1. 跨文化交际
华中科技大学公选课

2. Session 1 Culture, Communication, Intercultural Communication

3. Importance of Intercultural Communication
Why did you choose this course?
Chances for IC are caused by globalization
Spurring development of transportation and communication systems (shortened touring time, television networks, the internet, international film industry)
Cultural migration between nations (multiculturalism)
New economic arena (multinational corporations)
Ever-increasing world population (finite natural resources, pollution, international conflicts)

4. Warming up
Make a list of images from your home culture and try to explain what they express about who the people of your culture are and what their relationship is to people from other cultures.
Which image do you prefer? Which do you think are the images that most truly express how people feel about themselves and the world?

5. Lecture Outline culture communication definition definition definition
Intercultural
communication
definition
definition
definition
forms
elements
functions
mode
elements
characteristics
right attitudes
characteristics

6. 1. What is culture? On the surface: customs and behavior
More deeply: what the behavior and customs mean to the
people who are following
them
In a word: Culture is all about meanings
Hall: Culture is everything and everywhere

7. Sir Edward Tylor’s definition in 1871 (first use of this term):
“that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”

8. Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952)
---- Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions
(listing more than 300 definitions)
Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other as conditioning elements of further action.

9. Porter & Samovar
The deposit（沉淀物） of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
----Intercultural Communication: A Reader

10. Basic functions of culture
Culture makes all things easy.
- by providing meaning to events, objects and people --- making life less confusing
- by providing us with structure --- the skills and rules necessary to adapt to our world

11. A culture can also be understood as a particular way to satisfy our human needs. Let’s follow Abraham Maslow!
5 Self-actualization
4 Esteem
3 Belongingness
2 Safety
1 Physiological needs

12. The Characteristics of Culture
transmitted
LEARNED
ADAPTIVE
Subject to change
CULTURE IS…
symbolic
unconscious
INTEGRATED

13. 1) Culture is learned
consciously or unconsciously:
(enculturation)
**through Proverbs, Folktales, Myths, and legends
**through Art
e.g. Beijing Opera
**through Mass Media

14. 2) Most part of culture is unconscious Culture as an iceberg
way of doing things(10%)
Behaviour
Traditions
Artefacts – buildings, clothes, art etc.
explicit
tacit
Beliefs
Attitudes
Perceptions
Values
way of thinking(90%)

15. Can you tell which of the following are above the water and which are below?
What people eat
What people wear
What games children play
How to use time
How to introduce people
How to participate in ceremonies
Rules for gestures
Rules for facial expressions and eye contact
Etiquette
Work speed
What is right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, good or bad, etc.
Car parking

16. Can you tell what went wrong?
Case Study
Richard, an engineer from the United States, was invited to take tea with one of his British colleagues while he was in England. This was a purely social, relaxed occasion. Tea was served along with sugar and cream. As he helped himself to some sugar and cream, he sensed he had done something wrong.
Can you tell what went wrong?
“Help yourself” VS “Be my guest”

17. 3) Culture is subject to change
Oct. 5, st Century Changing Tastes “This July China Daily reported severe obesity affects 16 to 20 per cent China’s young urbanites.” “A major study released by Centre for Public Nutrition and Development last September found as income increases, energy intake increases. But a high percentage of that extra energy comes from fat. And grains and potatoes were eaten less.”

18. 4) Culture is transmitted from generation to generation 5) Culture is based on symbols 6) Culture is integrated 7) Culture is adaptive (acculturation)

19. Linell Davis: five metaphors (to be more easily understood)
Culture is like an iceberg
some is visible (history, literature, customs)
most is invisible (feelings and attitudes)
Culture is our software
physical selves as the hardware, become human when programmed with the software of culture
Culture is like the water a fish swims in
notice everything except the water
Culture is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves
people tell stories to tell who they are and stories also change to adapt to changing circumstances
Culture is the grammar of our behavior
people learn their cultural grammar unconsciously and apply them automatically in order to behave appropriately in any society

20. Mainstream culture, co-culture or subculture?
When we talk about culture, we mainly refer to mainstream culture.
Co-culture Vs subculture

21. 2. What is Communication?
It comes from the Latin word “communicare”, it means to give or to exchange. Now, the most common meaning of “communication” is to give or exchange information or ideas.
Communication is our ability to share our ideas and feelings. (the basis of all human contact)
Communication is a dynamic, systematic process in which meanings are created and reflected in human interaction with symbols. (J.T.Wood)

22. Elements of communication
Context
Participants
Messages (meanings, symbols, encoding
and decoding)
Channels
Noise (external noise, internal noise,
semantic noise)
feedback

23. Linear Model of Communication
Mode of Communication
Linear Model of Communication
noise
Sender
encoding
decoding
Receiver
Channel (message)
Is this an effective model of communication?

24. Interactive Model of Communication
decoding
encoding
message / channel
Sender
Receiver
Sender
Receiver
noise
decoding
encoding
message / channel
Feedback is essential to good communication

25. Transactional Model of Communication Relationship Dimensions
decoding
encoding
message / channel
Fields of Experience
Sender
Receiver
Sender
Receiver
noise
Relationship Dimensions
decoding
encoding
message / channel
We continually influence each other through communication

26. Characteristics of communication
1) Communication is dynamic
Communication is an ongoing activity. It is not fixed. A word or action does not stay frozen when you communicate; it is immediately replaced with yet another word or action.

27. Characteristics of communication
2) Communication is interactive
A interactive view holds that communicators are simultaneously sending and receiving messages at every instant that they are involved in conversations.

28. Characteristics of communication
3) Communication is irreversible
Communication is an irreversible process. We can never undo what has already been done. Although we may try to qualify, negate, or somehow reduce the effects of our message, once it has been sent and received, the message itself cannot be reversed.

29. Characteristics of communication
4) Communication is contextual.
All communication takes place within a setting or situation called a context. By context, we mean the place where people meet, the social purpose for being together, and the nature of the relationship. Thus the context includes the physical, social, and interpersonal settings.

30. 6. Intercultural Communication
Samovar & Porter
Intercultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.
intercultural communication refers to any communication between two members of any cultural communities.

31. Intercultural Communication Vs Cross-cultural Communication
the similarities and differences in value orientations, affective dispositions, relationship management, communicative styles (psychological process)
Intercultural communication
the penetration by a member of one culture into another culture (practical significance)

32. Forms of Intercultural Communication
International communication
Interracial communication
Interethnic communication
Intracultural communication

33. a. International communication
International communication takes place between nations and governments rather than individuals; it is quite formal and ritualized(仪式化) .
United Nations Conference

34. b. Interracial communication
Interracial communication occurs when the sender and the receiver exchanging messages are from different races.

35. c. Interethnic communication
Ethnic groups usually form their own communities in a country or culture. These groups share a common origin or heritage that is apt to influence family names, language, religion, values, and the like.

36. d. Intracultural communication
It is defined as communication between or among members of the same culture.

37. Discussion: Discuss the following cases of communication and decide to what extent they are intercultural.
Communication between
A Chinese and an American,
A Canadian and a South African,
A male and a female
A father and a son
A person from Beijing and one from Tibet,
A first-generation Chinese American and a third-generation one,
A student form Hong Kong and a teacher from Xi’an
A software technician and a farmer, etc

38. 任何人与人之间的交际都应该被视为跨文化交际。
－－Singer
Samovar & Porter:
西方人－亚洲人 最大分歧
意大利人－沙特阿拉伯人
美国人－希腊人
美国人－德国人
美国人－操法语加拿大人
盎格鲁撒克逊血统的美国白人－拘留地的印第安人
盎格鲁撒克逊血统的美国白人－美国黑人
美国人－英国人
美国人－操英语加拿大人
美国城市居民－美国乡村居民
天主教徒－浸礼教徒
主张男性权力者－主张男女平等者
异性恋者－同性恋者
环境保护者－房地产开发商 最小分歧

39. What we focus on in this course is communication between cultures beyond country boundaries.

40. 7.Elements of Intercultural Communication
Perceptions (beliefs, values, attitudes, world
views, social organizations)
Verbal processes (the ways in which
cultures employ symbols
to portray things and
experiences)
Nonverbal processes (share thoughts and feelings
by way of bodily behavior,
time and space)
Contextual elements (business, education and
health care, tourism and
personal relationships)

41. What was wrong? Case Study
While visiting Egypt, Richard, an engineer from the United States, was invited to a spectacular dinner at the home of an Egyptian friend. As he was leaving their home, making effort to thank them for their dinner, he noticed their picture and made a compliment by saying “What beautiful frames your pictures are in!” However he sensed something wrong. His sincere compliment was obviously misunderstood.

42. What is the correct attitude?
The communicator cannot stop at knowing that the people he is working with have different customs, goals, and thought patterns from his own. … He must be able to work with them and within them, neither losing his own values in the confrontation nor protecting himself behind a wall of intellectual detachment.
(Adapted from L.M.Barna, “Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication”, 1992)