Course: Intercultural Communication—Case StudiesTextbook: Self-compiled handoutsObjectives: This curricular module prompts students with the salient issues related to intercultural communication (1CC). Its main focus is on discussions of major problems arising from ICC. During the course the students are exposed to a large variety of cases, taken from up-to-date documents. The goal is not only to build up students' knowledge of ICC, but more importantly to increase their cross-cultural awareness. The course intends to be instructive, practical and enjoyable. At the end of this course, the students will be able to1. deepen their understanding of major ICC principles;2. become familiar with differences in Chinese and American cultures;3. experience conflicts and controversies in ICC;4. enhance their abilities to analyze ICC phenomena;5. improve their ICC competence.Topic Areas:Values: 1. Friendship 2. Ethics 3. Individualism & self-reliance4. Privacy5. Equality6. Attributes7. Time & space 8. Competition & cooperation 9. Volunterism & philanthropyDaily life: 1. Lifestyle 2. Family & marriage 3. Entertainment4. Holidays & travel5. Art & architecture6. Science & technologySocial life: I. Education 2. Religion 3. Political systems & law4. Minorities5. Prejudices &stereotyping6. Building bridgesAssessment:The students will have one assignment for this course. The assignment should center on one of the particular ICC issues covered in the course. They are supposed to address the topic on the basis of theoretical analysis applying the knowledge, principles, as well as strategies obtained during the course. The assignment should run approximately ten pages long, with an abstract, key words and a list of references in the APA format. It must be double-spaced, using Times New Roman (12).Reference:1. Larry A. Samovar. Communication Between Cultures Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 20002. Dou, RQ, Qian DX, Li BX. Selected Readings in Intercultural Communication Xi’an Jiaotong University Press, 20043. Jia Yuxin. Intercultural Communication Shanghai Foreign languages Education Press, 20034. Yao Baorong. Han Qi, Wang Tao. Chinese Society and Culture Shaanxi people’s PublishingHouse, 20025. Hu Wenzhong. Aspects of Intercultural Communication Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 20046. Mei Renyi. American Studies Reader Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 20027. Robert M. Crunden. A Brief History of American Culture Paragon House, New York, 19948. Bradford ‘J’ Hall. Among Cultures—The Challenge of Communication Wadsworth, 2005Intercultural Communication------Case StudiesUnit 1 General IntroductionWe are now in a quite different world from before, which is sometimes referred to as “global village”. This globalization is mainly due to the amazingly rapid development of science and technology in the areas of transportation and communication systems. Today, trips once taking years, months, weeks, and then days are now measured in a matter of hours. And people in all corners of the world share information and ideas at the same time through sophisticated technology behind such communication means as television, telephone, fax, and the internet.It naturally follows that intercultural contact has become more frequent, more abundant and, therefore, more significant than ever before. China has become an active member of the world community, and her entry into the WTO is bound to bring us into more contact with the outside world.Now that we will conduct more and more intercultural communication, the problem we are facing is how to do it, and how to do it well. A good knowledge of a foreign language, mainly English---- the most widely used language in the world today, is of course indispensable. But language alone does not ensure successful communication, especially intercultural communication. Let’s look at some of the communication cases between people from Chinese and English cultures:Case 1: One cold winter day in a Chinese city, Mr. Wang Lin, on his way to the library, met an American professor who knew very little about China. After greeting him, Mr. Wang said: “It’s rather cold. You’d better put on more clothes.”But the professor didn’t appear happy hearing this. Why?(Chinese people like to show concerns, but American people like indepedence and privacy)Case 2: You are the only Chinese among some Americans. One of them is telling a joke.You feel good because you understand every word. All of a sudden, everyone is laughing. Everyone except you. Why?Case 3: There has been a very famous brand of battery in China: White Elephant. Suppose this product is to be exported to the UK or the USA. It’s very likely to fail without changing its brand name. Why?In each of the above situations there is something “wrong”. But this “something” has nothing to do with the language, which is perfect. The problem lies within the culture in which the language is used. In the first case, for instance, Americans (and many Westerners too) don’t like to be told what to do as they tend to be independent; while Chinese are in the habit of showing and accepting concerns. The second case tells us that sometimes connotations (implied meanings) of words are key to understanding. In the third case a white elephant, arousing beautiful association in the minds of Chinese, stands for something big but useless in the English culture. From these simple cases, it’s not difficult to see what an important role culture plays in communication and why language alone doesn’t guarantee successful intercultural communication.What we are going to explore in this course are such aspects as mentioned above, since they tend to affect intercultural communication. The aim of the course is to help you develop cultural awareness, and improve your intercultural communication competence through case studies. We know that it’s impossible to expound all the details of a culture, as culture covers almost every aspect of a person’s life. But armed with this awareness, you can design your own strategies for dealing with problems arising in intercultural communication situations.During the learning process you will see that all people exhibit culturally conditioned behaviors, approach the diversity of cultures, learn to appreciate similarities and respect differences between cultures, become aware of potential problems in intercultural communication and develop an ability to cope with them. Besides, you are going to have a better understanding of your own native culture—the Chinese culture, of which you may not be always aware just because you are in it.The above aim is to be achieved through a thought-provoking, task-based interactive learning approach. That is to say, in the process you are not just a listener or reader but also a participant in many activities, for instance, discussions about different cases. You are expected to discover a lot about culture for yourself.Unit 2 Communication and Intercultural CommunicationCommunication is symbolic in which people create shared meanings. Symbols are central to the communication process because they represent the shared meanings that are communicated.Intercultural communication occurs when large and important cultural differences createdissimilar interpretations and expectations about how to communicate competently from two different cultures.(Lusting, M.W. and Koester, J. Intercultural Competence. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999)Reading 1 CommunicationIt doesn’t matter if this is your first communication course or not. You’ve probably heard many different definitions of the word “communication”. In this chapter you will learn how that communication itself is a cultural element by studying different models of communication. You’ll learn about the different ways communication and culture are studied and about the skills required to become more effective in intercultural communication.Because communication is an element of culture, it has often been said that communication and culture are inseparable. As Afred G. Smith (1966: Communication and Culture: Readings in the Codes of Human Interaction.New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston) wrote in his preface to Communication and Culture, culture is a code we learn and share, and learning and sharing require communication. Communication requires coding and symbols that must be learned and shared. Godwin C. Chu (1977: Radical Change through Communication in Mao’s China. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii) observed that every cultural pattern and every single act of social behavior involves communication. To be understood, the two must be studied together. Culture cannot be known with a stud of communication, and communication can only be understood with an understanding of the culture it supports.Components of CommunicationYou are better able to understand communication when you understand the components of the process. Ten components of communication are source, encoding, message, channel, noise, receiver, decoding, receiver response, feedback, and context.Source. The source is the person with an idea he or she desires to communicate. Examples are CBS, the White House, your instructor, and your mother.Encoding. In the television and movie version of “Star Trek”, you saw Mr. Spock touching alien beings for what was called “mind meld”. You assume Mr. Spock was able to access directly the thoughts of the alien creature. Unfortunately, we humans are not able to do that. Your communication is in the form of symbols representing the ideas you desire to communicate. Encoding is the process of putting ideas into symbolsThe symbols into which you encode your thoughts vary. You can encode thoughts into words and you can also encode thoughts into non-spoken symbols. The oils and colors in a painting as well as your gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication can be symbols.Traditionally, a clear distinction is made between symbols and the objects or thoughts theyrepresent. The symbol is not the thing, yet we often act as if it were. When you bite into a lemon, the juice causes your mouth to water as salivary glands under your tongue secrete digestive enzymes. But if you visualize a lemon and say the symbol “lemon” to yourself several times your mouth waters as the same salivary enzymes are produced not by the thing but by its symbols! The symbols “glove”and “above”probably don’t cause reactions, but someone special saying “I love you” can trigger several reactions in your body.Message. The term message identifies the encoded thought. Encoding is the process, the verb; the message is the resulting object.Channel. The term channel is used technically to refer to the means by which the encoded message is transmitted. Today, you might feel more comfortable using the word “media”. The channel of medium, then, may be print, electronic, or the light and sound waves of face-to-face communicationNoise. The term noise technically refers to anything that distorts the message the source encodes. Noise can be of many forms: External noise can be the sights, sounds, and other stimuli that draw your attention away from the message. Having a radio on while reading is external noise. Internal noise refers to your thoughts and feelings that can interfere with the message. Being tired or being hungry can be distractions from complete attention to the message. Finally, the phrase “semantic noise” refers to how alternative meanings of the source’s message symbols can be distracting. For example, a speaker’s use of uncalled-for profanity can cause us to wonder why the speaker used profanity and draw attention away from message itself.Receiver. The receiver is the person who attends to the message. Receivers may be intentional; that is, they may be the people the source desired to communicate with, or they may be any person who comes upon and attends to the message.Decoding. Decoding is the opposite process of encoding and just as much an active process. The receiver is actively involved in the communication process by assigning meaning to the symbols received.Receiver response. Receiver response refers to anything the receiver does after having attended to and decoded the message. The response can range from doing nothing to taking some action or actions that may or may not be the action desired by the source.Feedback. Feedback refers to that portion of the receiver response of which the source has knowledge and to which the source attends and assigns meaning. A reader of this text may have many responses, but when the reader responds to a survey or writes a letter to the author does feedback occur. When a radio talk show host receives enthusiastic telephone calls and invites a guest back, feedback has occurred.Feedback makes communication a two-way or interactive process. Linear and interactive models seem to suggest that communication is an isolated single discrete act independent of events that preceded or might follow it.Context. The final component of communication is context. Generally, context can be defined as the environment in which the communication process takes place and which helps to define the communication. If you know the physical context, you can predict with a high degree of accuracy much of the communication. For example, you have certain knowledge and expectations of the communication that occurs within churches, temples, and synagogues. At times, you intentionally want to place your romantic communications in a quiet, dimly light restaurant or on a secluded beach. The choice of the environment, the context, helps assign the desired meaning to the communicated worlds.In social relationships as well, the relationship between the source and receiver may help define much of the meaning of the communication. Again, if you know the context you can predict with a high degree of accuracy much of communication. For example, knowing that a person is being stopped by a police officer for speeding is enough to predict much of the communication. Certain things are likely to be said and done; other things are very unlikely.Culture is also context. Every culture has its own worldview, its own way of thinking of creativity, time, and human nature, its own way of perceiving self, and its own system of social organization. Knowing each of these helps you assign meaning to the symbols.The component of context helps you recognize that the extent to which the source and receiver have similar meanings for the communicated symbols and similar understandings of the culture in which the communication takes place is critical to the success of the communication.Reading 2 Intercultural CommunicationThe link between culture and communication is crucial to understanding intercultural communication because it is through the influence of culture that people learn to communicate. A Korean, an Egyptian, or an American learns to communicate like other Koreans, Egyptians, or Americans. Their behavior conveys meaning because it is learned and shared; it is cultural. People view their world through categories, concepts, and labels that are products of their culture.Cultural similarity in perception makes the sharing of meaning possible. The ways in which we communicate, the circumstances of our communication, the language and language style we use, and our nonverbal behavior are primarily all a response to and a function of our culture. And, as cultures differ from one another, the communication practices and behaviors of individuals reared in those cultures will also be different.Our contention is that intercultural communication can best be understood as cultural diversity in the perception of social objects and events. A central tenet of this position is that minor communication problems are often exaggerated by perceptual diversity. To understand others’words and actions, we must try to understand their perceptual frames of reference: we must learn to understand how they perceive the world. In the ideal intercultural encounter, we would hope for many overlapping experiences and a commonality of perceptions. Cultural diversity, however, tends to introduce us to dissimilar experiences and, hence, to varied and frequently strange and unfamiliar perceptions of the external world.In all respects, everything so far said about communication and culture applies to intercultural communication. The functions and relationships between the components of communication obviously apply, but what especially characterizes intercultural communication is that sources and responders come from different cultures. This alone is sufficient to identify a unique form of communicative interaction that must take into account the role and function of culture in the communication process.Intercultural communication occurs whenever a message that must be understood is produced by a member of one culture for consumption by a member of another culture. This circumstance can be problematic because, as we have already seen, culture forges and shapes the individual communicator. Culture is largely responsible for the construction of our individual social realities and for our individual repertories for communicative behaviors and meanings. The communication repertories people possess can vary significantly from culture to culture, which can lead to all sorts of difficulties. Through the study and understanding of intercultural communication, however, these difficulties at least can be reduced and at best nearly eliminated.Cultural influence on individuals and the problems inherent in the production and interpretation of messages between cultures are illustrated in Figure 2. Here, three cultures are represented by three distinct geometric shapes Cultures A and B are purposefully similar to one another and are represented by a square and an irregular octagon that resembles a square. Culture C is intended to be quite different from Cultures A and B. It is represented both by its circular shape and its physical distance from Cultures A and B. Within each represented culture is another form similar to the shape of the influencing parent culture. This form represents a person who has been molded by his or her culture. The shape representing the person, however, is somewhat different from that of the parent culture. The difference suggests two things: first, there are other influences besides culture that affect and help mold the individual; and, second, although culture is the dominant shaping forces on an individual, people vary to some extent from each other within any culture.Message production, transmission, and interpretation across cultures are illustrated by the series of arrows connecting them. When a message leaves the culture in which it was encoded, it carries the content intended by its producer. This is represented by the arrows leaving a culture having the same pattern as that within the message producer. When a message reaches the culture where it is to be interpreted, it undergoes a transformation because the culture in which the message is decoded influences the message interpretation and hence its meaning. The content of the original message changes during that interpretation phase of intercultural communication because the cultural different repertories of social reality, communicative behaviors, and meanings possessed by the interpreter do not coincide with those possessed by the message producer.The degree of influence culture has on intercultural communication is a function of the dissimilarity between the cultures. This also is indicated in the model by the degree of pattern change that occurs in the message arrows. The change that occurs between Cultures A and B is much less than the change between Cultures A and C and between Cultures B and C. This is because there is greater similarity between Cultures A and B. Hence, the repertories of social realty, communicative behaviors, and meanings are similar and the interpretation effort produces results more nearly like the content intended in the original message. Since Culture C is represented as being quite different from Cultures A and B, the interpreted message is considerably different and more nearly represents the pattern of Culture C.The model suggests that there can be wide variability in cultural differences during intercultural communication, due in part to circumstances or forms. Intercultural communication occurs in a wide variety of situations that range from interactions between people for whom cultural differences are extreme to interactions between people who are members of the same dominant culture and whose differences are reflected in the values and perceptions of co-cultures existing within the dominant culture. If we imagine differences varying along a minimum-maximum dimension, the degree of difference between two cultural groups depends on their relative social uniqueness. Although this scale is refined, it allows us to examine intercultural communication acts and gain insight into the effect cultural differences have on communication.( An Introduction to Intercultural communication by Porter and Samovar, International Thompson Publishing, 1994)Case StudiesCase 1Wayne Calder, a recent Harvard MBA graduate and one of his organization’s most innovative planners, was assigned to the Paris office for a two-year period. Wayne was particularly excited about the transfer because he could now draw on the French he has taken while in school. Knowing that his proficiency in the French language would be an excellent entrée into French society, Wayne was looking forward to getting to know his French colleagues on a personal level. During the first week in Paris an opportunity to socialize presented itself. While waiting for a planning meeting with top executives to begin, Wayne introduced himself to Monsieur LeBec. They shook hands and exchanged some pleasantries, and then Wayne told LeBec how excited his family was to be in France. Wayne then asked LeBec if he had any children. LeBec replied that he had two daughters and a son. But when Wayne asked other questions about LeBec family, his French colleague became quite distant and uncommunicative. Wayne wondered what he had done wrong.Case 2Mr. A was the first individual from his Japanese division sent to the U.S. The company designed his assignment as “developmental”, and he viewed himself as a trainee. Soon after arriving at hisnew office, Mr. A was assigned to an internal trainer, an American who was responsible to Mr. A’s learning according to a set of objectives jointly developed by the Japanese sending division and the American receiving division.Little time passed before Mr. A complained of adjustment difficulties and stress, and reported confusion and dissatisfaction over the content and purpose of his developmental program. It became apparent that, even though there had been direct communication between the sending and receiving divisions regarding this program, there had been almost no mutual understanding. The Japanese sending division had put forward broad objectives such as upgrading Mr. A’s ability to communicate in English and enabling him to improve his abilities as a global manager. These objectives were easy for the American receiving division to accept. But the American side interpreted the objectives quite differently from what the Japanese side had in mind.A closely related problem was that Mr. A’s expectations regarding acceptable training methods were sharply at variance with the expectations of his American trainer.Unit 3 Culture and CommunicationCulture (is) the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.(Samovar, L.A. and Porter, R.E. Intercultural Communication: A Reader.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,1997)Reading 1 CultureThe Basic Function of CultureCulture is a complex, abstract, and pervasive matrix of social elements that functions as anall-encompassing form or pattern for living by laying out a predictable world in which an individual is firmly oriented. Culture enables us to make sense of our surroundings, aiding the transition from the womb to this new life.From the instant of birth, a child is formally and informally taught how to behave. Children, regardless of their culture, quickly learn how to behave in a manner that is acceptable to adults. Within each culture, therefore, there is no need to expend energy deciding what an event means or how to respond to it. The assumption is that people who share a common culture can usually be counted on to behave “correctly” and predictably. Hence, culture reduces the chances of surprise by shielding people from the unknown. Try to imagine a single day in your life without access to the guidelines your culture provides. Without the rules that govern your actions, you would soon feel helpless. From how to greet strangers to how to spend our time, culture provides us with structure. To lack culture is to lack structure. We might even go so far as to say that “our primarymode of biological adaptation is culture, not anatomy”.Definition of CultureWe have already indicated that culture is a complex matrix of interaction elements. Culture is ubiquitous, multidimensional, complex, and all pervasive. Because it is too broad, there is not a single definition or central theory of what it is. Definitions of culture run the gamut from “an all-encompassing phenomenon” to descriptions listing nearly all human activity. For our purposes, we define culture as the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religions, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.The Ingredients of CultureAlthough scholars may lack a definitive ingredient list for culture, most agree that any description should include the three categories submitted by Almaney and Alwan (1982: Communicating with Arabs. Waveland) They contend thatCultures may be classified by three large categories of elements: artifacts (which include items ranging from arrowheads to hydrogen bombs, magic charms to antibiotics, torches to electric lights, and chariots to jet planes); concepts (which include such beliefs or value systems as right or wrong, God and man, ethics, and the general meaning of life); and behaviors (which refer to the actual practice of concepts or beliefs).These authors provide an excellent example of how these three aspects might be reflected within a culture: “Whereas money is considered an artifact, the value placed upon it is a concept, but the actual spending and saving of money is behavior.”Other inventories provide additional listings of the content of culture. Some of these additional ingredients of particular interest to intercultural communication include cultural history, cultural personality, material culture, role relationships, art, language, cultural stability, cultural beliefs, ethnocentrism, non-verbal behavior, spatial relations, time, recognition and reward, and thought patterns.The Characteristics of CultureSix characteristics of culture are of special importance to intercultural communication: (1) culture is learned, (2) culture is transmissible, (3) culture is dynamic, (4) culture is selective, (5) the facets of culture are interrelated, and (6) culture is ethnocentric.Culture Is Not Innate: It Is Learned From infancy on, members of a culture learn their patterns of behavior and ways of thinking until they have become internalized. The power and influences of these behaviors and perceptions can be seen in the ways in which we acquire culture. Our culture learning proceeds through interaction, observation, and imitation. A little boy in North America whose father tells him to shake hands when he is introduced to a friend of the family is learning culture. The Arab baby who is read the Koran when he or she is one day old is learning culture. The Hindu child who lives in a home where the women eat after the men is learning culture. The Jewish child who helps conduct the Passover celebration is learning culture.All of this learning occurs as conscious or unconscious conditioning that leads one toward。
