Lecture 7 Flashcards
Communication across cultures
What is (cross) cultural communication?
The activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information.”
How we communicate and perceive are related to each other
How does East Asian communication differ from Western communication?
East Asians reason in a holistic and relational manner (west: more analytical) and tend to emphasize the relationship between objects and events
What is the hypothesis of linguistic relativity?
Also known as: Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
The principle that language structure affects perception or world view; there are two versions:
1. Strong version: language determines thoughts and linguistic categories determine cognitive categories
2. Weak version: linguistic categories only influences thoughts and decisions
“……The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.
* No two languages are ever sufficiently
similar to be considered as representing the
same social reality.
Both Sapir and Whorf agreed that it is our culture that determines our language, which in turn determines the way that we categorize our thoughts about the world and our experiences in it.
AKA: Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
Why is it so difficult to communicate across cultures?
Because of different creative imaginations caused by linguistics we interpret things differently; The specific way we categorize and name colors is influenced by our cultural background and the language we speak. This is a product of social conventions, education, and shared understanding within a community.
Castoriadis (1987) on ‘creative imagination’: Rainbows include the whole spectrum of different colours, but how many colours we distinguish depends on our specific social and linguistic milieu
All languages are different and create a different social reality.
Albert Mehrabian argued what the most important things were in communicating a message
First: body language followed by tone used and lastly words
What is the AIA model
AIA: Attention, interpretation, action (message)
A model that describes the fundamental processes in communication, it highlights three stages of communication through which one person in a conversation goes and then the other.
1. Attention: what am I seeing or hearing?
2. Interpretation: what does it mean?
3. Action (message): how will I respond?
All these stages are influenced by the communication environment
What elements make up the communication environment in the AIA model?
- Competing messages
- Visual and audible noise
- Interpersonal relationships
- Power distance
- Knowledge distribution
- Attitudes and perceptions
- Pressing needs
- Cultural screens
What are the two types of cultural screens
Culturally mediated cognitions
Culturaly mediated protocols
Culturally mediated cognitions
cultural influences on people’s information processing. This information processing requires people to understand the intended message: cognition
There are four commonly used mediated cognitions:
* Linguistic structures:Language and linguistic structures are closely linked to cultures, because, while culture provides the meanings and meaning-making mechanisms underlying existence, language provides the symbols to facilitate the expression of such meanings. If we compare the English and Chinese languages, for instance, we see that English consists of over a million words, and
Chinese only has about a quarter as many words.
Selective perception: This process filters the information our senses receive, which
determines what we focus on and also what we ignore. Selective perception varies both
individually and culturally. Cultural differences play a key role in this process, especially with
respect to nonverbal communication. For example, many managers in the West much prefer
to hear and speak plainly and publicly, guided by the maxim “Say what you mean and mean
what you say”. As a result, Asians often believe they have communicated a message
(nonverbally) when in reality it was not received.
Cognitive evaluation: When people see or hear something, they tend to categorize the information so they can make judgments about its authenticity, accuracy, and utility. They try to relate it to other events and actions so they can make sense of it and know how to respond. This process is called cognitive evaluation.
Cultural logic:Cultural logic is about how we attribute meaning to the words and actions of others based on the local meanings embedded within their own culture. A shared cultural logic helps people fill the gaps left by what is unsaid, thereby
facilitating the process of creating a shared meaning. It also allows for simplified and rapid
communication.
Culturally mediated protocols
What is culturally apropriate to say or do and what is not?
- apropriate discussion topics
- Message formatting
- Acceptable behaviors
- Conversational formalities (ex. Korean titles)
What is paraverbal communication?
the messages that we transmit through the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voices.
What is extraverbal communication?
Outside of speech; by other means than speaking.
Time (e.g., publication dates), location (place and method of providing the text); target
group orientation
lingua franca
Is a language used as a means of communication between individual’s who do not speak one another’s language.
Advantages:
* Without possessing common means of communication, members of the mixed teams cannot exploit their diverse skills to the fullest.
* it increases the frequency of communication within a mixed group
Multilingual franca
If mulitple languages are used in communication within a group.
