Geert Hofstede: culture is our software

摘自窦卫霖编写的《跨文化商务交际》第85页

请大家阅读后进一步理解culture is our software,也就是进一步理解什么是culture

Geert Hofstede refers to culture as "the software of the mind". We all know that computers do what programs ask them to do. Human beings do according to their culture. In this sense, humans are similar to computers. But we are not exactly the same as computers. We are creative, but computers can not create. To be more exact, we might as well take the computer analogy further and say that culture is the basic operating environment that enables software programs to run. Culture is like DOS or Windows ---- culture is a mental set of windows through which all of life is viewed. Humans around the world are physically pretty much the same. We can think of our physical selves as the hardware, but we cannot be said to be human until we are programmed and each of us is programmed by our home culture. At birth an infant is only a potential human. It must learn how to be human and it learns that in a culturally specific way. It is the culture that provides the software. As with any good software, we are only vaguely aware of it as we use it. (It fades into the background and we just know that we can be, that the computer works,) or perhaps sometimes does not work because it is incompatible with someone else's software.

按照本文的逻辑，文化是软件，不同的文化存在不兼容的情况。但计算机是由软件和硬件共同组成，运行在同一台计算机上的软件必然操纵着相同的硬件，所以硬件才是文化之本，才是共通的地方。我认为，这些硬件就是人性的优点，人性的弱点等等。大家的看法呢？

我个人觉得文中所说的文化应该理解为“操作系统”，正如电脑只有安装了操作系统以后其他的应用软件才可以运行，所以说操作系统是其他应用软件的基础，就像文化对人的影响是一样的。一个人只有在了解、接受
了他所身处的文化环境的基本的教育之后才能被称为“社会的人”。而软件不兼容的问题，就是不同文化背景的人之间的文化冲突。跨文化交流就是要在不同的文化间架起一座桥梁，使不同文化之间可以多交流，可以相互了解，进而可以解决不兼容的问题，至少可以避免发生文化冲突。

作者认为人类的物理属性（ physical selves）相当于计算机的操作系统，文化相当于运行在操作系统上的软件，只有拥有文化的人才能称之为真正意义上的“人”。
不同的软件在操作系统上的兼容程度不同，文化也一样，不同地域和种族都有自己不一样的文化传统。但是，就像软件，费一番功夫，将代码开源，就可以实现不同软件之间的和谐兼容。文化也是如此，可以通过友好地交流和沟通，实现彼此的相互理解，相互尊重，最终使不同文化都能够在人类这一最高级“操作系统”上和谐共兼容。