Ceci n'est pas une endive - Tag - unconscious
Cross country, across cultures.
2023-10-30T14:01:38+01:00
urn:md5:97d871692b4a89344d241201adc049a4
Dotclear
Of Values and Grades
urn:md5:1b51d1c4e1b0a7f287a49f1c43edcae6
2008-10-06T10:02:00+02:00
2023-10-30T15:01:38+01:00
notafish
everyday life
Deutschland
numbers
unconscious
values
<p>A few days ago, as I was surfing along the <a href="http://www.thelocal.de/noticeboard/8601/" hreflang="en">message board</a> <a href="http://www.thelocal.de" hreflang="en">The Local</a>, I ended up on <a href="http://www.jacobs-university.de/schools/shss/kboehnke/kornyeyeva/index.htm" hreflang="en">this survey</a> (which I can't take, cos I'm too old, *pout*). So I browsed the different questionnaires, to see.</p>
<p>One thing struck me about the value scales (1 to 5) and how the 1 was to represent the worst and the 5 the best. I was wondering whether this was not problematic for some people. The Germans, for example, have a value scale of 1 to 6 in school, 1 being the best, and 6 being the worst. The French note system goes on a scale of 10 or 20, 0 being the worst and 10 or 20 being the best. I've realized that when I take a poll, I tend to be confused when the answers proposed use number scales that don't fit with my way of grading (ie. the best being the highest number, the worst the smallest). This said, it is usually easier to get away from my inherited scale values as there are rarely scales over 10 or 20 levels. So I asked my partner whether a value scale of 1 to 5 would confuse him if it was backwards (he's German). He said that as long as there weren't 6 levels, he would actually expect to use 1 as the worst value, I would have thought the contrary.</p>
<p><img src="http://blog.notanendive.org/public/stiftung_warentest.png" alt="A label from Stiftung Warentest" style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" title="stiftung_warentest.png, oct 2008" />In the same line of thought, I've always found it very funny that one of the most common marketing argument here in Germany is the result that a product got at the <a href="http://www.test.de/" hreflang="de">Stiftung Wahrentest</a>. On products, you find a little label<sup>[<a href="http://blog.notanendive.org/post/2008/10/06/Of-Values-and-Grades#wiki-footnote-1" id="rev-wiki-footnote-1">1</a>]</sup> that tells you how well the product fared in the tests. These tests rate products following the German grading system. I must say that at the beginning, in my French mind, a product which got a note of 2 didn't really prompt a positive reaction, on the contrary. I also realize that the subtleties of the number after the coma are lost on me. The French system usually only allows for half points, so a 2,4 translates automatically into a 2,5 for me, or a 1,6 into a 2, etc.</p>
<p>What's interesting here is how values which are in objectively the same (a 2 is a two, whatever the language and the country) are affected by subjective and unconscious values shaped by education, language and culture.</p>
<p>As an aside note, a <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=de&q=warentest" hreflang="de">search through the different possible layouts</a> of this label is also very interesting, as it shows that depending on the note the product obtained, the actual number will be displayed or not. When a note of 1 to 2 is obtained, the number is usually displayed, when the note is closer to 2,4, it's usually "forgotten". Nice marketing trick.</p>
<div class="footnotes"><h4>Note</h4>
<p>[<a href="http://blog.notanendive.org/post/2008/10/06/Of-Values-and-Grades#rev-wiki-footnote-1" id="wiki-footnote-1">1</a>] label image from <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Stiftung_Warentest_Beispiel_GUT_2,5.svg">Wikipedia</a> with a funky licence</p></div>
She's not Swiss-Swiss
urn:md5:58e30affa8188513aa8878f12d3089e6
2008-09-28T17:12:00+02:00
2008-09-28T23:47:47+02:00
notafish
when you're a stranger
cliché
stereotype
unconscious
<p>I came across a <a href="http://twitter.com/rashunda/statuses/938136521" hreflang="en">tweet</a> by Rashunda today (and if you don't know Rashunda, run to her <a href="http://www.thenewmediadiva.com/" hreflang="en">blog</a>, it's very smart and witty) which rang a bell. I wrote a few days ago about our <a href="http://blog.notanendive.org/post/2008/09/19/Culture-Comfort-Zone">Culture Comfort Zone</a> and Rashunda's words awoke more thought about this whole "noticing stuff".</p>
<p>The tweet said</p>
<blockquote><p>the new miss switzerland is, well, i don't know what she is, but she's not swiss-swiss:-)...</p></blockquote>
<p>Before I actually read the message, I had clicked to see the <a href="http://www.missschweiz.ch/index.cfm?id=499" hreflang="de">new Miss Switzerland</a>, and frankly, I had thought, although not exactly consciously, the exact same thing. Not Swiss-Swiss. Which brings me to ask myself the question. What is it that makes us French-French, or American-American, or Mexican-Mexican?</p>
<p>Frankly, I don't know. I think we all have in us some kind of images of what it is to be Swiss, or French, or Chinese. Stereotypes that define our approach of other cultures. Whether the stereotypes are physical (Chinese people are small), or pertain to values (the French are chauvinistic) or behaviours (German people are always on time), is irrelevant. Those stereotypes, to some extent, shape our definition of the world and prompt our reactions when confronted with an unusual situation, a situation where the stereotype is not respected. A bit like thinking that Miss Switzerland is not "Swiss-Swiss".</p>
<p>The strange thing being, when it comes to Miss Switzerland, I am not sure I know what "Swiss-Swiss" would have been, although I am pretty sure I could have said of a Swiss-Swiss Miss Schweiz that she was really Swiss. Which comforts me in the idea that stereotypes are to some extent buried in our unconscious. A complicated thing really.</p>
<p>Not true now, I do know one thing that would have been Swiss-Swiss. And that is purple with a taste of chocolate.</p>