“Different Nations And Their Culture: Indonesia, Philippines, and Russia”

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

“Different Nations And Their Culture: Indonesia, Philippines, and Russia”

Putu Ratih Pertiwi, Percy Piedad Villaruel, Galina Timashova

Master 2 Tourism and Hospitality Management

ESTHUA

Université Angers

2013

Being immersed with different people from different country gives you an opportunity to have an awareness on cultural differences. Awareness to culture is the foundation of communication to understand ourselves and to become aware to our behaviour, values, beliefs and perception. This will explain how things do in that way. How we see things in a different perspective and how we react on different situation.

Today, in this globalisation era we find cross-culture everywhere, for exemple we have western culture, eastern culture, latin culture, middle-eastern culture, and african culture especially in big city of the country like New York, Paris, London, etc where the population come from all over the world and the culture is influenced by the many groups of people who make up the country.

To be accepeted in society, we have to know how to communicate with the others, whether in little scoop society for exemple within the family member where we almost have the same culture or moreover when we are in bigger scoop where we have so many different culture for exemple in international society which is going to be more complicated.

Sometimes culture can be a wall for us but when we have an effort to understand and appreciate the others, certainly we can break the wall. Culture by it self could be defined as the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.[1]

Therefore, we need to be able to tolerate the other foreign culture to be accepeted by the others. Three of us were always have conversation about our own country of origin.  From our day to day conversation we were able to share our experiences, our values and our cultural background that lead us to see and do things in a certain way. It is very helpful to gather feedback from foreign colleagues on our behaviour to get more clarity on our cultural traits. In this article we are going to talk about different nations and their culture between Indonesia, Philippines, and Russia.

Indonesian Culture

It is quite easy to make a friend with the Indonesian since we are not really introvert and we like talking and sharing of the ideas the only problem is the problem of language. Indonesia love to invite everyone to their home to have lunch or dinner together and spent their free time to talk. You will be questioning what makes our country special? And the answer is Indonesia are archipelago country, we have so many different culture where we can show the tolerance to each other. It is going to be very amazing, but it is sometimes difficult and we have to face some violence.

The lovely thing, in our culture we use to smile and hospitalize to everyone we love to talk to each other even we just know on the street or in public area it’s weird but we do it anyway. And we don’t hesitate to say this person is my friend this person is my family even we just met.

 Tradition & Religion

In Indonesia, we have 5 religions, they are Islam as the majority, followed by Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, and Hindu. It’s amazing to have many different religions and cultures as long as we keep the tolerance and appreciate each other.

We can say that tradition and religion here in Indonesia are stick together they could not be apart. For examples, people from Bali province are Hindu, but as Hindu in Bali they have the different tradition as Hindu in India, and we have different wedding tradition within Indonesia, in Bali we have so many steps for the wedding it is almost over 3 weeks for the ceremony.

Why do we have that kind of tradition and religion? Because long years ago, before those religions came to Indonesia we already had our own cultures and traditions. Where each island in Indonesia ran their own culture and tradition as their ancients taught. Thus, while the culture and the tradition has been embedded in each person in Indonesia, then those religions alternately came into Indonesia, it was then that people in Indonesia chose which religion they believed, and live with both of them, their tradition and their religion simultaneously.

The Taboos

We are not allowed to mention the race in Indonesia since Indonesia is an archipelago country so we have so many race and culture diversity. We divided into 4 races: first we are negroid we live in Papua. Second, we are Weddoid we live in Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara (Kupang). Third, we are Proto Melayu we live in Sumatra, Jawa, Madura, Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara. Fourth, we are Deutro Melayu we live in Sumatra, Kalimantan (Dayak), and Sulawesi.

How To Communicate and Have The Conversation

To give our point of view, we cannot be really strict (most of us) so when we have to give our point of view we usually search some polite words and we say it slowly (not the sound) but the way we talk. The main topics of conversation usually it is about family (how many kids do you have, where do they go to school).

But, every time we want to start a conversation we always have to remember who is the person that we talk to, because we always have to mention their title or simply to greet them. For examples, se greet the elder people by their title for example: for men we call them “Bapak” and for women we call them “Ibu”  then followed by their name it doesn’t matter first name or sure name. While we greet them we have to bow our head to show our politeness. For friends we use to hug and kiss them on the left and their right chick. But sometimes we just shaking hands and bowing our head and don’t forget to smile J. It’s not common to call our parents by their name we still have to call them Bapak/Ayah/Papa/Papi for father and Ibu/Bunda/Mama/Mami for mother.

Everday Life

We do not go work on Sunday as normal, we work from Monday to Friday, and on  Saturday we usually have half day of work, or just off. Our working hours normally 8 until 9 hours, from 8 or 9 am until 4 or 5 pm. But It depends on the entreprise we work.

On holiday, we really love to spend our free time to stay at home with the family just to have a long conversation and the word family here means WHOLE BIG FAMILY, or just hanging out with our friends, yeah as Indonesian we also love to hanging out with some friends outside. Unfortunately we do not have the four seassons vacation as other countries, but do not be sad we still have many national holidays considering that we have 5 religions in our countries, well we should respect each religion when they have their holiday celebration J.

Any superstitions? Yes we do have, two of them is: “if there is a butterfly/butterflies come to your home or your room it means we will receive a or some guests” and “if there is a crow come near by your house it means bad news (the death)”.

As a human being we never ever could ignoring the food, couldn’t you? No we could not! As Indonesian, considering that we are divided to many cultures we have VARIOUS traditional foods that we would die to to have it! And yes we have our own eating habits.

We have 3 times of eating breakfast at 7 am for 15 minutes but it depends on our school or working hour we can take it earlier. For lunch we usually have it between 12-2 pm we have it around 1 hours, and for dinner we have it between 6.30 – 8 pm and we have it for 1 or 1 and half hours. Normally, Indonesian do not eat in long time we eat very fast and we don’t have any appetizer or dessert we only have main course with the vegetables and meats, soups, fruits, and cakes can be eaten in the beginning or after the heavy meal. And the important thing we always eat the heavy meal even for the breakfast we love chicken porridge for our breakfast.

We are Indonesian we love to eat together and share everything together. For example Indonesian Restaurants don't serve the food by plates but the serves the food by the big portion of each menu and we will take some menus with rice of course and we have it and share it together. For addition, we do not apply table manner in our daily life, but it does not mean that we do not know it at all, unless in special occasion or in formal restaurants, we will apply that table manner, because our tradition is to eat by our fingers of our right hand.

Education and Rules

We take seriously about the education. Education in Indonesia is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Culture. In Indonesia, all citizens must undertake nine years of compulsory education which consists of six years at elementary level and three in secondary level. There is Islamic schools which are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Education is defined as a planned effort to establish a study environment and education process so that the student may actively develop his/her own potential to gain the religious and spiritual level, consciousness, personality, intelligence, behavior and creativity to him/herself, other citizens and for the nation.

Education in Indonesia is divided into two major parts, formal and non-formal. Formal education is further divided into three levels, primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Schools in Indonesia are run either by the government or private sectors. Some private schools refer to themselves as "national plus schools" which means that they intend to go beyond the minimum government requirements, especially with the use of English as medium of instruction or having an international-based curriculum instead of the national one.

Big issue in our country relating to the rules is, normally we are allowed to get the driving license in 18 years old to drive car and 16 years old to ride motorcycle, but in Indonesia we still have to fight for the corruption so we can pay more to some agent to get the license earlier. The worse is it’s now become a tradition even we are already in qualified age to apply the license we still have to pay more to get the license easier and when we are trying to be idealist and fight the corruption by ignoring the agent who come after us to offer their service we will get much difficulties and we won’t get any license for years.

Filipino Culture

Country as special – Filipino is known for being hospitable. Moreover, people loves celebration even a simple one. You can notice that even though they have problems in life still they are happy, and full of smile in their faces.

How to Communicate

Greetings to elder people – To show respect to the elder people, they used the word “po” or “opo” in Philippines. In a family member, majority of young people kiss the grandparents and their parents too as part of greeting or by getting the right hand of the elder and placed it on the head.

People have a lot of choice to call their father and mother. If you are belong to the upper class or your family have money and you have a big house with cars, they use mommy and daddy or just Dad and Mam. If you are part of the middle class usually they call their parents as Mama and Papa. For the lower class, they use “Tatay” and “Nanay” and sometimes “ Ina”  for mother and” Ama” for father.

To Greeting friends, majority in Philippines just say Hi and Hello and ask how are you? how is your day?   But nowadays , gentlemen do handshake and ladies do kiss  and we call it ”beso beso”.

Tips to have friend- Majority of the Filipino is easy to became friend, just be you. Show them your real personality, your attitude, your habits, the way you speak everything, they will accept you for who you are. Also be open to criticism and suggestion, true friends is the one who will be in your side and understand what ever situation you have.

Sensitivities

There are some taboos in Philippines we have to becareful to discuss about religion because this may create misunderstanding. It is fine to talk about religion if you belong to the same group. Another thing that you should avoid in the discussion is about politics especially during election period. Sometimes it causes you to a physical trouble.

Daily Life

Main Food – Same as Indonesia their main food is rice, of course they have noodles and breads but for main daily meals they prefer to have rice. Of course in a table you have to observed table manners especially when you are attending in a formal occasion.

In giving point of view, they usually speak directly with the main issue but  still we need to be careful with the feelings of other people on what you are going to say.  We always give constructive criticism.

Sleeping in others house is common in Philippines, especially when you are friends and sometimes if you have homework to do or project with your classmates it is better to sleep in your classmates’ house. It is acceptable in our country.

Speak about driving license in Philippines at the age of 18, you can now apply for the student driving license, just submit required documents and payment. Professional driving license can be obtain if you passed all examination both in written and in actual.

National Day, Holiday, Special Day

In Philippines they have a lot of National Holiday.  Christmas day during December, New Year, every 1st day of May, they celebrate Labor Day. Every 12th of June, they celebrate our Independence. November 1 is consider as holiday as they celebrate as All saints Day and November 2 as the day of all the dead. they also have numerous special Holidays depending to the proclamation of their President.

Russian Culture

Relationship, Dating, Marriage

When a guy and a lady went for a date, usually the man is the one who pay for the food, transportation and for the cinema.  I asked Galina if the guy visit to the house of the girl asking permission Weddings usually last for two days. But quite often the second day of the wedding is celebrated in a shortened version.

As a rule, the wedding day begins with the bride price when the groom and his friends trying to prove the bride's family the right to marry her. The tradition of bride price originated in ancient times. As the name of this ceremony, the groom then literally bathed bride from her family with money.

But nowadays bride price turn into a hilarious comic effect, where the money is sometimes overshadowed and play just symbolic (but not always), and the fore fun contests and jobs for the groom. Passing one test after another, the groom is slowly but surely coming to his bride. Ransom ends when the groom to the bride breaks, and gave her wedding bouquet.

After the bride price is usually a small reception when guests admonishes the bride and groom before a trip to the registry office, teaching them to love and respect each other for their life together. Filling out all the necessary formalities, the young couple to the sound of a march by Mendelssohn, accompanied by her wedding procession enters the hall solemn registration of marriages

Soft voice leading, short groom and bride cries, "Yes", "Yes". And for future newlyweds come to the table and secured signatures your marriage. It was from that moment on they become husband and wife. Then the wedding procession goes to the church, where the bride and groom make the mystery wedding, pinning thus their marriage, not only to people but to God. Of course, this only happens if the wedding is planned in the program of the wedding day. Orthodox wedding rite takes about 40 minutes.

Married, the couple, along with their guests going to the wedding walk Weddings usually last for two days. But quite often the second day of the wedding is celebrated in a shortened version. As a rule, the wedding day begins with the bride price when the groom and his friends trying to prove the bride's family the right to marry her.

Death, Funeral

Russian funeral rite is based on both pagan Slavic representation and the Orthodox traditions. The corpse of the deceased was interred in a specially fenced cemetery resembles both the city and park, and then buried outside the cemetery just suicides. The dead body is placed inside the coffin, and can put your favourite items of the deceased. To the place of burial coffin carries a specially equipped car, hearse. In carrying the coffin they follow the belief that body endure feet first, but put his head to the west.

There will also funeral programs, Appreciations are wreaths and bouquets of flowers but please take note that it is important to give even number of flowers. The coffin was lowered into the grave. Relatives of the deceased in the coffin throw clods. After the burial of the deceased in the home occurs commemoration. Mirrors curtain fabric, in a conspicuous place is dead picture in a black frame, before which sometimes place a shot of vodka. Black clothes are wearing during the ceremony.

Religion

In Russia the main religion is Orthodox Christianity. Amost 49 % of the population belongs to that religion.  They also have other religions such as Islam, Tengrianism, Buddhism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Judaism.

Traditions

Russian people greet elder people by their title for example: for men we call them “Muzhchina or Dedushka” and for women we call them “Zhenshchina or Babuska” , if you do not know them. If we know, then they use the first name and patronymic-name.

Like other country, for women hugs and kisses do when greeting friends and for men just hand shake. Children called their father and mother is called as “Papa” and “Mama”. Russian known as their traditional dance, and one of the famous russian song that has been famous all over the the world is "Kalinka".

Education

People in Russia spend 10 years in education. Children go to school from 6-7 years. Three years of primary school, 7 years old - high school. The academic year is divided into quarters. After school, they have college (secondary vocational education - 3 years) or university (4 years - Bachelor's degree and 2 years for Master.

Food, eating habits

 If the dining table is a mixed company, the man should pour into glasses and beverages alcohol for woman. When eating food should chew with your mouth closed. During the meal they must not did not issue any sounds and eat quietly, modestly, not overtaking and keeping up with the rest. In Russian service: they put on the table a few salads in big bowls. And everyone leaves himself a little in a small bowl. Potatoes, porridge, soups, especially borsch are the common meal in Russia.

Celebration

Russia celebrate different holidays such as; New Year, Christmas, National Women’s Day, and June 12 for commemorating the independence of Russia from the sovereign of USSR.

Other Information

At the age of 18, they can now have driver license and drive a car. Similarly to other country like Philippines and Indonesia there is also issue of bribery - without the "bribe", it is difficult to pass the exam on driver licence. Curfew is also implemented in Russia. Children under 18 not allowed being outside the home after 11 pm without adult. Galina also shared some tips on how to gain friends in Russia. It is simple; majority are sociable and like to meet new people. She added that in Russia there is a problem of language.

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[1] Culture definition by Kim Ann Zimmermann, http://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html , retrieving Wednesday 20 March 2013.