The cultural context for the Armenian person is the result of upholding and defending a way of life and values that have been maintained for centuries, for perhaps two thousand years. For that reason, although Armenians living in the United States today come from a variety of countries of origin, and may to some extent speak different dialects or even different languages, yet they have many cultural similarities due to centuries of commonality. The cultural similarities among the Armenians can be seen mainly in three different areas: Spirituality, historicity, and family.
Spirituality refers to the perspective of that which is valued in life, and that which must to be upheld and defended under any and all circumstances, regardless of the social environment and surrounding conditions. Historicity refers to that which has been traditionally done, the Armenian way of life,’ – both that which is important and perhaps not as important. Whereas spirituality may refer more to content,’ the important values in life, historicity refers more to the living process,’ how the important values in life are attained.
Family on the other hand is the everyday living environment within which spirituality and historicity are applied and lived out. Family’ in the Armenian community refers to more than the family of origin or the nuclear family. Instead, it includes both of these along with all of the extended family and even the small surrounding community. These family ties are much more important and influential in the decision making process than would initially appear, therefore, they must be acknowledged and understood.
All Armenians may not uphold the same spirituality, historicity, and family values, however, they would still approach life’s decisions based on these cultural categories. The Armenians living in the United States, especially those who live in large communities tend to discover opposing trends between the culture in which they were brought up, and those of the dominant culture in which they have to live, work, interface, and survive. Working at the Berjikian Law Firm Vicken Berjikian established the Berjikian law firm in 1983, as a criminal defense and personal injury firm.
In the past 17 years the Berjikian Law firm has grown to become established and well known in the Armenian community. The Berjikian law firm is a culturally diverse place to work, Mr. Berjikian, the owner has employed not only family members but also in the past, he has employed attorneys who have came in every shape and culture. At Berjikian law firm the atmosphere is homely, and the employees are made to feel that they are family. In the Armenian community family’ refers to more than the biological family.
Instead, it includes the people in the workplace. An example of this is when the Armenian community, voted The Berjikian Law firm as the number one attorney office in Glendale when the Glendale Newspress published the best of 2000 readers’ choice on April 26 of this year. Jack a member of our group, has been employed as a paralegal at the firm since December 96. Jack’s younger sister is the receptionist. The other paralegal is the owner’s sister-in-law who has been with the firm for over 13 years.
Orly Talmor a Jewish civil attorney, has been with the firm for over eight years. Orly met her present husband Marc Goldberg while both working at the law firm. Erik Rutkowski a Polish criminal workers comp and personal injury attorney, joined the family team last year. Employee cross-cultural communication Some employees at the law firm, understand that cross-cultural communication includes the ability to successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a culture different from their own.
It is based on knowledge of many factors, such as the other culture’s values, perceptions, manners, social structure, and decision-making practices, and an understanding of how members of the group communicate–verbally, non-verbally, in person, in writing, and in various business and social contexts. For instance, It is human nature to carry stereotypes and prejudices–it is in the air we breathe. We can challenge and control our prejudices and biases to some extent (at least the expression of them–i. e. discriminatory behavior).
What we can’t easily change is the system we are part of, the fact that our identity gives us a relative advantage or disadvantage whether we seek to have it or not. Therefore, some miscommunication is expected due to cultural behavior. Communication among the firms’ employees is mainly done in the English language, however, there has been some tension among the different cultures in the workplace. The Armenian employees feel comfortable speaking the Armenian language without trying to insult others in their presence, but the non -Armenian employees sometimes feel that they are being talked about.
The Armenian language must be spoken because it is the primary language among the clients. Language is not the only cultural difference at the law firm. For example, Armenians tend to be non-confrontational. Instead, they communicate in the most indirect manner hoping not to hurt the other’s feelings or dignity. This makes even some of the most basic conversations difficult to decipher for other cultures. On the other hand, the Jewish culture tends to be more covert and the Polish culture is more direct and outspoken.
For example, when the Polish attorney used profanity towards the boss’s sister-in-law the Armenians at the firm were shocked and frustrated by this behavior . Most humans do not intend to be narrow-minded or biased; experience has led us to think our viewpoint is “natural” or “obvious. ” Cross-cultural communication challenges our ethnocentric attitudes over and over again. This is why inter-cultural communication is important, and why people may respond with anger, frustration, or denial. Client cross-cultural Communication
For centuries Armenians have lived under foreign domination. Although people had become law abiding citizens, but generally the attitude under those oppressors had been: “Don’t trust them! What do they know about us?! ” This can be very problematic for the relationship between the Armenian client and the helping professional because the latter represents authority’ to the Armenian. This includes not trusting written communication, because to an Armenian a handshake and the words that come out of someone’s mouth mean more than something as impersonal as written communication.
However it is part of the California State Bar Rules and Conduct, that whatever affects the clients in a good way or in a bad way they have to know the status of their file and the status must be communicated in writing. This makes it hard to be productive because legally communication must be done in writing, but the clients insist on meeting face to face. This means that the firm is expected to communicate eighty percent of the time with its clients face to face, because they do not trust or understand the legal jargon.
The clients believe writing is not trustworthy. They want to hear you explain their situation face to face, this they view as a more honorable system and Armenians trust what you said more than the written documents. Sometimes clients who have a case with the firm will show up without an appointment and expect to be accommodated right away. This is very time consuming because we have to stop what we were doing to go up front and see what they want. Most of the time they were passing by and wanted to get the status of their file.
This we understand and it will take us about five minutes to explain to them what is happening with their case and they will be on their way home. Then our office has individuals who have no case with us whatsoever, they will come up to our office with a question that they want us to answer. Now, this is one thing that can be very frustrating, because not only do we have to stop what we are doing because these individuals forgot to call and make an appointment to see us.
These individuals are also aware that we do not handle the kind of case that they want us to help them with. Just by seeing these kinds of individuals, it takes anywhere from twenty five to thirty minutes easily to answer their question and tell them that we do not handle these kinds of cases and to refer them to an Attorney who specializes in that particular field. The other ten percent of the firm’s clients are very busy individuals and they prefer not to meet face to face but are more interested in verbal communication than written or in person.
Upon receiving a status letter or any other letters regarding their case and without opening the letter not knowing if there is a check inside or a paper which needs to be signed, they will call us and ask us what is it that we have sent them in the envelope. These clients prefer to do the communication via the telephone, because they know that it is a waste of their precious time to come in if they can find out the answer to their question in less than five minutes by telephone.
Some of the clients will call us and demand to get an appointment to come in and see us and we try to accommodate our busy time for these clients and the firm tries to fit the appointments between others and these clients have the nerve not to even show up and stand the firm up. Some who have an appointment will call about five to ten minutes before their appointments and try to conduct the meeting over the telephone. The other ten percent are satisfied with the written communication.
They will actually read the letter and will not call us and make us explain the documents we have mailed to them. The Armenian client expectations are very high. They expect you to do what ever you tell them that you will do. For example, if you promise or even mention that the case will take from four to five months from beginning-to-settlement, they expect this to be true because you have told them it will and they literally believe you and take your word honestly because of your experience with other cases that you had during your career.
These clients are impatient and they worry if the case takes longer and they will call and question your expertise. Sometimes we may say that we will call back in five minutes, then forget that we promised to call back in five minutes. It is a human mistake, and the clients will take that literally, they expect a telephone call within five minutes, if they do not receive a call within those five minutes they will feel insulted and will not trust what you tell them next time.
The law firm had many clients, even to this day that when they get into an accident they have already calculated how much they will receive from the settlement and they will go out and borrow money from other individuals, like a relative, or even neighbors, thinking that when the case settles they can repay their loans. Most of the cases are false, even with my experience I can not be sure of how much a case will settle for. I could give an approximate guess, but that is not good enough.
Some clients take your guess as the exact amount and if the case does not settle for that amount, they get upset. Conclusion As a professional gains an insight into the Armenian personality, and develops insights into their way of valuing and communicating to others, he or she is capable to more effectively reach out and help persons and families. All these lead to better and higher quality, as well as more timely services to clients, and a sense of satisfaction for both the client and the professional.
The relationship between the Armenian client and the legal professional is a complex one. It is full of issues that go beyond giving them legal advice or filing a law suit on their behalf, it includes issues relating to a person’s cultural context. In fact, generally the actual legal issues sometimes become secondary, or at least not as central in the person’s priorities. At the beginning, such a relationship can cause great frustration and waste of time in the legal professional’s attempt to provide the appropriate service.
Eventually, these communication issues can cause delays in providing professional service, and lead to extra unnecessary legal expenses. The correct understanding of a client’s cultural situation by the legal professional can lead to a higher quality of service, and lower costs. As difficult and complicated as this situation may sound, it is still not impossible. In fact, most experienced professionals learn over the years to relate to the Armenian culture.
