978-1319059491 Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Communication and Culture

CHAPTER OUTCOMES

•

Define and explain culture and its impact on your communication

•

Delineate important ways that cultural variables affect communication

− Culture is learned from parents, peer groups, teachers, and media.

− Observations shape your worldview, or how you interpret the world and the people in it.

− Culture includes nonverbal, unconscious behaviors, and verbal language.

o Culture Is Expressed Through Communication

− We use communication to express our culture, including the topics we choose to share and

• Mediated interaction: The internet and other technologies give us increased access to

people across the country and around the world.

• Diverse organizations: As the organizations we belong to become more diverse, we

need to be aware of how culture impacts our communications, particularly in business.

• Communication and Cultural Variations examines the seven major communication

− High-context cultures use contextual cues (time, place, relationship, and situation) to

interpret meaning and send subtle messages. Examples include Japan, Korea, China, Latin

American, and African countries.

• People from a high-context culture may prefer “richer” communication channels (such

as face-to-face or video messaging) and oral agreements over text-based channels and

written contracts, where the opportunity to provide context is more limited.

of Northern Europe.

o Collectivist and Individualist Orientations

with high uncertainty avoidance include Greece, Peru, Italy, and South Korea.

• Cultures with low uncertainty avoidance have greater tolerance for ambiguity and risk;

they include countries such as Sweden, Denmark, the United States, the United

Kingdom, and Singapore.

o Masculine and Feminine Orientations

femininity.

o Approaches to Power Distance

− Power distance is the way that power and status is divided among individuals.

− High power distance cultures have a strong hierarchy based on class, birth order, job title,

and so on among groups, which may lead to more anxiety when speaking with those of a

− Monochronic cultures treat time as a limited resource, or a commodity that can be saved

or wasted, and value schedules. Examples include the United States, Germany, Canada,

and the United Kingdom.

− Polychronic cultures are comfortable dealing with multiple people and tasks at the same

time, with fewer adherences to schedules. Examples include Mexico, India, and the

Philippines.

o Value of Emotional Expression

− Some cultures see expression of emotions as a weakness; others see it as a strength.

examples are race, ethnic heritage, gender, religion, age, and so on.

− Gender refers to behavioral and cultural traits assigned to sex. There are particular ways

of speaking associated with gender that develop culturally.

− Our identification and communication shift depending on what group membership is made

salient.

− A person may not identify equally with all group memberships.

− People respond to others based on the groups they think others belong to.

• Intercultural Communication Challenges explores three pressing intercultural challenges

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o Ethnocentrism

− Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one’s cultural group and the tendency to

view another culture through the lens of your own culture.

behalf of your own co-cultures—when you treat others as inferior or inconsequential, or

ignore them altogether.

o Discrimination

− Changing behavior (actions)

o Mindfulness

− Be aware of your behavior and the behavior of others.

− Mindfulness also means being “fully present” in the awareness of the cultural and

intergroup aspects of the situation

the perception of difference.

o Intergroup Biases

− Our intergroup schemas and stereotypes have a tendency to influence our perceptions—

what we see or hear

− Behavioral confirmation is when people act in a way that confirms expectations of a

• Be empathetic by picturing yourself in another’s place in an effort to understand their

experience.

• Do the right thing by standing up for others who are mocked for their race, religion,

sexual orientation, or other reasons.

1.

What are some parts of your culture? How did you learn them?

2.

What are some ways that you see time orientation at work in your culture? What about power

distance?

3.

What are some different co-cultures that you belong to? How do those shape who you are?

4.

How does cultural pride differ from ethnocentrism?

judging others as less than you because they are not from the same cultural background

(ethnocentrism).

5.

How do you see high and low context at work in your everyday life?

1. The Daily Grind

Have students think of a “normal” thing that they do every day, for example, putting in contact

lenses. Have them think about it as a strange cultural ritual. How would it be described? Have

2. Boys Will Be Boys

For this assignment, have students observe some public area on their campus (the cafeteria,

masculine or feminine in your communication style? (Remember, this has nothing to do with

3. Cultural Ethics

Have students read the Evaluating Communication Ethics box on p. 000 of the main text and

respond to the situation. How would they react to Amanda? Have students write a five-

1. How to Live Here

Goal: To help students understand the nuanced aspects of their own cultural lives

1.

Give students ten minutes to write rules for their own culture. Their rules should include

the following: What kinds of things do people talk about? When? How do people greet

each other? What circumstance might change that? How do people from their culture act

in the classroom? In the grocery store?

2.

After ten minutes, have students share their rules with each other.

2. When Are You Late?

2.

Paper and writing implements

Directions:

1.

Ask students to take out a blank piece of paper. Ask them to write down how late they can

acceptably arrive for the following “meetings”:

•

Religious services

2.

Give students five to seven minutes to complete their answers and then ask them to

volunteer to share their answers with the rest of the class. Write some of their answers next

3.

Foods, Fairs, and Festivals

Goal: To have students think critically about how cultures are portrayed

1.

Ask students individually what they think of when they consider cultures other than their

2.

Have students select pictures, videos, or artifacts from samples you supply to help them

3.

Ask students what they think people from other cultures might offer in this same activity.

Suggest some stereotypical aspects of the students’ culture that might relate to food,

4. Cultural Outsiders

2. Give name tags to the remaining students and have them wear them in a visible place.

(Note: Students do not need to write their names on the tags; they are just a way to

distinguish one group from the other.) Give these students the following directions:

You are members of a culture and will be visited by exchange students (the other half of

3. Have the students ask any clarifying questions—be sure to tell them they are not to explain

4. After giving these instructions, have students come together. Explain to the students that

5. Observe students as they play the game. Encourage the “natives” to enact their culture

natives will be in another. At this point, call “stop” and have students freeze and notice

where they (and others) are.

exercise is especially helpful when tied to the And You? on p. 000.

5. What Does That Movie Say About You?

1. Have students think of their favorite movie and write it down.

groups are represented? What do those cultural groups do?

6. Have You Ever Felt “Outsourced”?

2. Divide the class in two. Ask students, “What was Toad’s attitude toward India?” Have one

side of the classroom list the cultural challenges the protagonist faced when he arrives in

India. Have the other side of class list how he confronted those challenges.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

REVIEW QUESTIONS

7.

What are some examples of masculine and feminine orientations?

MEDIA

Avatar (20th Century Fox, 2009)

A genuine box-office phenomenon, James Cameron’s elaborate fantasy-adventure film

belongs to a tradition that includes A Man Called Horse (1970) and Dances with Wolves

(1990). Yet while the earlier films depict white men becoming integrated into Native

American culture, Avatar follows an earthman named Jake Scully, whose consciousness is

put into a new body so he can live with an alien race called the Na’vi on another planet.

Despite the fanciful premise, Cameron’s movie explores important issues related to

ethnocentrism, intercultural communication, and in-groups/out-groups, among other

subjects. By examining this popular film with students, discussions can approach the

question of anxiety as it relates to the challenge of transitioning from a low-context culture

to a high- context culture.

Belle (Fox Searchlight, 2013)

respect given to whites. Belle is an excellent teaching tool for classroom discussion that

raises issues related to overcoming cultural gaps through effective communication.

Children of a Lesser God (Paramount Pictures, 1986)

Have students describe the film’s perspective on deafness as a culture.

Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) (Arau Films Internacional,

1992)

The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee Productions, 1993)

Wei-Tung and Simon are a gay couple living in New York. Wei-Tung’s traditional Chinese

parents live in China, unaware of their son’s sexual preference. Wei-Tung becomes weary

of his parents’ trying to marry him off, so he arranges a marriage of convenience with a

young woman. Unfortunately, Wei-Tung’s parents decide to come for the festivities, which

complicates both the “marriage” and Wei-Tung and Simon’s relationship. Encourage

students to pay attention to the ways in which the film interweaves international cultures,

domestic ethnic cultures, and diversity in sexual preferences.

Outsourced (Shadowcatcher Entertainment, 2006)

An American call-center manager must go to Mumbai to train his replacement, as the

company is outsourcing. He is at first annoyed with Indian culture but eventually

appreciates and engages with it. Ask students to chronicle “Todd or Toad’s” multicultural

mistakes and his acceptance of cultural differences.