Cross Cultural Skills

Movies For Different Perspectives

by on 25 February, 2009

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Culture Movies

Your culture influences the perspective of how you see things. A couple of months ago, I saw the movie Vantage Point.  The same story in this movie is told six times; each time from a different perspective. You understand more of the story with each different perspective.

In cross-cultural communication you need to acknowledge the presence of different perspectives.  And you also need to make an effort to see the different perspectives at play.  This is what gives you a more accurate picture of what is happening.  In international business this can be critical.

Changes In Cultural Perspectives

Within any culture these perspectives can change.  An easy way to see the changes in cultural perspectives is to observe what happens within large ethnic communities outside of their original homeland.

It is always interesting to observe the changes in perspectives people go through when they change homelands.   Understanding a foreign culture and living within this foreign culture naturally changes some of your original ethnic perspectives.

Today’s list of movies is about Asian Americans.  Be sure to watch this short film on cultural perspectives in a second country.

  1. Becoming American
  2. Blue Collar and Buddha
  3. Cambodian Donut Dreams
  4. Dim Sum
  5. Double Happiness
  6. Picture Bride

Let me know if you have any other other movies to add to this list.

More on Culture Films:

  1. How To Choose Movies To Watch And Improve Your Cross-Cultural Skills
  2. Movies For Cultural Insights
  3. Movies To See Life Through A Different Lens
  4. Movies To Work Through Personal Barriers
  5. Movies Make It Easy To See The Differences
  6. Movies Take You Different Places
  7. Movies To Understand The History Behind Culture
  8. Movies To Build Empathy
  9. Movies For Different Perspectives
  10. Movies To Understand Cultural Differences
  11. Movies On Adapting To Different Cultures

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Tagged as: asian americans, cross cultural differences, cultural perspectives, culture movies

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"Cindy is a real authority on all things international marketing.
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-- Chris Garrett, co-author of the "Problogger" book
  • http://www.scc-i.com James Stephenson

    Cindy,

    It is interesting that you choose movies to promote learning about cultures. We have an exchange student from South Korea in our home for this school year (August to May) and have had several discussions about how she learned about American life and culture. She has said it is primarily through movies, because little is taught in their school system about our culture. The problem, and she agrees, is that the movies portray a culture that is in many cases far from reality. The movies she has seen present high school kids that all look like models, had questionable morals, or belong to drug crazed gangs. Their is little presentation of what America and most likely the rest of reality actually looks like.

    Is what we get from the movies you are discussing really any different? Whether it comes from Hollywood, Bollywood, or any other commercial enterprise are we really going to learn what a culture is like from watching their movies?

    I’m not criticizing what you are saying, because I really enjoy your thoughts, I am just wondering if I am looking at this correctly.

    Jim

  • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

    Hi Jim,

    Yes, your exchange student is right. But as you know there are all sorts of movies out there. The TV shows we get here in France on one channel are ALL the same within the time frame targeting teenagers. I don’t think I listed any of those.

    The movie series is a bit of fun for me. It is not intellectual. My household is on vacation these two weeks – no school runs.

    This is the type of conversation I could have after an evening meal with a couple of people with the same international experience as I have. If you look at some movies with a one track mind, trying to pick up cross-cultural insights, yes you will see them in many decent films. Just like your Exchange Student said she picked up American culture through movies. But you can just as easily watch the movie and not get anything out of it.

    Your exchange student would probably have fun with such a discussion in a few years and a broader international experience. In the beginning, culture shock can be a lot to digest. Yes, American movies and TV shows can easily be stereotyped. But you can also lift your vision above that, look at what else is there and have some fun.

    I would love some recommendations from her – what were the best movies for picking up American culture?

  • http://www.scc-i.com James Stephenson

    I will check with her.

    Jim

  • http://www.scc-i.com James Stephenson

    In talking with our exchange student she says that what her (and by assumption her friends) watch movies for is to learn English, not so much the culture. The types of movies they watch are movies like the High School Musical series, Cinderella Princess, Bring it On, etc… If someone were to watch these types of movies for cultural purposes, I think their view of America would be greatly skewed.

    Jim

  • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

    Interesting that you think these movies do not reflect American culture. Opens the question of the definition of culture.

    As I tried to say, you need to distance your personal feelings to get any other benefit out of watching movies for cultural insights. And most people learn to distance their own feelings through experience. Some people never do.

    No, I would not recommend those movies to teach foreigners about American culture.

    But they do fit in some place, even if they are on the far outskirts of someone elses definition of culture.

    Easy to see why people of different cultures get upset with each other, isn’t it? Because some cultures do not realize that things like these teen movies do not represent the American culture as a whole. (Even if they do represent a large portion of what is visible in some countries). And that most Americans do not even identify themselves with it.

    Dear me, it is vacation time, isn’t it? I’m usually 100% business focused!

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