Intercultural communication
Intercultural communication – cross cultural communication
“It´s no cultures that meet, but human individuals who are influenced by a
complicated interplay of personal, situational and, of course, cultural factors.
Therefore a particular difficulty with cultural overlap situations resides in
precisely the structural uncertainty as to what the factor “culture” actually
means.“Leenen (2005:91‐92)
In general, the term ”cross-cultural” is probably best used for comparisons
between cultures (”crosscultural comparison”).
Intercultural/Cross cultural communication
sharing of information on different levels of awareness and control between
people with different cultural backgrounds, where different cultural
backgrounds include both national cultural differences and differences which
are connected with participation in the different activities that exist within a
national unit.
Intercultural communication – cross cultural communication
What is culture?
Culture - analyzed in several different ways by different researchers.
See Kroeber and Kluckholm (1952) for an account of about 200 ways to define
the concept of culture.
Culture
• All the characteristics common to a particular group of people that are
learned and not given by nature.
• Example: - mouth: not a cultural characteristic but a natural one, while
a special but common way of talking/not talking about specific subjects
will probably be cultural.
Primary cultural dimension
Analytically, we can differentiate between the following four primary cultural
dimensions:
(i) Patterns of thought – common ways of thinking, where thinking includes
factual beliefs, values, norms, and emotional attitudes.
(ii) Patterns of behavior – common ways of behaving, from ways of speaking to
ways of conducting commerce and industry, where the behavior can be
intentional/unintentional, aware/unaware or individual/interactive.
(iii) Patterns of artifacts – common ways of manufacturing and using material
things, from pens to houses (artifact = artifical object), where artifacts include
dwellings, tools, machines or media. The artifactual dimension of culture is
usually given special attention in museums.
(iv) Imprints in nature – the longlasting imprints left by a group in the natural
surroundings, where such imprints include agriculture, trash, roads or
intact/ruined human habitations.
Intercultural communication – cross cultural communication
Possible differences between communication patterns
When people of different cultural backgrounds meet, all differences between
them can potentially lead to misunderstanding.
As for communicative behavior, a distinction can be made between behavior
that is produced by a single individual and behavior that requires the
interaction and/or cooperation of several individuals.
Individual
On the individual level it may be convenient to view communication from the
following four aspects:
1. Body Movements
2. Sound and Writing
3. Vocabulary and Phraseology
4. Grammar
Body movements
When we speak, our speech is continuously accompanied by gestures, facial
expressions and other body movements that add to what we are saying in
different ways. There are great differences in how people from different
cultures communicate with their bodies.
The largest differences are probably concern the use of hands to covey
different meanings. Gestures for such things as money, great, come here vary
considerably between Sweden and the Mediterranean countries. Other
differences are found for when and where a person is permitted to express
something, perhaps particularly certain emotions. There can also be variations
from culture to culture in how intensely people show different emotions. In
certain cultures such as Mediterranean cultures, it is permitted to show strong
feelings such as happiness, anger and grief in public. In others, such as Sweden
or Japan, there are restrictions against this. (See Barnlund 1975).
Sound and writing
Each language has its store of least meaning differentiating sound units or
phonemes. These vary in the languages of the world between 16 in the
Polynesian languages, and about 80 in Caucasian languages.
Case of Coca-Cola
When Coca-Cola was first sold in China in 1927, it was obvious to the Coke employees in
China that the Coca-Cola trademark must be transliterated into Chinese characters. To
find the nearest phonetic equivalent to “Coca-Cola" required a separate Chinese
character for each of the four syllables. Out of the 40,000 or so characters, there were
only about 200 that were pronounced with the sounds the Company needed, and many
of these had to be avoided because of their meaning.
Sound and writing
While doing the research for four suitable characters, the employees found that a
number of shopkeepers had also been looking for Chinese equivalents for Coca-Cola, but
with strange results. Some had made signs that were absurd, adopting any group of
characters that sounded remotely like "Coca-Cola" -- without giving a thought to the
meaning of the characters used. One of these homemade signs sounded like “Coca-Cola”
when pronounced, but the meaning of the characters came out something like “female
horse fastened with wax” and another meant “bite the wax tadpole.”
Although the Company was primarily concerned with the phonetic equivalent of CocaCola, the employees could not ignore the meaning of the characters, individually and
collectively – even if the shopkeepers had done so. They chose Mandarin because this
dialect was spoken by the great majority of Chinese. The closest Mandarin equivalent to
Coca-Cola was “K'o K'ou K'o Lê.” The aspirates (designated by ‘) were necessary to
approximate the English sounds.
All Chinese characters had more than one meaning, but K'o K'ou K'o Lê (depending on
context) commonly meant what is seen here:
Sound and writing
This combination for the Chinese
trademark meant “to permit
mouth to be able to rejoice” –
showing the pleasure that could
come from drinking Coke. That
definition was a stroke of luck!
Sound and writing
When this trademark was registered in 1928,
most Chinese writing was vertical and was
read down from right to left. The two
characters at the right mean drink, then the
Chinese trademark, and then Delicious and
Refreshing
Vocabulary and phraseology
The difference between different languages, which people who learn several different
languages become aware of, is the difference between the vocabulary of different
languages in terms of words and phrases.
In every culture, the words and phrases of everyday language mirror the needs,
values and attitudes that have been common and strong and have thus been
necessary to communicate about.
People who live in a desert have in their everyday language a vocabulary that allows a
differentiation between many different types of sand, while people who live in areas
with a great deal of snow instead develop a vocabulary that allows a differentiation
between many types of snow.
A difference in vocabulary that has been investigated the most has to do with
differences between the words for color in different languages. The figure below
shows the great differences that can exist in this area (Source: Berlin & Key 1969)
Vocabulary and phraseology
Vocabulary and phraseology
Another important area in uncovering differences that can be significant in
intercultural communication is different types of standardized phrases and
metaphors.
Among such expressions are what are usually called proverbs, that is, standardized
phrases that directly or metaphorically express what, at least by certain people in the
culture, is seen as wisdom about life.
Swedish has for example the following phrases that can all begin with one should
(man skall):
Opice – monkey
Grammar
A fourth dimension that can be used to differentiate languages is grammar, e.g.
The inflection, derivation, and syntactic patterns that exist in the language.
Languages also exhibit great differences in basic word order patterns. A very
well known way to classify language introduced by Joseph Greenberg, a
California linguist (see Greenberg, 1966), is based on the basic word order in
statements between subject (S), verb (V), and object (O).
99 % - belong to the first three categories, SVO, SOV or VSO. The subject comes before
the object in all three types..
Sender and receiver
The four aspects of linguistic behavior on the individual level mentioned above
can be viewed from two main perspectives: the perspective of the sender and
the perspective of the receiver.
The sender or speaker must produce a message that the receiver or
listener can perceive and understand.
Receiver
Control and integration of several different dimensions at the same time, too.
The following must be included among the receiver’s activities and
reactions:
A. Influence - processing of information without a high degree of awareness and control. In a
series of experiments, Marcel (Marcel, 1979) showed that we can be influenced by a text without
having consciously perceived it. Other studies show that we can be influenced by the size of
pupils of other people without being aware that this is that which is influencing us (Argyle, 1975).
B. Perception (Apprehension) - information is also consciously registered by the receiver
through his/her five senses. This type of reaction is necessary for such specialized activities as
reading.
C. Understanding -
to be able to put the information we perceive into a meaningful context, i.e.
a context that is based on understood logical relations or understanding about cause and effect.
The difference between perception and understanding can be illustrated by considering a person
not well versed in mathematics who attends a lecture on topology. He/she probably perceives in
some sense what is being said but probably does not understand.
Receiver
To be able to put perceived information into a meaningful context, a person must have already stored a
certain amount of information. One must already understand. This relationship is often formulated as
“understanding requires pre-understanding”. If you already understand a great deal, then not so much
needs to be said to make you to understand more.
This relationship is continuously used in everyday conversations in which we normally succeed in
sharing more information than we literally express. By building upon the information that we assume
we share with other people, we can take a great deal for granted and be satisfied with hints. It is
probably not an exaggeration to say that half of the information we are sharing in ordinary
conversations is implicitly understood and is based on the receiver, through his/her process of
interpretation and understanding, successfully reconstructing the message the sender intends.
The consequences of these considerations that have to do with linguistic communication in general are
relatively important if we wish to understand the difficulties that can exist in intercultural
communication. In some cases of intercultural communication, the persons who communicate lack a
relevant common cultural background, that is, they lack common beliefs, values and norms. They have
no shared pre-understandings on which to build.
The strategy is to try to clarify, through the use of language, what is normally taken for granted, by
making explicit as many requirements as possible for what is said.
Receiver
To be able to put perceived information into a meaningful context, a person must have already stored a
certain amount of information. One must already understand. This relationship is often formulated as
“understanding requires pre-understanding”. If you already understand a great deal, then not so much
needs to be said to make you to understand more.
This relationship is continuously used in everyday conversations in which we normally succeed in
sharing more information than we literally express. By building upon the information that we assume
we share with other people, we can take a great deal for granted and be satisfied with hints. It is
probably not an exaggeration to say that half of the information we are sharing in ordinary
conversations is implicitly understood and is based on the receiver, through his/her process of
interpretation and understanding, successfully reconstructing the message the sender intends.
The consequences of these considerations that have to do with linguistic communication in general are
relatively important if we wish to understand the difficulties that can exist in intercultural
communication. In some cases of intercultural communication, the persons who communicate lack a
relevant common cultural background, that is, they lack common beliefs, values and norms. They have
no shared pre-understandings on which to build.
The strategy is to try to clarify, through the use of language, what is normally taken for granted, by
making explicit as many requirements as possible for what is said.
Other reactions
Factual understanding is concurrently combined with emotional and attitudinal reactions. We become
interested, bored, upset, sad, angry, happy or irritated over what we hear and we direct these reactions
toward the contents of what we are hearing and toward the person who is speaking.
Reactions of this type exist among all people in all communication situations and can only, by training
and analytical abstraction, be differentiated from the more factual understanding.
For example, most people have a very difficult time differentiating between a topic and a person (If I do
not respect X, then what X is saying can not be true, or the reverse, if I respect X then what X is saying
must be true).
Factual understanding and emotional reactions always function in an interplay with one another.
Communication behavior on an interactive level
1) Interaction sequences – how I greet people, sequence of meeting , use of
body language
2) Turntaking - Since the middle of the 20TH century, the concept of “turn
taking” has been used more and more to characterize a basic set of
principles for conversational interaction, see
Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson (1974). The principles have to do with how the
right to speak is distributed - who speaks with whom, for how long, about
what, when and in which way (Western Europe x Mediterranean, question of
power)
3) Feedback -information from the listener about the way in which the listener
has perceived, understood and reacted to what the speaker has said
4) Spatial configurations - closeness and physical contact between persons in a
conversation. In
cultures in northwestern Europe adult men generally avoid touching one another
during conversations and maintain a greater distance from one another than do
e.g. adult men from Mediterranean cultures. The latter also show a greater
frequency of physical contact during neutral conversations.
Understanding, values and attitudes
To be able to efficiently participate in intercultural communication we need to take into consideration
the differences in understanding, values and attitudes that people with different cultural backgrounds
can have.
Types of pre-understanding
On general level the following areas can be mentioned:
1. Realia: geography, history, religion, political and economic systems, industrial
and commercial branches, food, clothes and housing traditions.
2. Esthetic culture: music, art and fiction.
3. Expert knowledge: activities with special subject areas, roles and tools.
4. Attitudes and values: a particularly important part of a person’s preunderstandingis his/her attitudes
and values. These unite his/her factual understanding with his/her emotions, desires and actions.
Although attitudes and values can differ among a group of people, to a certain extent they are also
given by their common cultural environment.
4.1. Phenomena that play an important part in most people’s lives + investigation whether
there is any pattern in the attitudes of a particular group towards these phenomena.
Phenomena may include: family, child rearing, the opposite sex, socializing with friends, work money, authorities (e.g. the state, teachers), aging, goals of life - career, death, time and
Space…
Understanding, values and attitudes
To be able to efficiently participate in intercultural communication we need to take into consideration
the differences in understanding, values and attitudes that people with different cultural backgrounds
can have.
Types of pre-understanding
On general level the following areas can be mentioned:
1. Realia: geography, history, religion, political and economic systems, industrial
and commercial branches, food, clothes and housing traditions.
2. Esthetic culture: music, art and fiction.
3. Expert knowledge: activities with special subject areas, roles and tools.
4. Attitudes and values: a particularly important part of a person’s preunderstandingis his/her attitudes
and values. These unite his/her factual understanding with his/her emotions, desires and actions.
Although attitudes and values can differ among a group of people, to a certain extent they are also
given by their common cultural environment.
4.1. Phenomena that play an important part in most people’s lives + investigation whether
there is any pattern in the attitudes of a particular group towards these phenomena.
Phenomena may include: family, child rearing, the opposite sex, socializing with friends, work money, authorities (e.g. the state) aging, goals of life - career, death, time and space…religion
etc.
Intercultural communication and thought patterns
Being a good communicator has different meanings in different
cultures. In order to communicate effectively across cultures, you need
to understand the cultural thought patterns behind the language of
communication.
These thought patterns influence the way native speakers of a language
will express themselves. It will also influence how they expect to hear
information presented. When the speaker and the listener have different
cultural thought patterns, there is an increased likelihood for
miscommunication and cross cultural conflict. However, by mimicking
the communication style of your listener, you are affirming their values
in this area.
Intercultural communication and thought patterns
Intercultural communication and thought patterns
English - (includes Germanic languages such as German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish,
and Swedish) Communication is direct, linear and doesn’t digress or go off topic.
Semitic – (for example, Arabic or Hebrew) Thoughts are express in a series of parallel
ideas, both positive and negative. Coordination is valued over subordination.
Oriental – (Languages of Asia) Communication is indirect. A topic is not addressed
head on, but is viewed from various perspectives, working around and around the
point.
Roman – (Latin-based languages such as French, Italian, Romanian and
Spanish) Communication often digresses. It is fine to introduce extraneous material,
which adds to the richness of the communication.
Russian – Like Roman languages, Russian communication is often digressive. The
digression may include a series of parallel ideas.
Hoefstede
Power distance
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it
expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power
distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of
institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally.
Power distance
Power distance
The Czech Republic has a relatively high score on this dimension (57). This means it
is a hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which
everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an
organisation is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralisation is popular,
subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent
autocrat.
With a score of 50, Italy tends to prefer equality and a decentralisation of power
and decision-making. Control and formal supervision is generally disliked among the
younger generation, who demonstrate a preference for teamwork and an open
management style.
Turkey scores high on this dimension (score of 66) which means that the following
characterises the Turkish style: Dependent, hierarchical, superiors often inaccessible
and the ideal boss is a father figure. Power is centralized and managers rely on their
bosses and on rules. Employees expect to be told what to do. Control is expected
and attitude towards managers is formal. Communication is indirect and the
information flow is selective. The same structure can be observed in the family unit,
where the father is a kind of patriarch to whom others submit.
Power distance
Russia, scoring 93, is a nation where power is very distant in society. This is
underlined by the fact that the largest country in the world is extremely centralized:
2/3 of all foreign investments go into Moscow where also 80% of all financial
potential is concentrated. The huge discrepancy between the less and the more
powerful people leads to a great importance of status symbols. Behaviour has to
reflect and represent the status roles in all areas of business interactions: be it
visits, negotiations or cooperation; the approach should be top-down and provide
clear mandates for any task
Individualism vs. collectivism
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of
interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with
whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In Individualist
societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only.
In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in
exchange for loyalty.
The Czech Republic, with a score of 58 is an Individualistic society. This means there
is a high preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are
expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families only. In
individualistic societies offence causes guilt and a loss of self-esteem, the
employer/employee relationship is a contract based on mutual advantage, hiring
and promotion decisions are supposed to be based on merit only, management is
the management of individuals
Individualism vs. collectivism
Individualism vs. collectivism
At a score of 76 Italy is an Individualistic culture, “me” centered, especially in the big and
rich cities of the North where people can feel alone even in the middle of a big and busy
crowd. So family and friends becomes an important antidote to this feeling; but the word
“friend” should not be misinterpreted because in business it has a slightly different
meaning: someone that you know and can be useful for introducing you to the important
or powerful people.
For Italians having their own personal ideas and objectives in life is very motivating and
the route to happiness is through personal fulfillment. This dimension does vary in
Southern Italy where less individualistic behavior can be observed: the family network
and the group one belongs to are important social aspects, and rituals such as weddings
or Sunday lunches with the family are occasions that one can’t miss. People going from
Southern Italy to the North say that they feel cold not only for the different climate but
for the less “warm” approach in relationships
Individualism vs. collectivism
If Russians plan to go out with their friends they would literally say “We with
friends” instead of “I and my friends”, if they talk about brothers and sisters it may
well be cousins, so a lower score of 39 even finds its manifestations in the language.
Family, friends and not seldom the neighborhood are extremely important to get
along with everyday life’s challenges. Relationships are crucial in obtaining
information, getting introduced or successful negotiations. They need to be
personal, authentic and trustful before one can focus on tasks and build on a careful
to the recipient, rather implicit communication style.
Turkey, with a score of 37 is a collectivistic society. This means that the “We” is
important, people belong to in-groups (families, clans or organisations) who look
after each other in exchange for loyalty. Communication is indirect and the
harmony of the group has to be maintained, open conflicts are avoided. The
relationship has a moral base and this always has priority over task fulfillment. Time
must be invested initially to establish a relationship of trust. Nepotism may be
found more often. Feedback is always indirect, also in the business environment.
Masculinity or feminity
A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven
by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner
/ best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout
organisational behaviour.
Masculinity or feminity
At 70 Italy is a masculine society – highly success oriented and driven. Children are
taught from an early age that competition is good and to be a winner is important in
one’s life. Italians show their success by acquiring status symbols such as a beautiful
car, a big house, a yacht and travels to exotic countries. As the working environment
is the place where every Italian can reach his/her success, competition among
colleagues for making a career can be very strong.
Turkey scores 45 and is on the feminine side of the scale. This means that the softer
aspects of culture such as leveling with others, consensus, sympathy for the
underdog are valued and encouraged. Conflicts are avoided in private and work life
and consensus at the end is important. Leisure time is important for Turks, it is the
time when the whole family, clan and friends come together to enjoy life. Status is
shown, but this comes more out of the high PDI.
Masculinity or feminity
The Czech Republic scores 57 on this dimension and is thus a masculine society. In
masculine countries people “live in order to work”, managers are expected to be
decisive and assertive, the emphasis is on equity, competition and performance and
conflicts are resolved by fighting them out.
Russia’s relatively low score of 36 may surprise with regard to its preference for
status symbols, but these are in Russia related to the high Power Distance. At second
glance one can see, that Russians at workplace as well as when meeting a stranger
rather understate their personal achievements, contributions or capacities. They talk
modestly about themselves and scientists, researchers or doctors are most often
expected to live on a very modest standard of living. Dominant behaviour might be
accepted when it comes from the boss, but is not appreciated among peers.
Uncertainty avoidance
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals
with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future
or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have
learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. The extent to which the members
of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created
beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score.
Pragmatism
This dimension describes how people in the past as well as today relate to the fact
that so much that happens around us cannot be explained. In societies with a
normative orientation, most people have a strong desire to explain as much as
possible. In societies with a pragmatic orientation most people don’t have a need to
explain everything, as they believe that it is impossible to understand fully the
complexity of life. The challenge is not to know the truth but to live a virtuous life.
With a high score of 70, Czech culture is shown to be pragmatic. In societies with a
pragmatic orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation,
context and time. They show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed
conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in
achieving results.
Indulgence
This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires
and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called
“indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “restraint”. Cultures can,
therefore, be described as indulgent or restrained.
Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and
pessimism. Also, in contrast to indulgent societies, restrained societies do not put
much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires. People
with this orientation have the perception that their actions are restrained by social
norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.
Indulgence
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Awareness and insight about differences between cultures and
communication patterns
Flexible attitudes toward differences in culture and communication patterns
Ability and skill
Develop cultural sensitivity
Anticipate the meaning the receiver will get.
Careful encoding
Use words, pictures, and gestures.
Avoid slang, idioms, regional sayings.
Selective transmission
Build relationships, face-to-face if possible.
Careful decoding of feedback
Get feedback from multiple parties.
Improve listening and observation skills.
Follow-up actions