Intercultural Communication

1
Intercultural Communication

• Lecture One

2
Basics

• Video Lectures
• Watch the lectures before class.
• Question of the Day
• Class time Interactive Activities
• Groups
• Attendance Policy
• PALSI Sessions
• Course Webpage
• http//personal.cityu.edu.hk/enrodney/intercultur
  al_communication/index.html

3
Reading

• Textbook and Required Readings
• Optional Readings and Useful Links
• 2 Reading Quizzes
• Weeks 5 and 10

4
E-pal Project

• Make two new friends
• Get to know them in the course of the semester
• Ask them questions about their interactions,
  habits, customs, etc.
• Analyze
• Communication patterns
• Similarities and differences
• Situations, topics
• Values, ideas

5
Ethnographic Research

• Four kinds of data
• Members generalizations
• We do this
• Individual Experience
• I do this
• Observation
• From your interactions
• Comparison with researcher
• I do this, but you do that/ similarities and
  differences

6
Final Examination

• 40 of final grade ?
• Multiple choice
• Short answer
• Essay (analysis of inter-cultural situations)

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What is Culture?

• The problem with culture
• Is it a thing that you have?
• Is it a group that you belong to?
• Is it something that you live inside of?
• Is it something that you do?
• Lumping
• Binarism
• Stereotyping

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Task

• In small groups consider the various definitions
  of culture and rank them according to the ones
  you like best.

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Which of these belongs to culture ?

• Facial expressions
• Religious beliefs 
• Religious rituals 
• Importance of time 
• Paintings 
• Values 
• Literature 
• Child-raising beliefs 
• Ideas about leadership 
• Gestures 
• Ideas about fairness 
• Ideas about friendship 

• Ideas about modesty 
• Eating habits 
• Understanding of the natural world 
• Concept of self 
• The importance of work 
• Concept of beauty 
• General world view 
• Concept of personal space 
• Rules of social etiquette 
• Housing

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What are cultures based on?

• What features do we use to divide people into
  different cultures?
• Race/Ethnicity
• National Origin (political boundaries)
• Behavior
• Beliefs/Values
• Religion
• Age/Gender/Sexuality
• Occupation
• Interests

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What is a Discourse Approach?

• A way of solving the problem of culture
• Divides culture into 4 components
• Ideology (beliefs, values, assumptions)
• Patterns of Relationships
• Ways of Communicating
• Ways of Learning
• Replaces the word culture with the term
• Discourse Systems

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Discourse Systems
Face Systems
Ideology
Socialization
Forms of Discourse
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Different Kinds of Discourse Systems

• Regional/National/Global
• Corporate
• Professional
• Gender
• Generational
• Interest Groups

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The Discourse System of Yoga

• Ideology (Health, Hinduism)
• Relationships (Teacher, Students)
• Forms of Discourse
• Sanskrit words (Sirasana, padmasana)
• Directions (exhale, place right foot on the left
  thigh)
• Comparisons with animals, plants, objects)
• Lets do a dog./She does a great cow
• Learning Formal/Informal

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Task How many cultures (discourse systems) do
you belong to?

• List the different discourse systems you belong
  to and some features of these discourse systems

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Multiple Overlapping Discourse Systems
Female
Youth
Chinese
City U Student
Christian
Hong Konger
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Inter-discourse Communication

• Inter-discourse (inter-cultural) communication
  occurs
• Between people
• WITHIN people
• In any given situation multiple discourse systems
  are involved

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Focus of analysis

• NOT on people
• Eg. Chinese are like this and Americans are
  like that
• But, on actions and situations
• Each situation is a nexus of practice in which
  elements from different discourse systems mix
• Finding areas of conflict and overlap

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The Ambiguity of Language

• People dont mean what they say
• People dont say what they mean
• Can you tell me what time it is?
• What do you want for your birthday?
• Word level ambiguity
• Sentence level ambiguity
• Discourse level ambiguity
• Ambiguity in paralinguistic and non-verbal
  communication

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Inferences

• We must draw inferences about meaning
• Our inferences tend to be fixed, not tentative
• Our inferences are drawn very quickly

22
Intercultural Miscommunication

• Usually we do not know that miscommunication has
  occurred
• Conflicting Expectations
• Conflicting Interpretations
• What is the source of the conflict?
• Sometimes it is not culture
• Understanding what discourse systems are involved
  and how they affect one another
• Differences dont always result in
  miscommunication
• Similarities dont always result in smooth
  communication

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What is the source?
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Trying NOT to miscommunicate
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Task

• Watch the video
• What are some of the reasons for the
  miscommunication?

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Avoiding Problems

• Expecting things to go wrong
• Increasing shared knowledge
• Dealing with miscommunication