Intercultural Communication
Learning Unit’s Contents
Intercultural Communication Defined
Intercultural communication is defined (Tubbs and Moss) as communication between members of different cultures (whether defined in terms of racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic differences).
As you see, a culture can be determined by a variety of factors. Thus, a definition of culture must necessarily be broad. The same two authors defined culture as a way of life develop and shared by a group of people and passed down from generation to generation.
Culture, in its anthropological sense, covers everything we do to our environment in order to adapt it to our necessities, everything we do to ourselves, and everything we create in order to establish the external conditions that will allow the species to survive.
The culture is created by human activity. It reflects what people do, and thus, it can change.
Religion, political system, moral values and rules, language and customs are constitutive elements of any culture, but also tools, clothing or art.
1 – Factors That Might Define a Culture
1.1 Language
We defined Language as an arbitrary group of symbols. it is arbitrary, if you remember, because it depends on the people who speak it. Language is always the result of a social agreement. We all tacitly agree on giving certain symbols the same meaning. And only as a result of this tacit agreement is language possible.
Therefore, the same language is spoken very differently in different cultural areas. And in order to learn a language, you need to be immersed in that culture.
Take as an example the German Expression “Ich habe einen Kater”
(the literal translation would be “I’ve got a cat”)
The actual meaning of this sentence is “I have a hangover”.
To understand this sentence you need to go over the apparent meaning of words. You have to be familiar not only with the language, but also with the culture that produced it.
1.2 Race
In some cases the, the binding element in a culture – or subculture – is the race.
People get together originally because of a biological identity, and then develop a common way of life.
1.3 Ethnicity
While the concept of race is based on a genetic or biological identity, ETHNICITY refers to an actual or mythological ancestry, or also to common experiences as community, what we could call history.
1.4 Religion
Our religion normally prescribes a series of moral values that determine our attitudes and our behaviors. Thus, it can become a powerful source of culture.
1.5 Economic Status
The different environment in which a culture grows, determine the degree of wealth of the individuals that belong to it. How rich or poor a culture is influences the people inside and outside the group. For instance we tend to treat people differently depending on this factor, whether they come from poor or rich cultures.
2 Cultural Differences
2.1 Individualist versus Collectivist Cultures
In individualistic cultures, people tend to be more distant in their personal interactions with others.
Collectivists, on the other hand, interact closely and are interdependent.
In individualistic cultures, the individual, the “me”, is the center, and the self-actualization the ideal;
while in collectivist cultures the group is the core, and the welfare of the group is priority.
2.2 Masculine versus Femenine Cultures
The factor Gender might also differentiate cultures. In this regard, there are masculine and feminine cultures.
In the masculine cultures, the so-called masculine values are more important. Masculine values are:
Work, strength, competition, assertiveness, …
Examples of values that are considered:
Affection, compassion, …
2.3 High versus Low Power Distance Cultures
There are cultures that accept as normal big differences in personal, social, political or institutional power (high power distance). Some examples of this type of cultures: Mexico, India, Saudi Arabia, …
And there are cultures where the equality is a very important value and where the people would never accept those differences (low power distance cultures). Examples: Australia, Israel, Ireland, ….
2.4 High versus Low Context Cultures
In the high context cultures the non-verbal communication is more important. People don’t talk too much and listen more (example: the Japanese)
In the low context cultures, verbal communication is more important. The communication is more direct and more explicit. As an example, scholar mention the German or the Scandinavian culture.
2.5 High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures
In the cultures that score high in this factor, their members try to avoid the uncertainty about other cultures, they are interested in them and willing to learn from them (Spain, Greece, Italy are examples of High Uncertainty Avoidance cultures).
On the other hand, there are other cultures (low uncertainty avoidance) where the people are not interested in other cultures and don’t make the least effort to reduce this uncertainty (Austria, or Great Britain score low in this factor).
Stereotypes
Stereotyping becomes the most important obstacle in intercultural communication. Thus, it is necessary to learn more about the nature and origin of stereotypes.
The first author who used this term in its modern sense was Walter Lippmann (1889-1974).
Although he published several books on Sociology, Walter Lippmann is best know because of his work in the field of journalism. He is regard as one of the most influential journalist of the 20th Century.
He wrote his legendary column “TODAY AND TOMORROW” in the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE from 1931 until his retirement in 1967.
Lippmann coined the term “stereotype” in his book “Public Opinion” (1922).
1 – Stereotypes According to Walter Lippmann
First of all, the term stereotype has not only negative connotations.
Stereotypes fulfill a very important function. They help us organize the world outside our heads, which is too complex, too large to be caught in its fullness.
They determine the way we perceive. Stereotypes are not just something we learn. We learn the contents of the stereotypes, but the stereotype is a perception category, meaning that they help us elaborate the information we get through our difference senses.
According to Lippmann, we need some basic ideas in our head before the perception process starts:
“We imagine most things before we experience them. And those preconceptions, unless education has made us acutely aware, govern the whole process of perception.”
The way we perceive is, at the same time, the way we LEARN, the way we achieve knowledge. There is always something in our head before we get the information. Therefore Lippmann said that first we define, and then we see, we store what we have seen in one of our pre-existent definition boxes.
“For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us.”
We perceive the reality through the eyeglasses of the stereotypes that our culture has created for us.
Still, these pre-definitions of the reality, our stereotypes, are not neutral at all:
“The stereotypes are loaded with preference, suffused with affection or dislike, attached to fears, lusts, strong wishes, pride, hope.”
Stereotypes form the core of our personality – our most intimate and cherished values and beliefs and principles.
They become the moral columns of our life:
“Morality, good taste and good form first standardize and then emphasize certain of these underlying prejudices. As we adjust ourselves to our code, we adjust the facts we see to that code. Rationally, the facts are neutral to all our views of right and wrong. Actually, our canons determine greatly what we shall perceive and how.”
Stereotypes are a generalization, and thus, a simplification of the reality. Still, perceiving the reality through stereotypes helps us to act. We would never be operative in a world without such necessary references. Without economizing our attention, our life will be impoverished, so Lippmann, because we will not be able to act.
As you can see, there is ambivalence in Lippmann’s conception of the stereotypes. On the one hand, they can become the origin of discriminations. On the other hand, they are a necessary help to orient ourselves in a world that is too large and too complex.
Now we should focus on the negative aspects of stereotypes, how they can become an obstacle in intercultural communication.
2 Stereotypes as an Obstacle in Intercultural Communication
2.1 Generalizations
Stereotypes are shaped by characteristics that are very easy to identify, the most obvious.
Therefore, they are always superficial,
never deep.
And we use these simple characteristics, only what is obvious, to categorize large groups of people, which is unfair.
2.2 Assumptions
We assume that certain attributes apply to most of the people who belong to this group.
And we have a previous attitude – positive or negative – toward those attributes.
STEREOTYPES imply a judgement,
frequently a negative one.
And, since this judgement happens before we met the individual of these groups,
We may perfectly talk about PREJUDICES.
Prejudice frequently leads to DISCRIMINATION of the groups whose stereotypes are negative.
2.3 Expectations
We assume that the individuals of the group will act and behave according to our expectations.
If the reality doesn’t fit to our stereotype
(because one individual doesn’t act as we expect),
then we go two ways:
- we ignore the fact
- we think that’s the exception, that confirms the rule
2.4 Sel-fulfilling prophecies
Stereotypes might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. People who are judged based on stereotypes, may adopt the attitudes and/or behaviors that the people expect from them.
3 Ethnocentrism
Tubbs and Moss define Ethnocentrism as the tendency – very common – to judge the values, customs, behaviors, or other aspects of another culture in terms of those that our own cultural group regards as desirable or ideal.
In most interactions, our ethnocentric attitudes interfere with our perceptions of other cultural groups. We judged those people based on our own cultural values. Here we see how ethnocentrism is always subordinated to the stereotypes our culture passed on us.