Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication Chapter 7 Potential Problems in...

Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 7

Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication


Potential Problems

• Variety is the spice of life. —English Proverb

• Neither province, parish, nor nation; family, nor individual, can live

profitably in exclusion from the rest of the world. —Flewelling • We should not judge another person until we have walked two

months in his moccasins.

—Native American Proverb


Learning Objectives

• understand the nature of perception in international communication

• understand some potential emotional problems in intercultural communication

• understand some potential attitudinal problems in intercultural communication

• analyze various reasons for the persistence of ethnocentrism, stereotyping, prejudice and racism

• comprehend and deal with some problems caused

by culture shock


Case 1 Kissing Gets out of Hand

• How did the young man interpret the kissing when he first came to the university?

• What did he feel and do? • What is the difference between the new culture

and his home in attitude toward kissing?


Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication

Culture Shock D

Attitudinal Problems in Intercultural Communication C

Emotional Problems in Intercultural Communication B

Cultural Perception A Cultural Perception A


Text A: Cultural Perception

1. Definition of Perception• an active process • use sensory organs to sense the world • recognize and identify stimuli, then evaluate and interpret• make what we sense into a meaningful experience • Internal stimuli: nervous system, desires, interests, and

motivations • External stimuli: sensations coming from the way we see,

smell, touch, hear, and taste



2. Stages of Perceptiona. Selection: converting the environment stimuli into

meaningful experience

only perceive parts of the things surrounding us b. Categorization: arranging stimuli from external

environment into meaningful patterns human being?

c. Interpretation: attaching a set of meanings to stimuli

library?



1. Cultural Influence on Perception

a. culture• Provides foundation for meanings • directs to word specific kinds of messages and

events

color meaning

red

black

green

white



1. Cultural Influence on Perception

b. influence on perception

• reflected in attributional process • interpret meaning of other's behaviors based on

past experience or history • culture provides an environment to develop all the

meanings

• people from different cultures perceive and interpret others' behaviors in different ways


Case 2 The Chinese Dinner Party

Canadian host Chinese delegation • Why did the Chinese leave feeling slighted?

• Why did the Canadians also felt upset?


While-Class Learning: Text B

• Please share your feeling with your classmates when communicating with strangers.

• Terms used when communicating with culturally different people

unknown unpredictable unexplained unusual

unfamiliar mysterious curious novel

exotic ambiguous strange odd

weird (unusual or different; not normal 不寻常、不同、奇异的 )

outlandish (strange or extremely unusual 古怪、极不寻常、奇特的 )


While-Class Learning: Text B

• Emotional Problems in Intercultural Communication

1. Seeking similarities

2. Uncertainty reduction

3. Withdrawal


B.1 Seeking similarities

• Birds of a feather flock together. 物以类聚，人以群分。

• people seek to be near others with whom they share common outlooks, habits, and traits

• feel uncomfortable when confronted with strangers • immediate psychological results of being in a new

situation is lack of security


B.2 Uncertainty reduction

• When strangers meet, primary concern is uncertainty reduction or increasing predictability

• People desire to reduce the uncertainty • uncertainty is magnified when meeting people from

different cultures

• uncertainty is not reduced, further communication will not take place


B.3 Withdrawal

• withdraw from the communication event, cannot find similarities and/or fail to reduce uncertainty

• problems occur when withdrawing from face-to-face interactions


Case 3 Extreme Hospitality

• I: 15 years old, played indoor soccer• Maluku: biggest rival• Result: 5:1 (lost)• I: invited to party, frightened by extreme hospitality

(1)Why did the young Dutch man lie that he had a terrible stomachache?

(2)What is the cultural difference between the Dutch and Maluku culture?


While-Class Learning: Text C

• Attitudinal Problems in Intercultural Communication

1. Stereotyping

2. Prejudice

3. Racism

4. Ethnocentrism


C.1 Stereotyping

• a selection process used to organize and simplify perceptions of others

• overgeneralized and oversimplified beliefs

• vast degree of differences not be taken into account


C.1.a Developing Stereotypes

• from parents, relatives, and friends

• through limited personal contact

• by mass media

• out of fear


C.1.b Variations in Stereotyping

• positive valence inaccuracy:

overestimate prevalence and importance of positive characteristics, ignore or underestimate rigidity and other negative ones

• negative valence inaccuracy (prejudice):

exaggerate negative attributes, ignore or devalue positive ones

Stereotypes narrow perceptions, hamper intercultural communication


C.1.c Problems in Stereotyping

• assume all members have exactly the same traits

• keep us from being successful as communicators for oversimplified, overgeneralized, and/or exaggerated

• repeat and reinforce beliefs until become taken for “truth”

• perceive the stereotyped person engaging in behavior that corroborates stereotype


C.2 Prejudice

negative attitudes toward other people based on faulty and inflexible stereotypes

expressed in a variety of ways • 1. expressed through antilocution • 2. avoid and/or withdraw from contact with the

disliked group • 3. exclude all members of the group in

question• 4. physical attacks

• 5. physical violence against the out-group


C.3 Racism

• an extension of prejudice

• belief ： one racial category innately superior to another

• three distinct levels: individual, institutional, and culturalindividual similar to prejudice beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of

a given person toward people of a different racial group

institutional exclusion of certain people from equal participation

certain patterns of behaviors and responses to specific racial or cultural groups that allow those groups to be systematically exploited and oppressed

cultural denies the existence of the culture of a particular group

rejection by one group of the beliefs and values of another


C.4 Ethnocentrism

• the notion that beliefs, values, norms, and practices of one’s own culture are superior to those of others

返回罗马尼亚的吉普赛人

2010 年 8 月 19 日，法国政府将近百名罗姆人遣送回其原籍国罗马尼亚后，拆除罗姆人居住的非法营地及遣返非法居留在法国的罗姆人的行动一直在继续。

法国全国各地 9 月 4 日有数以万计的群众上街示威，抗议总统萨尔科齐的政府最近采取新政策，强行驱逐吉卜赛人出境、以及采取其它针对吉卜赛人的保安措施。


C.4.a Understanding Ethnocentrism

• found in every culture: most peoples regard their own culture as superior

• learned at the unconscious level


C.4.b Consequence of Ethnocentrism

• Negative, destructive• derogatory evaluations, rebuff change• Examples range from the insignificant to

the significant


Case 4 Relationships between Children and Parents

• Rosamin• Merita


While-Class Learning: Text D

extremely difficult very difficult a little difficult not difficult

Differences in weather

Being away from the family

Differences in the food

Differences in the way people make friends

Transportation problems

Getting used to new ways of learning

Adjusting to new ways of doing things

Difficulties in communicating with others

Different living conditions

Different social customs


While-Class Learning: Text D

• Culture Shock

1. Understanding Culture Shock

2. The Stages of Culture Shock

3. Symptoms of Culture Shock

4. Learning from Culture Shock


Text D. Culture Shock

• Everyone likes the familiar.

• Familiarity helps reduce stress.

• Confronting people unlike ourselves, can create communication problems.

• Thrust into another culture and experience psychological and physical discomfort, we have become a victim of culture shock.

• When an individual enters a strange culture, familiar cues are removed. He or she is like fish out of water.

e.g. an American living in Japan for the first time


Text D.1 Understanding Culture Shock

• precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar signs and symbols

• signs: orient ourselves to the situation of daily life• feelings: apply to businessperson, students, and

government employees, also individuals who have face-to-face contact with out-group members within their own culture

• reactions: person constantly encountering other cultures ________, and many people ________


Text D.2 The Stages of Culture Shock

• 4 Stages (seam separating the stages is almost impossible to see

a. “Honeymoon Phase” : excitement, optimism, and a sense of euphoria

b. Culture Shock Phase: disappointment and discontent

c. Recovery Phase: gradually make some adjustments and modifications

d. Adjustment Phase: understand the key elements of the new culture, and can now function with some degree of success

The “W-curve” represents the pattern of sojourners’ readjustment to their own cultures.


Text D.3 Symptoms of Culture Shock

• both physical and psychological • the trauma of culture shock: a sojourner to the

United States


Symptoms

• Sadness, loneliness, melancholy • Preoccupation with health • Aches, pains, and allergies • Insomnia, desire to sleep too much or too little • Changes in temperament, depression, feeling vulnerable, feeling

powerless • Anger, irritability, resentment, unwillingness to interact with others • Identifying with the old culture or idealizing the old country • Loss of identity • Trying too hard to absorb everything in the new culture or country • Unable to solve simple problems • Lack of confidence • Feelings of inadequacy or insecurity • Developing stereotypes about the new culture • Developing obsessions such as over-cleanliness • Longing for family • Feelings of being lost, overlooked, exploited or abused


Text D.4 Learning from Culture Shock

• helpful suggestions: fighting culture shock


Case 5 The Day after the Party

• very excited and making new friends• filled with practical problems • get the feeling that the people here were cold • invited to a wedding party • got to know the people, and had a lot of fun• felt cold and lonely • people made a clear distinction between work time and private time • making good progress • miss the warmth of home

Rui went through four phases of culture shock. Can you recognize these phases?


Case 6 An Able Secretary

Maria, from Latin America, an assistant secretary her boss• What stages of culture shock do you think Maris experiences

during this episode?• What stages of culture shock do you think Maria experiences

during this episode? And what about her boss? Does he recognize these stages, and does he experience culture shock himself?


Thank You

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