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Chapter 1: Why Study Intercultural Communication?
Chapter 1
1. Identify six imperatives for studying intercultural communication.
2. Describe how technology can impact intercultural interaction.
3. Describe how global and domestic economic conditions influence intercultural relations.
4. Explain how understanding intercultural communication can facilitate resolution of
intercultural conflict.
5. Explain how studying intercultural communication can lead to increased self–
understanding.
6. Understand the difference among a universalistic, a relativist, and a dialogic approach to
the study of ethics and intercultural communication.
7. Identify and describe three characteristics of an ethical student of culture.
Key Terms
• Anglocentrism
• Cultural capital
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• Nativistic
• Self-reflexivity
Detailed Chapter Outline
Introduction
I. The Self-Awareness Imperative
• One of the most important reasons for studying intercultural communication is the
awareness it raises of one’s own cultural identity and background.
• Peter Adler (1975), a noted social psychologist, observes that the study of intercultural
communication begins as a journey into another culture and reality and ends as a journey
• If a person is white and middle class, intercultural learning may mean an enhanced
awareness of his or her privilege.
• Self-awareness, then, that comes through intercultural learning may involve an increased
awareness of being caught up in political, economic, and historical systems—not of one’s
own making.
diverse.
• Sports are also a very visible part of increasing diversity.
A. Changing U.S. Demographics
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• Demographics refers to the characteristics of a population, especially as classified by
race, ethnicity, age, sex, and income.
17%; blacks, 12.3%; Asians, 5%; and multiracial Americans, 2.4% (Humes,
Jones, & Ramirez, 2011).This trend is expected to continue (Passel & Cohn,
2008).
o There are now four states—Hawaii, California, New Mexico, and Texas—that are
“majority–minority”—where there is no one majority ethnic group, and minority
groups account for more than 50% of the population. Nevada and Maryland
• Prior to the 1970s, most of the immigrants to the United States came from Europe; now
the large majority of immigrants are from Asia and Latin America (Zong & Batalova,
2015).
• Sometimes more heterogeneous cultures are contrasted to more homogeneous cultures.
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homogeneous). Cultures can change over time and become more or less homogeneous.
They can also be more heterogeneous than another culture.
• Diversity can expand people’s conceptions of what is possible—linguistically,
politically, and socially—as various lifestyles and ways of thinking converge.
• When Europeans began arriving on the shores of the New World, an estimated 8 to 10
million Native Americans were already living here.
o The outcome of the encounters between these groups—the colonizing Europeans
and the native peoples—is well known.
o By 1940, the Native American population of the United States had been reduced
servitude, or slavery, almost wholly of Africans.
o Many landowners wanted captive workers who could not escape and who could
not become competitors. They turned to slave labor.
o James Baldwin (1955) suggested that the legacy of slavery makes contemporary
interracial relations in the United States very different from interracial relations in
o In fact, some historians, like James Loewen, maintain that acknowledging and
understanding the past is the only viable alternative in moving forward and
making the connection of slavery to the current racial tensions in the United
States.
o Scholar and theologian Cornel West (1993) agrees that people should begin by
newcomers—have often been filled with tension and conflict.
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• In the 19th century, Native Americans sometimes were caught in the middle of
European rivalries.
o During the War of 1812, for example, Indian allies of the British were severely
punished by the United States when the war ended.
their removal from their homelands.
o As waves of immigrants continued to roll in from Europe, the more firmly
established European—mainly British—immigrants tried to protect their way of
life, language, and culture.
o Anglocentrism characterized early U.S. history. Immigrants from southern,
o Nativistic sentiment was well supported at the government level.
o In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, officially prohibiting
anyone who lived in China from immigrating to this country.
o In 1924, the Johnson-Read Act and the Oriental Exclusion Act established
extreme quotas on immigration, virtually precluding the legal immigration of
Americans, and Mexican Americans (Banks, 1991).
o Sociologist David Roediger (1991) traces how devastating this racialization was,
particularly for African Americans.
o Although white immigrants received low wages, they had access to better schools
and to public facilities, and they were accorded greater public acceptance.
source of cheap labor.
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o This type of situation is not limited to the United States, but occurs all over the
world.
• The tradition of tension and conflict among cultures continues to this day.
o The conflicts that arise in Southern California exemplify many aspects of the
immigrants—a reaction that reflects a typical historical pattern.
• Some of the conflict may be related to the economic disparity that exists among these
different groups.
o Most Americans are reluctant to admit that a class structure exists and even more
reluctant to admit how difficult it is to move up in this structure.
among the working class and the poor that they can get ahead.
o The Walton family, for example, has more wealth than 42% of American families
combined, and the nation’s official poverty rate in 2015 was almost 15%, which
means there were 46.7 million people in poverty (Fitz, 2015;
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016 /demo/p60-256.html).
encounters different languages, histories, and economic statuses.
o The main challenge is to look beyond the stereotypes and biases, to recognize the
disparities and differences, and to try to apply what one knows about intercultural
communication.
o Fortunately, most individuals are able to negotiate day-to-day activities in spite of
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III. The Economic Imperative
• The idea of globalization—the creation of a world market in goods, services, labor, capital,
and technology—is shown dramatically in the account of a journalist who asks a Dell
computer manager where his laptop is made.
Taiwanese, Irish, Israeli, or British firms with factories mainly in Asia, and
finally, the laptop was assembled in Taiwan (Friedman, 2005).
• Some economists defend globalization saying that the losses are always offset by the gains
in cheaper consumer prices.
o However, many working people, seeing their jobs outsourced to cheap labor in
understand how business is conducted in other countries (Varner & Beamer, 2011).
• American businesspeople should be able to negotiate deals that are advantageous to the
U.S. economy. However, they are not always willing to take the time and effort to do this.
• Cross-cultural trainers in the United States report that Asian business personnel often
spend years in the United States studying English and learning about the country before
moving operations to new locations, often overseas, because of lower labor costs.
o These business moves have far-reaching implications, including the loss of jobs at
closed facilities.
o Many U.S.-owned companies have established production facilities, known as
maquiladoras, along the U.S.–Mexican border, where workers produce goods bound
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market new products that appeal to ever-widening consumer bases (Yohn, 2011).
• Understanding cultural differences involves not only working with diverse employees, but
also recognizing new business markets, developing new products, and so on.
IV. The Technological Imperative
it is important to understand that these technologies can have positive and negative impacts
on intercultural encounters.
• These communication technologies have the following implications for intercultural
communication: (1) information about people and cultures; (2) contact with people who are
different from oneself; (3) contact with people who are similar to oneself and can provide
• Online communication and social media bring individuals in contact with others they may
never meet face-to-face, both in personal (social media, community listservs) and
professional encounters (LinkedIn, virtual teams); and many of these people are from
different cultural backgrounds.
• The Internet can also be used to strengthen a sense of identity, as is the case for some
A. Access to Communication Technology
• Technology plays a huge role in people’s everyday lives and often has a lot to do with
their success as students and professionals.
• Digital access now varies little by age, gender, race, and ethnicity in the United States,
and many people worldwide have Internet access through smartphones (Horrigan &
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same level of cellphone ownership as in America (Winsor, 2015).
o So the inequity of technology access between “haves” and the “have–nots”—once
referred to as the “digital divide,” is probably more accurately viewed as a
continuum of digital inequalities rather than a divide (Wei, 2012).
languages, socioeconomic statuses, and cultural backgrounds coexist on the planet.
• Both the history of humankind and recent world events lead people not to be very
optimistic on this point.
o The current trend is toward longer, more intra-national protracted conflicts where
military or material supports are supplied by foreign powers—fighting “proxy
technology and media.
• Some of the conflicts have roots in past foreign policies.
o For example, recent terrors are partly related to the confusing and shifting alliances
among the United States, Afghanistan, Syria, and other Arab and Muslim countries.
• It would be naive to assume that simply understanding the issues of intercultural
that they neither started nor chose.
VI. The Ethical Imperative
• Ethics may be thought of as principles of conduct that help govern the behavior of
individuals and groups. These principles often arise from communities’ consensus on what
is good and bad behavior.
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• Many other identifiable principles of conduct that arise from one’s cultural experience may
be less explicit—for instance, that people should be treated equally and should work hard.
• Ethical principles are often culture bound, and intercultural conflicts arise from various
notions of what is ethical behavior.
o However, in many countries, like China, government officials are paid in this
informal way instead of being supported by taxes (Ambler & Witzel, 2000).
A. Relativity versus Universality
• A universalist might try to identify acts and conditions that most societies think of as
wrong, such as murder, theft, or treason.
disagree about the universality of the Bible.
• The extreme relativist position holds that any cultural behavior can be judged only
within the cultural context in which it occurs. This means that only those members of a
community can truly judge the ethics of their own members.
• Philosophers and anthropologists have struggled to develop ethical guidelines that seem
of peace, and that people should respect the well-being of others (Kale, 1994).
• A recent suggestion for meeting the ethical imperative is to employ a dialogical
approach (Evanoff, 2004). The dialogical approach emphasizes the importance of
relationships and dialogues between individuals and communities in wrestling with
ethical dilemmas.
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given variations in cultural priorities and (2) identify guidelines for ethical
behavior in intercultural contexts in which ethics clash.
B. Being Ethical Students of Culture
• Related to the issue of judging cultural patterns as ethical or unethical are the issues
• In studying intercultural communication, it is vital to develop self-reflexivity.
• It is important to remember that the study of cultures is actually the study of other
people. One should never lose sight of the humanity at the core of the topic.
o It is important to remember that one is studying real people who have real lives,
and one’s conclusions about them may have very real consequences for them and
understand the cultural background and experiences of others, and (2) trying to take an
“other-oriented” stance in each new intercultural encounter, which includes trying to
suppress any readymade cultural assumptions about the other (Gallardo, 2014).
o Cultural studies scholar Linda Alcoff (1991/1992) acknowledges the ethical issues
involved when students of culture try to describe the cultural patterns of others;
• Hearing about the experiences of people who are different from oneself can broaden
one’s way of viewing the world.
o Listening carefully as people relate their experiences and their ways of knowing
will help one learn about the many aspects of intercultural communication.
• A final ethical issue involves the responsibility that comes with the acquisition of
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core of people’s basic assumptions about themselves, their culture, and their
worldviews and challenges existing and preferred beliefs, values, and patterns of
behavior.
Discussion Questions
1. How do electronic means of communication (e-mail, the Internet, fax, and so on) differ
from face-to-face interactions?
2. How do these communication technologies change intercultural communication
interaction?
3. How does the increased mobility of our society affect us as individuals? How does it affect
the way we form relationships?
4. What are some of the potential challenges organizations face as they become more diverse?
5. How might organizations benefit from increased diversity in the workplace? How might
individuals benefit?
6. What is the potential impact of the “Digital Divide” on intercultural communication?
7. How do economic situations affect intergroup relations?
8. What roles do ethics play in intercultural communication?
9. Why are some immigrant groups subject to prejudice while others are not?
10. How can we apply what we learn about intercultural communication in an ethical way?
11. How has technology changed your relationships with friends, family, and others?
12. How can learning about intercultural communication reinforce the peace imperative?
13. Why would intercultural awareness lead to a concern for social justice?
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Classroom Exercises and Chapter Activities
1. Introduction Exercise: At the beginning of the course, it is useful to provide opportunities
for students to become familiar with one another so that they will feel more comfortable
contributing to class discussions. This exercise is facilitated by dividing students into pairs.
Each student has 5 minutes to play the role of an interviewer and 5 minutes to be
provided for the interviews; you can alert students when it is time to switch from being the
interviewer to the interviewee. The oral introductions average about 2 to 3 minutes per
pair. If you need to cut down on the time allotted for the oral introductions, limit the
students to telling four or five things they learned about their partners.
2. Intercultural Issues Exercise: Use this activity to increase student awareness of the impact
and prevalence of the imperatives (for example, technological or demographic) described
in this chapter. You need an edition of a fairly large local newspaper (if the class size is
large, multiple editions may be used).
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Students will need 10 to 20 minutes to work as groups, unless their assigned sections are
small. When they have finished, record on the board the number of articles found by each
3. Local Immigration Assignment: The focus of this assignment is on familiarizing students
with the way immigration patterns may have affected their own communities. Assign
students to research the communities in which they grew up or currently live to discover
some of the immigrant groups that have moved to their communities and explore why they
came to the community and have since left? Why did they come and go?
4. Video Assignment: Students may select and watch a video that depicts the experiences of
immigration to the United States for a particular ethnic group or individual. After they have
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in the United States?
• How did the group/individual react to these challenges?
• Were there any people or events that aided the group/individual?
The following are examples of a few excellent films on immigration:
• El Norte (1983)
The Guatemalan army discovers Mayan Indian laborers who have started to organize,
laborers). The army destroys their village and massacres their families to give the
new recruits no alternative but to obey and follow. However, two uneducated teenage
plays Mahjong with the elder women and begins to learn what her mother faced in
China and of her sisters who were left behind.
• Goodbye Solo (2008)
This film is touching and humorous. It is the story of an incredible friendship
between a hard-working cab driver from Senegal and a depressed southern man with
This is a touching story about a mother who leaves Mexico to make a home for
herself and her son (Adrian Alonso). When the boy’s grandmother passes away,
leaving him alone, he travels on his own to find his mother.
• Sentenced Home (2007)
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This documentary follows three Cambodian American men, who came to the United
States as children with their refugee families. They were raised in the gloomy public
housing of Seattle, among mobs and facing other grim conditions. Their bad
5. Assessing Cultural Behavior/Ethics Exercise: This activity is designed to help students
begin to explore their personal ethics and the challenges created by viewing intercultural
communication in a relativistic rather than a universalistic manner. Be prepared to discuss
difficult issues that may arise during this activity and to help students view ethics within a
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taught in Standard English in public schools. The ethical issues raised in this debate may
include what it means to be an “American,” what the history of language acquisition and
immigration is, language, whether students will be more disadvantaged by being put into
6. Early Experiences with Cultural Differences: This introductory activity is useful for
helping students explore their initial experiences with diversity. Ask students to write a
one-page essay about their recollection of the first time they were aware of meeting
someone who was different from themselves. The difference could have been based on
7. Cultural Artifacts Exercise: To encourage students to become more aware of their own
cultural backgrounds and to emphasize the “hidden” nature of culture, ask them to bring to
8. Cultural Bingo Warm-Up: This is a fun and active way for students to meet and begin to
develop relationships with one another. Provide each student with a list or a grid with
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• The ability to speak a language other than English
• In love
• A dog owner
• A cat owner
• A desire to be a rock star
• Born in a country other than the United States
• Parents who speak more than one language
• Seen a foreign movie
• Knowledge of what Bollywood is
• Studied abroad
Have students move around the room asking each other these questions until they find
someone who can answer one affirmatively. That person puts his or her initials in the box
or next to the question. The “game” continues until a student gets all the questions
1. The Amish: Not to Be Modern (Produced by V. Larimore & M. Taylor and Filmakers
2. The Asianization of America (Produced by WNET /Thirteen; Films for the Humanities &
3. Becoming American (Produced by WNET /Thirteen, IRIS Film and Video, and K. Levine
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© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
& I. W. Levine; distributed by New Day Films, NJ, 1983, 30 minutes)
This video relates the immigration experience of a Hmong refugee family to the United
States and shows some of the difficulties they faced.
4. The Immigrant Experience: 1900–1940 (Distributed by Films for the Humanities &
Sciences, Princeton, 2000, 29 minutes)
5. Immigration: Who Has Access to the American Dream? (Distributed by Films for the
Humanities & Sciences, Princeton, 29 minutes)