems to be an idol for all the cultural in the world. Therefore the intercultural
communication is not very difficult for the people from English culture because of the standard
of English language to be a perfect medium for business and the thought process which moral is
match with western companies effectively.
The culture that I want to represent through one of my friends is that of Indian culture.
Whenever I am reminded of with this culture a picture of religion comes into my mind. Indian
culture is associated with Hinduism which is representing of the philosophy values believes and
existence of Indian people (Autin et al. 2017). The interview has revealed that there is no such

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culture that is associated with religion like that of India because the guiding philosophy originate
from religion. Most of the people in India are religious and they observe various types of cult.
Unlike England India is a home of more than hundreds of religion and culture where no one
particular culture represent the Indian society. As the country is divided into different states these
states are marked by different language food belief customs classes and religion. However the
Preamble of India allows people to practice any type of religious belief and the country follows
secularism.
Despite this diversity of customs and cultures in different parts of this one country the
basic ideology regarding society and family is same. The people in this society believe in strict
header in the family as well as society. Here the father is the head of the family supporting the
male dominance in the entire social structure. The interview has revealed this has minimise the
role of women in the workplace and people think that women consists the weaker section of the
society therefore they need to stay at home and rear children (Tewari, Banerjee and De 2019).
This type of Ideas are practiced in the rural part of India but in the urban or city section equality
depending upon gender is much more effective. The traditional Outlook regarding social
stratification is also seen in this country of my friend because in some part of India the caste
system is so manipulative that the people of higher caste do not touch the people of lower caste.
This often leads to honour killing concept.
As mentioned before secularism is practiced in this country where the number of Hindu
temples can be equal to the mosques. This is the reason why most of the celebrations are based
on religion. However along with this, agricultural celebration, new years and many more are
practiced. There is a huge diversity of food in this country and all of them are associated with
difference of cultures in the state (Coid et al., 2017). The west part of the country has no

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similarity of food with the Eastern one and with change of language the dishes keep on changing.
The respect for the elders can be seen in this culture which often refers to following instructions
to the higher level management in the workplace. According to the cultural dimension theory the
Indian culture is collectivist where people believe in achieving growth through teamwork. The
people are not only focused on developing for their answers and their immediate family like that
of the UK but take care of the community also (Noble, 2019). these communities can be focusing
on the diverse groups depending upon religion language and other factors of culture according to
give interview of my friend from India it can be understood that people here are more acceptable
than any part of the world. The western culture as well as that of eastern one are properly
amalgamated in India. The guests are accepted else God in this country therefore respecting
people from different culture is quite common in this particular country. Depending upon hard
work and exceptional intellect the Indian people are attaining various high position in different
companies in the world. Finally it can be stated that the art of India has been reported in all over
the world starting from the ancient paintings sculptures and modern designs everything are
reading fame to Indian culture. However there is a language barrier and difference of expectation
in terms of communication system but due to the acceptability and feasibility of people in the
sculpture the communication system has become effective(Brooks, Hoff and Pandey 2018).
Cultural profile:
Factors Differences Similarities
Language  The language of the UK is English
which are mainly known to most of
the people in the world. English
serves to be the effective medium of
On both the countries and
cultures, English language
has been granted as a
common tongue to maintain

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communication in business.
 India does not one particular
language for communication.
connection with the people
from different part of the
world.
Social
structure
 The social structure is hierarchical
where the people respect and tae
responsibilities of their elder
relatives.
 The Indian culture is so hierarchical
that the children must be respecting
their relatives, and non-relatives
also. Opposing ad abiding the
suggestions from the older people
are accepted to be bad nurture
(Carruthers et al. 2018).
In both the cultures,
maintaining hierarchy in
terms of family and society
are same.
Impact of
religion
 English culture is not very religion
centric but religion was at the centre
a century ago.
 Indian culture is guided by the
philosophy set by the religion. The
social structure, celebrations are all
are dependent upon religious
beliefs.
In both cases, religion set the
ethical decision making and
keep people away from
practicing illegal actions.

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Gender roles  Women are more empowered in the
English society to that of Indian
one. Women get same facilities and
rights to get education, placement
and scopes.
 Indian culture does not allow
women to get similar power as that
of men. They are intimidated in
most of the cases. In the rural
region many women are not
allowed to get education or
minimum facilities to work (Yeh
2017). They are provided with less
wage for same work as men.
In case of business, keeping
women in the higher position
is rare in both the culture. In
the urban region in India and
all over the UK, women seem
to get similar power to that of
men but they are opposed
indirectly.
Collectivism  British culture is individualistic
where people take care of
themselves and their immediate
families.
 The Indian culture is collectivist
that means the people think for their
communities also.
In the case of patriotism, both
the cultures show respect t
their communities and work
for it.

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Therefore it can be stated that the cultural autobiography is helpful to gain understanding
of the culture of self as well as that of the other one. This will help in developing communication
system by eliminating confusion.

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10INTERCULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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