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Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Lecture Notes
Chapter 11: Cultures Within Cultures
Learning Objectives:
11-1: Explain why some immigrant groups have maintained a separate identity.
11-2: Identify and describe the intercultural communication challenges of immigrant
groups who have maintained a separate identity.
11-3: Contrast Amish cultural patterns to dominant U.S. cultural patterns.
11-4: List reasons why indigenous languages and cultures should be protected.
11-5: Contrast periods of U. S. immigration assimilation and immigration integration.
11-6: Trace the pattern of Spanish language use in the United States.
I. Marginalization: The Hmong
A. The Hmong were ill-prepared to immigrate to the United States and placed them in
a state of marginalization.
1. The newcomers went through relocation camps and experienced fear and
humiliation which resulted in passivity, dependency, and learned helplessness.
2. Most refugee teenagers are well adjusted and do well in school, but some
became involved in gangs and criminal behavior.
3. Elderly refugees’ language skills in English is minimal and results in social
isolation.
4. Rural refugees are often less sophisticated than urban counterparts, and have
difficulty in a capitalistic society.
B. History
1. The Hmong are an ancient Asian hill tribe.
2. They may have originated in central China. China pushed them out for refusing
to discard unique ways, ending up in the highlands of northern Laos.
3. The Hmong are a diverse group with classifications based on dialect, clothing,
and custom.
4. After the Vietnam War, their villages were attacked in retaliation for helping
the Central Intelligence Agency, forcing them to flee to refugee camps in
Thailand.
5. Refugees migrated to Australia, Canada, France, the United States, and other
parts of the world.
C. Cultural Patterns
1. Grocery stores, radio programs, family centers and traditional festivals, and
farming have formed in the communities the Hmong settled.
2. Their religious practices that blend ancestor worship, animal sacrifice, and
shaman healing were often misunderstood and a source of prejudice.
3. Ill-prepared for life in the United States and with few marketable skills, the
poverty rate among the Hmong is 24.2% (11.6 in the U.S. overall) and the
4. Today many “live a dual lifestyle in a dual society: the follow the practices of
the dominant culture while retaining Hmong customs and traditions” (Vang,
2016 p. 435).
II. Separation: Koreans in Russia
A. Koryo-saram refers to ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states.
B. During the second half of the 19th century, Koreans began migrating to Russia in
order to escape famine, economic hardship, and Japanese imperialism in Korea.
C. They lived in a state of separation from the Russian culture, interacting little with
the nomadic peoples around them.
D. The Koryo-saram maintained Korean food, birthday rituals, their own schools and
colleges as well as print media.
E. Years of separation caused the languages to change.
F. The Koryo-saram have faced marginalization since the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
G. Some have immigrated to the United States as refugees. The language barrier has
made it difficult dealing with Korean Americans.
III. Separation: The Amish
A. History
l. Grew out of the Anabaptist movement in Switzerland during the 1500s.
2. Amish believe in living apart from the world, preferring a simple agrarian
lifestyle.
3. They migrated from Switzerland in the 1720s to Pennsylvania.
4. Today, they are concentrated in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, and
Michigan.
B. Diversity Among the Amish
2. Each settlement shares a set of theological rules and practices but each
affiliation makes its own decisions.
3. The rules and decisions can change with contradictory results.
C. Values
1. Worldview
a. Gelassenheit is German for submission.
b. Ordnung contains the church rules and outlines the values of the
community.
c. Amish are often referred to as “plain people” because of the way they
dress and lifestyle.
d. Settlements differ in the use of technology.
i. The Old Order Amish avoid any use of electricity and automobiles.
ii. New Order Amish use telephones and farm equipment powered by
batteries and generators.
iii. The Beachy Amish use electricity and automobiles.
e. Internet pioneer Howard Rheingold (1999) found Amish don’t fear
technology, they fear the ideas that technology is always beneficial, that
individuality is a precious value and that the goal of life is to get ahead.
2. Activity Orientation
a. Work is important to Amish life. Idleness breeds laziness.
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
b. The whole community works together.
c. Amish make handicrafts, prized for their design and workmanship, and
sell to the “English” (anyone not Amish).
d. Amish control any change in the community. Any change that will
decrease the amount of family or community solidarity, or threaten the
values of the Amish in any way is rejected.
3. Human Nature Orientation
a. A major factor in control is the Amish education system.
b. Practical skills, spelling, English, German, mathematics, geography, and
health are taught in small private schools.
c. Education beyond 8th grade is discouraged, believing it leads to placing
the needs of the self over those of the community.
4. Relational Orientation
a. Amish youth must choose to be Amish as an adult.
b. Rumspringa or time out is when Amish teens, at the age of 16, are
allowed to explore the outside world before choosing to be baptized and
take the responsibilities of an Amish adult.
c. 80% to 90% choose the Amish way of life.
IV. Indigenous Cultures
A. Today, there are 5,000 indigenous cultures, 5% of the world’s population.
B. Policies regarding indigenous peoples differed between countries and history.
1. After the war of 1812, British colonists in Canada started to see indigenous
people as obstacles instead of allies.
2. Canada perused a policy of absorbing and undermining the cultural
distinctiveness of aboriginal society.
C. Mexico’s indigenous peoples have been denied rights for centuries.
1. By the 15th century, it is estimated 40 million or more people lived in the
Americas.
2. As one culture declined, another took its place.
3. The Aztecs administered a large territory of approximately 10 million people.
4. The Spanish influence was largely cultural blending rather than cultural
extinction.
5. Social class in Mexico has been determined by racial purity since the Spanish
founded Mexico.
D. The United States passed the Indian Removal Act in 1820 to force American
Indians west of the Mississippi.
1. As colonists moved west, American Indians were sent to reservations.
2. Legislation was passed to assimilate indigenous children and adults into U.S.
dominant culture.
E. Similar methods of assimilation of indigenous peoples were used around the world,
including in Taiwan, Paraguay, Norway, and Australia.
F. Starting in the second half of the 20th century, the situation began to shift.
1. By the middle of the 1960s, the policy in Mexico had changed to literacy in
one’s native language and Spanish as a second language.
a. In 1994, the Zapatista in Southern Mexico rose up to protest the repression
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
b. The government of Mexico in 1996 signed an agreement to amend the
state’s and nation’s constitutions to guarantee respect for Indian languages
and culture.
2. By the 1950s, Brazil’s indigenous population was down to 100,000 people.
Today, the population has grown to 350,000.
a. Eleven percentage of the landmass is reserved for indigenous people.
b. Under Brazil’s constitution, they are not full citizens. They are considered
legal minors with the status of a protected species.
3. Norway, Finland, Sweden, and New Zealand have elected Sami consultative
“parliaments” and allow indigenous language to be taught in schools.
4. New Zealand’s numerous court decisions confirmed that the Maori language is
protected under the Treaty of Waitangi and in 1987 was made an official
language.
5. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples suggests
indigenous peoples should occupy a privileged political and legal position and
have the right to autonomous governing and legal structures and institutions.
V. Assimilation: United States
A. Melting Pot Concept
1. The melting pot of old included English, German, Irish, French, and Italian
immigrants and encouraged ethnic uniformity.
2. Today, 42.8 million people in the United States claim German heritage,
making German Americans the largest ancestry group in the United States and
yet that culture isn’t evident today.
B. Immigration has made the United States home to many ethnic groups.
VI. Integration: United States
A. English-Speaking Cultures
1. English is the native language in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, the United
States, Guyana, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean countries of
Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
2. Immigrants from English-speaking countries lack a label.
3. The term “Amerienglish” could be created to describe a group based on
ancestry and language use, but negates other important aspects of the peoples’
culture.
4. What are the consequences of labeling other groups by an ancestry and
language use label other than English?
B. Spanish-Speaking Cultures
1. Spanish is the official or de facto official language in Spain, Mexico,
Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras,
Paraguay, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Equatorial Guinea, Argentina,
Chile, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Uruguay.
2. The number of people in the United States who speak Spanish regardless of
ancestry is roughly 12% of the U.S. population.
3. The future of the Spanish language in the United States is still developing.
a. The traditional pattern of other non-English languages such as Italian,
German, and Polish was with each generation more spoke English.
b. The number of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home is declining.
4. The evolving use of Spanish may impact identity and labeling.
a. Spanish speaking, Spanish surnamed, Spanish origin, Hispanic, Chicano,
Latino, and Mexican American have all been used as labels.
b. Antonio Guernica (1982) defined the labels.
i. Spanish speaking refers to the population with the ability to speak
and comprehend the Spanish language.
ii. Spanish surnamed refers to the population with last names that have
been identified as Spanish.
iii. Spanish origin refers to people that came from a Spanish-speaking
country or ancestors who came from a Spanish-speaking country.
iv. Hispanic refers to the population with the capability of speaking and
comprehending the Spanish language. It came into use as a result of
the 1980 census.
v. Chicano refers to people born in the United States but with ancestors
who came from Mexico.
vi. Latino refers to Spanish-speaking people who came from or whose
ancestors came from Latin America.
vii. Mexican American indicates a person from a specific country of
origin who is in the assimilation process.
viii. Tejano is a term in Texas to refer to people born in Texas of Mexican
ancestry.
c. Tanno (1994) argues none of these terms is accurate and yet all are.
d. The Pew Research Center (2014a) conducted a National Survey of
Latinos, which focused on language use and identities.
i. Half (51%) preferred to use their family’s country of origin
ii. One-quarter (24%) used the term Hispanic or Latino
iii. One-fifth (21%) used the term American most often
iv. When asked if Hispanic or Latino is preferred, half (51%) had no
preference. Of those who had a preference, 33% preferred Hispanic
versus 14% who preferred Latino.
v. 69% said Hispanics have many different cultures, 29% agreed
Hispanics share a common culture
5. For the last 500 years, Spanish has spread across the world.
a. The interface of Spanish and English is producing Spanglish.
b. Switching between English and Spanish while speaking is what linguists
call code switching.
c. Labeling people in categories sets the apart.
d. Alberto Gonzalez (1990) has identified in labeling the themes of inclusion
and separation.
i. Inclusion is the desire to belong on the basis of one’s worth.
ii. Separation is the fragmentation of not belonging.
VII. Hispanic Culture Within the U.S. Culture
A. Values
1. The Pew Hispanic Center’s National Survey of Latinos reported the most of
Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication 9e
SAGE Publications, 2018
2. Close relationships, cohesiveness, and cooperativeness with other family
member are valued.
B. Cultural Identity and Media
1. Print
a. Only four other countries buy more Spanish-language books than the
United States.
b. There are around 450 daily and weekly Hispanic newspapers in the United
States and several magazines.
2. Radio
a. In 2007, there were 872 Spanish-language radio stations, by 2009 the
number had grown to 1,323.
b. Some stations have experimented with a bilingual format.
3. Television
a. The first Spanish-language station was in San Antonio in 1961. Spanish
International Network (SIN) grew to nine stations in a decade.
b. Hallmark bought SIN in 1987, renaming it Univision.
c. Univision has become the fifth largest U.S. prime-time network.
d. Telemundo is the second largest, created by Saul Steinberg in Miami.
4. Spanish-Language Internet and Social Media
a. In 2012, 86% of Hispanics owned a mobile phone and are more likely to
use English or be bilingual.
b. In 2012, 78% of Hispanics used the Internet at least occasionally and were
more likely to be fluent in English.
c. The multichannel network MiTu began producing original content for
YouTube in 2012. By 2016, MiTu had more than 6,000 creators, 10
million global subscribers, and 2 billion monthly video views across
YouTube, Facebook Video, and Vine.
5. Spanish Language and Marketing
a. Marketing in Spanish serves to continue and strengthen the language.
b. The first attempts at marketing in Spanish had translation errors.
c. In 1979, Budweiser advertised to three regional subgroups.
i. In California, Texas and the Southwest, advertisements targeted
people of Mexican heritage, featuring cowboys and cactus.
ii. In Florida, advertisements targeted Cubans and featured palm trees,
cigars, and bananas.
iii. In the Northeast, advertisements targeted Puerto Ricans, featuring
cityscapes and salsa music.
d. Many companies are now marketing to the Hispanic communities and
creating advertising campaigns specifically crafted to the Spanish-
speaking population.
e. One English-as-the-official-language argues that providing multilingual
customer service perpetuates linguistic divisiveness and separation.
