Transcript Social and cultural dimensions in the intercultural communication

Identity process in the
intercultural communication
An anthropological perspective
for reading its experiences of
« otherness »
A.Gohard-Radenkovic
2008
Complexity of the communication because
every individual has multiple belongings and
identities
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Collective / individual
Linguistic
Social / cultural
National / regional
Urban / rural / rurban
Local / global
Familial / clanic
Sexual
Generational
Professional
Economical, and so on…
Complexity of the relation to otherness
and to one's self because of the…
• Representations / images / cliches /
prejudices
• Implicite shared culture / hidden values and
beliefs / «invisible evidences» / reproduction
of unaware attitudes
• Cultural norms / social codes / rules /
expected behaviours / rituals
• Unconscious social classifications /
projection of hierarchies
• Social status / cultural practices
A.Gohard-Radenkovic
2008
An identity process in the
intercultural communication
• In Part I, we try to understand the social
and cultural judgements and values
that WE ALL spontaneously reproduce
on the “others”, their respective
languages, societies and cultures,
through our own experiences of
“otherness”.
Everybody is the result of its different
experiences
• Aim: a way to introduce one's self to others
through the presentation of one's life history.
To know one another a little bit better, to
discover its individual and collective
representations of others and of one's self
through a reflexive practice, raising an
awareness process on its own judgements,
habits and values, and on its so called
“familiar environment” that we have to
revise, to visit again with a new look and a
new perception.
Activity (1) individual
• Draw the “mapping” on a big sheet of
paper of your own trips and moves in
Europe and in other foreign countries
with words (nouns, adjectives)
qualifying the judgements, you had of
the “others” and words qualifying how
the “others” defined you, as a “Dutch
person”.
• Find a title that would symbolise your
mobility mapping.
Activity (2) on my own History life
and mobility
• Present and explain your “mapping of
your history life” in a few minutes. After
these different experiences, tell your
comrades with full honesty if you
changed or reinforced your judgements
of others and of one's self.
• Conclusion: our unconscious grid of
values, norms.
A.Gohard-Radenkovic
2008
ANTHROPOLOGICAL TOOLS FOR THE OBSERVATION
OF THE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
• In the Part II, we present the socio-anthropological grid
of values and norms, expected behaviours in different
formal and informal situations that every individual or
collectivity may reproduce or project in communication.
• BUT each social group and each individual may
interprete according to its own context and history life. In
many situations of intercultural communication in a
foreign language, each social or national group share
“invisible evidences” (because “obvious” to everybody)
or what we call “a shared implicit or hidden social
culture” that can change from one generation to the
other, from one social group to the other, from one
sexual culture to the other, from one professional context
to the other.
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ANTHROPOLOGICAL TOOLS FOR THE OBSERVATION
OF THE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
• Aim: we consider a few basic
anthropological tools to identify the
sociocultural dimensions embedded in
the inter-individual communication
• We try to understand the social and
cultural hidden rules and to identify the
misunderstandings that may appear in
the daily life and daily professional life.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL TOOLS FOR THE OBSERVATION
OF THE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION:
• Greeting rituals
• Giving - giving back presents
• Expected behaviours (dress, food
practices, etc.)
• Working methods (or relation to work)
• Organisation of the hierarchy
• Space distribution,
• Time organisation, etc.
A.Gohard-Radenkovic
2008
Activity (1) on Greetings
• First example. Expected mimics
and behaviours in greetings
situations (Text: French and
Chinese students in an academic
environment)
• Tell your own experiences in
smaller groups
Implicits and misunderstandings in
daily communication: Greetings
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Some students don’t know how to “faire la bise” (kiss on the cheeks):
“Something happened to me recently, a French friend invited me to a dinner
with other French people. He and I were the first to arrive to the restaurant.
A little later, a French man and two French women arrived and sat across
from me. They say hello. And one of the two girls comes towards me. What
does she want to do? She holds her cheek out to me. I’m uncomfortable,
but I still kiss her cheek and then move back, because I think it’s over. But,
she holds her other cheek out to me. I am already sitting back down, there
is already a distance between us. Having noticed my reaction she says,
‘You’re not French, are you?’ Very embarrassed, I respond, ‘No.’ I think that
she is a lot more embarrassed than me. She goes back to her chair with a
long face. She doesn’t talk to me. It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know how it was
done – I thought one kiss was enough.”
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Here, “You’re not French, are you?” isn’t a question, but rather a reproach.
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Compétence culturelle et politesse en situation de communication sino-française:
implicites et malentendus , Zhi Hong PU, Septentrion, Paris, 2003
IMPLICITS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN
DAILY PRIOFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION :
GREETINGS
• Some students find French greeting rituals impossible to
understand
• “The French say ‘Bonjour’ (Good morning/Hello) multiple times
throughout the day: the morning, at noon, and in the evening. In the
evening, when it’s time to leave, they also say ‘Bonsoir’ (Good
evening).”
• “In the company where I had my internship, one French guy goes to
every office every morning to greet everyone. Our office has two
floors. He enters without fail in every office and shakes the hand of
all the employees. It’s a little bit of a waste of time.”
• “A lot of French experts greet people they don’t know. In a café or in
the office of the factory, they say hello to people they don’t even
know. This isn’t the same for the Chinese, we don’t say hello to just
anyone.”
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(Zhi Hong PU, op. cit.)
Hospitality rules
in the social communication
• Second example: hospitality rules
in different countries (Grid: results
of an enquiry made by a researchgroup in different European
countries)
• Tell your own experiences in
smaller groups.
Invitation for dinner: Hospitality
rules and expected behaviours?
• 1) Taking the example of having guests
for dinner, to what extent and in which
respects do intercultural models of
hospitality differ in various European
countries?
• 2) What are the verbal and non-verbal
behaviours and habits used in the
contexts what have been selected as
showing significant diversity?
Activity (2) my own experience
of hospitality rules
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Arrival
Gift for hosts
Foods and Drinks
Distribution around the table
Conversation
Offering help
Leaving
Activity (3) on Hierarchy
and savoir-vivre
• Third example: expected behaviours at
the table and relation to authority
(distance hiérarchique) in a
professional situation (Video-film: a
Japenese staff of a firm in a French
restaurant in Tokyo)
• Tell our own experiences in smaller
groups
Saving the face
A few Conclusions
• These implicit rules may interfere in the daily
professional communication and generate
“misunderstandings” and even “conflicts”. It
is a normal process in every situation of
communication, in every entreprise, in every
institution, more widely in every society.
• But a fundamental process called the
“preservation of my face / your face” allows
to maintain and, or repair the communication
• Attention: we must care about any abusive
generalization of these sociocultural
rules !!
A.Gohard-Radenkovic
2008
Conflicts and resolvation of conflicts
in the intercultural communication
Part III: we work on the intercultural
dimension in bi-multinational
professional contexts by studying the
expectations, challenges, stakes of the
different actors, and making hypothesis
on the possible reasons of
misunderstandings and conflicts
through one study case.
A.Gohard-Radenkovic
2008
CONFLICTS DURING MEETINGS IN
PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT: A critical point of
view English Partners on French Partners
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The English don’t have a clear position; they are “vague” when it comes to
making a yes or no answer.
“Other experiences I’ve had with the English have always been vague. I
mean, we never get anywhere to have a clear yes or no, it’s always
somewhere in between,” notes Sylvie.
It’s the same for Daniel, “What’s puzzling is the vagueness, meaning they
(the English) are sometimes incapable of getting their point across. They
can have certain demands of you and then you leave, for example at a
reunion where you made sure everything was black and white, well, not
black and white, but you said things to each other stating, ‘Ok, Ok, you need
this, etc.’ So, you leave their meeting saying, tomorrow, I’ll confirm
everything in writing, he confirms and it’s all good. And then, three weeks
later, nothing. You have to pester them every day. Everything remains
undecided.”
La mésentente cordiale : Voyage au coeur de l’espace interculturel franco-anglais, de
Christine GEOFFROY, Grasset / Le Monde, Paris, 2001.
CONLICTS DURING MEETINGS IN PROFESSIONAL
CONTEXT: Critical Point of View of French Partners on
English partners
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Still hearing from John, the “heated” quality of discussions is taken for
rudeness and provokes an irritation with his compatriots.
“Often, it gets heated, which isn’t very polite. In England, we’re a little cooler
and sometimes people meetings aren’t as heated, they don’t argue about
the little things. They don’t get moody in front of others. And really, it annoys
the English to have French who argue in a meeting when they don’t think
it’s necessary.”
The irritation is reflected in the “shouter” characteristic of the French
made by Nichola: “It’s the French that scream the loudest in meetings.”
Weary from the conflict in discussion, the English prefer to withdraw,
Donald asserts: “We often leave meetings totally exhausted. We even
sometimes stop fighting for what we believe to be a better idea. We just tell
ourselves, ‘I can’t communicate, I’ll never get anywhere with this person
because they’re not open to other suggestions.’”
This refusal of conflict-driven discussion hasn’t been missed by
Vincent, from the French side: “The English don’t tolerate that at all. They
don’t tolerate arguing in a meeting, that we don’t all agree. When we go to
that type of a meeting, the English don’t want to debate.(Geoffroy, op.cit.
Activity on conflicts and mediation
• Aim: we study the conflicts and
mediation steps : ways of behaving
and speaking through the example of
the film: “When the green ants were
dreaming” from Werner Herzog
• Activity in smaller groups
and in the big group
Conflicts and Mediation
A mediation process in the
intercultural communication
• What is the function of a mediator ?
• How can we anticipate the conflicts?
• If we can’t prevent the conflict, how can
we solve the situation?
• What sort of abilities must he have ?
• Different types of mediators exist:
which ones?