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Summary Intercultural Sensitivity by Nunez
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Intercultural sensitivityChapter 1: culture, communication and global citizenship
1.1 What is culture? Visible and invisible culture
According to edgar schein, an interculturalist, culture consists of
layers, like an onion.
1. The outer layer, we call artefacts of culture. Artefacts are the
first things you notice when entering a new country. Artefacts
are easy to perceive, and they’re nice to know, but intercultural
communication is not going to be about artefacts.
2. The second layer is called the norms and values. They are
written and unwritten standards of correct, desired behaviour.
Values express what we think is good or right. Norms are not as visible as artefacts.
It takes some time to notice, let alone learn them. But with the necessary effort and observation,
they can be learned.
3. The deepest layer is that of the basic assumptions. They are abstract and invisible, we learn
them very young and we are unaware of their influence. Yet the perception of the world around
us, and the judgements we make about others, are very much shaped or distorted by the basic
assumptions of our culture. Intercultural communication is about bringing basic assumptions of
our own culture to our awareness and to recognise the basic assumptions of other cultures. This
is in order to communicate creatively and more effectively with people from other cultures and
achieve cultural synergy.
1.2 Definition of culture
The list of definitions of culture is endless. Below are given four definitions of culture.
Edgar schein defines culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it
solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to
be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive,
think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
Mijnd huijser defines culture as “a group’s set of shared norms and values expressed in the
behaviour of the group’s members.”
Fons trompenaars: “culture is the way in which a group of people solves problems.”
Geert hofstede: “culture is the collective programming of the human mind, which distinguishes the
members of one group or category of people from another.”
1.3 Cultural programming
Culture is learned. Hofstede calls that programming. We are programmed through upbringing,
socialization, norms and values and perception.
A lot of programming comes with our upbringing. A lot of other things we learn through socialization,
by interacting with others. We are also programmed through norms and values. Finally, part of the
programming happens through perception. Just by looking around us we make conscious or
unconscious choices about how we want to behave.
, Does programming reduce us to cultural robots? No. Regardless of culture, each person is a unique
individual and makes choices to follow or to deviate from the cultural group norms. There are three
levels of programming; individual, cultural and human nature.
If we haven’t eaten for days, human nature makes us look for something to eat and devour it with
our hands. That we decide to put the food on a place and eat it with fork and knife is our cultural
programming. However, individuals may choose not to use fork and knife, regardless of their cultural
programming or what society thinks.
1.4 Culture and subcultures
In “culture is the collective mental programming of the human mind”, collective indicated the group
or subgroups we belong to. It does not mean that the whole country is one big group, or shares one
set of cultural patterns. On the contrary, there are a lot of subgroups or subcultures we belong to: a
regional culture, middle-class culture, or company culture, each with their different programming.
It’s good to be aware of differences as well as similarities and overlaps in our subcultures. And to
have an open attitude for understanding multiple identities and a collective identity.
1.5 Intercultural communication
Communication is the exchange of meaning. If you want to give information to another person, you
are the source. Your information is encoded by using the appropriate language, gestures or
nonverbal expressions. It is transmitted through a channel, which is the medium for communication.
The receiver decodes your message and responds or gives feedback, once again encoding the
response.
Intercultural communication is the communication between sources and receivers from different
cultures, and good intercultural communication requires an interculturally sensitive attitude, cultural
knowledge, as well as skills in frame-of-reference-shifting. It requires intercultural competence.
Because culture has its impact of every point in the communication circles: encoding, decoding,
feedback and choice of medium. A well-intented message, well coded in one culture, can have a
totally different meaning, when decoded in another culture. We are often unaware of this, because it
involves cultural differences in the deepest, invisible layer of culture – the basic assumptions.
Sometimes misunderstanding is caused by ‘noise’ in the communication.
1.6 What exactly is communication noise?
Noise is anything that distorts or blocks the message, that distracts the receivers or causes them not
to understand the message.
External noise, also known as physical noise, is interference from the environment. External noise
makes it difficult for the receiver to understand you.
Internal noise, or psychological noise, involves emotions, worries or personal prejudices that get in
the way of paying attention to what is actually being communicated. The internal noise of personal
prejudice and biases can severely distort communication as well.
Cultural noise occurs when differences in cultural programming distorts the message.
The dutch researches edwin hoffman developed a system called the topoi model that works very well
in resolving cultural noise.
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