Intercultural Communication

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Intercultural Communication
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Unit 1 Introduction

• CultureCommunication
• Intercultural Communication

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Importance of Intercultural Communication

• Spurring development of transportation and
  communication systems (shortened touring time,
  television networks, the internet, international
  film industry)
• Cultural migration between nations
  (multiculturalism)
• New economic arena (multinational corporations)
• Ever-increasing world population (finite natural
  resources, pollution, international conflicts)

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Warming up

• Make a list of images from your home culture
  and try to explain what they express about who
  the people of your culture are and what their
  relationship is to people from other cultures.
• Which image do you prefer? Which do you think
  are the images that most truly express how people
  feel about themselves and the world?

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1. What is culture?

• On the surface customs and behavior
• More deeply what the behavior and customs mean
  
• to the people who are
  following them.
• In a word Culture is all about meanings
• Hall Culture is everything and everywhere

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Basic functions of culture

• Culture makes all things easy.
• - by providing meaning to events, objects and
  people --- making life less confusing
• - by providing us with structure --- the skills
  and rules necessary to adapt to our world

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• Case Study
• Richard, an engineer from the United
  States, was invited to take tea with one of his
  British colleagues while he was in England. This
  was a purely social, relaxed occasion. Tea was
  served along with sugar and cream. As he helped
  himself to some sugar and cream, he sensed he had
  done something wrong.
• Can you tell what went wrong?

Help yourself VS. Be my guest
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Linell Davis five metaphorsabout culture

• Culture is like an iceberg
• some is visible (history, literature,
  customs)
• most is invisible (feelings and attitudes)
• Culture is our software
• physical selves as the hardware, become human
  when programmed with the software of culture
• Culture is like the water a fish swims in
• notice everything except the water
• Culture is the story we tell ourselves about
  ourselves
• people tell stories to tell who they are and
  stories also change to adapt to changing
  circumstances
• Culture is the grammar of our behavior
• people learn their cultural grammar
  unconsciously and apply them automatically in
  order to behave appropriately in any society

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2. What is Communication?

• It comes from the Latin word communicare, it
  means to give or to exchange. Now, the most
  common meaning of communication is to give or
  exchange information or ideas.
• Communication is our ability to share our ideas
  and feelings. (the basis of all human contact)
• Communication is a dynamic, systematic process in
  which meanings are created and reflected in human
  interaction with symbols. (J.T.Wood)

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Elements of communication

• Context
• Participants
• Messages (meanings, symbols, encoding
• and decoding)
• Channels
• Noise (external noise, internal noise,
• semantic noise)
• feedback

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Linear Model of Communication
Mode of Communication
noise
Sender
Receiver
encoding
decoding
Channel (message)
Is this an effective model of communication?
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Interactive Model of Communication
decoding
encoding
message / channel
Sender Receiver
Sender Receiver
noise
decoding
encoding
message / channel
Feedback is essential to good communication
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Transactional Model of Communication
decoding
encoding
message / channel
Fields of Experience
Sender Receiver
Sender Receiver
noise
Relationship Dimensions
decoding
encoding
message / channel
We continually influence each other through
communication
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Characteristics of communication

• 1) Communication is dynamic

• Communication is an ongoing activity. It is not
  fixed. A word or action does not stay frozen when
  you communicate it is immediately replaced with
  yet another word or action.

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Characteristics of communication

• 2) Communication is interactive
• A interactive view holds that communicators
  are simultaneously sending and receiving messages
  at every instant that they are involved in
  conversations.

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Characteristics of communication
3) Communication is irreversible Communication
is an irreversible process. We can never undo
what has already been done. Although we may try
to qualify, negate, or somehow reduce the effects
of our message, once it has been sent and
received, the message itself cannot be reversed.
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Characteristics of communication
4) Communication is contextual. All
communication takes place within a setting or
situation called a context. By context, we mean
the place where people meet, the social purpose
for being together, and the nature of the
relationship. Thus the context includes the
physical, social, and interpersonal settings.
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3. Intercultural Communication

• Intercultural communication is
  communication between people whose cultural
  perceptions and symbol systems are distinct
  enough to alter the communication event.
• intercultural communication refers to
  any communication between two members of any
  cultural communities.

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Forms of Intercultural Communication

• International communication
• Interracial communication
• Interethnic communication
• Intracultural communication

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a. International communication

• International communication takes place
  between nations and governments rather than
  individuals it is quite formal and ritualized.

United Nations Conference
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b. Interracial communication
Interracial communication occurs when the sender
and the receiver exchanging messages are from
different races.

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c. Interethnic communication
Ethnic groups usually form their own communities
in a country or culture. These groups share a
common origin or heritage that is apt to
influence family names, language, religion,
values, and the like.

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d. Intracultural communication
It is defined as communication between or among
members of the same culture.

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4.Elements of Intercultural Communication

• Perceptions (beliefs, values, attitudes, world
• views, social
  organizations)
• Verbal processes (the ways in which
• cultures employ
  symbols
• to portray things
  and
• experiences)
• Nonverbal processes (share thoughts and feelings
• by way of
  bodily behavior,
• time and
  space)
• Contextual elements (business, education and
• health
  care, tourism and
• personal
  relationships)

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Case Study

• While visiting Egypt, Richard, an
  engineer from the United States, was invited to a
  spectacular dinner at the home of an Egyptian
  friend. As he was leaving their home, making
  effort to thank them for their dinner, he noticed
  their picture and made a compliment by saying
  What beautiful frames your pictures are in!
  However he sensed something wrong. His sincere
  compliment was obviously misunderstood.

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What is the correct attitude?

• The communicator cannot stop at knowing that the
  people he is working with have different customs,
  goals, and thought patterns from his own. He
  must be able to work with them and within them,
  neither losing his own values in the
  confrontation nor protecting himself behind a
  wall of intellectual detachment.
• (Adapted from L.M.Barna,
  Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural
  Communication, 1992)

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• Unit 2 Words and Culture

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1. Word meaning

• Words, the basic component of a language, are
  influenced and shaped by culture.
• In each language, there are particular labels or
  names for objects, events, experiences and
  feelings as the speech community has arbitrarily
  decided to name them so.

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• The reasons
• different historical backgrounds,
• geographical positions,
• religious beliefs,
• customs,
• life styles
• and value systems

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• There are many interpretations of meaning, here
  we are concerned is conceptual and associative
  meaning .
• The Conceptual meaning
• It makes the core of the words
• It is stable
• It forms the basis of communication
• It covers those basic, essential components of
  meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of
  word
• The associative meaning
• It is the secondary meaning supplemented to the
  conceptual meaning
• It differs from the conceptual meaning it is
  open-ended and indeterminate
• It is liable to the influence of such cultural
  factors as religion, geographical position, class
  background and education.

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• We would like to illustrate them in the
• following five parts
• ? words with basically the same cultural meanings
  
• ? words with partially equivalent cultural
  meanings
• ? words with greatly different cultural meanings
• ? words with completely different cultural
  meanings
• ? words with cultural meanings absent in the
  other.

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• 1?Words with basically the same cultural meanings
  
• That is to say the conceptual meanings and
  associative meanings of words in both English and
  Chinese are the same.
• Examples are as follows
• Head The meanings of head are basically the same
  in both English and Chinese.
• ?that part of the body, which contains the eyes,
  nose, mouth and brain.
• In Chinese we say ?????
• E.g., Hit him on the head.
  ????

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(No Transcript)
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• ?something likes a head in form or position.
• In Chinese we say ??????????
• E.g., the head of a nail
  ?????
• ? (of plants)mass of leaves or flowers at the top
  of a stem or stalk.
• In Chinese we put it to (??)??????????
• E.g., a flower head
  ?????
• ? ruler, chief, position of command.
• We call it ?????????????
• E.g., headman
  ????????????

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• ? Fox
• In Chinese, fox is the synonym for cunning and
  craftiness ??? ????????
• In English speaking countries
• He is as sly as a fox. ?????????????
• You can never fox me. ???????
• ? Laurel
• related to prominence and honor in both English
  and Chinese culture
• In western countries, heroes, warriors and brave
  men wear laurel wreath (????????) Poet Laureate.
• in Chinese ??
• ? other instances

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• Words with greatly different cultural meanings
• As every culture is unique, the words with the
  same conceptual meaning in the two languages may
  differ greatly in their associative meanings.
• It can be results of different geographical
  surroundings, dissimilar ways of logical
  thinking, different aesthetic standards and
  different social systems.

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Unit 3

• Idioms and culture

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• Definition and features of idiom
• colloquialism
• catchphrase
• proverb
• Semantic unity structural stability

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• Equivalent idioms
• Strike while the iron is hot.
• Many hands make light work.
• More haste, less speed.
• Out of sight, out of mind.
• Birds of a feather flock together.
• Look before you leap.
• An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

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• Half equivalent idioms
• Where there is smoke there is fire.
• Better be an ass head than a horse tail.
• The pot calls the kettle black.
• The grass is always greener on the other side
  of the fence.
• A lion in the way
• a donkey in a lions hide

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• Seemingly equivalent idioms
• It takes two to make a quarrel.
• A miss is as good as a mile.
• Gliding the lily.
• To eat ones words
• To blow ones own horn
• to lock the stable gate after the horse has
  bolted.

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• Non-equivalent idioms
• 1. literature
• a catch-22 situation
• 2. mythology
• apple of discord
• the Pandoras box
• an Archilles heel
• 3. religion
• like Moses leading his people
• the salt of the earth

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• 4. Sports
• to carry the ball
• to hit below the belt
• 5. Social life
• as American as apple pie
• an Ivy Leaguer

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• Unit 4
• Verbal Communication

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What is language?

• Language is a set of symbols and the rules for
  combining those symbols that are used and
  understood by a large community to people.
• A language is a symbolic code of communication
  consisting of a set of sounds (phonetics) with
  understood meanings and a set of rules (grammar)
  for constructing messages.

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language is influenced by peoples perception of
the world
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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• Human beings do not live in the objective world
  alone, nor alone in the world of social activity
  as ordinarily understood, but are very much at
  the mercy of the particular language which has
  become the medium of expression for their
  society. The real world is to a large extent
  unconsciously built up on the language habits of
  the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently
  similar to be considered as representing the same
  social reality. (Sapir,1931)

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• that the linguistic system (in other words, the
  grammar) of each language is not merely a
  reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but
  rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program
  and guide for the individuals mental activity,
  for his analysis of impression, for his synthesis
  of his mental stock in trade
• 
  (Whorf, 1952)

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Language as reflection of values

• Chinese family big and hierarchical
• Chinese kinship terms reflect the importance of
  our family system, elaborate system of kinship
  terms.

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Summary language and culture

• Language is a reflection of culture, and culture
  is a reflection of language.
• Culture influences language by way of symbols and
  rules for using those symbols, as well as our
  perceptions of the universe (the meaning
  associated with the symbols).
• Language, on the other hand, would seem to have a
  major impact on the way an individual perceives
  and conceptualizes the world.

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What is verbal communication

• Verbal connected with words and their use
• Verbal communication communication done both
  orally and in written language
• Easier to use words to represent ones
  experiences within the same culture because
  people share many similar experiences.
• More troublesome in verbal communication across
  cultures because peoples experiences, beliefs,
  values, customs, traditions and the like are
  different.

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Verbal Communication

• ----Sometimes we think about this but talk about
  that.

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(No Transcript)
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Case

• Two Japanese who knew some Chinese were one day
  at a Beijing subway station. They saw a warning
  sign which read Xiaoxin di hua! (????)They were
  very much surprised to see that nobody around
  them was skating, though the floor was really
  very smooth.
• In a laundry, when a man saw the sign when light
  flashes, remove clothes, he took off all his
  clothes.

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Are they the same?

• ?? (lover)
• ? (play)
• ???? (intellectual)
• ??(peasant)
• ?? (miss)
• ?? (comrade)

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• Case Study
• In Japan, Richard, an engineer from
  the United States, has an unpleasant experience
  though he thought he had handled it well. A
  number of serious mistakes had occurred in a
  project he was supervising. While the fault did
  not lie with any one person, he was a supervisor
  and at least partly to blame. At a special
  meeting called to discuss the problem, poor
  Richard made an effort to explain in detail why
  he had done what he had done. He wanted to show
  that anybody in the same situation could have
  made the same mistake and to tacitly suggest that
  he should not be blamed unduly. He even went to
  the trouble of distributing materials which
  explained the situation rather clearly. And yet,
  even during his explanation, he sensed that
  something he was saying or doing was wrong.

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Thinking patterns and culture

• Some people tend to adopt analytical thinking
  patterns. They tend to analyze and dissect things
  into elements in order to understand them
  properly. Their emphasis is upon the parts rather
  than the whole of things.
• Some people employ synthetic thinking patterns.
  They tend to synthesize elements into a unit,
  with the emphasis on the whole.

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How different thinking patterns affect our life?

• Western medicine Vs traditional Chinese medicine
• Western cooking
• Different views on contracts
• Westerners value objectivity, specificity and
  precision and make sense of the world by
  reasoning and analyzing.
• Chinese are more subjective and value intuition a
  lot, through which they get an insight into
  things around them.

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4. Communication Styles and Culture

• Compare the following two spoken discourse and
  decide which one might be given by a Chinese and
  which by an American?
• Because most of our production is done in China
  now, and its not really certain how Hong Kong
  will be like after 1997, and since I think a
  certain amount of caution in committing to TV
  advertisement is necessary because of the
  expense. So, I suggest that we delay making our
  decision until after Legco makes its decision.

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Which is given by a Chinese? Which by an American?

• B. I suggest that we delay making our decision
  until after Legco makes its decision. Thats
  because I think a certain amount of caution in
  committing to TV advertisement is necessary
  because of the expense. In addition to that, most
  of our production is done in China now, and its
  not really certain how Hong Kong will be like
  after 1997.

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Different Communication Styles

• 2)?????(?????)
• VS
• ????(?????)
• induction (specific ? general)
• deduction (general ? specific)

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Chinese Inductive?American deductive?

• In the east, people sometimes adopt the deductive
  pattern.
• In the west, people do not exclude the use of
  inductive pattern.
• In both the east and west, the person in a higher
  status tends to use the deductive pattern while
  the one in a lower status tends to use the
  inductive pattern.

in a close relationship or relatively equal status
borrow money, or ask for a big, embarrassing
favor
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Unit 5

• Non-verbal Communication

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QUESTION What?

• Every culture has rules about the CORRECT use of
  space. The proxemic (relating to the study of
  space) rules are unwritten and never taught-- but
  they are very powerful
• a. She will ask them to sit somewhere else.
• b. She will stare at the space "invaders"
  defiantly, but she will not move .
• c. She will leave, saying nothing to the three
  people who invaded her personal space.

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No gesture has the same meaning!!

• There is no 'international language' of gestures.
  Instead, cultures have developed systems of
  unique gestures, and it is almost never possible
  for us to understand intuitively the gestures
  from another culture.

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guess what this Iranian gesture means?

• No. 1 for me/ Good luck / screw you

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Screw you

• This gesture teaches an extremely important
  lesson. This gesture is identical to the
  American/English gesture for Good Luck to you.
  But it is an obscene gesture, and an American
  traveling in Iran would outrage people there if
  the American performed this gesture. When in
  another culture or society, we should never
  'mirror' a gesture that someone presents to
  us--without knowing it, we could be deeply
  offending that person and inviting conflict.

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Who won the game of one-on-one basketball?

• a. The man on the left
• b. The man on the right

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The man on the right

• He seems confident, poised and modest--all
  qualities that suggest he is the winner of the
  game.

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Definition (1)

• Metacommunication (beyond the usual
  commmunication), paralinguistics, second-order
  messages, the silent language, and the hidden
  dimension of communication. (Hall, 1959)

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Definition (2)

• Nonverbal communication involves all nonverbal
  stimuli in a communication setting that is
  generated by both the source and his or her use
  of the environment and that has potential message
  value for the source or receiver. (Samovar and
  Porter, 2004)

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• Overview of Nonverbal Communication

• Body Language
• General appearance and dress
• Gestures
• Eye contact
• Facial expression
• Posture
• Touching

• 2. Paralanguage
• Silence
• Pitch
• Volumn
• Environment Language
• Space
• Time

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Body Language

• Body language refers to all nonverbal codes which
  are associated with body movements.
• Body language includes gestures, head movements,
  facial expressions, eye behaviors, postures and
  other displays that can be used to communicate.

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General Appearance and Dress

• Concern with how one appears is universal.
• We make inferences (often faulty) about anothers
  intelligence, gender, age, approachability,
  financial well-being, class, tastes, values, and
  cultural background from attractiveness, dress,
  and personal artifacts.
• Do you select attractive friends over less
  attractive ones?

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• Muslin girls usually wear scarves to cover their
  heads, and in most instance, girls are not
  allowed to participate in swimming classes
  because of the prohibitions against exposing
  their bodies. Modesty is highly valued among
  Arabs.
• Perhaps nowhere in the world is the merger
  between attire and a cultures value system more
  evident than in Japan. The proclivity for
  conservative dress styles and colors emphasizes
  the nations collectivism and, concomitantly,
  lessens the potential for social disharmony
  arising from nonconformist attire.

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Gestures

• Do you know what the following gestures mean?

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(No Transcript)
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What may the O.K. sign mean?

• In Brazil a. rudeness
• In Russia b. money
• In France c. something vulgar
• In Japan d. something worthless

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Eye contact

• Thou tellst me there is murder in mine eye.
• 
  ---- Shakespeare
• Your lips tell me no, no, but theres yes, yes in
  your eyes.
• 
  ---- Musical ballad

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General guidelines

• The eye contact in an elevator could be very
  brief. Direct visual contact with another's eyes
  ???????????????????? He managed to say hello
  to 12 people in five seconds without making eye
  contact with a single one
• In a crowded bus, a subway or train, the proper
  eye contact time could be some 10 seconds.
• Only a lecturer or a politician addressing an
  audience can hold eye contact as long as he
  wishes.

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• Generally speaking, if you look at your partners
  eyes from time to time while speaking, youll be
  regarded as sociable, friendly, confident and
  frank.
• If you avoid eye contact, youll be regarded as
  cold, distant, unconfident and not involved in
  the conversation.

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Direct eye-to-eye contact is not universal

• A teenage Puerto Rican girl in a New York high
  school was taken with a number of other girls to
  the principal for suspected smoking. Although
  there was no proof of any wrongdoing and although
  she had a good record, the principal decided she
  was guilty and suspected her. There was
  something sly and suspicious about her. he said
  in his report. she just wouldnt meet my eyes.
  She wouldnt look at me.

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Cross-cultural differences

• USA vs. France Italy
• Many American women visiting France or
  Italy are acutely embarrassed because, for the
  first time in their lives, men really look at
  them ---- their eyes, hair, nose, lips, breasts,
  hips, legs, thighs, knees, ankles, feet, clothes,
  hairdo, even their walk. These same women, once
  having become used to being looked at, often
  return to the United Sates and are overcome with
  the feeling that No one ever really looks at me
  anymore.

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Co-culture differences

• White American vs. Black American
• Look at me when I talk to you!
• Dont look at me in that tone of voice!
• The white speaker interprets intended
  respect of black behavior as dishonesty or at
  least inattentiveness.

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Real life contact

• Do you change your eye contact length when you
  speak to a disabled person, compared with to
  someone who is not disabled?

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Facial expression

• Look at the following pictures, try to tell who
  is
• 1. The most kind-hearted?
• 2. The most
• artistic?
• 3. The most
• smart?

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Smiles and laughter

• In a Chinese classroom a girl was asked to answer
  a question. She stood up and smiled, without
  making any sound.
• When an American is parking his bicycle and
  bicycle accidentally falls over, he feels
  embarrassed at his awkwardness, and is quite
  angered and humiliated when Chinese onlookers
  laugh.
• Japanese men go so far as to hide anger, sorrow
  or disgust by laughing or smiling.

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Nodding is culture-specific

• Case Study
• ?????????,??????????????????????????,?????????????
  ??????????,?????????????????????????????????????,?
  ???????????,????????????????????,???????????????,?
  ???????,????????????????????????????
• ?????????,1986)

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Posture

• A man and a woman met on the train platform.
  Will the woman accept the mans greeting
  friendly?

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She wont!

• Man
• half smile expression
• a relaxed position
• snap gesture
• body orientation
• Woman
• frowning expression
• chin up facial position
• backing posture
• Legs together
• Feet pointing inwards

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You dont just read others body language

• You observe, analyze and interpret before you
  decide the possible meaning!

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Match the following descriptions with the
behaviors
93

• The person is very relaxed, but he/she is ready
  to move at any time.
• The person is in deep thinking. He/she thinks
  that may be a good idea and is ready to move
  after the thinking.
• The person is very glad to see the other.
  Actually he/she thinks that person is important.
• The person is very confident. He/she thinks
  he/she is more important than the other.
• The person has made up his/her mind. He/she is
  very angry, but tries to control him-/her-self.
• The person determines to control his/her
  feelings, trying to calm down.
• The person presents him-/her-self as an important
  man. But he/she tries to be friendly to others.

D
E
A
F
C
G
B
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Sitting or Standing?

• In western countries, people who stand are more
  important than those who sit (unless there is a
  table between them), because the former could
  control the latter.

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Bowing in Japan

• In Japan, mutual bowing is largely determined by
  rank.
• bowing contest
• Bend slightly to ones right
• Becoming automatic movement, e.g. bow when making
  phone call

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Touching

• Jourard sat in coffee shops in four different
  cities. Whenever he saw people touch, he recorded
  the touch. His records are as followed
• _at_ Sainthorn (Porto Rico) 180
• _at_ Paris 102
• _at_ Gynswere (Florida) 2
• _at_ London 0

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• Each culture has a well-defined system of
  meanings for different forms of touching.
• Some generalizations can be made with regards to
  high-touch versus low-touch cultures.
• Americans, the English, Germans and Northern
  Europeans are said to belong to low-touch
  cultures, exhibiting very limited tactile contact
  in public.
• Hispanics (????), people of Eastern European
  descents, Italians, the French, Arabs, and Jews
  are all said to belong to high-touch cultures.

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Whats wrong here?

• Case study
• One of the very common manners of
  touching ---- handshaking ---- may result in
  conflict when performed with no consideration of
  cultural differences. Among middle-class North
  American men, it is customary to shake hands as a
  gesture of friendship. When wanting to
  communicate extra friendliness, a male in the
  U.S. may, while shaking hands, grasp with his
  left hand his friends right arm.

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• Once, a North American businessman visiting
  Middle Eastern countries attempted to emphasize
  the sincerity of his friendship in this manner to
  his Saudi Arabian business partner. However, the
  Saudi Arabian business man was greatly
  displeased.
• Why?

In the Muslin world, the left hand is profane
(???) and touching some one with it is highly
offensive.
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Unit 6 Fundamental theories of intercultural
communication
101

• God gave to every people a cup, cup of clay, and
  from this cup they drank life They all dipped in
  the water, but their cups were different.
• ---- R.
  Benedict

????????????????,???????????????...??????????,????
????????
----?????
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Why is one culture different from another?

• More deeply
• World view (religion)
• - Spiritual and psychological needs of
  people (life and death, creation of universe,
  relationship between humans and nature)
• - Social aspects of a culture (origin of
  society and groups within the society,
  relationship of individuals and groups to one
  another)
• Family (gender roles, individualism-collectivism,
  age, social skills)
• History (government, community, political system,
  key historical heroes, geography)

103
What does cultural diversity mean?

• Cultural patterns
• - conditions that contribute to the way in
  which a people perceive and think about the world
• - the manner in which they live in that world
• Some cautions
• The value of the culture may not be the value of
  all individuals within that culture.
• It is useful to visualize each cultural pattern
  as a point on a continuum rather than one of only
  two possible responses.
• The patterns are interrelated with a host of
  other values and do not operate in isolation.
• Common cultural patterns must be limited to the
  dominant culture in each country.

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Significance of studying cultural diversities

• When we study cultural differences, we mainly
  refer to the deep structure of culture (below the
  iceberg)
• Although culture is subject to change, the deep
  structure of a culture is resistant to change.
• The comparison and contrast of different cultures
  help understand ones own culture and other
  cultures, which will ultimately enhance the
  effect of intercultural communication.

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How to classify different cultures?
Culture patterns
Kluckhohn and Strodtbecks Value Orientation
Hofstedes Dimensions of Cultural Variability
Edward T Halls Context - Culture Theory
Human Nature
Individualism Vs Collectivism
High-Context
Man-nature
Uncertainty Avoidance
Time
Low-Context
Power Distance
Activity
Masculinity Vs Femininity
Social Relationship
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1. Model by Kluckhohn

• 5 basic questions that need answering at the
  root of any culture
• 1) What is the character of innate human nature?
  
• 2) What is the relation of man to nature?
• 3) What is the temporal focus?
• 4) What is the mode of human activity?
• 5) What is the mode of human relationship?

1) Human nature orientation ???? 2)
Man-nature orientation ???? 3) Time
orientation ???? 4) Activity
orientation ???? 5) Social
orientation ????
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Limitations of Kluckhohns model

• Not everyone in a culture has the same basic
  values.
• Cultures change over time.
• The concept of basic values is itself a
  generalization

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Case study

• During the American Civil War, a very
  hungry young man fell down in front of a farm
  gate. The farmer gave him food but in return he
  asked the young man to move a pile of wood in his
  yard in fact it was not at all necessary to
  move the wood. When the young man left, the
  farmer moved the wood back to its original place.
  Seeing all this, the farmers son was confused.

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Model by G. Hofstede (1984)

• Hofstedes work was one of the earliest attempts
  to use extensive statistical data to examine
  cultural values.
• During the 1980s, he surveyed over a hundred
  thousand workers in multinational organizations
  in forty countries.
• Each country was assigned a rank of one through
  forty in each category, depending on how it
  compared to the other country.

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Hofstedes Four Cultural Value System

• individualism-collectivism
• Uncertainty avoidance
• power distance
• masculinity-femininity

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Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Individualistic cultures
• I consciousness
• independence,
• competition,
• negative face need
• Collectivist cultures
• We consciousness,
• interdependence,
• group harmony,
• positive face need
• Strong influence on social relationships
• The concept of ingroups and outgroups
• Rules Vs relationships, strangers Vs associates
• All people and cultures have both individual and
  collective dispositions.

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Ranking of Individualism
115

• Case study
• At the negotiating table, differences
  in this dimension can clearly cause serious
  conflict. Americans too often expect their
  Japanese counterparts to make decisions right at
  the negotiating table, and the Japanese are
  constantly surprised to find individual members
  of the American team promoting their own
  positions, decisions, and ideas, sometimes openly
  contradicting one another.

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Uncertainty Avoidance

• It involves the extend to which a culture would
  avoid or tolerate uncertainty.
• High uncertainty avoidance cultures think of the
  uncertainty inherent in life as a continuous
  hazard that must be avoided. They try to avoid
  uncertainty and ambiguity by providing stability
  for their members, establishing more formal
  rules. (a higher level of anxiety and stress)
• Low uncertainty avoidance cultures more easily
  accept the uncertainty inherent in life and are
  not as threatened by deviant people and ideas, so
  they tolerate the unusual. They prize initiative
  and more willing to take risks, more flexible.
  (less tense, more relaxed)

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Ranking of Uncertainty Avoidance
A low score means the country can be classified
as one that does not like uncertainty.
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Power Distance

• High PD Culture
• People who hold power and people who are affected
  by power are significantly far apart
• Vertical, hierarchical (everybody has a rightful
  place)
• E.g. India, Brazil, Singapore, Greece, Venezuela,
  Mexico, etc.
• Low PD Culture
• The power holders and people affected by the
  power holders are significantly closer
• Horizontal (inequality in society should be
  minimized)
• E.g. Austria, Finland, Denmark, Norway, New
  Zealand, etc.

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Masculinity vs. Femininity

• Cultures high in the masculinity dimension focus
  on achievement, power, and possessions, regarding
  work as more central to ones life, differing
  gender roles more than feminine culture.
  (performance society)
• Cultures high in the femininity dimension value
  interpersonal relationships, nurturance,
  compassion, and quality of life.
• (welfare society)

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Ranking of Masculinity
A low score means the country can be classified
as one that favors Masculinity.
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Limitations of Hofstedes model

• Because the people Hofstede surveyed were middle
  managers in large multinational organizations,
  most of his findings are work related.
• Many important countries and cultures were not
  included in his study. ( no Arab countries, South
  Africa representing Africa, no information about
  mainland China)
• He emphasizes national culture, so it is not
  possible to know the layers of culture within
  nations.

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Edward T. Hall's Model

• Human communication is dependent on the context
  in which it occurs.
• Communicative contexts include the physical,
  sociological, and psychological environments.
• High- and Low-context cultures

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High-context Culture

• In high-context messages, meaning is not
  necessarily contained in words. Information is
  provided through gestures, the use of space, and
  even silence. Meaning is also conveyed through
  status (age, sex, education, family background,
  title, and affiliation).
• Examples of high-context cultures include
  Chinese, Japanese, Middle Easterners, etc.

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Low-context Culture

• In low-context messages, the majority of the
  information is vested in the explicit code.
• Examples of low-context cultures include English,
  North American, German, etc.

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• High-Context Cultures
• Japanese
• Chinese
• Korean
• African American
• Native American
• Arab
• Greek
• Latin
• Italian
• English
• French
• American
• Scandinavian
• German
• German-Swiss
• Low-Context Cultures

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How high-context and low-context affect
intercultural communication

• Lack of enough data, people from low-context
  cultures often feel uncomfortable with the
  vagueness and ambiguity and will ask very blunt,
  unappropriate questions, which will make
  high-context culture members become impatient and
  irritated.
• People in high-context cultures perceive
  low-context people less credible.
• Conflicts are differently perceived and responded
  to.
• high-context discreetly and subtly
• Low-context directly spell it out

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Culture Shock

• Movie Guasha (the Treatment)
• Which scene suggests culture shock in the
  movie clip?
• Can you describe what culture shock is with your
  own words?
• In your opinion, what has probably caused culture
  shock?

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What is Culture Shock?

• Definition
• Troublesome feelings such as depression,
  loneliness, confusion, inadequacy, hostility,
  frustration, and tension, caused by the loss of
  familiar cues from the home culture. (Linell
  Davis)

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Obstacles to Intercultural Communication

• Ethnocentrism
• Stereotypes
• Prejudice
• Discrimination
• Racism
• Lack of Knowledge,
• Motivation, Skill
  

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Definition of Ethnocentrism

• Definition
• the view of things in which ones own group
  is the center of everything, and all others are
  scaled and rated with reference to it (William
  G. Sumner)
• Examples
• China is a country with a long history.
• arranged marriage

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Reason for ethnocentric ideas

• All cultures have the tendency to use the
  categories of ones own culture to evaluate the
  actions of others.
• If people believe that their culture is the
  only true culture, they will discriminate against
  people who manifest cultural norms that fail to
  correspond to their values and behaviors.

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Stereotypes

• Definition
• Stereotypes are a form of generalization about
  some group of people, or a means of organizing
  images into fixed and simple categories that are
  used to stand for the entire collection of
  people. (Walter Lippmann)
• Reasons
• Human beings have a psychological need to
  categorize and classify.

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Group Work Stereotyping them

• College professors
• Teenagers
• Bankers
• People from Northern China
• Fat people
• Millionaire
• Mother
• American old people

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Positive or negative?

• Stereotype a culture as being very efficient
• Stereotype a culture as being very rigid and
  inflexible in their business relationships

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Why are they barriers ?

• Stereotypes fail to specify individual
  characteristics.
• They assume that all members of a group have
  exactly the same traits.
• They are oversimplified, over generalized, and/
  or exaggerated.
• They are based on half-truths, distortions, and
  often untrue premises but often taken as
  truth.

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As a result

• Stereotype inaccuracy can lead to errors in
  interpretations about the behaviors of others.
• It can also lead to errors in interpretations
  about the future behaviors of others.

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Right attitude

• Intercultural competence requires an
  ability to move beyond stereotypes and to respond
  to the individual. Previous experiences should be
  used only as guidelines or suggested
  interpretations rather than as hard and fast
  categories.

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Prejudice

• Definition
• It refers to negative attitudes towards other
  people that are based on faulty and inflexible
  stereotypes. It is an unfair, biased, or
  intolerant attitude towards another group of
  people. ( Lusting Koester)
• Examples
• Example 1 Those Germans did it once, so I
  can never trust any of them ever again.
• Example 2 Dont pay the Mexicans very
  much. They dont have any education and will work
  for almost nothing.

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Discrimination

• It refers to the behavioral manifestations of the
  prejudice, it can be thought of as prejudice in
  action. ( Lusting Koester)

Racism
The belief that race accounts for differences
in human character or ability and that a
particular race is superior to others.
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Unit 8

• Intercultural Communicative Competence

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• Grammatical Competence
• _at_ mastering the linguistic code of a language
  (sentence level)
• Discourse Competence
• _at_ forming a meaningful whole out of a series of
  utterances.
• (inter-sentential relationships)

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• Sociolinguistic Competence
• _at_ knowledge of the socio-cultural rules
  (appropriateness of utterances)
• Strategic Competence
• _at_ verbal and nonverbal communication strategies
  that may be called into action to compensate for
  breakdowns in communication due to insufficient
  competence.

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Intercultural Competence

• cognitive dimension get to know the culture
• affective dimension be willing to learn the
  culture
• behavior dimension experience the culture with
  appropriateness and effectiveness

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Improve ICC

• The Behavioral Assessment Scale for Intercultural
  Competence (BASIC) by Jolene Koester and Margaret
  Olebe
• . Display of respect
• . Orientation to knowledge
• . Empathy
• . Task role behavior
• . Relational role behavior
• . Interaction management
• . Tolerance for ambiguity
• . Interaction posture

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Description, Interpretation, and Evaluation

• John Richardson has been sent by his U.S.-based
  insurance company to discuss, and possibly to
  sell, his companys products with an Argentinean
  company that has expressed great interest in
  them. His secretary has set up four appointments
  with key company officials. John arrives promptly
  at his first appointment, identifies himself to
  the receptionist, and is asked to be seated. Some
  30 minutes later he is ushered into the offices
  of the company official, who has one of his
  employees in the office with whom he is
  discussing another issue.

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• John is brought into the office of his second
  appointment within a shorter period of time, but
  the conversation is constantly disrupted by
  telephone calls and drop-in visits from others.
• At the end of the day, John is very discouraged
  he calls the home office and says, This is a
  waste of time, these guys arent interested in
  our products at all! I was left cooling my heels
  in their waiting rooms. They couldnt even give
  me their attention when I got in to see them.
  There were constant interruptions. I really tried
  to control myself, but Ive had it. Im getting
  on a plane and coming back tomorrow.

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Descriptive statements

• My appointments started anywhere from 15 to 30
  minutes later than the time I scheduled them
• The people with whom I had appointments also
  talked to other company employees when I was in
  their offices.
• The people with whom I had appointments accepted
  telephone calls when I was in their offices.

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Interpretations

• Company officials were not interested in talking
  with me or in buying my companys products.
• Company officials had rescheduled my appointments
  for a different time, but they neglected to tell
  my secretary about the change.
• In Argentina, attitudes toward time are very
  different than they are in the U.S., although
  appointments are scheduled for particular times,
  no one expects that people will be available at
  precisely that time.
• In Argentina it is an accepted norm of
  interaction between people who have appointments
  with each other to allow others to come into the
  room, either in person or by telephone, to ask
  their questions or to make their comments.

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Evaluations

• I dont like waiting around and not meeting
  according to the schedule I had set , but maybe I
  can still make this important sale.
• Some of the people here are sure interesting and
  I am enjoying meeting so many more people than
  just the four with whom I had scheduled
  appointments.

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Success

• The tool of description, interpretation, and
  evaluation increases your choices for
  understanding, responding positively to, and
  behaving appropriately with people from different
  cultures.

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Intercultural adaptation

• 1 cultural modification of an individual,
  group, or people by adapting to or borrowing
  traits from another culture
• also a merging of cultures as a
  result of prolonged contact
• 2 the process by which a human being
  acquires the culture of a particular society from
  infancy

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1. The adaptation process

• Confusion when faced with the hidden aspects of
  culture
• Frustration when old ways of dealing with
  situations fail to work
• Growing effectiveness as new skills are acquired
• Appreciation as new skills and attitudes enable
  the person to live more fully in the new
  situation
• Increased ability to deal with new and novel
  situations
• ----
  Linell Davis
• Excitement about the new situation

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Stages of adaptation to a new culture
5 appreciation
6. New cultural experiences
1 excitement
2 confusion
4 effectiveness
Time in the new culture
3 frustration
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• 1) Excitement (honeymoon)
• curiosity, fascination and excitement
• viewing the new environment from our own cultural
  perspective
• neglecting differences and reinforcing
  similarities

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2) Confusion

• Typical problems newcomers often misread or
  misinterpret the behavior and speech of the local
  people because they interpret meanings according
  to the home culture grammar.
• Solution retreat to an enclave (special
  communities made up of people from the home
  culture)
• Danger interfere with or delay adaptation to the
  new culture.

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3) Frustration

• More negative attitude about the new culture
  blame the new culture and its people for his
  difficulties.
• Learning to cope pay more attention to what the
  people around him are actually doing.

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4) Effectiveness

• Gaining intercultural skills, the sojourner
  has more positive feeling about the new culture
• sojourner
• n. temporary resident, one who lives in a
  particular place for a relatively brief period of
  time

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5) Appreciation

• An attitude of appreciation develop a more
  personal understanding of the new culture and
  values it (more creative, expressive and able to
  take initiative and responsibility)
• Go native get rid of ones home culture identity
  ( a rejection of the self)

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• Unit 9
• Intercultural Communication and Business

160

• Communication challenges in business setting
• A. work-related values
• 1) individualism vs. collectivism
• case study American boss vs. Japanese
  employee
• 2) work and material gain
• case study Saudi Arabian vs. Japanese

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• 3) Quality vs. efficiency
• case study German vs. American
• 4) Task vs. relationship priority
• case study American vs. Chinese

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• B. Communication styles
• Indirect vs. direct
• case study American vs. Chinese
• 2) Honesty vs. harmony
• case study Australian vs. Korean
• 3) Formality vs. informality
• case study British vs. American

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• 2. Intercultural negotiation
• A. negotiation process
• 1) four components
• policy formulation
• interaction
• deliberation
• outcome

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• 2) 12 variables
• basic concept of negotiation
• selection of negotiators
• role of individual aspiration
• concern with protocol
• significance of type of issue
• complexity of language
• nature of persuasive argument
• value of time
• bases of trust
• risk-taking prospensity
• internal decision-making system
• form of satisfactory agreement

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• B. Negotiating successfully
• 1) be a perfect negotiator
• 2) set up goals and plan negotiation time
• 3) genuinely communicate ones own strengths
• 4) pick the right moment
• 5) be fair and objective
• 6) listen attentively, ask questions, repeat
  key points and summarize
• 7) visualize your argument
• 8) use clever phrases and appropriate nonverbal
  behaviors
• 9) make a good ending

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• 3. Business etiquette and protocol
• A. appointment seeking and business meeting
• B. Greeting etiquette and non-verbal
  behaviors
• C. Giving gifts
• D. Dining etiquette
• E. Dressing etiquette
• case study
• in China
• in the USA
• in Germany
• in Japan

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• Unit 10
• Intercultural communication and tourism

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• Communication challenges in tourism contexts
• A. Social norms
• B. Culture shock
• C. Language and food challenge

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• 2. Intercultural communication and tourism
• A. Relationship between hosts and tourists
• The attitudes of hosts toward tourists
• retreatism
• resistance
• boundary maintenance
• revitalization
• adoption

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• B. Characteristics of tourist-host encounters
• 1) transitory
• 2) lack spontaneity
• 3) unbalanced

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• C. Relationship between tourism and culture
• Active effects on culture
• 1) reinforces communication and understanding
  between cultures
• 2) helps to maintain and develop the local
  culture, both in material and spiritual way

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• Negative effects on culture
• 1) Tourism may intrude the privacy of local
  residents and diminish their cultural images.
• 2) residents often do not share equally in
  the profits from revitalization and marketing of
  culture.
• 3) Tourism may bring harm to the
  environment to the local culture and consequently
  affects the culture itself.

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• THE END