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PROXEMICS IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT: GERMANS, ENGLISH, AND FRENCH
The Germans, the English, the Americans, and the French share significant portions of each other's
cultures, but at many points their cultures clash.
THE GERMANS
Whenever people from different countries come into repeated contact they begin to generalize about each
other's behavior.
Both the Germans and the German Swiss have made consistent observations about how Americans
structure time very tightly and are sticklers for schedules. They also note that Americans don't leave any
free time for themselves.
Germans and the German Swiss will say that Europeans will schedule fewer events in the same time than
Americans do and they usually add that Europeans feel less "pressed" for time than Americans.
Certainly, Europeans allow more time for virtually everything involving important human relationships
which means that they prioritize human relationships, while Americans prioritize schedules.
Germans and Intrusion
What is considered inside and outside for Americans and Germans?
Germans and „The Private Sphere“
Each prisoner built a partition so that they could „have their own space“
Double doors for soundproofing
American offices vs. German offices
THE ENGLISH
If there ever were two cultures in which differences of the proxemic details are marked it is in the
educated (public school) English and the middle-class Americans. One of the basic reasons for this wide
disparity is that in the United States we use space as a way of classifying people and activities, whereas in
England it is the social system that determines who you are.
In the United States, your address is an important cue to status, as well as your business address.
A corner office is more prestigious than one next to the elevator or at the end of a long hall. The
Englishman, however, is born and brought up in a social system. He is still Lord — no matter where you
find him.
The middle-class American growing up in the United States feels he has a right to have his own room, or
at least part of a room.
The middle- and upper-class Englishman, on the other hand, is brought up in a nursery shared with
brothers and sisters. The oldest occupies a room by himself which he vacates when he leaves for boarding
school, possibly even at the age of nine or ten.
English student sharing a dorm with an American student misunderstanding.
Using the Telephone
Since it is impossible to tell from the ring who is on the other end of the line, or how urgent his business
is, people feel compelled to answer the phone. As one would anticipate, the English when they feel the
need to be with their thoughts treat the phone as an intrusion by someone who doesn't know any better.
Since it is impossible to tell how preoccupied the other party will be they hesitate to use the phone;
instead, they write notes.
Neighbors
In England proximity means nothing. The fact that you live next door to a family does not entitle you to
visit, borrow from, or socialize with them, or your children to play with theirs.
Talking Loud and Soft
In England and in Europe generally, Americans are continually accused of loud talking, which is a
function of two forms of vocal control: (a) loudness, and (b) modulation for direction. Americans increase
the volume as a function of distance, using several levels (whisper, normal voice, loud shout, etc.)
For the English to be overheard is to intrude on others, a failure in manners and a sign of socially inferior
behavior.
THE FRENCH
The French who live south and east of Paris pack together more closely than to northern Eurpoeans,
English and Americans.
Mediterranean use of space can be seen in the crowded trains, buses, automobiles, sidewalk caf6s, and in
the homes of the people.
Evidence of French emphasis on the senses appears not only in the way the French eat, entertain, talk,
write, crowd together in cafes, but can even be seen in the way they make their maps. These maps are
extraordinarily well thought out and so designed that the traveler can find the most detailed information.
These maps make it possible for you to get around and they also tell you where you can enjoy a view;
where you'll find picturesque drives, and, in some instances, places to rest, refresh yourself, take a walk,
and even eat a pleasant meal.
Home and Family
The French entertain at restaurants and cafes. The home is for the family and the outdoors for recreation
and socializing.
French homes tend to be often quite crowded.
In interpersonal encounters this involvement runs high; when a Frenchman talks to you, he really looks at
you and there is no mistaking this fact.
American women, after living in France often go through a period of Sensory deprivation because they
have grown accustomed to being looked at, the American habit of not looking makes them feel as if they
didn't exist.
French Use of Open Space
The urban French have learned to make the most of the parks and the outdoors. To them, the city is
something from which to derive satisfaction and so are the people in it.
Since the French savor and participate in the city itself—its varied sights, sounds, and smells; its wide
sidewalks and avenues and parks—the need for insulating space in the automobile may be somewhat less
than it is in the United States where humans are dwarfed by skyscrapers and the products of Detroit,
visually assaulted by filth and rubbish, and poisoned by smog and carbon dioxide.
The reason for the review of the three European cultures to which the middle class of the United States is
most closely linked (historically and culturally) is as much as anything else a means of providing contrast
to highlight some of our own implicit patterns.
It was shown that different use of the senses leads to very different needs regarding space no matter on
what level one cares to consider it. Everything from an office to a town or city will reflect the sense
modalities of its builders and occupants.
PROXEMICS IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT: JAPAN AND THE ARAB WORLD

JAPAN
In old Japan, space and social organization were interrelated. The Tokugawa shoguns arranged the
daimyo, or nobles, in concentric zones around the capital, Ado (Tokyo). Proximity to the core reflected
closeness of relationship and loyalty to the shogun; the most loyal formed an inner protective ring.
On the other side of the island were those who were less trusted or whose loyalty was in question.
Japaneese tend to ephasize centers, not only in a variety of spatial arangements but also in their
conversations.
The Japanese fireplace (hibachi) and its location carries with it an emotional tone that is as strong, if not
stronger, than our concept of the hearth. As an old priest once explained, "To really know the Japanese you
have to have spent some cold winter evenings snuggled together around the hibachi. Everybody sits
together. A common quilt covers not only the hibachi but everyone's lap as well. In this way the heat is
held in. It's when your hands touch and you feel the warmth of their bodies and everyone feels together—
that's when you get to know the Japanese. That is the real Japan!"
In psychological terms there is positive reinforcement toward the center of the room and negative
reinforcement toward the edges.
To us the walls of a house are fixed. In Japan they are semifixed. The walls are movable and rooms are
multipurpose.
How Crowded is Crowded?
To the Westerner of a non-contact group, "crowding" is a word with distasteful connotations. The Japanese
prefer crowding, at least in certain situations. They feel it is congenial to sleep close together on the floor,
which they refer to as "Japanese style" as contrasted with "American style."
There is no Japaneese word for „privacy“, however, one cannot say that the concept of privacy does not
exist among the Japanese but only that it is very different from the Western conception.
THE ARAB WORLD
Americans in the Middle East are immediately struck by two conflicting sensations. In public they are
compressed and overwhelmed by smells, crowding, and high noise levels; in Arab homes Americans are
apt to rattle around, feeling exposed and often somewhat inadequate because of too much space!
Behaving in Public
Author's example of hotel lobby incident.
Concepts of Privacy
In the Western world, the person is synonymous with an individual inside a skin. And in northern Europe
generally, the skin and even the clothes may be inviolate. You need permission to touch either if you are a
stranger. This rule applies in some parts of France, where the mere touching of another person during an
argument used to be legally defined as assault.
The Arab dream is for lots of space in the home, which unfortunately many Arabs cannot afford. Yet when
he has space, it is very different from what one finds in most American homes. Arab spaces inside their
upper middle-class homes are tremendous by our standards.
They avoid partitions because Arabs do not like to be alone.
If one is not with people and actively involved in some way, one is deprived of life.
Therefore, Arabs in the United States often feel socially and sensorially deprived and long to be back
where there is human warmth and contact.
Since there is no physical privacy as we know it in the Arab family, not even a word for privacy, one could
expect that the Arabs might use some other means to be alone. Their way to be alone is to stop talking,
which to Westerners seems like „the silent treatment“ which led to a misunderstanding with an Arab
exchange student and her host family.
Facing and Not Facing
The position of the bodies of people in conversation varies with the culture.
As can be seen from an example provided by the author, one of his friends, an Arab could not walk and
talk at the same time.
For the Arabs to view the other person peripherally is regarded as impolite and to sit or stand back-to-back
is considered very rude.
You must be fully involved when interacting with Arabs who are friends.
CONCLUSION
We have gathered from this book that the message is that no matter how hard man tries, i tis impossible
for him to divest himself of his own culture, because it has penetrated to the roots of his nervous system
and determines how he percieves the world.
Most of culture lies hidden and is outside voluntary control, making up the warp and weft of human
existence. Even when small fragments of culture are elevated to awareness, they are difficult to change,
not only because they are so personally experienced but because people cannot act or interact at all in any
meaningful way except through the medium of culture.

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PROXEMICS IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT: GERMANS, ENGLISH, AND FRENCH

PROXEMICS IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT: JAPAN AND THE ARAB WORLD

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