Intercultural Communications Quiz

Peace Imperative

Communicating effectively and respectfully across different cultures is important for reducing conflict and promoting peace

Economic Imperative

Understanding and communicating effectively with people from different cultures is important for business and economic success

Economic Imperative: Global Economy

Global economic development will continue to create demand for intercultural communication

This development will create not only more jobs but also more consumers to purchase goods from around the world- and to travel in that world

Technological Imperative

Technology has made it easier for people from different cultures and countries to communicate and interact with one another

Internet, social media, video calls allows us to communicate with different cultures

Environmental Imperative

People from different cultures and countries need to communicate and cooperate to address global environmental problems

Floods, droughts, wildfires, water rights

Demographic Imperative

Populations are becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse, so people need to understand and communicate effectively with individuals from different backgrounds

Heterogeneous

Synonym for diverse

Self-awareness Imperative

Understanding your own culture, beliefs, values, and biases before trying to understand other cultures

Ethical Imperative

Communicating with people from different cultures in a way that is respectful, fair, and responsible

Universalist Position

An ethical approach that emphasizes the similarity of beliefs across cultures

Cultural differences are only superficial and the fundamental notions of right and wrong are universal

Relativist Position

An ethical approach that believes that any cultural behavior can be judged only within the cultural context in which it occurs

Only a community can truly judge the ethics of its members

Self-reflexivity

Reflecting on your own thoughts, beliefs, biases, and cultural assumptions and recognizing how they affect the way you communicate with others

Culture

Learned patterns of perception, values, and behaviors, shared by a group of people, that are dynamic and heterogeneous

Communication

A symbolic process whereby meaning is shared and negotiated

Values

What is judged to be good or bad, or right or wrong

Values of a cultural group represent a worldview

Worldview

A particular way of looking at the world

Kluckhohn and Strodbeck Value Orientation Theory

Explains that different cultures may have different ways of answering basic questions about life

Human nature - Kluckhohn and Strodbeck

What are people like? Good, bad, or a mixture

Relationship with nature - Kluckhohn and Strodbeck

How should humans relate to nature? Control nature, live in harmony with nature, or be controlled by nature

Time - Kluckhohn and Strodbeck

Which time is most important? Past, present, or future

Activity - Kluckhohn and Strodbeck

What is the ideal way to live? Being, being-in-becoming, or doing

Relationship - Kluckhohn and Strodbeck

How should people relate to one another? Individual-focused, group-focused, or hierarchical

Power Distance

Concerns the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally

Masculinity/femininity

Degree to which gender-specific roles are valued and the degree to which a cultural group values masculine or feminine values

Uncertainty Avoidance

Degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations and try to ensure certainty by establishing more structure

Long-term vs Short-term orientation to life

Concerns a society’s search for virtue vs truth

Societies concerned with virtue (long-term orientation)

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and India

Societies concerned with truth (short-term orientation)

United States, Canada, Great Britain, the Philippines, and Nigeria

Indulgence/restraint orientation

Related to the subjective feelings of happiness

Societies that allow relatively free gratification of needs related to enjoying life and having fun

Mexico, Nigeria, Sweden, and Australia

Societies that tend to suppress gratification of needs and regulate it by means of strict social norms

Russia, Egypt, and other Islamic countries, China, and India

Context

Consists of physical, social, political, and historical structures when communication occurs

Power

Always present when we communicate with each other although it is not always evident or obvious

Groups with the most power determine, to a great extent, the communication system of the entire society

Ethnocentrism

Belief that one’s own cultural group- usually equated with nationality- is superior to all other cultural groups

Stereotypes

Widely held beliefs about a group of people and are a form of generalization, a way of categorizing and processing information we receive about others in our daily life

Prejudice

Negative attitude toward a cultural group based on little or no experience

Tokenism

Prejudice shown by people who do not want to admit they are prejudiced

Color-blind approach

Intercultural relations may have taught us to not notice color

Discrimination

Behavior that results from stereotyping or prejudice- overt actions to exclude, avoid, or distance oneself from other groups

Hate Speech

Intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their group membership

How does history connect with intercultural communications?

The history that we know and our views about that history are strongly influenced by our culture

Political histories

Focused on political events

Intellectual histories

Focus on the development of ideas

Social histories

Focus on everyday life experiences of various groups in the past

Family histories

Occur at the same time as other histories but on a more personal level

National histories

Include great events and figures and gives us a shared notion of who we are and solidifies our sense of nationhood

Cultural group histories

Helps us understand the identities of various groups

Ignorance of the histories of other groups makes intercultural communication more difficult and more susceptible to misunderstanding

Grand narrative

Overarching story or belief that explains how the world works, where society came from, or where it is going

Storytelling

Fundamental to the human experience

Histories are stories we use to make sense of who we are and who we think others are

Non-mainstream histories

Telling individuals’ personal narratives offers them an entry into history and an opportunity to reconcile with the events of history

Stories help in understanding how others negotiated the cultural attitudes of the past that have relevance for the present

Religious histories

Emphasis is on the role of religions in understanding the past

Religious persecution has led to migration of various religious groups to new places

Gender histories

Emphasis is on the importance of gender in understanding the past, particularly the role of women

Sexual orientation histories

Historical experiences of gays and lesbians that are often overlooked or silenced

Ethnic and racial histories

Not included by mainstream, swept under the carpet to make certain cultures look better

Diaspora

Massive migration, often caused by war, famine, enslavement, or persecution, that results in the dispersal of a unified group

Colonial history

Emphasis is on the important role of colonialism in understanding the past and its influence on the present

Colonialism is significant in determining language (we do not freely chose the languages we speak)

Post-colonialism

Study of colonialism as well as the study of how we might deal with that past and its aftermath, which may include the ongoing use of colonial language, culture, and religion

Socioeconomic class histories

Prompted many people to emigrate to the U.S.

Ex: Impoverish Irish immigrated to the U.S.

Historical legacies

Consider the ways the past has constructed how we live in the present and what we think should happen in the future

Power effect of labels

Individuals may feel trapped or misrepresented when people use labels that they dislike or that make them feel inaccurately described

Sapir-whorf hypothesis

Language defines our experience and shapes ideas about our perception of the world

U.S. attitude towards speaking, writing, and silence

Speaking is highly valued, listening is secondary mode of communication, silence may be view negatively

Other cultural groups attitudes toward speaking, writing, and silence

Primary emphasis on silence and harmony, secondary emphasis on speech, may distrust public speech

High-context communication

Most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person

Low-context communication

Majority of the meaning and information is present in the verbal message

Direct communication style

Verbal messages reveals the speaker’s true intentions, needs, wants, and desires

Indirect communication style

Preserving harmony of relationships has higher priority than complete honesty

Elaborated style

Rich, expressive language in everyday conversation

Understated style

Values simple assertions and silence

Slang

Wittier and more creative than standard language, establishes community

Humor

Linked to cultural experiences, hard to decipher online

Code switiching

Ability of people who ‘live on the border’ between two different cultures to change communication styles with ease

Third culture style

When two people try to adapt to each other, they sometimes construct a style that is not exactly like either of their styles

Improvisation

Involves being flexible and adapting to the situation

Co-cultural groups

Groups that are not dominant within society’s social structure

Social positions

Social constructs embedded with assumptions about gender, race, class, age, and sexuality

Assimilation strategies

Emphasize trying to fit into and be accepted by the dominant group, self-censoring, and avoiding controversy

Accommodation strategies

Blending with the dominant group

Separation strategies

Emphasize avoiding interaction with dominant group members, regard segregation as a natural phenomenon

Argot

Involves creating a way of communicating that distinguishes insiders from outsiders in a group

Language acquisition

Refers to the process of learning another language

Interlanguage

Refers to the type of communication that emerges when native speakers of one language are speaking in another language

Translation

Refers to the process of producing a written text that refers to something said or written in another language

Source text

Original-language text of a translation

Target text

New language text into which the original language texts translated

Interpretation

Refers to the process of verbally expressing what is said or written in another language

Simultaneous

Interpreter speaks at the same time as the original speaker

Consecutive

Interpreter speaks only during the breaks provided by the original speaker

Equivalency

Condition of being equal in meaning, value, quantity, and soon

Language policies

Reflects tensions between the nation’s history, various language communities, and economic and political relations inside and outside the nation

Nonverbal communication

Facial expression, personal space, eye contact, use of time, conversational silence

Relational messages

Messages that express how we really feel about others

Status

The relative position a person occupies in an organizational or social setting

Deception

Some nonverbal behaviors may indicate lying, very difficult to be detected with accuracy

Paralinguistics

The study of vocal behaviors that indicate how something is said

Speaking rate, volume, pitch, stress

Personal space

The ‘bubble’ around each of us that marks the territory between ourselves and others

Contact culture (south america)

Stand closer together while talking, direct eye contact, touch frequently

Noncontact cultures (northern europe)

Stand further apart, less eye contact

Physical appearance

Physical characteristics like height, weight, body shape, personal grooming, personal artifacts

Emblems

Gestures that have a specific verbal translation