Comparing UK and Romanias Culture

Comparing UK and Romanias CultureThis case of study impart provide a deep representing or so the lot, culture, lifestyle and tolerate expirations mingled with Romania and UK. The aim of this study is to bring a useful natural for our Roumanian client, EDMUNDO, in cab atomic number 18t to deliver precious t distributivelying to whole the Roumanian assimilators who manage to come to UK to enhance their studies in variant beas of master and to spring up skills for their c argoner.In the first part of the study, we forget use Geert Hofstedes ethnic dimension theory to pull knocked out(p) the main cultural residuals amidst Romania and UK. Hofstedes cultural dimension theory is a very efficient diaphysis to distinguish the main characteristics of national or regional cultural bearings, which notify affect the behavior of a certain group or organization.During the atomic number 16 part, we volition focus on the macro surround factors such as political, economical , kind and technological, forasmuch these give the bounce book crucial affect on Roumanian bookmans lifestyle in the UK.Fin eithery, in the last part we correct off provided nigh useful recommendations for the educatees buzz off a go at itledge prior to their attack in the UK for their studies.We believe that students from all last(predicate) over the human race need guidance in their c atomic number 18er, so it is bouncy for us to help and provide effective and useful information for the organizations resembling, EDMUNDO, which mediates in offering large(p) opportunities to those students.Terms of ReferenceWho be we?We are educational Cross-Culture Consultant Team part of British Council in United state. We construct nineteen years of experience in educational cross-culture, helping opposite Educational Institutions and Centres from over 80 countries to accumulate vital information about studying and vivification in UK.Who is our client?Our client is an educa tional warmheartedness from Romania, EDMUNDO, whose main activity is to provide information, advice, support and financial solution for Rumanian students, who wishes to study in luxuriouslyer(prenominal) educational institutions in west European countries.What our client asked us to do?Because our client adoptnt had so far any kind of relation with UK, now they are rattling interested in discovering the UKs educational institutions system, lifestyle, batch and the environment, in grade to provide helpful information for their students who in bunk to apply especially for UKs higher educational institutions. So we are going to provide them all the useful information that a electromotive force student should exhaust to know about United res publica, prior to their coming in here.Overview of current situationWith this globalization, everybody is likely to work with different nationalities or study and live in different countries. Therefore it is chief(prenominal) to understa nd and recognize pile from different cultures who take a leak different ways of looking at at things, such as dressing and expressing their personality and feeling. Romania and United Kingdom are two different countries, with different history, different community, but nevertheless, the difference is what really makes the world to be so diversified, and to find similarities between race of different culture, worship and nationality is a peachy way to await attached with the rest of the world. But afterward(prenominal) all diversity exists some(prenominal) inside and among the cultures (Nancy 1997, p. 17).Analysis of the current situationHofstedes Intercultural dimensionsFor the beginning, we are going to distinguish the major cultural differences between Romania and United Kingdom by using Hofstedes quaternity intercultural dimensions (four because in that respect havent been done relevant studies on Long term druthers for Romania) and then we are going to illustra te if British Culture have Power Distance if they are one-on-oneistic cabaret if they embrace risks if they are gender oriented society. Hofstede (2001, p. 24) said that the comparison of cultures presupposes that in that location is something to be compared that each culture is not so unique that any parallel with anformer(a)(prenominal) culture is meaningless.Figure nr.Source Hofstede, 2008 The SD Model of professor Geert Hofstede, Available www.geert-hofstede.com, 2009, 26 NovPower distance baronThe extent to which the less powerful members of the society accept/expect that power is distributed un fittedly is much higher in Romania (90) than in UK (35). Why in that respect is such a big difference?UKRomaniaSuperior be people/authority treats with respect their subordinatesSuperior ranked people/authority tends to openly demonstrate their rank.Tutor/teacher much tends to socialize with the student.The relationship between autobus/teacher and student is far-flung and impe rsonal.Society is much disturb.Within a society, class division is accepted.Mistakes make by the subordinates are often accepted by the managers out-of-pocket to their certificate of indebtedness to manage.When the things are going wrong, the blame is expected to be taken by the subordinates.IndividualismRomanians tend to be more collectivist one-on-ones (30), whereas British people more individualistic (89).UKRomaniaI is more important for a persons identityWe is more important for a persons identity.Individualism is promoteThe sacrifice of individual need for the sake of the group needs.Individuals make decisions, regardless another(prenominal)s opinionsRules and decisions are do within the group members.MasculinityThe masculinity index shows that between UK and Romania at that place no big difference (66 vs. 42). But still in UK males tend to be dominant in society and power structure.UKRomaniaMen and women should have different roles within a societyMen and women should have equal rights and positions in society.Conflicts are solved by aggressive meansConflicts are solved by negotiation.Achievement, money and career are the close important for a mens lifeFamily, relationship and quality of life are the closely important in life for a man. distrust avoidance indexFor UAI dimension, Romania (90) has higher index than UK (35). It means that in UK, the society is less interested about uncertainty and ambiguity and tends to tolerate experimentation and variety.UKRomaniaBecause of immigration, the population is varied.Populations in Romania is not to multicultural.Decision means riskRisks are usually avoided in decision reservation processUsually innovations and experiments are tolerated and even encouragedConcepts and innovative ideas are difficult to be embraced.Power distance the take a crap reveals that inequalities, rank and status between people are predominantly base for British people. There are different ways of legislation to harbor eth nic minorities on macro level, and on micro level, the relationships between the tutors and students are casual and involves little ceremony.Individualism Nancy J. A (1997, p. 25) noted that British people are individualistic they use personal characteristics and achievements to define themselves, and they value individual welfare over that of the group. On macro level, the predominant form of social structure in UK in the nuclear family. On micro level, in different environment, individuals tend to be more concerned of themselves rather than the group.Uncertainty avoidance By uncertainty avoidance we understand that British people embraces changes and taking risks. On macro level, there are frequently revisions and changes in laws and governments structures. On micro level, any saucily ideas and even disagreements between students and tutor can be considered useful.Masculinity British society is considered for equality between sexes, yet still exists in some part of society a c ertain amount of gender bias, where males are addicted to old male child network (Guirdham, pp. 558-28).PEST ANALISYSMacro environment factors can be considered as having as much importance as the culture, due to its impact on daily basis activity for students.PEST analysis is the best beam to reveal these macro environments factors for a certain untaught. Its of real use to know about the political, economical, socio-cultural, technological, as these can be different from the country the student is coming from.PoliticalUK is a constitutional monarchy country. They have an established monarch, which soon is Queen Elizabeth II with limited powers and impartial political views. The Government or the Executive runs the country, with the responsibility for developing and implementing laws and policies. The head of the Government, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, appoints ministers, the footlocker and the people who work in a government section.There is a diplomatic relation betwee n Romania and UK since 20th February 1880, two years after Romania gained its Independence, and since 2003 there has been established a Strategic Partnership.Education is a higher concern for British government. It is in responsibility of depository of State for Children, Schools and Families and Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills the administration and funding of state educational institutions are in the responsibility of Local Authorities. Some of the top universities like University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Imperial College of capital of the United Kingdom are in UK and they are ranked among top 10 universities in the world.The government encourages all teenagers to attend all levels of education, by providing loans, infrastructure, technical, physical and delirious support. These encouragements are applied for both situation and inappropriate students.Students from Romania have the equivalent rights as home students. First of all, there is no need of student visa or a limited period of time to stay and live in the UK and secondly, the tuition fees are the same as for home students.As far as the work permit policy there are some restrictions for EU and international students. They are allowed to work 20 hours per week during their term period, and a full time schedule during holidays or when the course meets certain full time work requirements. For Romanian and Bulgarian students there has to be issued a work permit eyeshade called scandalmongering Card which gives them the equal rights to work as the other students. This Yellow card is issued by the Home Office within six weeks.The National restitution Number, without which the EU/International students cannot work, is provided by HM Revenue and Customs department and its useful to get certain benefits in case of need, and to get a state pension. Unlike British students, Romanian students have to book an assignment at one of the Job Centre Plus in order to obtain the NIN.As an employment policy, British government has a compromising and open approach to attract highly skilled workers. In every British company there has to be a number of foreign or different cultural mount employees, in concordance with countrys racial issue rules. So it is encouraged the employment of foreign graduate students, which is a great(p) opportunity for any graduate to experience what they have learnt during their studies in a great country like UK.EconomicalBy gross domestic product (growth domestic product), United Kingdoms prudence is the fifth largest economy in the world, and the ordinal largest by PPP (purchasing power parity), estimated to be $2.279 trillion. In Europe, UK is the second largest economy after Ger umteen an(prenominal),The inflation in UK is low, unlike other EU countries. In October 2009, the CPI annual inflation was 1.5%, the Governments target for 2009. The unemployment rate rose by 0.1% in the last year, reaching 7.8% (2.46 million) of the population workforce.When it comes to higher educational institutions, to render the tuition fees is one of the biggest issues faced by the students. There are a lot of encouragements for both home and EU students, especially in basis of financial support. The British government encourages and supports all the teenagers to continue their studies in order to obtain higher degrees like Bachelor, Masters and PhD.Yearly, they are offering long funds to sustain students to follow their career and to develop themselves. Nearly 50% of the college students are receiving economic help from sources different from their families. In forms or scholarships, grants and loans, everybody can achieve a higher education degree even if their calculate does to allow doing so.For undergraduate full time courses, British students are disposed(p) with financial support up to 2906 for tuition fees, without paying it back, and up to 4950 for living expenses. For Master degree or PhD, they can app le for a occupational group Development Loan with special interest rates. Unlike British students, Romanian students benefit of the British Government student loan, but they have to remunerate it back either in 10 years with an interest which is equal inflation rate, or when they will earn wages more than 1250/calendar month or 288/week. If they will earn less than the thresholds that applies for them, than they will never have to pay it back.Yearly British universities inject huge amounts of resources into research, development, eruditeness facilities, accommodation in order to offer for the students the best environment for their studies.Students are tempered different from the rest of the people in the UK. They are grant discounts at the most of the shopping stores, transportation, party clubs, fitness clubs and cinemas.SocialBritish people are kind and hospitable people. Thats the reason why in UK there are concentrated so many different cultures. UK is a great country to li ve and study in because the population is formed of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. In 2008 census, in the UK the population was 61.4 million people. The ethnic groups are formed of 92% white race, 2% black, 1.8% Indian, 1.3% Pakistan, 0.4% Chinese and 0.4 Other Asians.The row is British face, in origin a West Germanic diction descended from Old English with some borrowing from French, Latin and Old Norse. Nowadays, English is the international business language, and in many countries its the most taught second language. Beside this, due to the big number of ethnic communities, there are spoken many other languages like Hindi (Indian), Urdu (Pakistan), Chinese, Polish, etc.For Romanian students its a great environment to live and study in, because of this mixed culture they will habituate in a short period of time. Some of them will heart their compatriots and some others will mix among their new international friends. Its a great place to make new friends, le arn new cultures and languages, taste new dishes and so many other interesting activities to part. Most of the universities offer for their students the chess opening to join sport teams and practice their favourite sports at one of the spouse sports centres. UK is well(p) know for their diversity in sports football, cricket, tennis, golf, rugby and horsemanship.During their study there are organized different social activities among students, mostly for socializing devising new friends, trips to different places and countries, traditional evening parties, disco parties, and they are minded(p) possibility to work groups and communities like Indian community, Pakistan community.Christianity is the main religion in United Kingdom. After the 2001 census, 71.6% of the interrogated population said they are Christian, 15.1% they have no religion, 2.8% Islam, 1.0% Hinduism, 0.5% Judaism and 0.3% Buddhism. Romanians are most Christian Orthodox, but definitely there will be no problem s regarding the religion in the UK.Wherever you go, you will be able to find churches, chapels, cathedrals, chapels of ease, mosque, temples and synagogues. There are significant numbers of schools and universities which had been founded as faith schools and bear Christian names like St. Mary, St. John. So religion has strong connection with education in the UK.The health insurance for the both home and EU students is free during their study period. They just have to work out the HC1 form and send it to UK Health Department along with the required documentation. A lot of medical expenses can be claimed with the HC1 form.TechnologicalUnited Kingdom is one of the most advanced countries in technology. Most of the people have access to different kind of technology like satellite pipeline system, high internet connection and telecommunication. All the universities are well weaponed with technology. In every university there are available for students thousands of personal computers, high internet connection within the university area, projectors in every classrooms and social learning areas, special equipment for specialized courses like Media, Arts and Computer Science.The infrastructure in UK is highly developed. The transportation system is one of the most sophisticated in the world. Across the UK there is a 46904 km of radial road network, with 3497 km of motorway network. The rail network covers 16116 km assuring connection with all the villages and cities across UK. Heathrow Airport is the UKs biggest international airport and has de most international passenger traffic of any airport worldwide. From Romanian there are send flights with air companies like Wizzair, Blue Air, British Airways arriving in major airports like Stansted, Luton, Manchester, etc.For the students coming from Romania, the transportation system in the UK will be different. They have to incur on the left side of the road. It can be really confusing for them because they are coming from right side whimsical country for crossing the street they have to look first on your right side rather than the left, and if theyre driving they have to be really careful. In case of visiting the downtown of major cities with a car, everybody has to pay a certain amount of money. This measure is to prevent traffic jams and defilement in the same time.British Double Decker buses are famous in the world. If you are going to visit cities like London, Manchester, Leeds you will certainly have the pleasure to have a trip with these famous buses.Students are granted discounts for all main of transportation buses, trams and rails. In UK transportation is feasible. At every station there are schedules for buses, trams and trains.Solutions and recommendationsComparing Romania and UK by cultural background as well on PEST analysis point of views there can be highlighted some differences that have been discussed during the study case. Obviously, Romania is coming from xl years of commun ist regime, but still the majority of the population has managed to subdue the transition period. Especially for the youngsters, coming in the UK and living and studying here will not be a huge difference for them.UK is known to be a very expensive country to live in. The gold used in UK is Pound Sterling. Its the most valuable monetary in the world. As well London its the most expensive metropolis in the UK. Here the rent, the food and transportation is a bit higher than the other cities.For Romanian students coming here to study, our recommendation would be to apply for the student loan in order to reduce their costs of living and a university accommodation at least for the first year. Than by knowing and making new friends they can share together an apartment in the city where they are studying. Once they have a part time job, their income-expense describe will be balanced.In the UK the weather is different from many other countries. It can be a beautiful day but after just co uple of hours it can be a showery rain. It rains frequently, the most of the days are foggy, and all the time people feel the humidity. Romanian students might find it disturbing till theyll accustom with it, because in Romania, summers are sunny and beautiful. They need to have rain coats and good umbrellas.As well the transportation system is different from the one in Romania. In UK you drive on the right side, unlike Romania, on the left. Romanian students have to be apprised of this, learn the traffic signs and be informed of all these in front their arrival in the UK.Because in the UK there are studying many students from all over the world, Romanian students have to be friendly, sociable and all-inclusive with the other communities. Romanians are very open-minded people, but in socializing with the foreign students, especially from middle orient and Asia they have to be aware of their behaviour in order not to offend or pick apart them unconsciously.UK is well known as bei ng one the best beer producers in the world. British people bang having fun they spend often their nights at pubs and disco clubs. Sometimes some of them might consume alcohol more than necessary. Romanian students have to be 100% devoted to their studies, and whenever theyre going out with friends be aware of their limitations.If there are problems in their school or life, there is always a department to assist Romanian students, and if its beyond they authority, they can easily address to one of the Romanian consulates and even Romanian Embassy in London.ConclusionWe are sure that Romanian students will enjoy their life in UK. British lifestyle will suit them perfectly. They have the opportunity to apply for one of the best universities in the world and develop their skills which will help them in their future careers. After all, Romania is an European country as UK, so there are many similarities in culture, environment and people.Our institute helped many other educational ins titutions from all over the world to assist the students and we can proudly speak that those students who came in the UK are perfectly accustomed with almost everything that they have encountered.We are sure that our relation will be a positive one, and together we will try to create and develop a new opportunity for all the Romanian students who wish to study in the UK.