Intercultural Communication
This Blog will expose you
to the variety of approaches we use to study intercultural communication. We
also weave into the text our personal stories to make theory come alive. By
linking theory and practice, we hope to give a fuller picture of intercultural communication
than either one alone could offer.
We bring many
intercultural communication experiences to the text. As you read, you will
learn not only about both of us as individuals but also about our views on intercultural
communication. Don’t be overwhelmed by the seeming complexity of intercultural
communication. Not knowing everything that you would like to know is very much
a part of this process.
Why is it important to
focus on intercultural communication and to strive to become better at this
complex pattern of interaction? We can think of at least seven reasons; perhaps
you can add more.
THE SELF-AWARENESS
IMPERATIVE
One of the most important reasons for studying intercultural communication is the awareness it raises of our own cultural identity and background. This is also one of the least obvious reasons. Peter Adler (1975), a noted social psychologist, observes that the study of intercultural communication begins as a journey into another culture and reality and ends as a journey into one’s own culture.
We gain insights into intercultural experiences overseas. When Judith was teaching high school in Algeria, a Muslim country in North Africa, she realized something about her religious identity as a Protestant. December 25 came and went, and she taught classes with no mention of Christmas. Judith had never thought about how special the celebration of Christmas was or how important the holiday was to her. She then recognized on a personal level the uniqueness of this particular cultural practice. Erla, a graduate student from Iceland, notes the increased knowledge and appreciation she’s gained concerning her home country:
Living in another country widens your horizon. You look at your country
from a different
point of view. We have learned not to expect everything to be the same as
“at
home,” but if we happen to find something that reminds us of home, we
really appreciate
it and it makes us very happy. Ultimately we are all very thankful that we
had
the opportunity to live in another country.
However, it is important to recognize that intercultural learning is not always easy or comfortable. Sometimes, intercultural encounters make us aware of our own ethnocentrism—a tendency to think that our own culture is superior to other cultures.
This means that we assume, subconsciously, that the way we do things is the only way. For example, when Tom first visited France he was surprised to discover that shoppers are expected to greet shopkeepers when entering a small store. Or that French people sometimes ate horsemeat, snails, and very fragrant cheeses. Sometimes, Americans think that these foods shouldn’t be eaten. This attitude that foods we eat are somehow normal and that people shouldn’t eat these other foods is a kind of ethnocentrism. To be surprised or even taken aback by unfamiliar customs is not unexpected; however, a refusal to expand your cultural horizons or to acknowledge the legitimacy of cultural practices different from your own can lead to intergroup misunderstandings and conflicts. What you learn depends on your social and economic position in society. Self-awareness through intercultural contact for someone from a racial or minority group may mean learning to be wary and not surprised at subtle slights by members of the dominant majority—and reminders of their place in society. For example, a Chinese American colleague is sometimes approached at professional meetings by white communication professors who ask her to take their drink order.
If you are white and middle class, intercultural learning may mean an enhanced awareness of your privilege. White friends tell us that they became more aware of their racial privilege after George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
In the
midst of the nationwide protests, the legal protections afforded the police
came into view. They suddenly realized the myriad of ways that police (and other
social institutions) are protected and empowered by laws, court cases, and more
that create an unequal field that helps and hurts us in different ways. Self-awareness,
then, that comes through intercultural learning may involve an increased
awareness of being caught up in political, economic, and historical systems— not
of our own making.
REFERENCES
Adler, P. S. (1975). The transition experience: An alternative
view of culture shock. Journal of Humanistic Psychology,
15, 13–23.
Ahmad, N. (2020). Peacebuilding mechanisms in Pakhtun
Tribal Society of Pakistan: A cultural perspective. Dissertation,
Department of Sociology, University of Peshawar.
Alcoff, L. (1991/1992). The problem of speaking for others.
Cultural Critique, 20, 5–32.
Alexander, B. K., Arasaratnam, L. A., Durham, A.,
Flores, L., Leeds-Hurwitz, W., Mendoza, S. L., &
Halualani, R. (2014). Identifying key intercultural
urgencies, issues, and challenges in today’s world:
Connecting our scholarship to dynamic contexts and
historical moments. Journal of International & Intercultural
Communication, 7(1), 38–67.
Allam, L. (2020, January 5). For First Nations people the
bushfires bring a particular grief, burning what
makes us who we are. Theguardian.com. Retrieved
January 9, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com
/commentisfree/2020/jan/06/for-first-nations-people
-the-bushfires-bring-a-particular-grief-burning-what
-makes-us-who-we-are
Research in intercultural communication has, by definition, been concerned with understanding the cultures as the fundamental principle. Cultures were nations. In addition to the curiosity that most cross-cultural readers started with a little passage saying that sometimes people within a nation can be more different from each other than people across cultures (Samovar, Porter & Jain 1981), the whole idea of intercultural communication was linked to national culture.
ReplyDeleteBy definition, cultures are different in their languages, behavior patterns, and values. So an attempt to use one’s self as a predictor of shared assumptions and responses to messages is unlikely to work. Because cultures embody such variety in patterns of perception and behavior, approaches to communication in cross-cultural situations guard against inappropriate assumptions of similarity and encourage the consideration of difference. In other words, the intercultural communication approach is difference-based (Bennett, M.J. (1995).
ReplyDeleteWe believe that intercultural communication can be understood via the same basic variables andprocesses used to describe other forms of communication. All communication occurs betweenpeople who have varying degree of familiarity with each other. According to (Gabrialla 2008).The key concept in understanding intercultural communication is the concept of stranger.Different cultures and subcultures may have different rules and norms in accordance to which Iwould point out that understanding the other's culture facilitates cross cultural communication.
ReplyDeleteIntercultural communication takes place when individuals influenced by different cultural communities negotiate shared meaning in interactions. It will open those doors and, thus, resolve misunderstandings, miscommunications and mistrust through honest. It enhance social interactions. The chances of having close, personal, interactions with those different from you - whether in age, physical ability, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, race, or nationality – are increasing daily. Such relationship help you learn about the world (Issa,Garga and Yunusa, 2015).
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Nifrash. Most research in this field still focuses almost unitarily on nationality as representative of cultural differences when analyzing communication failures (Jameson, 2007; Shenkar, Luo, & Yeheskel, 2008). Hence, Bargiala-Chippini and Nickerson (2003) call for an understanding of culture as something created through interaction in the context (cf. Brannen & Salk, 2000; Sackmann & Phillips, 2004)
ReplyDeleteThe definition of subjective culture also provides a base for defining “diversity” in a way that includes both international and domestic cultures at different levels of abstraction (Bennet 1998).
ReplyDelete