5/29/2018 Lesson 6 "Differences in Emotional Expressivity":

5/29/2018 Lesson 6 "Differences in Emotional Expressivity":

Well, we arrived to another aspect of cultural differences and it is called Differences in Emotional Expressivity.

As Brother Ivers explained imagine a long line, on end of the scale is called low emotional expressivity the other end called high emotional expressivity. The Northern American culture is in the middle. Asian countries are on the low end together with Scandinavian countries, on the other end we find the Italy, Spain, Mexico.

I found this article very interesting: https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2013/08/17/the-most-and-least-emotionally-aware-countries/#52240b9c3596

Most Emotionally Aware Countries

Country	Percentage of Country’s Population*
Philippines	60
El Salvador	57
Bahrain	56
Oman	55
Colombia	55
Chile	54
Costa Rica	54
Canada	54
Guatemala	54
Bolivia	54
Ecuador	54
Dominican Republic	54
Peru	54
Nicaragua	54
United States	54

*Percentage of the country’s population who said they had experienced the full range of positive and negative emotions on the previous day.

Least Emotionally Aware Countries

Country	Percentage of Country’s Population*
Singapore	36
Georgia	37
Lithuania	37
Russia	38
Madagascar	38
Ukraine	38
Belarus	38
Kazakhstan	38
Nepal	38
Kyrgyzstan	38

[1]

My husband usually explains such cultural differences with the weather, when you live in a cold country you do not have time for many emotional expressions outside of your home. The day light is short, and the climate is cold.

On the other hand, when you live in a country where the climate is warm then that changes the way how people communicate with each other.

Brother Ivers also mentioned that these differences only exist in group setting, but otherwise every individual behaves the same way in a private setting. I think that was comforting to me to hear that overall we are all the same, we were just taught differently to react to the things which happen with us.

As an EFL/ESL teacher I need to know and learn these differences, because this could highly influence the way how each student reacts to different things in the class. It could also influence the way how they are learning and understanding things.

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[1]  https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2013/08/17/the-most-and-least-emotionally-aware-countries/#52240b9c3596