Transcript Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication

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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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?
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Potential Problems
in Intercultural Communication
A
Cultural Perception
B
Emotional Problems in Intercultural Communication
C
Attitudinal Problems in Intercultural Communication
D
Culture Shock
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Text A: Cultural Perception
2. Stages of Perception
a. 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?
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Text A: Cultural Perception
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Text A: Cultural Perception
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Case 2 The Chinese Dinner Party
Canadian host
Chinese delegation
• Why did the Chinese leave feeling slighted?
• Why did the Canadians also felt upset?
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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)
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
While-Class Learning: Text B
• Emotional Problems in Intercultural
Communication
1. Seeking similarities
2. Uncertainty reduction
3. Withdrawal
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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?
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
While-Class Learning: Text C
•
Attitudinal Problems in Intercultural
Communication
1. Stereotyping
2. Prejudice
3. Racism
4. Ethnocentrism
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
C.1.a Developing Stereotypes
•
•
•
•
from parents, relatives, and friends
through limited personal contact
by mass media
out of fear
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in 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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
C.3 Racism
• an extension of prejudice
• belief：one racial category innately superior to another
• three distinct levels: individual, institutional, and cultural
individual
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
C.4 Ethnocentrism
• the notion that beliefs, values, norms, and
practices of one’s own culture are superior
to those of others
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。
返回罗马尼亚的吉普赛人
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
C.4.a Understanding Ethnocentrism
• found in every culture: most peoples regard
their own culture as superior
• learned at the unconscious level
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
C.4.b Consequence of Ethnocentrism
• Negative, destructive
• derogatory evaluations, rebuff change
• Examples range from the insignificant to
the significant
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Case 4 Relationships between Children and Parents
• Rosamin
• Merita
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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 ________
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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.
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Text D.3 Symptoms of Culture Shock
• both physical and psychological
• the trauma of culture shock: a sojourner to the
United States
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Text D.4 Learning from Culture Shock
• helpful suggestions: fighting culture shock
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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?
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
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?
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication
Thank You
Chapter 7 Potential Problems in Intercultural Communication