Cross-cultural Encounters

Throughout our journey in Jordan, I found similarities in the way Jordanians behave towards newcomers: an open and friendly attitude. Since the first day we arrived in Amman, we were greeted by the hostel owner, who gave us an elaborate explanation about the city and some advices regarding how to interact with Jordanians. This type of hospitality is also shown when we talked with the supermarket owner, the souvenir sellers, the taxi drivers and many more, although they realized that we came from a different country.

I found this is fascinating since if we refer back to the theory of cross-cultural interaction, it is explained that when individuals have encounter with person from other cultures, the difference between them becomes highlighted (Bochner and Ohsako, 1977). This difference in some cases can lead to negative value-judgements about a specific group. For example, the most important difference that is immediately visible is the norms about clothing, especially for women. In this case, women need to cover their shoulders and wear long trousers or skirts in order to cover their body. Nevertheless, it is also intriguing that in some encounters, the failure to present this action is still tolerable. This is what Dutton (1973) called as reverse discrimination, a certain conditions in which minority members received a preferential treatment over the member of the major community. In this case, because Jordan is a moderate muslim country, this difference becomes not very salient. However, the difference becomes increasingly important when the encounter happens in host countries that are rather conservative or to a certain extent isolated from the rest of the world (Bochner, 2013). After all, I must say that meeting Jordanians is a pleasure to me, although we have differences in many ways, they always show their friendliness, a good sense of humour, and openness that are incomparable with any other places that I have visited.

References:

Bochner, S. (Ed.). (2013). Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction (Vol. 1). Elsevier.

Bochner, S., & Ohsako, T. (1977). Ethnic role salience in racially homogeneous and heterogeneous societies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 8(4), 477-492.

Dutton, D. G., & Lake, R. A. (1973). Threat of own prejudice and reverse discrimination in interracial situations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), 94.