Name: Yinxue Zhang
Student number: 500702239
1, What did not work well in your group, and to what extent can you explain this from cultural
aspects?
The group 4 demonstrated many differences between the Netherlands and India from the cultural
perspective. They did a fantastic presentation in general, but there are still drawbacks in their group
presentation which can be analyzed by each layer of the inverted pyramid model.
Firstly, the topic of their presentation is not effective enough because it’s not universal. In other
words, not all audience are interested in either the Netherlands or India. Their introduction about these
two countries are not audience’s common concerns or values, therefore, they couldn’t draw listeners’
attention adequately. Although we’re all human beings who share similar interest and concern, we’re
from different cultures, have different experience and hold different point of views towards some
countries. It's crucial for group 4 to concern about these cultural factors before interacting with the
whole class. Instead of throwing out comparisons of these two countries, they could make their topic
more specific and concise by choosing one universally shared value like love, happiness in two countries.
Their presentation also shows that they have a low uncertainty avoidance, as they rely on informal
norms and behaviors in most matters.
Secondly, their information shown in the presentation is kind of shallow which only touches the
outward expression level but not reveal much about the collective layer. Since it’s a presentation about
cultural differences, they need to refer more of their presentation to culture and most importantly, to
apply CCA theories. Their presentation lacks cross-cultural communication which occurs at the collective
level, thereby, we didn’t see the clash of differences in Dutch and Indian universal concerns, guiding
values and expressions through objects, symbols and actions. Moreover, many contents of their
presentation contain stereotypes based on the dimension scores of the two countries. Stereotype is a
fixed impression which may have little basis but is perpetuated by people refusing to look deeper into a
matter. What they presented was the stereotyped outward expressions of both countries. Nevertheless,
the real information about these two countries are much more complex because actual outward
expressions differ under dominant value. There’re typical and non-typical aspects of a collective culture.
This part is missing in their presentation.
In the individual layer presentation, they did a good job by showing the vines. Their vines show the
typical outward expression of individuals’ perception about free love under the influence of their
dominant culture. Because at this layer, we individuals are different and unique even we share the same
collective culture. In the vine, two parents and two children from Indian and Dutch family respectively
represent a lively show of two kinds of values about free love. Though they all live in the Netherlands,
but their parents are different and children grew up differently in both families. There’re also non-
typical outward expression presented in the presentation. For example, Anjgilie told us about her family
which is rooted in India. In fact, her family is not as conservative, unequal or rigid to rituals as the
Student number: 500702239
1, What did not work well in your group, and to what extent can you explain this from cultural
aspects?
The group 4 demonstrated many differences between the Netherlands and India from the cultural
perspective. They did a fantastic presentation in general, but there are still drawbacks in their group
presentation which can be analyzed by each layer of the inverted pyramid model.
Firstly, the topic of their presentation is not effective enough because it’s not universal. In other
words, not all audience are interested in either the Netherlands or India. Their introduction about these
two countries are not audience’s common concerns or values, therefore, they couldn’t draw listeners’
attention adequately. Although we’re all human beings who share similar interest and concern, we’re
from different cultures, have different experience and hold different point of views towards some
countries. It's crucial for group 4 to concern about these cultural factors before interacting with the
whole class. Instead of throwing out comparisons of these two countries, they could make their topic
more specific and concise by choosing one universally shared value like love, happiness in two countries.
Their presentation also shows that they have a low uncertainty avoidance, as they rely on informal
norms and behaviors in most matters.
Secondly, their information shown in the presentation is kind of shallow which only touches the
outward expression level but not reveal much about the collective layer. Since it’s a presentation about
cultural differences, they need to refer more of their presentation to culture and most importantly, to
apply CCA theories. Their presentation lacks cross-cultural communication which occurs at the collective
level, thereby, we didn’t see the clash of differences in Dutch and Indian universal concerns, guiding
values and expressions through objects, symbols and actions. Moreover, many contents of their
presentation contain stereotypes based on the dimension scores of the two countries. Stereotype is a
fixed impression which may have little basis but is perpetuated by people refusing to look deeper into a
matter. What they presented was the stereotyped outward expressions of both countries. Nevertheless,
the real information about these two countries are much more complex because actual outward
expressions differ under dominant value. There’re typical and non-typical aspects of a collective culture.
This part is missing in their presentation.
In the individual layer presentation, they did a good job by showing the vines. Their vines show the
typical outward expression of individuals’ perception about free love under the influence of their
dominant culture. Because at this layer, we individuals are different and unique even we share the same
collective culture. In the vine, two parents and two children from Indian and Dutch family respectively
represent a lively show of two kinds of values about free love. Though they all live in the Netherlands,
but their parents are different and children grew up differently in both families. There’re also non-
typical outward expression presented in the presentation. For example, Anjgilie told us about her family
which is rooted in India. In fact, her family is not as conservative, unequal or rigid to rituals as the
