Ecuador - Cultural Information Leaflet

The Project: To produce an information leaflet along the lines and style of the example attached. The leaflet is intended for English host families taking Ecuadorian students into their homes. Each leaflet is designed to highlight where the student's own culture varies significantly from English culture. It is a combination of cultural information as fact and anything that might cause confusion, conflict or embarrassment, and also amusement for either the student or the host.

The Researcher: Ideally, you should be a native Ecuadorian and have lived with several English families in England. You should be deeply familiar with both cultures. As such, it is assumed that research as such will be minimal, and that the task will draw on knowledge already acquired. You will be expected to have a university degree at minimum and be familiar with accepted research methods in order to produce a document whose findings are comprehensive and expressed both clearly and dispassionately. Although a touch of humour is definitely allowable!

The types of area to be covered will include the following, but the list is by no means exhaustive. It is essential to focus on all aspects of culture.

Initial meeting
Conversation topics
National quirks (the value of keeping 'face', how long a handshake should be etc.)
Space, (how close you normally stand to a person when talking)
Touch (children, friends, strangers - when if ever, how)
Attitudes to:
politics
religion
tipping
pets
children
members of the opposite sex
Dress codes (home, work, etc)
Daily timetable (when get up, have meals, go out, go to bed)
Typical meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, other)
Alcohol consumption (in the home, out, ref driving etc)
Hygiene
Body behaviour (all forms, especially hand and arm signals)
Illness
Homosexuality
Queuing
Bathrooms (use of bath/toilet, toilet paper, bidet, showers etc)
Taboos (what is normal back home, but would cause problems in England)
Things that happen only back home, not in England or even anywhere else (pantomime, for example,
is quintessentially English - outside England, most confuse the word with mime)
Areas of possible confusion
Areas of likely misunderstanding (of gesture, phrase, noise)
Areas of possible conflict
What might cause embarrassment (to the student, the host family, an adult, a child)
Any other significant cultural differences a student would notice coming to live and study in England amongst English people

It is important to observe that all copyright remains with me.

The budget range for this project is £80 to £120.