UNIT III Lesson 2 (Local and Global Communication)
UNIT III Lesson 2 (Local and Global Communication)
Intercultural Communication
Lesson 2
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
According to science, each person is genetically unique. Except for identical twins, each person has a
genuine genetic composition. This sequence becomes even more heightened because of individual experiences.
Human are formed by forces other that genetics. Family background, religious affiliations, educational
achievements , socio-cultural forces, economic condition, emotional states, and other factor shape human
identities. Because of this, no two people can ever be exactly the same.
No matter where you are in the world, communication is important. But communicating across cultures
can be pretty hard. And I don't just mean that there's a language barrier, although that can be an issue. No, I
mean that cultures actually have some very different ways of communicating. Some cultures are informal, some
cultures use a whole series of ritual greetings before having a conversation, and some cultures consider it rude
to show up to a meeting on time. But what do all these cultures have in common? Well, for one, you can offend
each of them if you don't understand their communication practices. And we want to avoid that. So what do we
do? Well, to put it simply, we learn to communicate!
So, we need to learn how to communicate all over again, just like when we were children. And just like
when we were children, this requires learning language as well as learning behavioral norms for good
communication. However, this will be a bit different since we're adults learning how to communicate in
someone else's culture, not our own.
Intercultural communication is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between people from different
cultural backgrounds. Basically, 'inter-' is a prefix that means 'between' and cultural means… well, from a
culture, so intercultural communication is the communication between cultures. Sometimes, this is used to
describe a single person trying to interact in a foreign environment but more often, it is a two-way street, where
people from both cultures are trying to improve their communication.
Now, if you want to learn about intercultural communication, it's important to understand what this is.
But it's also important to understand what it isn't. Intercultural communication is targeted at allowing for
positive and productive interaction. You are not joining this culture, you are not becoming a member of another
society, you are not abandoning your own culture. That would be assimilation and that's not what we're after.
Intercultural communication is also not simply a language proficiency. Yes, communication requires the
ability to understand language, but just think about how much of your communication with even your own
friends is nonverbal: our body language, our attitudes, the rituals from hand-shaking to the stink eye. Some
researchers estimate that up to 93% of all human communication is nonverbal, although according to recent
studies, it's actually closer to 60%. Still, that means that more than half of communication is never spoken. So,
intercultural communication is going to take a lot more than just learning a language.
How then we do approach intercultural communication? The following reading text talks about
intercultural communication. Before reading the text, look up the meaning of the following words and phrases
that are use in the selection.
We are all individuals, and no two people belonging to the same culture are guaranteed to respond in
exactly the same way. However, generalizations are valid to the extent that they provide clues on what you will
most likely encounter when dealing with members of a particular culture.
High-context cultures (Mediterranean, Slav, Central European, Latin American, African, Arab, Asian,
American-Indian) leave much of the message unspecified, to be understood through context, nonverbal cues,
and between-the-lines interpretation of what is actually said. By contrast, low-context cultures (most Germanic
and English-speaking countries) expect messages to be explicit and specific.
Some cultures think of time sequentially, as a linear commodity to "spend," "save," or "waste." Other
cultures view time synchronically, as a constant flow to be experienced in the moment, and as a force that
cannot be contained or controlled.
In sequential cultures (like North American, English, German, Swedish, and Dutch), businesspeople
give full attention to one agenda item after another.
In synchronic cultures (including South America, southern Europe and Asia) the flow of time is viewed
as a sort of circle, with the past, present, and future all interrelated. This viewpoint influences how organizations
in those cultures approach deadlines, strategic thinking, investments, developing talent from within, and the
concept of "long-term" planning.
Orientation to the past, present, and future is another aspect of time in which cultures differ. Americans
believe that the individual can influence the future by personal effort, but since there are too many variables in
the distant future, we favor a short-term view. Synchronistic cultures’ context is to understand the present and
prepare for the future. Any important relationship is a durable bond that goes back and forward in time, and it is
often viewed as grossly disloyal not to favor friends and relatives in business dealings.
In international business practices, reason and emotion both play a role. Which of these dominates
depends upon whether we are affective (readily showing emotions) or emotionally neutral in our approach.
Members of neutral cultures do not telegraph their feelings, but keep them carefully controlled and subdued. In
cultures with high affect, people show their feelings plainly by laughing, smiling, grimacing, scowling, and
sometimes crying, shouting, or walking out of the room.
This doesn't mean that people in neutral cultures are cold or unfeeling, but in the course of normal
business activities, neutral cultures are more careful to monitor the amount of emotion they display. Emotional
reactions were found to be least acceptable in Japan, Indonesia, the U.K., Norway, and the Netherlands and
most accepted in Italy, France, the U.S., and Singapore.
Reason and emotion are part of all human communication. When expressing ourselves, we look to
others for confirmation of our ideas and feelings. If our approach is highly emotional, we are seeking a direct
emotional response: "I feel the same way." If our approach is highly neutral, we want an indirect response: "I
agree with your thoughts on this."
CRITERIA
It's easy for people from neutral
cultures to sympathize Content 10 points with the Dutch manager
and his frustration over trying to reason with "that
excitable Italian." After Organization/grammar 10 points all, an idea either works or
it doesn't work, and the way to test the validity of
an idea is through trial Date of Submission 5 points and observation. That just
makes sense—doesn't Before and on-time on DL 5 points it? Well, not necessarily
to the Italian who felt the issue was deeply
personal and who Late 3 points viewed any "rational
argument" as totally Total 25 points irrelevant!
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