Download Intercultural communication competence refers to one`s skill in

Intercultural
Communication
Competence
Intercultural communication competence
 Intercultural communication competence refers to one’s skill
in facilitating successful communication in intercultural
contexts
 A multicultural person is one who respects cultures and has
tolerance for differences
 Chen (1990) identifies four skill areas:
- personality stength
- communication skills
- psychological adjustment
- cultural awareness
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Personality stength
 The main personal traits that affect intercultural communication
are:
- Self-concept: which refers to the way in which the person views
one’s self
- Self-disclosure: which refers to the willingness of individuals to
openly reveal information about themselves
- Self-monitoring: which refers to using information to control, and
modify one’s self-presentation and expressive behaviour
- Social relaxation: the ability to reveal little anxiety in
communication
Effective communicators must:
- know themselves well
- initiate positive attitudes
- express a friendly personality
- be competent in intercultural communication
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Communication skills
 Individuals must be competent in verbal and nonverbal
behaviour and possess the following skills:
- Message skills: the ability to understand and use language and
feedback
- Behavioural flexibility: the ability to select an appropriate
behaviour in diverse contexts
- Interaction management: the ability to handle the procedural
aspects of conversation
- Social skills: the ability to show empathy and understanding
 In other words, a competent communicator must be able to
deal with diverse people in different situations
Psychological adjustment
 Effective communicators must be able to adjust to new
environments
 They must be able to handle the feelings of ‘culture shock’,
such as frustration, stress, alienation in ambiguous situations
caused by new environments
Cultural awareness
 To be effective communicators, people must understand
the social customs and social system of the host culture
 They must acknowledge and respect cultural differences
 They must be aware of their own cultural identity
 They must understand how cultures vary
 They must be able to manage the appropriate interaction
strategies required in the new cultural context
Barriers to intercultural communication
 Barna (1997) has developed a list of six such barriers:
- anxiety
- assuming similarity instead of difference
- ethnocentrism
- stereotypes and prejudice
- nonverbal misinterpretation
- language
Anxiety
 Anxiety may arise when you do not know what you are
expected to do in a particular situation
 You may be conscious of being out of place and focus so
much of your attention on that feeling that you make common
mistakes and appear awkward to others
 Sugavara (1993) surveyed 168 Japanese employees working
in the US and 135 of their US coworkers
 Only 8% of the US coworkers felt impatient with their
Japanese coworkers’ English
 60% of the Japanese employees believed that language was a
problem in communicating with their US coworkers
 Their anxiety over speaking English properly contributed to
avoiding interactions with the US coworkers
Assuming similarity instead of difference
 Assuming that no differences exist in a new culture may
result in miscommunication
 A few years ago a Danish woman left her 14-month old baby
girl in a stroller outside a Manhattan restaurant while she was
inside
 Other diners at the restaurant became concerned and called
New York City police
 The woman explained that leaving children unattended
outside cafés is common in Denmark
 A few school districts in the US have been accused of
ignoring the specificities of some religious groups
 For example, Muslims pray 5 times a day and require space
to unfurl a rug, face Mecca and touch the head to the floor
 Muslim parents have asked schools to recognize difference
and become more accommodating to Muslim students
Ethnocentrism
 Ethnocentrism means negatively judging aspects of another
culture by the standards of one’s own culture
 Ethnocentrics believe in the superiority of their own culture
 For example, in some US places summers average over 35°C
 It would be logical to make adjustments
 Rather than air-conditioning buildings all day, you might close
schools and businesses in the afternoon to conserve energy
 If such adjustments make sense, why then do some people
attribute midday siestas in hot climates to laziness?
 Another example of ethnocentrism is recognizing only Western
holidays in schools or basing curriculum only on Western
history, music and art
 A less extreme form of ethnocentrism can be labelled cultural
nearsightedness
 E.g. people in the US often use the word Americans to refer to US
citizens although that word more correctly designates all people
in North and South America
Stereotypes
 Stereotyping means making judgements about others on the
basis of their group membership
 A few years ago American Airlines was criticized for a flight
manual that said that Latin American customers like to drink
before takeoff
 The same flight manual also said that Latin American
customers do not expect flights to depart on time and will even
call in bomb threats if they are running late and want the flight
to be delayed
 Continuous use of the stereotype reinforces the belief: e.g.
stereotypes of women as ornaments, people of colour as stupid
or licentious, or gay men as promiscuous reinforce a belief that
places individual women, Afro-Americans and gay men at risk
 Television may reinforce stereotypes: e.g. four Western myths
about Arabs as shown on television are that Arabs are wealthy,
barbaric, sex maniacs and terrorist minded
Prejudice
 While stereotypes can be positive or negative, prejudice refers to
the irrational dislike, suspicion or hatred of a particular group,
race, religion or sexual orientation
 The Roma are believed to have migrated from India more than a
millennium ago, settling first in Persia, then arriving in Europe in
the 13th-14th century
 The name ‘Gypsy’ was mistakenly applied by medieval Europeans, who thought all dark-skinned people came from Egypt
 Leading a nomadic life, the Roma were often regarded as tramps
and accused of thefts and robberies
 From the beginning of the 17th century attempts were made to
forcibly assimilate the Roma people by requiring permanent
settlement and banning the Romany language
 The Roma were particularly persecuted by Nazi Germany
 Even nowadays there is great prejudice against the Roma
 Graffiti have reappeared on walls: ‘Gypsies go away’ and
‘Gypsies to the gas’
Nonverbal misinterpretation
 Many nonverbal expressions vary from culture to culture and
these may cause misunderstandings
 Proxemics is the study of our use of personal space
 The physical distance we want between ourselves and others
varies according to culture
 In india there are elaborate rules about how closely members
of each caste may approach other castes
 Arabs of the same sex stand much closer than North
Americans
 Queuing is also culture-related: Italians, Spaniards and the
Frech are among the least queue-conscious in Europe
 Gestures, body movements, facial expressions and eye contact
are behaviours termed kinesics
 These too vary according to culture
 E.g., the thumb-up gesture used in the US by hitchhikers is
widely understood to mean ‘okay’ in other countries
 The forefinger-to-thumb gesture forming a circle means ‘okay’ in
the US; in France it means zero; in Japan it means change
(coins); in Brazil it is considered an offensive gesture
 There are wide variations even with such universal rituals as
nodding agreement and greeting friends
 Most cultures indicate ‘yes’ by an up-and-down head nod and ‘no’
by shaking the head from side to side; but in Albania, Bulgaria,
Greece, Turkey, Iran and the former Yugoslavia the yes-no
gestures are reversed
 For greetings, in the US a firm handshake with direct eye contact
is appropriate; in India the preferred greeting is placing the palms
together and bowing slightly; in Japan it is a bow with the depth
and length conveying meanings of status; in Tibet, people
sometimes stick their tongues out to greet one another
 In Southern Europe and Latin America a hearty embrace is
common among women and men alike, and men may follow it
with a friendly slap on the back
Language as a barrier
 Translation problems can become barriers to intercultural
communication, due to the lack of vocabulary equivalence;
 e.g. Eskimo languages have many different words to refer to
snow; these can only be translated into one English word: snow;
 Another example is the translation of colour shades
 Different languages often lack words that are directly translatable
 E.g. A US businessperson might write: «We wonder if you would
prepare an agenda for our meeting»; this is a polite way of asking
the Japanese to prepare the agenda
 One of the possible Japanese translations of the word wonder is
gimon, which expresses doubt. So if the sentence is translated
«We doubt that you would prepare an agenda for our meeting», it
would convey the opposite request
 Another barrier to successful translation is the problem of
idiomatic equivalence
 Take the example of «the old man kicked the bucket»; native
speakers know that it means the old man died; if the sentence is
translated word for word, the meaning would be quite different
Source
- Jandt, Fred (2013) An Introduction to Intercultural Communication. Sage
References
- Barna, L.M. (1997) Stumbling blocks in intercultural communication. In
L.A. Samovar / R.E. Porter (eds) Intercultural Communication. A Reader.
Wadsworth, 337-346
- Chen, G.M. (1990) Intercultural communication competence. Some
perspectives of research. Howard Journal of Communication 2/3, 243261
- Sugavara, Y. (1993) Silence and avoidance: Japanese expatriate
adjustment. MA thesis, California State University, San Bernardino