The Building Blocks of Culture Grantham University

Culture 2 A culture that I encountered that was different was the Haitian culture. I myself am Jamaican so there are some similarities in things we do but, They do not have a lot of differences between the two groups. In the Haitian society when men greet other men they must shake hands and keep direct eye contact when doing so, the handshake must be firm. With Haitian women, when a women greets a stranger it is a hand shake, for close friends and family it is a light kiss on the cheek, same goes for when men and women greet. In the American culture when we greet one another we can shake hands or kiss on the cheek, it is not really mandatory for us to make eye contact or only kiss close friends and relatives on the cheek. When conversing a man and women may touch each other lightly but kissing in a public place is considered to be inappropriate. Americans touch each other so much when conversing that, that gesture it self is pretty much a social norm. Also, we tend to be affectionate in public because that is what are society considers normal, when you are dating someone it isn’t deemed inappropriate to kiss them or hug them in a public setting. When dealing with a schedule or time Haitians are willing to give up their time to wait, like at doctors appointments they know there might be a long wait and they are okay with that. They also do not consider time to be as important so being late isn’t rude to them. As an American I know we are constantly on the go and trying our hardest to remain on time to events and appointments. When we are invited out to anything it isn’t necessarily rude to be late but we still apologize for being late when we arrive. When dealing with gender in the Haitian society the roles tend to be women do the laundry and tend to the cooking and the children while the men work and perform hard l