Countries Should Not Be Plotted Into Three Categories By Cultures Analysis

Countries Should Not Be Simply Plotted into Three Categories by Cultures
Richard Lewis, a British linguist and multi-lingual world traveler, plotted countries into three categories---Linear-Active, Multi-Active and Reactive by estimating their cultures. Linear-Actives are well-organized and methodic, doing one thing at a time to the letter. Multi-Actives tend to plan their priorities by importance and do many things at once. Reactives are more likely to be respectful to other side’s proposals. In his opinion, the cultural habits of a country are stable, which are not easily to be changed by political and economic factors. With these three categories where countries are plotted, we are able to foresee and understand reactions of people from
“This categorization of national norms does not change significantly over time: The behavior of people of different cultures is not something willy-nilly” (Lubin, 1). This is Lewis’s opinion. On the opposite, cultures are more likely to be changed over time. Over a decade, a century or even a millennium, people shaped new cultures and abandoned backward customs through practice in order to adapt to the new trend in the society. So, if a person interacts with a foreigner only based on what he/she has been told in the Lewis’s model, he/she still might act improperly since the culture might have been changed. The Lewis model is useful only if cultures are basically changeless. Although Lewis wrote that “By focusing on the cultural roots of national behavior, both in society, we can foresee and calculate with a surprised degree of accuracy how others will react to our plans for them, and we can make certain assumptions as to how they will approach us” (Lubin, 1), it is still the case that cultures are changing and the culture roots do not always go on the same
However, the circumstance is that cultures are the reflection of politics and economy and decided by politics and economy. In accordance with this rule, cultures are changing. So, the Lewis model will finally be out of fashion and become stereotypes. As being labeled in the three categories and the chart, Chinese people are Reactives who are very people-oriented, look at general principles and have subtle body language; Americans are Multi-Actives who have unrestrained body language, talk most of the time and roam back and forth; Germans are Linear-Actives who confront with logic, have restrained body language and are result-oriented. However, with the political and economic exchange, many of the Chinese, the Americans and the Germans are breaking some of those habits and features. They have shaped different new habits and features due to their working or living environment and the need of the society. Therefore, Chinese people are becoming less people-oriented because it might lead to unfairness and corruption; Americans are becoming less impulsive and trying to restraint their body language properly, meanwhile, Germans tend to be more people-oriented and have more body language because all of these countries are existing