Transcript CHAPTER 12 The Potential for Intercultural Competence

CHAPTER 12
The Potential for Intercultural
Competence
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
(1) To discuss some of the ethical dilemmas in
intercultural communication.
(2) To explore the impact of national and international
events – including the events of
September 11, 2001 – on intercultural communication
(3) To consider the powerful international forces that
cause cultures to come together or be
pulled apart
(4) To offer some concluding remarks about the
development of intercultural communication
competence.
I. The Ethics of Intercultural
Communication
A. When in Rome . . .
1. Places responsibility for
adaptation on newcomer.
2. How far should people go in
adapting their behavior to another
culture?
3. At what point do people lose
their own cultural identities?
B. Are cultural values relative or
universal?
1. Cultural relativism is the belief that
because each culture has its own
values, judgments can only be made
within each cultural context.
2. Kale’s two universal values:
a. to protect the worth and dignity of the
human spirit
b. to strive for a world at peace
C. Do the ends justify the means?
1. Should all intercultural contacts
be encouraged?
2. Is it ethical to go to another
country unprepared for cultural
contact?
3. Should those who are prejudiced
seek out intercultural contact?
D. Ethics—your choices
1. Address people with mutual respect.
2. Describe the world as you perceive it.
3. Encourage people to express
themselves in their own ways.
4. Strive to identify with people of other
cultures.
II. The perils and prospects for
intercultural competence
A. Impact of national and international events
on intercultural communication
1.
Certain events create a shared and indelible
memory for all who experienced them. Such
events include the day the stock market
crashed in 1929, the day John Kennedy was
assassinated in 1963, the date Martin
Luther King, Jr. died in 1968, and the day
the World Trade Center was destroyed by
terrorists in 2001.
What are your important dates?
Continued
Such events alter the basic and often
unquestioned understandings that
people have of their world.
3. Such events shape an entire
generation’s understanding of the
world and are also referenced when
influencing subsequent generations.
B. Forces that pull us together and apart
1. Forces that pull people together have been
variously called globalism and secularism.
a. Mass media, entertainment, and global
interdependence all make people seem more
homogenized.
b. The speed of transportation and technology
means that messages are instantly
global.
2. Forces that pull people apart have been
variously called nationalism and tribalism.
a. Cultures try to protect what seems
threatened: their language, religion, values,
and way of life.
b. Cultures also try to protect their members
from the harmful effects of messages from
outside the culture.
3. Missing from discussions of these two
opposing forces is the effects of
culture on communication.
a. Cultures use their own cultural
patterns to interpret the meanings of
messages.
b. Similar messages may be interpreted
very differently across cultures.
c. One’s culture provides the “filter,” or
the meaning systems, through which
all messages are experienced and
interpreted.
Day two: INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITY
Activity 12.1: The Albatross Society