INTRO TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Lecture 1:
What is culture:
• “Culture” is likely to be one of the most difficult concepts to define.
- Ask yourself:
o Do people belong to a culture?
o Do people have a culture?
o Is culture implicit?
- The essentialist view (which we will explore later on) says YES…
- We say: NO But why?
• Culture is widely understood to encapsulate a person’s nationality and/or ethnicity
• Many in the field also include faith-, gender- and sexuality-based “cultures” (Wood &
Reich 2003; Mulvaney, 2004; Bronski, 2003; Thurlow, 2004)
WHAT REALLY MATTERS THOUGH IS HOW WE UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT
• Regardless of HOW culture is viewed, the point is:
- All of these ’cultures’ have ONE thing in common THEY ARE IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES (Anderson, 1991)
- This means: Members of a ‘cultural group’ imagine themselves and are
imagined by others as group members of a particular ’cultural group’. (Piller,
2007: 211)
• Our working definition
- This means: we do not have culture, but rather that we construct culture.
- “Culture is not a real thing, but an abstract and purely analytical notion. It does
not cause behaviour, but summarises an abstraction from it, and is thus neither
normative nor predictive.” (Baumann in Piller, 2007: 212)
- With this in mind, how are we going to conceptualise the notion of culture for
the purposes of ICC?
• ‘culture’ simplified
- “[What we regard as ‘culture’ is really just] a system of behaviour that helps us
act in an accepted or familiar way.” Pellegrino Riccardi
- At this point we need to consider:
o ‘Acceptable’ to whom?
o ’Familiar’ to whom?
– PERCEPTION PERCEPTION PERCEPTION –
- Start by looking at yourself
- What is acceptable to YOU may not be acceptable to someone else & vice versa
- If each of us has a different idea of what is acceptable
- And each of us is “familiar” with different familiarities
o Misunderstandings are bound to arise
BUT
- If we are prepared for these kinds of discursive negotiations
o We can negotiate them appropriately
Misunderstandings: why do they occur?
, • A lot of literature refers to these ‘misunderstandings’ as “cultural
misunderstandings”
• BUT, if culture is constructed and not something we are in possession of
• AND, furthermore, we are referring simply to the notions of acceptability and
familiarity to understand ‘cultural differences’
• THEN, let’s consider Piller’s (2007) perspective: many misunderstandings that are
considered ‘cultural’ can in fact be deemed linguistic.
WHY?
• From a linguists perspective:
- Natural language is the most important part of human communication.
- Therefore, linguists maintain that linguistic misunderstandings should be at the
centre of research looking at intercultural communication.
- “Natural languages have received very little attention in organization and
management studies”(Vaara in Piller, 2007: 216)
- Language and its contextual usage should be a primary focus.
- Keep in mind, when we refer to ’language’ we include both verbal and non-
verbal cues.
- Just as with ‘culture’ we should be wary to make priori assumptions about
“English” versus “German” speakers (for example).
- But we should focus on what is CONTEXTUALLY acceptable and familiar to
speakers of different languages / speakers of the same language in different
contexts / different groups of people (as they are conceptualized as a ’group’).
Terminological ambiguities:
• Cross-cultural communication
- ‘Cultural groups’ are studies as separable entities
- Often their ‘distinct communication styles’ described stereotypically
- The distinctiveness of the groups is largely presupposed
- E.g. A comparison of Chinese and Swedish business styles
o The VAST variability within each group is glossed over
NOTE: While we will spend some time looking at general differences in terms of how
certain cultural groups do business, one needs to realise that these presuppositions are
often stereotypical. As such, it is god to be aware that “cross-cultural” studies should be
approached with caution.
• Intercultural communication
- The study of distinct groups (cultural or other) in interaction with each other
- The analysists role is to observe (objectively) how the participants negotiate
their cultural & or other differences.
- E.g. An analysis of how a misunderstanding between South African and
Japanese colleagues working on the same project was dealt with.
Overview of the field:
• In the 1950s, the US government needed to train business and government
personnel in post-World War Two reconstruction.
, • This development initiated intercultural training in the form of “predeparture
courses”.
• The language training alone was not enough (Martin and Nakayama, 2010)
- The importance of non-verbal communication was emphasized. (Edward T.
Hall)
Hall (1966) noted that different cultural groups have different rules for personal space
o FAMILIAR
o ACCEPTABLE
- As a result: ‘Cross-cultural training’, a parallel discipline, was born.
- The cultural entities being researched were generally presupposed.
- “National” & “world” cultures were grouped, defined & described.
- In the early years these ‘national’ or ‘world’ cultures were the focus.
- “This approach has continued without problematization into contemporary
analyses of ‘cultures’ in the business and government [(amongst others)
sectors]” (Scollon & Scollon, 2001: 543).
- NOTE: (Again) While we will consider cultural “norms” in terms of greetings
and general communication practices, it is important to look critically at what
we term “culturally determined behaviour”.
Discourse analysis and ICC:
• Gee (1996: 127) defines Discourses as “ways of being in the world, or forms of life
which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities, as well
as gestures, glances, body positions and clothes.” (Gee
in Scollon & Scollon, 2010: 244)
• “ways of being” = familiar & acceptable
• A strong unifying theme in the present decade of discourse analysis & ICC
=
“[A]ll communication is constitutive of cultural categories.” (Scollon &
Scollon, 2010: 543)
• The focus has shifted away from the comparison BETWEEN CULTURES or even
BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS to the co-constructive aspects of communication.
• This means that the focus is on understanding how identities & meanings are
constituted in & through the interaction itself.
• Furthermore, Scollon & Scollon (2001: 544) maintain that “in any instance of actual
communication we are multiply positioned within an indefinite number of
Discourses...”
• The implications of this perspective
- These discourse systems mentioned include:
o Gender
o Generation
o Profession
o Corporate or institutional placement
o Regional
o Ethnic
o Sexual orientation
o Socio-economic
, o Linguistic
o Nationality
- If we take ‘cultural differences’ and ‘intercultural negotiations’ to include any
and all interaction between members of these discourse systems.
THEN
- Intercultural communication is applicable in almost every interaction you
have!
Lecture 2:
The relevance of studying intercultural communication:
1. The (self-)awareness imperative
2. The demographic imperative
3. The economic imperative
4. Technological imperative
5. The peace imperative
6. The ethical imperative
1. The (self-)awareness imperative:
• ICC raises awareness of our own cultural identity & background
• The process can be an uncomfortable one as we focus on our own ethnocentrism
- Definition: The evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions
originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture.
- We subconsciously assume that our way is “the only way” or certainly “the best
way”.
• NOTE: To be surprised by another groups norms is not unexpected, but to refuse to
acknowledge the legitimacy of practices different from your own is ethnocentrism
this leads to misunderstandings & conflict.
• Consider what you might have to take cognisance of in terms of your own self-
awareness:
- Slights from members of a perceived socially dominant group?
- Your (perceived) privileged status within society?
- Consider:
o What is your constructed cultural identity (or imagined cultural group)?
o What are some of the stereotypes associated with this “imagined
community”?
• Being self-aware also means dealing with your possible incognisance of others.
• Consider how you see yourself in relation to others AS WELL AS how you see others
in relation to yourself.
• We have a responsibility to BE AWARE
- “I think you should just chill … just take the compliment…”
- “…one can’t say anything without thinking twice…”
• The point is we should ALWAYS think twice!
- ONCE consider things not only from your perspective.
- TWICE but also from a perspective other than your own.
