Cultural Awareness and Inter-cultural Communication

Definitions of Culture The explicit and implicit patterns of behaviors, symbols, and ideas that constitute the distinctive achievements of human groups. Kroeber and Kluckhohn 1952

That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities acquired by humans as members of society. Tylor in person, 1974

The sum total of a way of life of a people; patterns experienced by individuals as normal ways of acting, feeling, and being. Hall 1959

How Cultural Values are Formed Environmental adaptations Historical factors Social and economic evolution Contact with other cultural groups

How Personal Values are Formed Family and childhood messages Folklore of the culture Societal pressures: rewards and punishment Religious education Formal education Formal schooling Peer groups

Misleading Assumptions in Multicultural World Homogeneity: The Melting Pot Myth Parochialism: The Only-One-Way Myth Ethnocentrism: The One-Best-Way Myth

The Melting Pot Myth We are all the same.

Truth We are not all the same; there are many culturally different groups in society.

The Only-One-Way Myth Our way is the only way. We do not recognize any other way of living, working, or doing things.

Truth There are many culturally distinct ways of reaching the same goal or living one’s life.

The One-Best-Way Myth Our way is the best way. All other ways are inferior versions of our way.

Truth There are many other different and equally good ways to reach the same goal. The best way is contingent on the culture of the people involved.

The Good Life—different cultural views on the good life

Moral of the story …learn how to play the guitar today and enjoy yourself…

Cross-Cultural Communication All communication is cultural—it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages.

Miscommunication is likely to happen, especially when there are significant cultural differences between communicators.

Ideas, attitudes, and behaviors involving the following four variables: Time and Space Fate and Personal Responsibility Face and Face-Saving Nonverbal Communication

Time and Space Time is one of the most central differences that separate cultures and cultural ways of doing things.

In the West, time tends to be seen as quantitative, measured in units that reflect the march of progress.

This approach to time is called monochromic—it is an approach that favors linear structure and focus on one event or interaction at a time.

In the East, time feels like it has unlimited continuity, an unraveling rather than a strict boundary. People may attend to many things happening at once in this approach to time, called polychromous.

Fate and Personal Responsibility This refers to the degree to which we feel ourselves the masters of our lives, versus the degree to which we see ourselves as subject to things outside our control.

Face and Face-Saving Face is important across cultures, yet the dynamics of face and face-saving play out differently. In many cultures, maintaining face is of great importance, though ideas of how to do this vary.

In an individualistic culture such as the US, face has to do with preserving one’s image with others and themselves.

In a communitarian culture, individuals identify themselves as a member of a group. Thus, face relates to the group.

Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication is hugely important in any interaction with others; its importance is multiplied across cultures. We tend to look for nonverbal cues when verbal messages are unclear or ambiguous, as they are more likely to be across cultures.

Low-context cultures like the United States and Canada tend to give relatively less emphasis to nonverbal communication. In high-context settings such as Japan or Colombia, understanding the nonverbal components of communication is relatively more important to receiving the intended meaning of the communication as a whole.

Some elements of nonverbal communication are consistent across cultures. Differences surface with respect to which emotions are acceptable to display in various cultural settings, and by whom.

Another variable across cultures has to do with proximity, or ways of relating to space. The difficulty with space preferences is not that they exist, but the judgments that get attached to them.

Each of the variables discussed—time and space, personal responsibility and fate, face and face- saving, and nonverbal communication influences the course of communications, and can be responsible for conflict or the escalation of conflict when it leads to miscommunication or misinterpretation.