The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese business students understood the nature and the purpose of the instruction techniques they were exposed to in Britain, and the attitudes the students, Chinese lecturers in China and British lecturers in Britain held towards seminar discussions. The study also investigated how and to what extent students’ prior learning experiences predisposed them to certain attitudes towards seminar discussions. The student participants in this study undertook Part I of their degree programme at a Chinese university for two years before transferring to Britain to study for one year, graduating with a British Bachelors Degree in International Business. Data was gathered from classroom observations, follow-up and exploratory interviews, and a questionnaire survey to discover more about the students’ learning experiences in Part I in China, and from classroom observations, audio-recordings, and follow-up and exploratory interviews to investigate the same group of students’ learning experiences in Part II in Britain. A ranking task and interviews were used to identify the preferences of Chinese students, British lecturers, and Chinese lecturers from China in terms of specific group discussion methods. The study identified three discussion methods used by students in British seminars: these have been termed ‘spiral’, ‘exploratory’ and ‘individual’ methods. The Chinese students tended to use the ‘spiral’ method, repeatedly bringing the discussion back to the question provided by the seminar tutor, whereas the non-Chinese students tended to use the ‘exploratory’ method, reformulating each other’s opinions and building on them by bringing in new information. When discussing within Chinese-only groups, the Chinese students used the ‘individual’ method whereby a group leader took responsibility for the outcomes of the discussion and the other members did not build upon each other’s contributions. Chinese and non-Chinese students sometimes misunderstood each others’ intentions, but were not likely to notice that miscommunication had occurred. The ranking task and the follow-up interviews revealed that the British lecturers preferred the ‘exploratory’ discussion method, whereas Chinese lecturers from China and Chinese students preferred the ‘spiral’ method. The British lecturers were found to adopt a constructivist approach to group discussion tasks, seeing them as a means by which students could obtain professional experience. They treated Business and Management knowledge as divergent and ‘soft’. Chinese lecturers and students, on the other hand, were found to perceive group discussion as a kind of assessment and were keen to find ‘correct’ answers to case study problems, treating Business and Management as convergent and hard disciplines which offered judgements on good practice. The Chinese lecturers in Part I of the programme organised group discussion so that students could exchange answers and check their accuracy, and, perhaps because of this, in Part I the students learnt in an exam-oriented way, strategically dividing up their tasks and working individually on their own task portions in order to find an acceptable answer as quickly as possible. These students were found to continue to employ these strategies during group work after they had transferred to the British component of their degree programme. The study has made a theoretical contribution to knowledge concerning the cultural influences on students’ classroom interactional practices. The findings from the study have implications for the teaching of intercultural business communication, and the enhancement of students’ learning experiences in international business programmes, in business English programmes in China, and whilst learning within groups.

Elderly people with a different cultural background than swedish is now a targeted group that is becoming more relevant in elderly care. The swedish elderly care has also focused much of the work to be carried out according to a salutogenic approach and several development projects in this perspective has been practiced in many parts of the country's municipalities. The purpose of this study was to create a greater understanding of the care managers work with foreign-born elderly people from a salutogenic approach. For us to be able to answer the purpose of the study we collected empirical material through semi-structured interviews from five care managers from two different municipalities in central Sweden. The results are presented and analyzed based on the collected empirical data that we then tied together with the key concepts and previous research. The results showed that the challenges that the care managers encounter in their salutogenic approach is the language deficiencies and demands for action because they differ from the Swedish culture. In the discussion we write our thought about the future development concidering the care managers work with foreign-born elderly. / Äldre med en annan kulturell bakgrund än svenskt är idag en målgrupp som blir allt mer aktuell inom äldreomsorgen. Den svenska äldreomsorgen har även på senare år fokuserat mycket på att arbetet ska utföras genom ett salutogent förhållningssätt och flera utvecklingsprojekt inom perspektivet har utövats i flera delar av landets kommuner. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att skapa en ökad förståelse för biståndshandläggarens arbete med utrikesfödda äldre utifrån ett salutogent förhållningssätt. För att besvara studiens syfte inhämtas studiens empiri genom semistrukturerade intervjuer från fem biståndshandläggare från två olika kommuner i Mellansverige. Resultatet presenteras och analyseras utifrån insamlad empiri som binds ihop med centrala begrepp och tidigare forskning. Resultatet visar till att de utmaningar som biståndshandläggare stöter på utifrån sitt salutogena förhållningssätt är språkbrister och krav på insatser som skiljer sig från den svenska kulturen. Slutligen lyfts en diskussion om framtidens utveckling för biståndshandläggarens arbete med utrikesfödda äldre.

<p>Sinestezijska metafora smatra se posebnom vrstom metafore kod koje je izvorni domen utisak primljen preko jednog čula, dok je ciljni domen utisak primljen preko drugog čula, npr. o&scaron;tar ukus, sladak miris, tople boje i sl. Rezultati dosada&scaron;njih istraživanja ukazuju na izvesne op&scaron;te tendencije vezane za smer metaforičkog preslikavanja kod sinestezijskih metafora: hijerarhijski &bdquo;niža&ldquo; čula, kao &scaron;to su dodir i ukus, preslikavaju se na &bdquo;vi&scaron;a&ldquo; čula, kao &scaron;to su zvuk i vid, odnosno, konkretniji i dostupniji čulni modaliteti preslikavaju se na apstraktnije. Primećeno je da ove tendencije postoje u različitim jezicima i različitim diskursima i da su primenjive kako kod dijahronih tako i kod sinhronih istraživanja. S druge strane, utvrđene su i izvesne razlike između različitih jezika koje se mogu pripisati pre svega kulturolo&scaron;kim uticajima. S obzirom na to da su u sinestezijskim metaforama oba domena čulna, posebna pažnja se posvećuje i specifičnoj perceptivnoj ali i kognitivnoj osnovi ovih metafora.<br />Cilj istraživanja u ovoj disertaciji je da se kroz kontrastivnu analizu izuče sinestezijsko-metaforički prenosi značenja u engleskom i srpskom jeziku i ukaže na univerzalne tendencije kao i međujezičke varijacije, dok se posebna pažnja posvećuje upravo perceptivnim, kognitivnim i kulturolo&scaron;kim aspektima ove pojave.<br />Istraživačka građa sačinjena je od sinestezijskih prideva, odnosno prideva koji imaju dva ili vi&scaron;e značenja u različitim čulnim domenima. Istraživanje je rađeno na osnovu rečničke analize, dok su konsultovani i elektronski korpusi. Za svaki čulni domen (a ukoliko je moguće i za poddomene nekih čula) ustanovljene su tendencije u smerovima metaforičkog preslikavanja. Rezultati su obrađeni deskriptivnom i kontrastivnom metodom i obrazloženi uz pomoć saznanja iz oblasti kognitivne lingvistike ali i drugih naučnih oblasti.</p> / <p>Synaesthetic metaphors are considered to be a special type of metaphor in which one sensory modality is described in terms of another, e.g. sharp taste, sweet smell, warm colours etc. Research conducted in different languages indicates that there are certain tendencies concerning the directionality of metaphoric mapping: that hierarchically &ldquo;lower&rdquo; senses, such as touch and taste tend to map onto &ldquo;higher&rdquo; modalities, such as sound and sight; alternatively, we can say that more concrete and more accessible modalities tend to map onto more abstract ones. The determined tendencies proved to be applicable even to linguistically unrelated languages, different registers and to both diachronic and synchronic studies. On the other hand, there are certain differences among different languages, which can be attributed to cultural influences. Also, since both domains in synaesthetic metaphors are sensory modalities, a special emphasis in studies is placed on the particular perceptive as well as cognitive bases of this phenomenon.<br />The research in this thesis is a contrastive analysis of synaesthetic transfers of meaning in English and Serbian. The aim of the research is to point to universal tendencies of synaesthetic metaphors and cross-linguistic variations between the two languages, while special emphasis is placed on the particular perceptive and cognitive bases of this phenomenon, as well as the influences of culture on the formation of these expressions.<br />The language material is composed of synaesthetic adjectives, i.e. adjectives that have two or more meanings in different sensory domains. The research is based on the analyses of dictionary entries of English and Serbian sensory adjectives, while additional examples are collected form electronic corpora. The directionality of mapping is determined for each sensory domain (and, if possible, for sensory subdomains). The research results are analysed using descriptive and contrastive methods and explained using findings from the field of cognitive linguistics as well as other relevant scientific fields.</p>

Resilience, as a trait, process or outcome, is the negation of an undesirable outcome or of an expected maladjustment in the context of an adversity. Young people represent a developmental stage in which there is a vulnerability to experience deleterious outcomes during adversity. The literature on risk and promotive factors for resilience in youth is compounded by narrative reviews which have not applied a rigorous search methodology and which have failed to operationalise resilience. To date, the majority of research in resilience for emotional distress has focussed on data collected in high income countries. The first paper presents a systematic review of the literature on risk and promotive factors for trait resilience in youth. The findings indicate that there are differences in the magnitude of association between trait resilience and various risk and promotive factors, which were conceptualised into biological, intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental factors. The largest body of evidence reviewed pertained to intrapersonal risk and promotive factors for trait resilience. Factors predicting trait resilience were also identified. Implications for future research include addressing the methodological and sampling limitations of the reviewed studies. The second paper presents an empirical study investigating factors within a microsystem which differentiate adolescents with resilience for emotional distress and those vulnerable to emotion distress in India (<i>N</i> = 967) and in Peru (<i>N</i> = 606). Factors which predict low emotional distress in each country and factors which differentiate between low emotional distress Indian and Peruvian adolescents were additionally investigated. A cross-sectional exploratory investigation of secondary data was employed. The findings suggest that the profile of low vulnerability for emotional distress differs between different cultural contexts and contribute to an extraordinarily limited evidence-base in low and middle income contexts. Extensive additional research is required to delineate culturally-specific profiles of resilience for emotional distress in a bid to develop culturally-sensitive treatment targets.

This diploma thesis analyzes if there is communication barrier with foreign patients at the selected intensive care units. We dealt with question whether hospital employees perceive communication with foreigners as a problem or not and how can they solve the problem. The first (theoretical) part is devoted to the role of communication in nursing process and to the definition of term communication barrier. In next chapters we have analyzed the profile of multicultural nursing. Then we focus on the issues of cross-cultural communication and communication barriers in contact with foreigners and the most common causes and techniques used to deal with such situations. We pay great attention to prevention and potential solutions to barriers between cultures and ethnic groups. The motivation for the thesis was supposed effecto of communication gaps on health and higher psychological burden on staff, especially when one of the basic activities of nurses is to educate patients. Research interprets the information obtained from a self-designed questionnaire survey. Questionnaires were distributed to intensive care and resuscitation units in four hospitals in Prague. Statistical evaluation of the questionnaires either confirms or refuses the hypothesis that I set at the beginning of the research. According to...

This study examined the differences and similarities in how animated 3D characters were perceived by individuals from Sweden and China. The study also attempted to examine how cultural aspects influenced the participants’ perceptions. Parts of the study were conducted through collaboration with the Chinese game company, Focus Games. A literature study focusing on body language and culture was conducted, as well as a game animation analysis featuring games from both western and East Asian developers. Based on the game analysis, 6 animations were created with movement qualities inspired by each of the cultures. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire, as well as shorter semi-structured interviews. The results show that there were certain similarities and differences in how participants perceived the animations, however the reason as to how cultural aspects influenced the responses was partially unanswered due to lack of data.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:39:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 1 / Nenhuma / No mercado internacional globalizado as empresas brasileiras enfrentam muitas dificuldades para competir com as empresas estrangeiras. A falta de experiência internacional faz com que essas empresas escolham estratégias menos complexas e tenham um baixo grau de internacionalização. Por outro lado, o mercado norte-americano é considerado o principal mercado consumidor do mundo, e também é um mercado competitivo em que a concorrência é qualificada e a exigência dos consumidores é grande. Nesse contexto que fatores podem influenciar as empresas brasileiras na escolha de suas estratégias para enfrentar o mercado dos Estados Unidos? Entre tantos fatores, as diferenças culturais entre os exportadores brasileiros e os importadores norte-americanos podem estar influenciando a tomada de decisão do exportador brasileiro, que, percebendo-se distante culturalmente dos Estados Unidos, opta pela estratégia de menor envolvimento e risco. O modelo de Uppsala trata da internacionalização como uma estratégia onde a empresa adq

Att finna nya vägar för att reducera och effektivisera verksamheten blir allt vanligare bland dagens företag. Världen blir mindre och företag finner möjligheter att utveckla sin verksamhet med hjälp av andra företag. Detta innebär att de nationella gränserna alltmer börjar suddas ut, att söka internationella partners har därmed blivit allt vanligare för att integrera ny teknik och innovationer i verksamheten. Att välja att offshora delar av verksamheten till Indien innebär ofta nya utmaningar för företaget. I denna affärsrelation kommer företaget att möta kulturella, kommunikativa och organisatoriska skillnader. Dessa utmaningar kommer att innebära stora förändringar i den interna verksamheten där avsikten med förändring är att åstadkomma ett lyckat resultat. Att utveckla IT-funktioner och idéer tillsammans med en samarbetspartner som befinner sig i ett avlägset land där språk, synsätt, intressen skiljer sig åt kräver mycket engagemang, tid och tydlig kommunikation för att samordna verksamheterna. Vi har undersökt dessa fenomen för att få en förståelse över kommunikationen betydelse och vilka kommunikativa utmaningar SMF möter när de vänder sig till indiska IT-leverantörer för att utveckla verksamhetens IT-resurser.I den teoretiska delen lyfts det fram vad den tidigare forskningen säger om offshoring och offshore outsourcing. I vår empiriska del har undersökt på vilket sätt svenska och indiska företag vid IT-offshore hanterar processer, kulturella olikheter, relationen och ledarskap, och vilken betydelse den har kommunikativa förmågan i dessa sammanhang.I vår analys och slutsats har vi kommit fram till att offshoring och offshore outsourcing kräver mycket förberedelse där företaget noggrant går igenom processerna. Vid projektets integrering och precisering behöver kommunikationen vara tydlig och klar för att inga missförstånd ska uppstå. Med offshoring och offshore outsourcing finns det många möjligheter men också många utmaningar som kundföretaget måste hantera både internt och externt. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

A sensibilidade das crianças aos sinais emitidos por outra em situação de necessidade e mesmo a propensão ao cuidado atestam de forma cada vez mais convincente a natureza intrinsecamente motivada do cuidado espontâneo entre crianças. Este trabalho analisa o comportamento de cuidado entre crianças à luz do contexto sociocultural, das idéias infantis sobre cuidado, das metas de socialização das mães e de comparações interculturais. O estudo foi realizado na creche do povoado rural Bom Jardim, localizado no agreste de Sergipe. Participaram da pesquisa 17 crianças entre 4 e 6 anos, de ambos os sexos, e 27 mães residentes no povoado. Foi utilizado o método de observação focal do comportamento com filmagem em videotape para o registro dos comportamentos de cuidado entre as crianças. As idéias sobre cuidado infantil foram investigadas através da realização de foto-entrevistas e as Foi aplicada uma escala de comparação de metas de socialização nas mães. Os resultados revelaram que o tipo de cuidado entre crianças que teve maior média de ocorrência foi o contato afetuoso, seguido de supervisionar e ajudar. Nas categorias ajudar e contato afetuoso, o cuidado se concentrou entre crianças do mesmo sexo. Os resultados das foto-entrevistas mostraram que a foto escolhida com maior frequência como primeira opção foi a que exibia o contato corporal. As comparações interculturais com dados das crianças da vila rural Nso, em Camarões, e crianças de Osnabrück, na Alemanha, revelaram que as médias de codificação das palavras extraídas das falas das crianças do Bom Jardim durante a entrevista que se referiam ao cuidado primário, contato corporal e estimulação por objeto não apresentaram diferenças significativas. O oposto foi encontrado em relação à estimulação corporal e à interação face a face. A média da pontuação das mães na escala de comparação de metas de socialização indicou que as mães do Bom Jardim valorizam mais as metas de socialização relacionais. A análise comparativa intercultural entre as metas de socialização das mães do Bom Jardim com as de mães de outros contextos culturais - mães da vila rural Nso, Camarões; mães de Berlim, Alemanha; mães de Delhi e Gujarati, Índia revelou que a posição do Bom Jardim para a interdependência apresentou semelhanças em relação aos resultados das mães de Nova Delhi. Houve uma correlação positiva entre o número de pessoas que cuidam da criança e a pontuação para a dimensão de interdependência das metas de socialização das mães. O número de pessoas que cuidam das crianças correlacionou-se positivamente com o total de comportamentos de cuidado observados entre elas na categoria contato afetuoso e supervisionar. A pontuação das metas de socialização das mães correlacionou-se significativamente com a codificação das palavras relacionadas ao contato corporal presentes no discurso das crianças sobre cuidado. Estes resultados indicam que as práticas e valores em relação ao cuidado são passadas de mãe para filho, e reforçadas pelo ambiente cultural em que vivem. O cuidado espontâneo, observado entre as crianças do Bom Jardim, revela aspectos essenciais ligados ao modo vida da comunidade em vivem, confirmando o modo como o desenvolvimento está atrelado ao contexto e refletindo as diferentes estratégias de desenvolvimento contextodependentes / Children´s sensitiveness to another´s signals of need and the propensity for care confirm the inherent motivation for the spontaneous caregiving among them. This work analyses the caregiving behaviour among children under consideration of the children´s ideas about infant care, maternal socialization goals and cross-cultural comparisons. This study was conducted in the day care center of a rural village in the countryside of Sergipe, a state located in the northeast of Brazil. The participants of the study were 17 children, from 4 to 6 years old, and 27 mothers. Children´s behaviours during free activities were videotaped. Picture cards interviews were used to investigate their ideas about infant care. The mothers answered a socialization goals comparison scale. Results indicated that the highest occurrences of care were related to caressing, followed by supervision and help. For the categories help and caressing the care behaviours was directed towards same sex children. The picture-card chosen more frequently by the children was the one that exhibited the body contact system of care. Cross-cultural comparisons with German and Nso children, from Cameroon, revealed that the amount of words spoken by the children during the interview related to primary care, body contact and object stimulation were not significantly different among the three cultural contexts. The opposite was found for the amount of words related to body stimulation and face to face interaction. Mother´s socialization goals score indicated their preference for the relational goals. A cross-cultural analyse indicated that the Brazilian mothers socialization goals are closer to the ones of the mothers from New Delhi in comparison to the goals of mother from Berlin, Germany, rural Nso, Cameroon, and Gujarati, India. The number of people who take care of the child correlated positively with the mothers score for the relational socialization goals and the amount of caregiving behaviour among children in the category of caressing and supervision. Mothers´ socialization goals score correlated positively with the number of coded words related caressing spoken by the children during the interviews about care. These results indicate that the practices and values about care are inter-generation transmitted, reinforced by the cultural environment. The spontaneous among children from the village reveals aspects related to the way of life in the community, confirming that the development is context-dependent

Au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale, le Moyen Orient connaît de profonds bouleversements : la carte géopolitique est entièrement modifiée et de nouvelles problématiques se font jour (sionisme, montée des nationalismes arabes). La France s'implante politiquement dans la région en tant que puissance coloniale, par le biais des mandats qui lui sont confiés par la Société des Nations en Syrie et au Liban. Le Moyen Orient de 1952, où figurent désormais l’État d'Israël et de nombreux pays indépendants réunis au sein de la Ligue arabe, n'offre plus le même visage qu'avant 1914.Ces renversements politiques, joints aux progrès de la modernité technique et matérielle et au développement du tourisme de masse, affectent directement la tradition littéraire française du Voyage en Orient, qui a connu son âge d'or au siècle précédent avec les productions de Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Nerval, Flaubert et Loti. Force est de constater que les voyageurs ne désertent pourtant pas les lieux. De Maurice Barrès à Roger Vailland en passant par Paul Morand, Louis Bertrand, Myriam Harry, Roland Dorgelès, Joseph Kessel ou encore Albert Londres, nombreux sont les écrivains et reporters qui se rendent dans la région et lui consacrent un ou plusieurs ouvrages.Notre travail a donc d'abord consisté à constituer un corpus, c'est-à-dire à identifier et classer un vaste ensemble de textes (ouvrages et articles), dont certains fort méconnus aujourd'hui alors qu'ils ne l'étaient pas à l'époque, afin de pouvoir les analyser dans une démarche d'histoire littéraire et selon un point de vue en partie inspiré des études postcoloniales.Il s'est agi de rendre compte d'une production dans son ensemble, tiraillée entre rétrospection mélancolique et description enthousiaste de la modernité : l'Orient romantique fait alors l'objet de vifs débats et le Voyage en Orient se teinte d'une coloration polémique de plus en plus marquée. Loin de l'abandonner, les écrivains voyageurs tentent de redonner vie à cette tradition littéraire en réinventant ses formes et en adoptant une posture parfois moins européocentrée, à rebours de l'acmé coloniale des années trente.L'étude de ces textes qui n'avaient pas encore fait l'objet d'une approche synthétique nous a ainsi permis d'écrire un chapitre nouveau de l'histoire de l'orientalisme littéraire. / The First World War has changed the face of the Middle East. As the geopolitical map is fully modified, new issues emerge (zionism, rise of Arab nationalisms, etc.). France sets up politically in the region as a colonial power through mandates in Lebanon and Syria. In 1952, the Middle East, where the state of Israel and numerous independent countries reunited in the Arab League can be found, no longer offers the same face as before 1914.Along with technical progress and modernity hardware and with the development of mass tourism, these political upheavals directly affect the french literary tradition of the Journey to the East. It experienced its golden age during the XIXst century, with the artworks by Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Nerval, Flaubert and Loti. But it must be observed that French travelers don't stop coming in the region for all that. From Maurice Barrès to Roger Vailland, passing by Paul Morand, Louis Bertrand, Myriam Harry, Roland Dorgelès, Joseph Kessel or Albert Londres, a lot of writers and reporters go to the Middle East and dedicate a book to this experience.Our work was to build a corpus, which means identify and classify a wide range of texts (books and journalistic articles) – some of which are not well known today – in order to analyze them in a process of literary history and according to a postcolonial perspective.The goal was to give an account of a whole production torn apart melancholic retrospection and enthusiastic description of the modern oriental realities. The Romantic “East” is then the subject of an intense debate and the Journey to the East is tinged with controversy colouring. Travel writers try to revive this literary tradition, reinventing its forms and adopting a less eurocentric point of view, contrary to the colonial acme of the thirties.The analysis of these works which were never studied together before allowed us to write a new chapter of the history of french literary orientalism.