Understanding other cultures isn’t something you can just download like information. It’s messier than that, more personal, and honestly, humbling.
Before jumping into the how, let me talk about the why. You might be thinking, “I’m respectful to everyone, isn’t that enough?” And look, basic human decency is crucial, obviously. But in today’s world, where your coworker might have grown up in another country, where business deals happen across time zones and cultures, and where we’re all increasingly connected online, surface-level respect just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Misunderstandings happen all the time. A colleague from India might nod their head in a way that you interpret as agreement, but actually means something else. An email that seems perfectly polite to you might come across as cold or even rude to someone from another cultural background. These little miscommunications add up, creating barriers we don’t even realize are there.
But here’s the flip side: when you understand where someone’s coming from, when you get why they do things the way they do, it opens up possibilities. Better collaborations, deeper friendships, more creative solutions to problems. Plus, it’s just fascinating.
Cultural Relativism (Or: Trying Not to Judge)
There’s a concept in anthropology called cultural relativism, which means understanding a culture on its own terms rather than judging it by your own standards. Franz Boas, who’s often called the father of American anthropology, really pushed this idea back in the early 1900s. He wrote about it in his 1940 book “Race, Language, and Culture.”
The idea sounds simple enough, but it’s tough to practice. We all grow up thinking our way of doing things is normal—the default setting, if you will. Everything else is “different,” “weird,” or “exotic.” Breaking out of that mindset takes real effort.
Here’s an example: in some Middle Eastern cultures, eating with your left hand is considered disrespectful. To someone who didn’t grow up with that cultural context, it might seem arbitrary or even silly. But if you dig deeper, you learn there are historical and practical reasons for this custom. It’s not about right or wrong—it’s about understanding the internal logic of a culture.
Cultural relativism doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything or abandon your own values. I think that’s a common misconception. It’s more about approaching differences with curiosity instead of judgment. Instead of “That’s so weird, why would anyone do that?” try “Hmm, I wonder what makes that make sense to them?”
The Ethnocentrism Problem
If cultural relativism is the goal, ethnocentrism is the obstacle. Ethnocentrism is basically the thinking that your culture is superior to others. And honestly? We’re all guilty of it sometimes.
I’ve caught myself doing this so many times. Seeing unfamiliar food, my first reaction is “eww” rather than “interesting.” Hearing about how another culture handles something and immediately comparing it to “the right way” (meaning my way). These snap judgments happen almost automatically.
Clifford Geertz wrote “The Interpretation of Cultures” in 1973, talking about the importance of what he called “thick description.” Instead of just looking at what people do, you dig into the layers of meaning behind it. You’re not just observing from the outside—you’re trying to understand the inside perspective.
The tricky part is that overcoming ethnocentrism isn’t a one-and-done thing. You don’t just decide “okay, I’m not going to be ethnocentric anymore” and that’s it. It’s an ongoing process of catching yourself, questioning your assumptions, and being willing to sit with discomfort.
Learning Through Comparison
One interesting thing is that comparing cultures can actually help you understand them better —not in a “which culture is better” way, but in a “what patterns emerge” way.
Geert Hofstede conducted this massive study in the 1970s, surveying IBM employees in over 50 countries. He published his findings in 1980 in “Culture’s Consequences.” What he found was that cultures differ in pretty consistent ways, how they handle hierarchy, whether they’re more individualistic or collectivist, how they deal with uncertainty, and so on.
For example, some cultures have what he called “high power distance,” meaning people are generally okay with hierarchical structures and power inequality. Other cultures have “low power distance” and tend to be more egalitarian. Neither is inherently better; they reflect different cultural values and histories.
What’s helpful about this kind of research is that it gives you a framework for understanding cultural differences. When you’re working with someone from a different cultural background and things feel off somehow, having this knowledge helps you figure out where the disconnect might be.
Getting Your Hands Dirty: Ethnographic Research
Reading about cultures is one thing. Actually, immersing yourself in them is something else entirely.
James Spradley wrote about this in his 1980 book “Participant Observation.” The basic idea is that you can’t really understand a culture from the outside looking in. You have to participate, even if you’re awkward at it (which you will be).
Participant observation is what anthropologists do when they live in a community for months or years, learning the language, participating in daily activities, and building relationships. Most of us aren’t going to do full-on ethnographic fieldwork, but we can borrow from that approach. When you’re in an unfamiliar cultural setting, pay attention. Participate. Ask questions when you mess up. Be okay with not knowing.
Actually Talking to Each Other
Communication across cultures is complicated because so much of communication isn’t about the words we use.
I learned this the hard way when I started working at a multinational company. My team included people from the US, Japan, Brazil, and Germany, and we had video calls all the time. The Germans would get straight to business, which the Brazilians sometimes found abrupt. The Japanese team members would rarely disagree directly in meetings, which frustrated the Americans who valued “speaking your mind.” The Brazilians were comfortable with overlapping conversation, while others saw it as interrupting.
Nobody was wrong. We just had different communication styles shaped by our cultural backgrounds.
Some cultures value direct communication, say what you mean, mean what you say. Others use more indirect communication, where the context and relationship matter as much as the words. Some cultures are comfortable with silence; others find it awkward. Some show emotion freely; others keep a tighter lid on it.
Getting good at intercultural communication means developing what I call cultural flexibility. You pay attention to how others communicate. You adjust your style when needed. You ask for clarification when you’re not sure. And most importantly, you cut people (and yourself) some slack when misunderstandings happen, because they will.
Why I Actually Care About This
I’ll be honest, sometimes this stuff can sound pretty academic and abstract. But I think it matters, and not just for anthropologists or people who work internationally.
We’re living in a time when people from different backgrounds are interacting more than ever before. Your doctor might have grown up in another country. Your kids’ teachers might celebrate different holidays than you do. The person you’re arguing with online might be operating from a completely different set of cultural assumptions.
Without some level of cultural understanding, these interactions can be frustrating at best and harmful at worst. Healthcare outcomes suffer when doctors and patients don’t understand each other’s cultural contexts. Kids struggle in schools that don’t recognize or value their home culture. Online discussions devolve into arguments because nobody realizes they’re not even talking about the same thing.
On the flip side, when we do put in the effort to understand each other across cultural lines, amazing things can happen. I’ve seen it in my own life—friendships that taught me new ways of thinking, work projects that succeeded because we brought different perspectives to the table, moments of connection that wouldn’t have been possible if everyone thought and acted the same way.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Here’s the thing about understanding other cultures: you never really finish. There’s always more to learn, more nuances to pick up on, more moments where you realize you still don’t fully get it.
The scholars I’ve mentioned—Boas, Geertz, Hofstede, Spradley—they’ve given us useful frameworks and insights. But ultimately, cultural understanding is something you have to practice in real life. It happens in everyday interactions, in moments of confusion and discovery, in the effort you make to see things from someone else’s perspective.
It requires being humble enough to admit what you don’t know, curious enough to want to learn, and patient enough to sit with discomfort and uncertainty. It means being willing to examine your own cultural assumptions and biases, which is often harder than examining someone else’s.
Is it worth it? I think so, not just because it makes us better at working or living in a diverse world, though it does. But because there’s something inherently valuable about expanding your sense of what it means to be human. Every culture represents a different answer to the fundamental questions of how to live, how to organize society, and how to find meaning. Learning about them enriches our understanding of human possibility.
We’re not going to create some perfect, harmonious world where everyone understands everyone else completely. But we can do better than we’re doing now. We can approach cultural differences with more curiosity and less judgment. We can listen more carefully. We can be more aware of our own cultural blinders.
And maybe, if enough of us make that effort, we can build communities and societies where diversity isn’t just tolerated but actually valued—where difference is something that makes us stronger and more creative rather than something that divides us.
That’s the goal, anyway. And it seems worth working toward.
References
Boas, F. (1940). Race, Language, and Culture. New York: Macmillan.
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
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