Chapter 5 - Communicating Across Cultures

Culture

• Negotiated, dynamic and cultural changes can be traced and analyzed to better understand why our society is the way it is.

• Learned; the importance of socializing institutions like family, school, peers, and the media

• Influences beliefs about what is true and false, likes and dislikes, what is right or wrong, and our behaviors

Personal Identities

Include the components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connected to our life experiences.

Social Identities

The components of self that are derived from involvement in social groups with which we are interpersonally committed

Cultural Identities

Based on socially constructed categories that teach us a way of being and include expectations for social behavior or ways of acting

Ascribed Identity

• Personal, social, or cultural identities that are placed on us by others

• The set of demographic and role descriptions that others in an interaction assume to hold true for you.

• Often a function of one’s physical appearance, ethnic connotations of one’s name, or other stereotypical associations

Avowed Identities

• Identities that we claim for ourselves

• Comprised of the group affiliations that one feels most intensely.

1. Cultures are created through communication; communication is a means of human interaction through which cultural characteristics are created and shared

2. Cultures are a natural by-product of social interaction

Relationship between culture and communication

1. Cultures are complex and multifaceted

2. Cultures are subjective

3. Cultures change over time

4. Cultures are largely invisible

Characteristic of Culture

Edward T. Hall

• American Anthropologist who is remembered for developing the concept of proxemics and exploring cultural and social cohesion, and describing how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal space

• Founded the scholarly field of intercultural communication during the 1951-1955 period when he was at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of States

Intercultural Communication

• Essentially means communication across different cultural boundaries

• Can allow us to step outside of our comfortable, usual frame of reference and see our culture through different lens

• It is through this that we come to create, understand, and transform culture and identity

Ethnocentrism

Our tendency to view our own culture as superior to other cultures

Dialectical Approach

• Helps us think about culture and intercultural communication in complex ways, so we can avoid categorizing everything in either/or dichotomies by adopting a broader approach and acknowledging the tensions that must be negotiated

• Examines aspects of intercultural communication in the form of six dichotomies, namely cultural vs individual, personal vs. contextual, differences vs. similarities, static vs dynamic, history bs past-present vs future

Dialectic

Relationship between two opposing concepts that constantly push and pull one another (Martin and Nakayama). Helps us realize that our experiences often occur in between two different phenomena

Dichotomies

Are dualistic ways of thinking that highlight opposites, reducing the ability to see gradations that exist in between concepts

Cultural-Individual Dialectic

Captures the interplay between patterned behaviors learned from a cultural group and individual behaviors that may be variations on or counter to those of the larger culture

Personal-Contextual Dialectic

Highlights the connection between our personal patterns of and preferences for communicating and how various contexts influence the personal

Differences-Similarities Dialectic

• Allows us to examine how we are simultaneously similar to and different from others

• Most popular amongst conversations regarding gender differences

Static-Dynamic Dialectic

• Suggests that culture and communication change over time yet often appear to be and are experienced as stable. Some cultural values remain relatively consistent over time, which allows us to make some generalizations about a culture.

History/Past-Present/Future Dialectic

Reminds us to understand that while current cultural conditions are important and that our actions now will inevitably affect our future, those conditions are not without a history.

Privileges-Disadvantages Dialectic

• Captures the complex interrelation of unearned, systemic advantages and disadvantages that operate among our various identities. Some cultural values remain relatively consistent over time, which allows us to make generalizations about a culture,

• We must view culture and identity through the lens of intersectionality which asks us to acknowledge that we each have multiple cultures and identities that intersect with each other

1. Cultural Identity

2. Gender Role

3. Age Identity

4. Social Class

5. Religious Identity

Socio-Cultural Aspects of Communication

Cultural Identity

• Refers to the membership and acceptance into a larger cultural group that share a system of tradition, norms, and values.

• Involves the people’s standards of appropriate and inappropriate behavior

• The level of one’s cultural identity influences his/her emotional significance in the cultural group that influences his/her behavior as well.

Gender Role

• Not necessarily limited to male and female

• Ex. Skirts and dresses are proudly worn by men. Women are not only seen nursing children at home but also run a country or lead a nation

• The society and media representations of gender inform and influence the people’s understanding and expectations of the gender roles in the real world.

Age Identity

• Refers to how people feel and think about themselves as they age

• Can influence one’s self-image, personality, language use, attitudes, and communication with others

Social Class

• This is the rank assigned by the society to its members according to their income, titles, possessions, etc.

• People’s perception of another’s social class affects the way they communicate

• Generally speaking, the higher classes enjoy more privileged roles, and the lower classes are assigned manual labor

Religious Identity

• Refers to the active or inactive membership of a person to a certain religious organization

• Religion is very sacred and important to anyone or everyone

Stumbling Blocks

Are barriers and habits that may contribute to misunderstandings across cultures during intercultural communication

1. High anxiety

2. Tendency to Evaluate

3. Stereotypes and Preconceptions

4. Assumption of Similarities

5. Nonverbal Misinterpretations

6. Language Differences

Barriers of Cross-Cultural Communication (Stumbling Blocks)

Assumptions of Similarities

• Believing that all people have the same fundamental ideas, values, and perspectives

• Does not often extend to the expectation of a common verbal language but it does interfere with caution in decoding nonverbal symbols, signs, and signals

1. When in doubt, ask

2. Ask open-ended questions

How to avoid assumptions of similarities (2)

Language Differences

• Differences in vocabulary, syntax, idioms, slangs, dialects, and so on

• Important details in the conversation may be missed.

1. Avoid slang and abbreviations

2. Repeat information or directions patiently

How to avoid language differences (2)

Nonverbal Misinterpretations

• Physical gestures or facial expressions can mean completely different things to different people.

• People from different cultures inhabit different sensory realities. They see, hear, feel, and smell only that which has some meaning or importance for them

Be aware of your body language and how others react to it when communicating with people

How to avoid nonverbal misinterpretations

Preconceptions and Stereotypes

• Using overgeneralized, possibly inaccurate beliefs to make sense of situations or predict interactions

• Often at the root of unconscious biases in workplaces

Use generalizations are a springboard for interaction, but do not stereotype

How to avoid preconceptions and stereotypes

Tendency to Evaluate

• Moving to judge something as good or bad based on whether or not it aligns with your own tastes or your own way of thinking

• To approve or disapprove, the statements and actions of the other person, or group rather than to try to comprehend completely the thoughts and feelings expressed from the world view of the other

Do not assign negative value to something just because you do not understand it or personally like it

How to avoid the tendency to evaluate

High Anxiety

• Stress or tension caused by a lack of experiences in communicating across cultures or within a specific culture

• Frustration may cause one or both participants to shut down or give up on trying to communicate

Embrace discomfort and step outside of your comfort zone

How to avoid high anxiety