Text and Sign
Part One
Hartmut Haberland
(4)
Intercultural awareness
Intercultural differences
Intercultural communication
Oscar Andersson (1903)
– Vet frun var Lilla Vattugatan ligger?
– Mitt namn er friherrinnan Cederlund från
Skåne och jag vet ingenting!
– Does the Lady know where Lilla Vattugatan is?
– My name is Baroness Cederlund from Scania and I don’t
know anything!
The Nacirema
• What impression do we get about the
Nacirema?
The Nacirema
• What impression do we get about the
Nacirema?
• How are they different from us?
The Nacirema
• What impression do we get about the
Nacirema?
• How are they different from us?
• Who are the Nacirema?
Remember Roger Fowler?
Directive vs. constitutive linguistic
practices
Directive practices: exercising power
directly (by commands, wishes, etc.)
cf. Jakobson’s conative (receiver-oriented)
function of language
Constitutive linguistic practices
The vocabulary of a language can be
considered a kind of lexical map of the
preoccupations of a culture.
Different cultures may have different world
views.
This is not just a matter of vocabulary.
There are other constitutive linguistic
practices than talking about something.
Linguistic routines
What counts as ….
… an apology?
… a greeting?
… an opening of a telephone
conversation?
Telephone conversation openings
• Usually two-party conversations (reduction
of complexity)
• Standardized
• Recurrent and necessary tasks
(identification, statement of topic or
purpose)
• Striking intercultural differences
German
(American?) English
Egyptian Arabic
A: Hallo … Müller
C: Guten Tag, Herr
Müller, hier ist Gärtner.
Ich wollte …
A: Hello
C: Betsy?
A: Hi, dear. I wondered if
you’d call.
C: I just got out of the
staff meeting. Listen, …
A: alō
C: alō
A: alō
C: mīn byitkallim? (‘Who
is calling?’)
A: ’inta mīn? (‘Who are
you?’)
C: ’abul magd mawgūd?
(‘Is Abu el-Magd there?’)
A: ’ana ’abul magd.
mhammad? (‘I’m Abu elMagd. Mohammed?’)
C: ’aywa, ’izayyak yā
bēh? (‘Yes, how are you,
Bey?’)
A: ’ilhamdulilāh,
wizayyak ’inta? (‘Praise
God, and you?’)
C: ’ilhamdulilāh. (‘Praise
God.’)
A: ’ahlan wahsahlan.
(‘You are welcome.’)
C: wallāhi ya ’ax, ‘ayz
as’alak hāga (‘Hey
brother, I want to ask
you something.’)
Sources anonymous. Data
attributed to Richard W. Schmidt,
Honololu, Hawaii.
Hint: these data are from the early
’90ies, before the era of mobile
phones.
Telephone openings
Generalizations:
Germans try to be brief.
Americans avoid formal identification
rounds.
Egyptians use a lot of words.
Opening a phone conversation
– Marlowe?
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Opening a phone conversation
– moshi moshi?
– ano, kochira Jensen desu.
Other generalisations
on a theoretically more elaborate level:
Positive politeness cultures (Greece,
Germany, USA)
vs.
Negative politeness cultures (Britain,
Japan)
Further generalisations
Germans try to maximize involvement (get
engaged!)
Anglo-Saxons try to minimize imposition
(don’t push!)
Linguistic routines
”We can pick you up at the station. It’s only
a five minutes ride.”
Does this count as
… ”don’t feel bad about asking!” or
… ”we wouldn’t do it for you if it weren’t so
little”
Two strategies in cultural
encounters
Exoticism vs. reductionism
Exoticism: ”this is so different”
Reductionism: ”this is nothing but ...”
familiar/unfamiliar
from the European point of view:
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Berlin):
dead emperor categorized as patron of the
church
Meiji shrine (Tokyo): shrine for a dead
emperor categorised as god
Harvey Sacks (1935-1975) on
culture
• Culture is an inference-making machine
• Culture is an apparatus for generating
recognisable action
• There is orderliness in what we do
Language is part of culture, too
• Culture is machine for making inferences
from utterances
• Culture is an apparatus for generating
recognisable action, including speech acts
• There is orderliness in what we do and say
Different cultures …
• Different inferences
• Different categorisations
• Differences in what counts as orderly
behavior
Dudow/Brecht, Kuhle Wampe 1932
The young worker and his
wristwatch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fwhJenxE4
Dudow/Brecht, Kuhle Wampe 1932
Workers in Moscow who saw the film
didn’t ’get’ the scene. Why did this rich
young man who had a bicycle and a
wristwatch commit suicide?
Different cultural background
• German film (1932), German historical
setting (about 1930)
• Russian (Soviet?) audience (1932), Soviet
historical experience
Different categories of ’being wealthy’.
… not just different languages
… but maybe also that!
Stereotype about Americans
Amerikaner legen ihre Füße auf den Tisch
Differences in vocabulary
Tisch
desk vs. table
The culture shock prevention
industry
The handbook approach aims at
succesful transactions rather than
understanding of the other.
It helps business people and tourists to
avoid gaffes, but does it further
understanding?
Cross- or Intercultural
communication
”The very notion of ’intercultural
communication’ assumes the prior
existence of bounded cultural
systems that can be observed as
independent scientific ’objects’.”
(Blasco, compendium p. 45)
What is the essence of Danish
culture?
•
•
•
•
•
•
rødgrød med fløde?
hygge?
informality?
excessive consumption of alcohol?
…
…
What is the essence of Danish
language use?
•
•
•
•
address: De vs. du vs. I
identification by first name
”det er dit problem”
…
Interlingual communication vs.
Intercultural communication
In interlingual communication, choices are
visible, public, institutionalized and clearly
defined.
Interlingual communication
Relatively clear options:
silence
polyglot dialog
dominance of one of the languages of the
interlocutors
use of a lingua franca
use of an interpreter
Still, there is space for negotiation and
ambiguity
Intercultural communication
In intercultural communication, choices are
invisible, personal (’not advertised’),
implicit and often muddled.
No clear range of options.
Intercultural communication
You don’t just choose a language.
You also choose words, routines and style (also
when using a lingua franca or another language)
What you are doing is being recognized as
what?
You are being recognized as what?
(recognition = interpretation)
Try to develop cultural awareness
Avoid stereotyping of other cultures