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Chapter 3
Communication and Culture
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
• Define and explain culture and its impact on your communication
• Delineate seven ways that cultural variables affect communication
LECTURE NOTES
• Understanding Culture examines how culture is learned, how it affects our
communication, and why learning how to communicate among different cultures is so
important.
ƒ Culture is a learned system of thought and behavior that typifies a large group of people,
including their beliefs, values, and practices.
ƒ Culture applies to any broadly shared group identity, not simply a person’s nationality.
ƒ Culture Is Learned
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Culture is learned from parents, peer groups, teachers, and media.
ż
These processes shape our worldview, or how we interpret the world and the people in
it.
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Culture includes nonverbal, unconscious behaviors and verbal language.
ƒ Culture Affects Communication
ƒ Intercultural Communication Matters
ż
Intercultural communication is communication between people from different
cultures who have different worldviews that may lead to different interpretations and
expectations.
ż
Intercultural communication is important for a number of reasons, including:
Ɠ Diversity: because we live in a diverse society, we must be able to communicate
interculturally in order to understand others.
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• Communication and Cultural Variations examines the seven major communication
variations across cultures in order to help explain the roots of communication differences.
ƒ High- and Low-Context Cultures
ƒ Collectivist and Individualist Orientations
ż
Collectivist cultures see themselves primarily as members of a group and
communicate from that perspective, emphasizing cooperation, group harmony, group
ƒ Comfort with Uncertainty
ż
Some cultures want to practice uncertainty avoidance, which is the reduction of
uncertainty and risk in an interaction and involves following rules and valuing honesty
and stability. Cultures with high uncertainty avoidance include Portugal, Greece, Peru,
and Japan.
ż
Cultures with lower uncertainty avoidance have greater tolerance for ambiguity and
risk; they include countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, and the United States.
ƒ Masculine and Feminine Orientations
ż
The masculinity or femininity of a culture refers to how a culture values and reflects
characteristics that are traditionally (or stereotypically) associated with one sex or the
other.
ż
Masculine culture (achievement culture) places a higher value on assertiveness,
ƒ Approaches to Power Distance
ż
Power distance is the way in which power and status are divided among individuals.
ż
High power distance cultures have a strong hierarchy based on class, birth order, job
ƒ Time Orientation
ż
Time orientation is how cultures communicate with and about time.
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ż
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.
ż
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.
ƒ Value of Emotional Expression
ż
Some cultures see expression of emotions as a weakness; others see it as a strength.
ż
Collectivist cultures often use hyperbole, or vivid, colorful language with emotional
intensity, to express emotion.
ż
Individualistic cultures tend toward understatement, which downplays emotion and
may include euphemisms.
• Understanding Group Affiliations examines co-cultural communication, social identity
theory, and intergroup communication.
ƒ Everyone has multiple group memberships in their own identity.
ƒ Co-cultural Communication
ż
Co-cultures are groups that share some of the general culture but have some distinct
ż
Gender refers to behavioral and cultural traits assigned to sex. There are particular
ways of speaking that are culturally seen more with each gender.
ż
A person’s “membership” in a particular group does not mean that he or she will
automatically have that group’s communicative characteristics. People need to be able
to adapt to others and to the communicative context.
ƒ Social Identity and Intergroup Communication
ƒ Social identity theory states that people have a personal identity (sense of your unique
individual personality) and a social identity (part of self-concept that comes from your
group memberships).
ƒ Intergroup communication looks at how communication and relationships within
groups affect relationships.
ż
Our identification and communication shifts depending on what group membership is
made salient.
ż
A person may not identify equally with all group memberships.
ż
Other people will treat you based on the group they think you belong to, which may
affect you in various ways.
• Intercultural Communication Challenges explores three pressing intercultural challenges
ƒ Anxiety
ż
People often become anxious about how they are perceived when communicating with
ƒ Ethnocentrism
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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.
ż
Ethnocentrism is very different from cultural or ethnic pride.
ƒ Discrimination
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Discrimination is behavior toward a person or group based only on their membership
in a particular group, class, or category.
• Improving Intercultural Communication considers some important points to help us
communicate with people from other generations, faiths, ethnicities, cultures, and so on.
ƒ Improving intercultural communication, or intercultural training, generally focuses on
three areas:
ż
Changing thinking (cognition)
ż
Changing feelings (affect)
ż
Changing behavior
ƒ Be Mindful
ƒ Desire to Learn
ż
The willingness to learn is an important component of becoming a competent
intercultural communicator.
ż
It includes asking respectful and earnest questions and experiencing other cultures in
whatever way you are able.
ƒ Overcome Intergroup Biases
ƒ Accommodate Appropriately
ż
Accommodation is when you adjust your verbal and nonverbal language and
behaviors to another; convergence happens when speakers shift toward each other’s
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ƒ Practice Your Skills by doing the following:
ż
Listen effectively, remembering you can’t be mindful unless you listen to what others
say.
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Note: Throughout this chapter, students (and sometimes instructors) will look to students who
are perceived as “other” to share their experiences, especially in a classroom or at a university
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?
• Ask students about their schedules. Ask how they would react if they came to class the
3. What are some of the different co-cultures that you belong to? How do those co-cultures
shape who you are?
• Talk to students about different co-cultures such as gender, race, and sexuality.
If students are reluctant to talk about those issues, start with something a bit safer, such
4. How does cultural pride differ from ethnocentrism?
• This is a tough one to talk about in the classroom. However, if you take time to do it
carefully, it can be a valuable discussion. You could start by talking about school
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5. How do you see high and low context at work in your everyday life?
• An example of low context would be the syllabus—very direct and explicit
instructions.
PERSONAL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Touring Nacirema
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 students write their descriptions of the ritual in as much objective detail
2. Boys Will Be Boys
For this assignment, have students observe some public area on their campus (the
cafeteria, library, a study area, a workout area or a game room are some ideas). Have
them observe the space on at least two separate occasions, 1 hour each. They should take
detailed notes on the differences (or lack thereof) in behavior between males and females
on campus. For example, do women sit in chairs the same way that men do? Do they
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. How to Live Here
Goal: To help students understand the nuanced aspects of their own cultural lives
Time Required: 15–20 minutes
Materials: Paper and writing implements for students
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Directions:
1. Give students 10 minutes to write rules for their own culture. Their rules should
2. After 10 minutes, have students share their rules with each other.
Debriefing: Discuss the rules with the students. If students didn’t reach “deep,” help them
develop their rules further. For example, when determining what people talk about, ask
them about different situations—what do they talk about with strangers? Friends?
Romantic partners? Ask students, how did you “learn” these cultural rules—explicitly or
implicitly? By whom?
2. When Are You Late?
Goal: To teach students the concept of time orientation
Time Required: 15 minutes
Materials:
1. Chalkboard or other writing surface visible to the class
2. Paper and writing implements for students
Directions:
1. Have students take out a blank piece of paper. Ask them what the latest acceptable
time is for arriving at the following events:
• Religious services
2. Give students 5–7 minutes to complete their answers. Then ask students to share
their answers with the rest of the class. Write some of their answers next to each of
the described events.
Debriefing: Discuss answers with the students. Ask them to discuss why they could be
3. Foods, Fairs, and Festivals
Goal: To teach students to think critically about how cultures are portrayed
Time Required: 30–40 minutes
Materials: Pictures, videos, and/or actual artifacts from multiple cultures for students to
use as samples
Directions:
1. Ask students individually what they think of when they think of cultures other than
2. Have students select pictures, videos, and/or artifacts from samples you supply to
help them illustrate their ideas about other cultures.
3. Ask students what they think people from other cultures would use to suggest what
people in the students’ cultures are like when presented with this same activity.
4. Cultural Outsiders
Goal: To discover how uncertainty avoidance is achieved
Time Required: 50 minutes
Materials: Name tags for half the class
Directions:
1. Send half of the students out of the class to wait in another location.
2. Give the 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; the tags provide
a way to distinguish one group from the other.) Give these students the following
directions:
You are members of a culture that will be visited by exchange students (the other
3. Have the students ask any clarifying questions; be sure to tell them they are not to
4. After giving these instructions, have students come together. Explain to the students
who were outside the room that they are exchange students who have come to
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another country and they are to make friends. Send the “exchange students” in to
“make friends.”
5. Observe the students as they play the game. Encourage the “natives” to enact their
culture (nonverbal signals of “you can do it!” usually do the trick). Within about
5 minutes, you will see the cultures start to “separate” —the exchange students will
be in one area and the natives will be in another. At this point, call “stop” and have
the student’s freeze and notice where they (and others) are.
Debriefing: Gather students together and ask the exchange students how they felt. Then
ask the natives to describe their cultural norms. Ask students what kinds of cultural
5. What Does That Movie Say About You?
Goal: To understand how popular culture affects understandings of culture
Time Required: 15 minutes
Materials: Computer with Internet connection and projector (optional)
Directions:
1. Have students write down the name of their favorite movie.
2. Ask students “If this movie was a representation of your culture, what would it say
about your culture?” Encourage students not to think too literally (e.g., the movie
Ironman would not just suggest we could all wear iron super suits), but have them
think more deeply. How do people in that movie act? Talk? What do they talk about?
Who do they talk to? Which co-cultural groups are represented? What do those
cultural groups do?
Debriefing: Discuss how popular culture influences how we think about our own culture
and “other” cultures. What do these films say about people who are white? People who
aren’t? Men? Women? People of different sexual orientations? People of different
abilities?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How does culture affect communication?
2. How does mobility affect intercultural communication?
3. What cultural values are carried by the media you interact with?
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MEDIA
Children of a Lesser God (Paramount Pictures, 1986)
In this film, a speech teacher at a school for the deaf falls in love with one of the pupils.
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) (Arau Films International,
1992)
This film (which does have some nudity) explores one aspect of Mexican culture in the
1800s. Tita and Pedro fall in love, but they are not allowed to marry. To stay close to Tita,
Race—The Power of an Illusion (California Newsreel, 2003)
This three-part series (56 minutes each) produced by PBS examines idea of race as a
social construction and not a biological argument. It looks at past and present aspects of
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
