A Comparison Between Lebanon and Denmark

Intercultural communication:

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A comparison between Lebanon and Denmark

Intercultural communication is the communication between people from different cultures. It refers to what happens when these culturally different groups come together, interact, communicate and compare their different cultures, traditions and countries. For this project, I chose to compare Lebanon and Denmark to each other. Denmark is a country that is highly developed while Lebanon is considered to still be a third world country which is why I thought it would be pretty interesting to compare both countries and find what kind of similarities they might still share.

Language:

 In Lebanon almost every citizen speaks 3 languages which are: Arabic, French and English. In Denmark, people of course speak their native language which is Danish but almost all Danish people, even the elder ones, are very fluent in English.

Weather:

Lebanon benefits from a four seasons Mediterranean mild weather and has a varied climate. Rain is abundant in winter and it usually snows on high altitudes. Lebanon has moderate springs. Its summers are warm and autumns quite regular. The winter is snowy in the mountains and mild on the coast.

Denmark has a colder weather than Lebanon throughout the year. Due to its location in the middle of several seas, Denmark's weather is mild and climate temperate year round.

In winter, almost all regions experience colder winters with snow, excellent for winter activities. Denmark's mean temperature in the coldest month, February, is 0 degree C similarly to Lebanon. However, Denmark’s warmest temperature is 17 degrees C in the month of July in opposition to the very dry summer of Lebanon. In Lebanon the warmest month is above 22°C and the coldest month between 18°C and and -3°C.

City comparison: Copenhagen VS. Beirut:

Copenhagen: It is the world’s best city for cyclist and is very ecofriendly due to its numerous parks and green spaces, the large number of green oases and open spaces with fresh air and some of the cleanest water in the world for drinking and swimming.

Beirut: However, Beirut, most westernized city in the Arab region and the Middle East is much known for its packed roads traffic jam. In this environment, walking is considered a dangerous enough activity. Few dare to cycle and bike lanes are almost nonexistent.

Beirut and Denmark are both considered as being cosmopolitan cities are very culturally diverse, well blended and welcome a great number of tourists and immigrants.

Both also have amazing shopping malls and streets. In Copenhagen, Strøget is very well known for being one of Europe's longest pedestrian streets with a big variety of shops, ranging from budget-friendly chains to some of the world's most expensive brands.

Strøget, the shopping street promenade in the city centre of København (Copenhagen),

In Beirut, Downtown, are located the Beirut Souks which are one of the country’s most diverse  major commercial shopping districts known for its luxury shops and great pedestrian areas.

Beirut Souks, Downtown, major shopping area

Currency:

In Denmark, people pay in danish krone. Danish krone coins look weird in a beautiful way.

 In Lebanon, it is the Lebanese pound that is mostly used.

Food:

In Denmark and in Lebanon there are three main meals: lunch, breakfast and dinner. In Denmark breakfast and dinner are typically eaten at home, whereas lunch for practical reasons has to be eaten elsewhere and often consists of a packed lunch brought from home. In Lebanon, three meals are most of the time eaten at home around a table and shared with the family.

Lunch in Denmark most of the time consists of a sandwich, known as smørrebrød while Lebanese people consume hot dishes instead and sandwiches for dinner.

Moghrabieh, typical Lebanese dish that they have for lunch

Also, Denmark has the highest per capita consumption of pork in the world, even beating the Americans while Lebanese people eat a lot of veal meat.

Pork, pork and more pork. Photo: Colourbox

 Denmark is known for its Carlsberg and Tuborg beers and so is Lebanon for its two very popular beers: Almaza and Beirut beer.

Beirut Beer and Almaza, Lebanon's two beer competitors

Habits:

Danish royalty are considered as demigods in Denmark. Danish Queen, Prince Consort, Princes, Princesses and Crown Princesses have newspapers and TV programs dedicated to them and Princess Mary (which I personally met while on a workshop in Copenhagen around global citizenship) is considered one of the best dressed women in the world.  In Lebanon, there are no such things as royalty and royal blood, instead we have a running democracy with popular and worshiped politicians.

Myself and Princess Mary of Denmark at the Global Citizenship conference in Copenhagen

Danes can’t stand being indebted to others. They would do anything to avoid these situation and would buy their own drinks and/or pay their share of the tab. Lebanese people are known for being extremely generous with everyone and especially with friends and family. They would buy others drinks, invite them for dinner anytime without expecting anything in return.

2. Intercultural communication is a skill that can be improved:

Inter-cultural communication involves a long process of understanding how the other parties communicate and use language. Today, successful intercultural communication is quickly becoming an important challenge to master to ensure effective communication since we live in an age of trans culturalism due to globalization and to the rapidly evolving technology that lets us communicate with people from any given position on the globe. The growth of technology has resulted, amongst other things, in the evolution of language and how we communicate. We now find ourselves communicating with people from different cultures increasingly both in our work and personal surroundings which is why seeking to improve our intercultural communication skills is an important factor in today’s world.

There are many ways in which Intercultural communication can be improved. First of all, people from a culture should break all possible assumptions regarding the language, the physique and the behavior of the people from another culture that they would be communicating with. Individuals should not assume that the way they communicate is universal and applies to all communities they interact with since every community has its own way of doing things with respect to their culture and traditions. Another way of improving ones ’intercultural communication is by avoiding the superior mentality and by treating everyone equally. Though cultures can never be the same, people should always strive to ensure that all cultures are treated with the equality they all deserve. Effective intercultural communication will be reached only when people treat each other’s cultures as equal and not by feeling superior to another’s. Also, immersing yourself in multicultural cities, events, and workshops could be an effective way of improving our intercultural communication skills by practicing it while meeting people with different cultural backgrounds and getting to interact with them while operating with an open mind.

3. Why is Intercultural communication important?

Intercultural communication is important for a wide variety of reasons. Here are some of the most important reasons that I have underlined below:

Intercultural is very important since it makes one understand the uniqueness of every other culture and enforces us to accept others. Intercultural communication also helps us personally grow through an increased tolerance and develop a positive attitude towards otherness. Through communicating with diverse cultures one also avoids stereotypes and decreases judgmental attitudes by discovering the other by ourselves and not by other people’s opinions and critiques.

Students are always encouraged to take Study Abroad programs that will help them develop a deeper understanding of how to learn and communicate. I personally would absolutely love to study abroad since living in a different cultural context would allow me to broaden my experience and expand my social inter communicative skills by interacting with different types of people in different conditions. In addition, as the modern workplace is turning into a more global one, companies are putting a bigger emphasis on an employee’s intercultural skills in the office which is why developing inter cultural communication skills that are highly appreciated by employers is also crucial and especially for all types of students that would want to find a good job position in the future.