Interpreting Cultural Differences: Challenge of Intercultural Communication

223 Pages·1998·10.548 MB·English

by  Margaret McLaren

Peter Francis Publishers
The Old School House
Little Fransham
Dereham
Norfolk NR19 2JP
UK
© Margaret C. McLaren 1998
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 1-870167-29-5
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd,
Guildford and King’s Lynn.
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Chapter One: A Celebration of Difference 1
Uncertainty Reduction 4
International Students 6
Communication 7
Culture Shock 9
The Process of Adaptation 11
Issues to Consider 13
Chapter Two: Culture 14
The Enigma, Culture 14
Culture, Ethnicity and Nationality 16
High and Low Context 18
Individualism and Collectivism 20
Individualism: T before ‘We’ 22
Collectivism: ‘We’ before ‘I’ 23
Business Strategies 24
Family 26
Gender 26
Age 30
Death 31
Environment 32
Time 33
A Checklist for You 3 8
Chapter Three: Ethnocentrism 40
The Link with Nationhood 42
Stereotyping 43
Perception 46
Notions of Politeness 48
vi Interpreting Cultural Differences
Understanding Self and Others 48
Issues to Think About 49
A Japanese Man in Iran: Yoshimoto Yasuhiro 50
Chapter Four: Values 53
World View 56
Edward Hall: high and low contexts 57
Francis Schaefer: sacred versus secular cultures 59
Geert Hofstede: the value dimensions of culture 61
Kluckhohn and Strodbeck: value orientations 76
Other Differences 83
Issues to Consider 83
Chapter Five: The Role of Religion
by Douglas Pratt 86
Hinduism 87
Buddhism 88
Judaism 89
Christianity 91
Islam 92
The Far East: Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto 94
Other Supernatural Beliefs 96
Chapter Six: Language 97
The Nature of Language 97
Language Processes 98
The Interpersonal Uses of Language 102
Language Universals .._____ 104
Cultural Differences in Language:' 105
Turn Taking 107
Introductions 108
Initiating Relationships 10 8
Greetings and Leave Taking 108
Compliments 111
Apologies 111
Offering and Accepting Food 112
Answering Questions 112
Concepts of Politeness 113
Contents vii
The Challenge of Learning Another Language 113
Problems with Second Languages 115
More about Vocabulary 117
Speaking 118
Writing 120
English 124
Translation 128
Suggestions 129
Topics for Consideration 129
Chapter Seven: Nonverbal Communication 132
Aspects of Nonverbal Behaviour 135
Kinesics 135
Appearance 140
Oculesics 141
Haptics 142
Proxemics 143
Paralanguage 147
Colour 148
Smell 148
Silence 149
Dining 150
Behaviour with Animals 152
Objects 152
Construing Nonverbal Differences 153
My Perceptions: Samuel Coad Dyer, Jr. 154
Public Differences 154
Private Differences 155
Conclusion 156
Questions for Consideration 157
Chapter Eight: Knowing and Learning 158
Thought Patterns 158
Ways of Knowing 161
Categorisation and Integration 162
Cultural Dimensions 164
High and Low Context 164
Polychronic and Monochronic Time 165
Power Distance 165
Collectivism and Individualism 166
Uncertainty Avoidance 167
viii Interpreting Cultural Differences
Masculinity and Femininity 169
Doing, Being and Becoming Cultures 170
Physical Setting 170
Perception 172
Teaching and Learning Styles 172
The Role of the Teacher 174
Behaviour in the Classroom 176
Face-Saving 179
Student Concerns 180
Chapter Nine: Conclusions 184
Social Skills 188
Suggestions for Teachers, Administrators and Students 189
Bibliography 193
List of Authors 207
Index 210
PRGFACG
‘A journey of a thousand miles
Begins with a single step ’
Tsu-ssu
On the first page of Beyond the Chinese Face, Michael Bond says: 'This
book’s distinctiveness must lie in its claim to scientific status.’ For Inter­
preting Cultural Differences: the challenge of intercultural communication
I can make no such claim. The method is distinctly interpretive, drawing
substantially on the quantitative research of others and on the rich personal
insights my intercultural students have shared with me over the years. The aim
is to provide some help for teachers and administrators whose work involves
international staff and students, and for teachers and students who are, or may
be, working outside the culture they were raised in.
If a positive climate exists, international staff and students and host staff
and students can feel comfortable about asking questions when they are unsure
of what to do, free to take risks and inclined to share their different cultures
with one another. Relationships prosper and tasks are completed.
Educators want to produce a climate in which everyone will flourish. In
this we have the support of scholars like Young Yun Kim (1992: 346) who
both sees the importance of providing a conducive climate for interaction with
international students and realises that hosts themselves grow in under­
standing as they communicate:
One of the most critical factors that promote or deter the immigrants’
development of interpersonal relationships with the natives is host
communication competence ... This theoretical relationship also operates
in the reverse direction, that is, the process of developing host
communication competence is enhanced by participating in interpersonal
relationships with the natives. One learns to communicate by commun­
icating, so to speak, as one learns to swim by swimming.
x Interpreting Cultural Differences
How well we communicate depends on what we know, what we feel and how
we behave - not necessarily in that order. These correlate closely with the
three aspects of communication competence isolated by Brian Spitzberg and
William Cupach (1984): knowledge, motivation and skills. Gudykunst and
Kim (1995) stress the same three, though in a different order and with slightly
different wording - awareness, knowledge and skills. Whatever the wording,
this text will be concerned with all three, interrelated as they are.
We can work at improving intercultural communication in two ways: as
a difficult challenge or as a learning experience. The first, concentrating on
outcome, has been called the intercultural communication-as-problem
approach (in, for instance, Kim and Rubin, 1988). The second, emphasising
process, has been called the intercultural communication-as-learning-growth
approach (Adler, 1975). This book will work with both approaches, but the
emphasis will be on the second. In the words of Langer (1992: 53), ‘A pre­
occupation with outcome can make us mindless.’
In recent decades scholars have worked steadily to develop a theoretical
base for communication in general and intercultural communication in
particular. In Kurt Lewin’s (1951) frequently quoted words, There is nothing
so practical as a good theory. ’
Practice without theory can be a recital of what to do and not do, which
could encourage stereotyping and hurt rather than help intercultural under­
standing. But reading provides only a beginning. Mingling, living, working
with others is necessary also. Articles, books and training courses can be
useful shortcuts but on their own they are not enough. What they can do,
though, is provide vicarious experience, through stories of other people, other
times and other cultures.
With some reluctance I have used the terms ‘eastern’ and 'western’
throughout the book. For one thing they are inaccurate. Inuit, Maori,
Australian aborigine, various African cultures are far from being ‘western5 in
the usual meaning of the word, and yet the term ‘eastern’ does not apply
geographically to them whatever location a writer takes as base. For another,
as a New Zealander for whom India and China, for example, are the Near
North and certainly not the Far East, I find the terms even geographically
disconcerting. Yet almost all the literature uses the terms. The alternatives for
‘eastern’ are ‘Oriental’ aterm which Edward Said (1979) has shown is even
more objectionable, and ‘Asian’, preferred by scholars like Samovar and
Porter (1991; 1995) but not used in this text because it excludes South
America and the Middle East. The other popular alternative, ‘stranger’, used
originally by Georg Simmel (1906) in Der Fremde, seems to me to suggest a
distance I am not prepared to accept.
Contents xi
Even if a suitable term could be found, using it would raise the danger of
generalising rashly. For example, as Jules Wohl and Amnuay Tapingkae
(1972) pointed out, there are striking differences between the ‘relatively
practical, realistic approach’ to essay writing of Thai students and the
aesthetic, mystical approach of Burmese students (Smith and Luce, 1979). Yet
the terms ‘eastern’, ‘Asian’ and even ‘Oriental’ would have grouped Thai and
Burmese students together.
There are two reasons for using ‘eastern’ and ‘western’. The main reason
is that so much of the literature uses either or both of these terms. The second
reason is that Peter Francis are British publishers and many of those who will
use the book are British, and for them the term is at least geographically
appropriate. I ask that the terms be taken as reference points only, never
implying the ethnocentric view that ‘western’ is the norm and ‘eastern’ the
other, but rather the competent communication view that cultures are different,
and all must be recognised and valued for themselves. In the words of Abdu’l
Baba, ‘The east and the west must unite to provide one another with what is
lacking’ (Bond, 1991: vii).
Three people contributed sections of the text. The whole of Chapter 5 was
written by Douglas Pratt who leads the Religious Studies programme at the
University of Waikato. Understanding the various religions is indispensable
to the study of intercultural communication so the expert explanation he
provides is of great value. Yasuhiro Yoshioka, a friend and fellow teacher
from Japan, and Samuel Coad Dyer, a colleague in the Department of
Management Communication at the University of Waikato, contributed
personal statements which raise several interesting intercultural issues. I am
grateful to all three.
My thanks must also go to those who helped during and after the writing
of this book. Philip Hills, who this time as on all previous occasions, has been
supportive and patient at every stage. Jean Beaton has put many hours into
improving my clumsy word-processing. My students, both local and
international, from several years of masters classes and theses in intercultural
communication, have given me much information and many anecdotes which
have been used (and, of course, acknowledged) in this book. My colleagues,
especially Rosemary de Luca, Ted Zorn, Ken Morse, Frances Nelson and
Sandra Goodwin, all of whom read the text in draft, have checked some of my
excesses and provided countless useful insights. Most of all I thank my
husband, Ian McLaren, my harshest and best critic, for his always discerning,
constructive and willing help at every stage of the writing.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge suggested that the true artist is one who can
create a willing suspension of disbelief. Perhaps the true educator is similarly