High-Context and Low-Context Cultures Dr. Edward Hall Comparison of Characteristics The Joy Luck Club Connections

Dr. Edward Hall  Anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher  Distinguished cultures on the basis of the role of context in communication  Context: the whole situation, background, or environment connected to an event, a situation, or an individual.  “It was taken out of context”: without the words or circumstances and so not fully understandable.

Contexts: High and Low Low-ContextHigh-Context Information and meaning are explicitly stated in the message Individual “internalizes” meaning and information, so that less is explicitly stated Values IndividualismValues Group Sense Values direct verbal interaction and is less able to read nonverbal expressions Values indirect verbal interaction and is more able to read nonverbal expressions

Contexts: High and Low Low-ContextHigh-Context Tends to use “logic” to present ideas Tends to use more “feeling” in expressions Tends to emphasize highly structured messages, give details, and place great stress on words Tends to give simple, ambiguous, noncontexting messages Emphasizes linear logicEmphasizes spiral logic

Low-Context Ideas  In a low-context culture, Hall argues, “Most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context.”  To members of a low-context culture, speakers in a high-context culture seem to talk around a subject and never get to the point.

Clash or Low and High in The Joy Luck Club  Mothers expect daughters to learn from and obey their elders (as they did).  Mothers do not feel they need to “explain.”  Mother’s fears, warnings, instructions or examples are not fully supported by the context of American culture, and so the daughters have difficulty understanding.  Daughters feel they do not understand their mothers because information is omitted; mothers think information can be inferred and does not need explanation.

Journal: Context Problems Brainstorm examples of this conflict between high and low-context cultures in The Joy Luck Club. You may: 1.Focus on one Mother / Daughter relationship 2.Start with a quote from a mother or daughter, and then explain how this fits into the high or low. 3.Think about how the important themes relate to this conflict.