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Chapter 2
Communicating in a Multicultural
Society and World
ABOUT CHAPTER 2
In this chapter we introduce students to the fact that we live in an age of increased global
contact and diversity. Thus, enhancing our understanding of sensitivity to cultural
differences is essential. To the extent we are able to reduce cultural ignorance and
enhance cultural awareness, we increase our personal preparedness to communicate
effectively. By taking steps to eliminate cultural misunderstandings we also facilitate the
development of more meaningful relationships among people of different cultures.
We explore the differences between the general culture and co-cultures, ethnocentrism
and cultural relativism, the melting pot philosophy and cultural pluralism, individualism
and collectivism, and high-context and low-context communication cultures.
LEARNING OUTCOMES AND CONTENT
Learning Outcomes and Content Activities and Resources
LO 1: Explain the significance of
intercultural communication in the global
community
In the Text:
Pages 23-25
Review, Reflect, & Apply
Recall:
Understand:
Apply:
In the Instructor’s Manual
2.1 Skill Builder: True/False
2.2 Skill Builder: Work it Out
On the Online Learning Center (OLC):
Self-Inventory
LO 2: Explain how and why U.S. society
has evolved from a melting-pot philosophy
to a philosophy of cultural pluralism.
In the Text:
Pages 25-26
What Happened to the Melting Pot?
Cultural Pluralism
In the Instructor’s Manual:
2.3 Skill Builder: Culturally Confused
2.4 Skill Builder: Cultural Practices
LO 3: Analyze various attitudes toward In the Text:
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diversity. Pages 26-29
Culture and Communication
What You Understand about Difference
Matters
What you Feel About Difference Matters
Review, Reflect, & Apply
Understand
Analyze
Create
In the Instructor’s Manual
Additional Discussion Questions
LO 4 Explain influences on cultural
diversity and the differences between
cultures and co-cultures.
In the Text:
Pages 29-33
Cultures Within Cultures
Influences on Cultural Identity
Baldo: Cartoon Discussion Starter
Ethics and Communication: Through
Others Eyes
Media Wise: The Cultural Storyteller
Cultures and Co-Cultures
Ethnocentrism versus Cultural Relativism
Skill Builder: Ethnocentrism versus
Cultural Relativism
Review, Reflect, & Apply
Recall
Understand
Analyze:
In the Instructor’s Manual:
2.5 Skill Builder: Changing Cultural
Landscape
2.6 Skill Builder: Work it Out: Japan
2.7 Skill Builder: Work it Out: Research
2.8 Skill Builder: Other’s Eyes
2.9 Skill Builder: Other’s Eyes
LO 5 Illustrate the five main dimensions of
cultural variability.
In the Text:
Pages 33-36
Dimensions of Culture in Action
Exploring Diversity: Understanding Other
Cultures
Individualism vs. Collectivism
High Context vs. Low Context
High Power Distance vs. Low Power
Monochromic vs. Polychromic
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Masculine vs. Feminine
Review, Reflect, & Apply
Recall
Understand
Evaluate
In the Instructor’s Manual
2.10 Skill Builder: Interview a Stranger
2.11 Skill Builder: Guest Speaker
LO 6 Explain how technology brings
diversity into our lives.
In the Text:
Pages 36-38
Technology and Community
The Digital Divide
Review, Reflect, &Apply
Recall
Understand
LO 7 Identify techniques to reduce the
strangeness of strangers.
In the Text:
Pages 38-41
Practice Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication Skills for Life
Service Learning
Chapter Summary
In the Instructor’s Manual
2.12 Skill Builder: Bingo
2.13 Skill Builder: Questions about Our
Society
2.14 Skill Builder: Culture Grams
2.15 Skill Builder: Discussing Differences
2.16 Skill Builder: Who is Teaching
Culture’s Lessons?
2.17: Skill Builder: Listen/View
2.18: Skill Builder: Service Learning
Additional Activities On the Online Learning Center (OLC):
Key Term Flashcards
Key Term Crosswords
Self-Quizzes
Instructor’s Area: PowerPoint Slides
In the Instructor’s Manual:
Video Sources for Exercises
Additional Print Sources for Exercises
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LESSON OUTLINE FOR CHAPTER 2
You may want to include some of the Review, Reflect and Apply questions
I. Culture’s Many Faces: Speaking of Difference
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual
II. What Happened to the Melting Pot?
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual
III. Culture and Communication
A. What You Understand about difference matters
B. How you feel about difference matters.
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual
IV. Cultures Within Cultures
A. Influences on cultural diversity
B. Through Other’s Eyes
C. Cultural Storyteller
D. Cultures and Co Cultures
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual
V. Dimensions of Culture in Action
A. Individualism vs. Collectivism
B. High Context vs. Low Context
C. High Power vs. Low Power
D. Monochromic vs. Polychromic
E. Masculine vs. Feminine
F. Interpreting Cultural Differences
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual
VI. Technology and Community
A. Digital Divide
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual
VII. Improving Communication Skills
A. Practice Intercultural communication
B. Refrain from formulating expectations based solely on your culture
C. Recognize how faulty education impede understanding
D. Make a commitment to develop intercultural skills
Select Activities from the text and the Instructor’s Manual.
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TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. How effective are you at communicating with people of different cultures?
2. What problems do culturally confused people face?
3. Are you flexible enough to respond to varied communication styles? How do
you know?
4. What is intercultural communication?
5. What is the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural pluralism?
6. Compare and contrast individualism and collectivism.
7. Contrast high-context and low context communication cultures.
8. In what ways, if any, is the Internet changing the ways we view people from
other cultures?
DISCUSSION STARTERS
1. Communication scholar William Gudykunst claimed: “If we don’t speak out when
people behave in a discriminatory manner, we are partly responsible for the
consequences.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. What are the dangers of being culturally ethnocentric? What can our schools do to
promote the ability to practice cultural relativism?
3. Describe a cultural misunderstanding in which you or someone you know was
involved. Was it resolved? If so, how?
4. Were you ever the only person of your age, race, ethnicity, or sexual preference in
a group? If so, how did the experience make you feel?
5. Identify the extent to which being ethnocentric or practicing cultural relativism
affects you or people you know.
6. The United States is the most demographically diverse country in the world. Have
you taken advantage of the opportunities you have to interact with persons from
different cultures? If so, how? If not, why not?
7. Have you ever considered your culture superior to another culture? If so, then
how did your feelings influence your relationship with members of that culture?
ADDITIONAL SKILL BUILDERS
2.1 SKILL BUILDER: True/False
Ask students to answer the following10 questions. They may work alone or in pairs or
groups. Did they find themselves in greater need of intercultural skills than they
imagined?
1. I enjoy communicating with persons unlike me as much as with
persons like me.
2. I am equally sensitive to the concerns of all groups in our
multicultural society.
3. I can tell when persons from other cultures do not understand me or
are confused by my actions.
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4. I do not fear interacting with persons from minority groups any more
than I fear interacting with persons from the dominant culture.
5. Persons from other cultures have a right to be angry at members of
my culture.
6. Persons from other cultures who don’t actively participate in a
conversation, dialogue, or debate with others may act that way
because of their culture’s rules.
7. How I handle disagreements with persons from other cultures
depends on the situation and the cultures they are from.
8. My culture is not superior to other cultures.
9. I am knowledgeable of how to behave with persons of different
cultures.
10. I respect the communication rules of cultures other than my own.
The greater number of statements you labeled true, the more prepared you are to enrich
your communication arena by welcoming people from different cultures into it.
2.2 SKILL BUILDER: Work It Out
Consider this quote featured on a wall in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
What does it suggest about the importance of understanding and accepting diversity?
In Germany, the Nazis first cam for he communists, and I didn’t speak up because
I wasn’t a communist. Then they cam for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I
wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn’t
speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time
there was no one left to speak for me.
Would we speak up if the time came? Why or why not?
2.3 SKILL BUILDER: Culturally Confused
Ask students to interview people from other cultures, focusing on problems or confusing
situations that these people faced when they came into contact with our society.
2.4 SKILL BUILDER: Cultural Practices
Do you believe that any of the following cultural practices are unethical?
Cockfighting
The withholding of medical intervention such as a blood transfusion
Dog Fighting to the Death
Female circumcision
The stoning of a rape victim.
If you answered yes to any of these, explain why. If you answered no to any of them,
explain why not. To what extent do your answers support or negate the belief that every
culture has a right to adhere to its own customs and beliefs?
2.5 SKILL BUILDER: Changing Cultural Landscape
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Statistics tell us an interesting story about diversity in the United States. The growth rate
of the Caucasian population is lower than the growth rates for Asians, Hispanics, and
African Americans. It is estimated that by 2025, the Hispanic population will constitute
about 25 percent of the total population.
By 2025 the age distribution will also shift. More people will be very young (there will
be a 21 percent increase in the segment of the population aged 14 or younger), fewer
people will be middle-aged (there will be a 4 percent decrease in the segment of the
population aged 25-49), and more people will be very old (there will be a 14 percent
increase in the segment of the population aged 80 or older). It is also expected that race
and ethnic mixing will accelerate.
Work with a partner or team to answer these questions:
1. What effects do you imagine that changes like these will have on the social and
cultural landscape?
2. How do you imagine these changes will affect you personally?
3. In what ways do you think these changes will affect the relationships between the
United States and other countries?
2.6 SKILL BUILDER: Work it Out—Japan
In Japan, the word for “different” is the same as the word for “wrong.”
Compare and contrast a culture in which the goal is to become as much like other
members as possible with a culture in which the goal is to distinguish youself
from others. Which cultural attitude are you most confortable with?
Imagine you are given the task to create a metaphor for he United States, one that
accurately describes the way immigrants are assimilated into U.S. society. How
do you think your parents would depict this situation? Why might a person not
identify fully with members of his or her own culture until becoming an
immigrant in another country?
2.7 SKILL BUILDER: Work it Out—Research
Research and supply examples of how a failure to understand the customs or
language of people from a different country and culture contributed to a
communication breakdown or embarrassed one or more of the parties. Report your
findings to the class.
2.8 SKILL BUILDER: Through Other’s Eyes
Imagine you arrive in the United States from a foreign country. Though, perhaps
unlikely, also imagine that you are totally unfamiliar with what life in the U.S. is like and
totally unknowledgeable when it comes to American popular culture.
You do, however, read. You run across magazines such as People, Us, and even
the TV Guide. Upon reading this material, what characteristics would you attribute to
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Americans? How many of these characteristics are positive? How many are negative?
What conclusions can you draw about what Americans value?
2.9 SKILL BUILDER: Interview a Stranger
Ask students to go with a partner to a place on the campus such as a library, cafeteria or
lounge. There they should interview a stranger who is clearly from another culture.
1. Introduce yourselves to that person
2. Explain that you are involved in a project for a communication class.
3. Ask as many questions as you can (who, what, where, when, why, how) to find
out about your interviewee’s culture.
4. Focus specifically on
E. Individualism versus collectivism in the respondent’s culture.
F. High-context versus low-context culture.
5. Report the results to the class.
2.10 SKILL BUILDER: Cocktail Party Business
Divide the class into three groups.
1. Your group is to create a culture based on the principles in chapter 2.
2. The members of the team all work for the same company in that culture: a
hotel chain, a technology corporation, a clothing manufacturer.
3. All class members meet at a simulated cocktail party. Each student’s job is to
find out as much information as possible about the other countries
represented.
4. After the simulated party, the team meets to share their information about the
other cultures.
5. Report to the class.
2.11 SKILL BUILDER: Guest Speaker
If you have a colleague who was raised in another culture, ask him or her to come to your
class. Prior to the arrival of the guest, designate and ask groups of students to prepare a
list of questions for the person based on the concepts in this chapter.
When the guest arrives, poll the groups. Allow each group a question until all relevant
questions have been discussed. Ask the students to discuss how they feel about the
interview. Ask the guest to discuss his or her feelings about the process.
2.12 SKILL BUILDER: Bingo
Students enjoy playing Diversity Bingo. The game consists of a series of bingo type
cards. Each box has a description of someone, such as “A person of Asian descent.”
Students must work their way around the classroom asking classmates the specific
questions until they obtain a “bingo.”
IM 2-8
Diversity Bingo is designed for corporate training and is available through
Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer in San Francisco. Call 800-274-4434, or consult their website at
www.pfeiffer.com.
2.13 SKILL BUILDER: Questions about Our Society
You can begin your diversity class session by asking your students to answer these
questions:
1. The best-educated, most affluent households in the United States are: Hispanic,
Asian, Black or White?
Answer: Asian. Asians have the highest percentage of people who attended
college for more than 5 years.
2. Off all newcomers to the job market, what percentage are native-born white
males?
Answer: 15%
3. What percentage of women between the ages of 25 and 34 are now in the labor
force?
Answer: 75%. In 1980 only one in eight women with young children worked.
Today more than one in two is working.
2.14 SKILL BUILDER: CultureGrams
Ask students to work in pairs or groups to give an informal presentation on another
country. Let them begin their search using CultureGrams.
CultureGrams are available from www.culturegrams.com. Based in Utah, this company
provides concise and easy to read information about almost any country in the world. The
materials for each country are submitted by people who are living in that country.
The site now includes the country flag and even an audio version of the national anthem.
Much information is available free. Students can incorporate materials from other sites to
fill out their research. If you are using a guest speaker as in Skill Builder 2.6, you will
want students to consult the CultureGram on that person’s home country.
2.15 SKILL BUILDER: Discussing Differences
First, identify an interaction you had with a person from another culture during which
that person behaved in a way that you did not understand, or vice versa.
Describe how you and the other person handled the resulting communication problem.
What did each of you do and say? More specifically, what steps, if any, did each of you
take to try to reduce cultural confusion and facilitate culture interaction?
Next, identify how each of the following proverbs can help you understand and
appropriately respond to the communication behaviors of persons from the culture that
produced them.
Women have but two residences—the house and the tomb. (Algerian)
A man’s tongue is his sword. (Arab)
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A single arrow is easily broken, but not a bunch. (Asian)
Loud thunder brings little rain. (Chinese)
Order is half of life. (German)
He who speaks has no knowledge, and he who has knowledge does not speak.
(Japanese)
Even if it a stone bridge, make sure it is safe. (Korean)
Finally, identify a proverb from your own culture, explain the cultural values it
conveys, and identify how such values are realized through the behaviors of the
culture’s members.
2.16 SKILL BUILDER: Who Is Teaching Culture’s Lessons?
According to intercultural communication researcher William B. Gudykunst, our parents,
teachers, religious institutions, peers, and the mass media are all involved in teaching us
to be members of our culture. In particular, the media now play instrumental roles in
showing us how others expect us to behave, teaching us the day-to-day norms of our
culture, and helping us internalize cultural realities.
Ask students to work individually, in pairs, or in groups to answer these questions.
1. Because we often become aware of world issues, develop our sense of self,
internalize social norms, formulate out beliefs, learn how to solve problems, and
develop images of success and failure through the media, is it ethical for the
content of media offerings in any one country to be created, controlled or
monopolized by a single cultural group or by people from another country?
2. To what extent, if any, do you believe that repeated exposures to media offerings
will change a person’s view of reality and make it difficult for him or her to
interact with members of his or her own culture?
3. Has global communication made it possible for one country or culture to socially
dominate another by the images it exports or presents?
4. How, in your opinion, is the globalization of the media affecting different
cultures?
2.17 SKILLBUILDER: Listen and View
Ask students to work in groups. The group should select and bring in music
and/or films or film clips that they feel relate to the content of this chapter. Ask
them to play the clips and discuss why they feel they are related to the chapter.
How does culture influence the interaction of the characters in one of these films?
What lessons about the effects of culture can be taught through the film?
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2.18 SKILLBUILDER: Service Learning
Attend a local continuing education session for persons from other countries who want to
learn English.
Keep a log in which you identify and analyze your reactions to the persons attending,
including any stereotypes you have about them. Develop a proposal for teaching an
English as a second language (ESL) course for adults on site at a local factory.
2.19 SKILL BUILDER: American Culture—Your Point of View
If you have students from other countries in your class, ask them to answer these
questions as members of their culture. American students should simply answer the
questions. Compare answers. Discuss.
True/False
_______ 1. The past plays a limited role in American culture. It is the future that counts.
_______ 2. There is an obsession with time.
_______ 3. Americans believe that sitting around “doing nothing” is productive.
_______ 4. Group solidarity is more important than self- expression.
_______ 5. Privacy of the individual is not important.
_______ 6. In business, large companies are better than small ones.
______ 7. Americans do not tolerate mistakes.
_______ 8. A person is defined by his or her work or career.
_______ 9. Promptness is not highly valued.
_______10. Americans value getting to the point when talking to others.
VIDEO SOURCES
Jane Elliott’s films include:
Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes
The Angry Eyes
A Class Divided
All of these films relate to her diversity seminars. The films are available through the
National Multicultural Institute (online).
The Ford Foundation produced a film about an encounter at a college retreat: Skin Deep.
It also is available online.
Some teachers use clips from feature films that are listed in the text at the end of the
chapter. Students enjoy seeing pieces of films they have viewed before and relating them
to the class.
You may want to put your lesson on diversity into a career focus. How does diversity
apply on the job? Here are some films that help.
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CRM films has two diversity films. Different Like You is a video that demonstrates that
diversity should focus less on what group a person can be identified with and more on the
uniqueness of each individual. On the Edge features nine realistic scenarios in which
employees face volatile and potentially violent situations. CRM offers a free catalogue
and free previews for college teachers.
Kantola Productions (800-989-8773 or www.kantola.com) offers Valuing Diversity at the
Interpersonal Level which follows interactions with a diverse set of coworkers in a
downtown restaurant. All too often, biases and assumptions get in their way. Kantola
offers a free catalogue.
Stanford Video offers a catalogue of presentations that have been done for adult
audiences. Many of the speakers have considered culture in a business environment.
ADDITIONAL SOURCE FOR EXERCISES
Talico (904-642-0300) offers two books of learning materials many teachers use:
Diversitrain: 25 Exercises to Bridge Diversity Barriers and Diversity Explorations.
Diversitrain is a series of exercises in intercultural communication, and Explorations is
an extended exercise into the workplace of the future. Talico offers a free catalogue.
Intercultural Press (800-370-2665) is a gold mine of interesting books, exercises, and
videotapes on intercultural communication. Ecotonos and Barnga are popular
simulations, and the Global Awareness Profile (GAP Test) is an interesting device that
shows how little we really know about our world. Intercultural Press offers a free
catalogue.
Rocket: A Simulation on Intercultural Teamwork (Lessons from the International
Space Station is an interactive simulation that helps participants develop and hone
important intercultural skills. This remarkable tool is a fun and interactive way to train
people for working in diverse environments. Based on qualitative research done at
NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the simulations teach readers by exploring the roles of
astronauts, flight directors, flight controls, engineers and trainers from the United States,
Russian, Japanese and European Space Agencies.
e-book Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working with People from Other Cultures by
Brooks Peterson is filled with case studies for class use.
From Films for the Humanities (800-257-5126)
Conversation: Exploring Preconceived Notions about Otherness. An 18-minute film shot
in London. Composed of faces and commentary by the subjects, it provides a dialogue on
how we project our fears onto other people.
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