Chapter
Resources
This section of the manual provides suggestions for using each chapter of the Samovar, Porter, McDaniel,
and Sexton Roy’s Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Resources include a chapter synopsis,
outline, discussion questions, popular film suggestions, exercises, and test questions. The synopses
identify key concepts or questions that your students should be able to identify and answer after reading
the articles in the chapter. The outlines cover the major concepts addressed in each article in the chapter
readings. Discussion questions provide ways to engage students in a critical conversation designed to
evoke thought provoking discussions and higher order thinking on issues in the chapters. For the purposes
of clarity, discussion questions are focused on central ideas from one article rather than spanning multiple
articles in the chapter. The films suggested for use either in the classroom or in out-of-class venues have
been chosen because they portray some of the characteristics of intercultural communication discussed in
the relevant chapter readings.
In addition, there are three primary types of exercises provided in this section: reflective, experiential, and
case studies. The reflective exercises often ask students to work alone or in groups and consider their own
feelings about a particular topic related to intercultural communication. These exercises can be presented
in class as well as presented as take-home assignments. Experiential exercises ask students to “do”
intercultural communication in either simulated or authentic situations. Finally, case studies ask students
to consider examples of intercultural communication and identify the primary issues, problems, and
solutions for each one. All exercises include questions to facilitate small group and/or whole class
discussion. Finally, each chapter ends with multiple choice and essay test items for each chapter/article.
Chapter One
Approaches to Intercultural Communication
Overview
McDaniel, E. & Samovar, L. “Understanding and Applying Intercultural Communication in the Global
Community: The Fundamentals” (pp. 5-16).
This essay gives a brief overview of intercultural communication as an important phenomenon in
Saint-Jacques, B. “Intercultural Communication in a Globalized World” (pp. 16-26).
Miike, Y. “‘Harmony without Uniformity’: An Asiacentric Worldview and Its Communicative
Implications” (pp. 27-41).
Korzenny, F. “Relevance and Application of Intercultural Communication Theory and Research”
(pp. 42-46)
– Chapter One –
Outline
I. UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN THE
GLOBAL COMMUNITY: THE FUNDAMENTALS (McDaniel & Samovar)
a. Intercultural communication in historical perspective
i. The beginnings
1. Intercultural communication as important in human history
2. Religion
3. Commerce
ii. Intercultural communication as an academic discipline
b. Understanding communication
i. Purposeful
1. Persuade
2. Inform
3. Entertain
ii. Explaining communication
1. Communication (def.) “… is the management of messages with the
objective of creating meaning (Griffin, 2005)” (p. 7).
iii. Framework of communication
1. Sender
2. Message
3. Channel
4. Receiver(s)
5. Response
6. Feedback
7. Environment
a. Physical
b. Contextual (or social)
8. Noise a. Physical noise
b. Psychological noise
c. Physiological noise
d. Semantic noise
c. What is culture?
i. Explaining culture
1. Many definitions
2. Commonalities include shared values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, norms,
material objects, and symbolic resources
3. Culture (Applied def.) “The rules for living and functioning in society” (p.
10)
ii. What culture does
1. Cultural rules provide a framework that gives meaning to events, objects,
and people
2. Identity and sense of self
iii. Culture’s components
1. Culture is learned
2. Culture is transmitted intergenerationally
3. Culture is symbolic
4. Culture is dynamic
a. Diffusion, cultural borrowing
b. Cultural calamities
c. Immigration
5. Culture is ethnocentric
d. Integrating communication and culture
i. Perception (def.) the “… procedure of selecting, organizing, and evaluating
stimuli (p. 12)
1. People conduct their lives in accordance with how they perceive the world
2. Perception is influenced by culture
ii. Beliefs, values, and attitudes
1. Beliefs (def.) “individually held subjective ideas about the nature of an
object or event” (p. 12).
2. Values (def.) “those things we hold important in life, such as morality,
ethics, and aesthetics.” (p. 12).
3. Attitudes (def.) “learned tendencies to act or respond in a specific way to
events, objects, people, or orientations.” (p. 13).
iii. Worldview (def.) “…what forms an individual’s orientation toward such
philosophical concepts as God, the universe, nature, and the like. (p. 13).
iv. Cognitive patterns
v. Nonverbal behavior (def.) “… includes gestures, facial expressions, eye contract
and gaze, posture and movement, touch, dress, silence, the use of space and time,
objects and artifacts, and paralanguage.” (p. 13).
1. Cultural influence on nonverbal behavior
2. Greeting behaviors
3. Eye contact
4. Facial and body expressions
vi. Contextual influences
e. Conclusion
II. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD (Saint–Jacques)
a. A new approach to a theory of culture
i. Globalization refers to the overlapping of global and local factors
ii. Humans live within particular settings and between different cultural
environments
iii. “Between-situations” are becoming essential for any understanding of culture
iv. Stages of globalization
1. Political
2. Economic
3. Cultural
v. Three decades have passed
1. Problems with the rigid use of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
2. Operationalization of individualism/collectivism assumes a high degree of
cultural homogeneity
3. Operationalization of cultural dimensions often ignores the fact that
cultural values and practices may be internalized by different people to
different degrees
4. Problems with sample sizes, unrepresentative samples, etc.
vi. Three basic facts for a theory of culture and intercultural understanding
vii. Cultural predestination!
1. In the past, differences have been exaggerated, reducing the perception of
commonalities
2. Cultures are not predestined to have some immutable distinctive
characteristics.
viii. Individual Values
1. A nation or ethnic group can’t be considered as a single unit
ix. Culture is a set of dynamic processes of generation and transformation
1. Culture is not static
2. Enculturation rather than acculturation
3. Globalization is a factor of diversity, not homogenization
x. Individualism-collectivism, the case of Japan
1. In the past 30 years, Japan’s culture has changed dramatically
2. No longer taboo to promote the individual
3. For the younger generation, self, the individual, has become more
important than the group.
4. New individualism influenced the most basic group: the family
a. Divorce rates unprecedented
b. Women marry later and have fewer children
xi. Identity
1. Cultural identity is not a fixed reality, but rather is dynamic and evolving
2. Identity is never a finished product; it is always in process
3. Globalization promotes integration and the removal of negative
dimensions of culture
b. How to teach multicultural communication
i. The four meanings of culture
1. High culture
2. Culture as behavior
3. Culture as ways of thinking
4. Culture as language
ii. Culture as ways of thinking, beliefs, and values
1. Intercultural understanding is based upon an understanding of one’s own
culture.
iii. Culture as language: The close link between language and culture
III. “HARMONY WITHOUT UNIFORMITY”: AN ASIACENTRIC WORLDVIEW AND ITS
COMMUNICATIVE IMPLICATIONS (Miike)
a. Cultures in hierarchy and cultures alongside
i. Differences alone do not cause problems; it is the assigning of hierarchical values
to these differences that cause problems
ii. Worldview as the mental layer of culture
1. Layers of culture
a. Material
b. Behavioral
c. Mental
2. Worldview is neither completely fluid nor static
iii. Learning about and from cultures
1. Learning about a culture vs. learning from a culture
b. Humanity as an expression of Eurocentrism
i. The mental layer of European cultures is frequently used to analyze the
behavioral and material layers of non-European cultures, decontextualizing them.
ii. Rethinking civilization and development
1. All nations are civilized in some ways and uncivilized in other respects
2. Development as quality of life rather than an economic standard of living
iii. Being a teacher and being a student
1. The tendency to approach European cultures as a student and non-
European cultures as a teacher
2. We appreciate cultures when we learn from them.
iv. Three steps to cross-cultural dialogue
1. Understand the mental layer of our own culture and its impact on the
behavioral and material layers.
2. Understand the mental layer of other cultures and its impact on the
behavioral and material layers.
3. Listen to others’ perspectives on our culture in order to reflect on what it
means to be human in both local and global contexts.
c. Asiacentric worldview and communication
i. Recurring themes in Asiacentric cultures
1. Circularity
2. Harmony
3. Other-directedness
4. Reciprocity
5. Relationality
ii. Communication as a reminder of nonseparateness – “… communication is a
process in which we remind ourselves of the interdependence and interrelatedness
of the universe.” (p. 32).
iii. Communication as ego-reduction and self-cultivation – “… communication is a
process in which we reduce our selfishness and egocentrism.” (p. 33).
iv. Communication as sensing and feeling – “… communication is a process in which
we feel the joy and suffering of all sentient beings.” (p. 34).
v. Communication as reciprocal duty and responsibility – “… communication is a
process in which we receive and return our many debts to all sentient beings.” (p.
35).
vi. Communication as moralizing and harmonizing – “…communication is a process
in which we moralize and harmonize the universe.” (p 36).
vii. Asiacentric communication ethics and competence
1. “…the advent of the global village and the crisis of the human condition
have made it compelling to ruminate on communication ethics and
competence in intercultural contexts” (p. 37).
d. “Cherishing the old to know the new”
i. Concluding remarks
IV. RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
THEORY AND RESEARCH (Korzenny)
a. Culture and communication
i. “In the practice of human communication, then, we create, change, and/or
reinforce culture” (p. 42).
b. The influence of theory and research on practice
i. While intercultural communication is very important in many fields, there are
several barriers to intercultural communication practice.
c. The importance of the study of culture and communication:
i. Intercultural communication provides remediation of the cultural filter that
information processors impose on the content.
ii. Cultural understanding avoids the pitfalls of early development communication
research.
iii. The study of culture helps us understand ourselves.
iv. Prejudice in the media is a manifestation of the beliefs of those who are in charge.
v. Communication rules are seldom explicit; they must be uncovered.
vi. Establishing an intercultural relationship requires attention to the subtle aspects of
culture.
– Chapter One –
Discussion Ideas
Concepts & Questions from “Understanding and Applying Intercultural Communication in the Global
Community: The Fundamentals” (McDaniel & Samovar, pp. 5-16):
1. Do you believe that most people are prepared to engage in intercultural communication? Explain.
2. How often do you find yourself in situations where increased facility in intercultural
communication would be useful? What are some of those occasions?
3. How can knowledge of the basic principles of communication be useful in daily life?
4. How do the authors define culture? What is another definition of culture that might help you to
understand intercultural communication?
5. What is the purpose of culture?
6. What is meant by the statement “Culture is learned”?
7. What are some instances in your life that demonstrate how culture is learned?
8. What are cultural values? How do they relate to individual values?
9. Distinguish several ways in which verbal behavior might differ between cultures.
10. What role does context play in communication? How does context affect intercultural
communication?
11. Think of five different situations where an understanding of culture and communication behaviors
would be beneficial.
Concepts & Questions from “Intercultural Communication in a Globalized World” (Saint-Jacques, pp. 16-
26):
1. Saint-Jacques says we are living “within particular settings” and concurrently “between different
cultural environments.” Explain this assertion using examples from an international context.
2. How do you think that “identity-culture-communication” could be a problem in international
relations for a globalized society?
3. Can you think of situations where you act in an individualistic manner and others where you take
a more collectivist approach? Explain.
4. Do you agree or disagree with Saint-Jacques’s opinion that “research dealing with cultures can no
longer be satisfied with the approach which consists only in trying to apply to all cultures so-
Concepts & Questions from “‘Harmony without Uniformity’: An Asiacentric Worldview and Its
Communicative Implications” (Miike, 27-41):
1. How does the essay describe worldview? In what ways is this different from or similar to the
previous essay?
2. Differentiate between learning about other cultures and learning from other cultures.
3. What is meant by “cultures in hierarchy”? Is this considered a negative or positive perspective?
Why? Is there a better way of viewing cultures?
4. Describe and provide examples of the core values underlying the Eurocentric worldview.
5. Are there any dangers to exploring other cultures from a strictly descriptive perspective? Will
simply analyzing and critiquing another culture help or hinder intercultural understanding and
communication?
Concepts & Questions from “Relevance and Application of Intercultural Communication Theory and
Research” (Korzenny, 42-46):
1. What does Korzenny mean when he says culture is a “social product”?
2. According to Korzenny, culture is like a “security blanket.” Give an example of how culture
provides a sense of security. What is a context or situation in which culture can produce
insecurity?
3. Explain the relationship between culture and communication.
4. What is meant by the claim that natural, but endemic, ethnocentrism is a barrier to intercultural
communication?
5. Do you think the study of intercultural communication can lead to a better self-understanding?
Explain.
6. Korzenny indicates that an academic appreciation of culture is insufficient to make you culturally
competent—you need to actually experience the culture. How does living in a culture create a
greater understanding of that culture?
7. The United States is considered to be a pluralistic, multicultural society. What are five advantages
and five difficulties of living in a multicultural society?
8. Korzenny’s essay is more than twenty years old. Do you think it is still applicable? Explain.
– Chapter One –
Exercises
Exercise 1.1: Intercultural Communication Model
This exercise asks students to construct their own model of the intercultural communication process based
on those elements they feel most influence an intercultural interaction. Students will apply the knowledge
they have learned in Chapter 1 to their own experiences as intercultural communicators. Briefly review
communication they will include in their model. Suggest to the students that they use their own
interactions with culturally different peoples as frameworks for choosing their model’s components. For
example, some students may have experienced an intercultural situation where language was a barrier in
the interaction. Others may have noticed particular nonverbal behaviors that were markedly different than
their own. Also stress to students that they should think of the basic process of communication as
discussed in other courses they’ve taken in communication.
Exercise 1.2: How Others Perceive Us
This exercise asks students to imagine how others might perceive them culturally and individually in an
intercultural interaction. The objective of this activity is to make students aware of how others might
perceive them in an intercultural setting and how closely these perceptions match students’ own
perceptions of their cultural and personal characteristics. Have students answer the following two
interaction.
List 10 individual predictions that you think others would use to describe you in an intercultural
interaction.
Afterwards, the class may either be separated into small discussion groups or a large class discussion may
follow. Have students share some of their answers. Possible questions for discussion might be: Where
might people get these cultural and individual characteristics? How accurate would their impressions of
you be if these were the only predictions they could make about you? What errors would they make? Do
you think that their impression is the “real” you? How similar are their cultural and individual
predictions? How different are they? Where are the contradictions? How might context affect the ways
others perceive you in intercultural interactions? In what situations do you think it would be useful to
make strictly cultural predictions? In what situations would it be useful to make individual predictions?
When are both most useful? Should people only assess others based on perceived individual
characteristics?
Exercise 1.3: Interactional Rules
This exercise includes aspects from all the articles in Chapter 1. Specifically, it illustrates how
communication is so strongly rule-governed and yet we follow these rules unconsciously. By taking part
in a cross-cultural simulation activity, students will gain insight into the difficulty that arises when two
culture-specific rule systems are used in an intercultural interaction. Divide the class into two groups, the
Sopa culture and the Epa culture. Each group should receive handouts with culture-specific rules that
After students have been given adequate preparation time to learn the rules of their assigned cultures,
have the two groups take part in a twenty-minute interaction session. You may set up a scene where the
two groups will negotiate a business transaction or a party where there are both social and business
conversations taking place. You could even provide some refreshments to make a party scene more
realistic. Some students from the same culture may wish to pair up as friends, lovers, students, siblings, a
married couple, or business partners. After the two cultures have interacted, have the students write for
five minutes on the following questions: What specific behaviors of the other culture did you notice?
What social rules do you think were governing these behaviors?
As with all cross-cultural simulations, a class discussion should follow. Students should come away from
this discussion with an understanding of some of the cultural rules that guide their own daily interactions
and the impact that interactional rules have on intercultural communication. Each of the articles in
Chapter 1 is relevant to this exercise. Some possible questions to stimulate discussion: What were some
of the difficulties you experienced in preparing for this interaction? Which rules of your “adopted
culture” conflicted with the rules of your “true” culture? When did you begin to catch on to some of their
social rules? What was one of the first things you noticed about how the other culture behaved? What was
your initial internal reaction? What was your external reaction to this behavior? How did you (or why
didn’t you) modify your behavior to compensate for the other culture’s rules? What were some of the
most difficult moments during your interactions? What were some of the most enjoyable? Did successful
communication take place? What information about the other culture do you wish you had been given
before your interaction? What information about your own culture could be given to other cultures to aid
them in their interactions with you?
Rules for the Sopa Culture
Sopas are extremely social, but their socializing is dictated by the women. Men can speak freely with
other men, but must be restrained in contact with women. This matriarchal society is also highly
materialistic. A major source of conversation is derived from discussing each other’s material assets.
Keep in mind the following social rules:
A. Initiating Conversation. Always begin social contact with a materialistic statement.
Inquiries into each other’s financial situation are considered proper etiquette.
D. Nonverbal Behavior
Touching: Each touches the other, except handshaking is considered an insult. Men must wait
to be touched by women before they can reciprocate.
E. Business. This highly materialistic society thinks of business as merely an extension of their
social life, only more aggressive. Although men can initiate a sale, ONLY WOMEN CAN
BARTER and complete the transaction.
Rules for the Epa Culture
Epas believe in the separateness of the self from others. If possible, they would live in isolated cells, but
since they form a group, they make all attempts to cooperate while minimizing self-revelation. Epas are
themselves only part of the natural cycle and, therefore, hold nature as sacred as humans. They speak
through nature so all communication is a metaphor.
Keep in mind the following social rules:
A. Initiating Conversation. Always begin social contact with reference to the weather or other
natural phenomena.
B. Degree of Verbalization. The ability to use metaphorical language is an art form that
establishes a type of caste system. Clear, moderately slow speech production punctuated with
intermittent silence to enable aesthetic appreciation is a sign of articulate communication.
D. Nonverbal Behavior
Touching: Epas are essentially aphysical and, therefore, avoid touching one another. An
interesting feature in this culture is that individuals seem to touch and hold themselves (i.e.,
arm folding, face touching, etc.) a lot. Positive sentiment is expressed in flowery
metaphorical language.
E. Business. The following only relate to business negotiations:
Exercise 1.4: Collectivist and Individualist Cultures
This exercise will help students understand the characteristics of both collectivist and individualist
cultures and explore how these concepts interact with context and individual preferences. Review the
concepts of collectivism and individualism and, together, brainstorm a list of characteristics that
Exercise 1.5: Cultural Self-Perception
Using numerous and diverse popular magazines, select advertisements for products and services and bring
them to class for students to analyze. Divide the class into small groups of three to four students. Pass out
the magazine ads and ask students to construct a narrative based on their ads and the magazine they’re
found in. Then have students try to identify their own narratives from the narrative they’ve constructed
about the “others” in the ads. What cultural presuppositions can they identify that they brought to the task
of constructing narratives of “others?” Are there factors of ethnocentrism influencing their narratives?
Which cultural communities do the students identify with? Do the students identify themselves as distinct
from other cultural communities? Do the students idealize their own cultural community?
– Chapter One –
Popular Film Suggestions
• Bend It Like Beckham (U.S./United Kingdom/Germany, 2002; director: Gurinder Chadha;
screenplay: Gurinder Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges, Guljit Bindra; length: 112 min).
This film deals with the issue of cultural assimilation and illustrates what can happen when
worldviews collide (East–West). In this film, a young teenager, the British-born daughter of Sikh
parents, dreams of playing soccer, but her parents have different ideas and want her to begin
Yahoo Movies. Bend It Like Beckham: Links to film reviews. Retrieved 10/1/2010.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808443070/critic
• Dreamkeeper (South Dakota, New Mexico, 2003; length: 140 min). This television miniseries
tells the story of a young teen from the Lakota reservation who, while driving his grandfather to
New Mexico, gradually realizes that his grandfather’s stories . . . are essential in preserving the
fading cultures of the Lakota and the several other tribes whose folklore depends on unbroken
generations of oral tradition.
• Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan, 1994; writer/director: Ang Lee; 124 min; Chinese with English
subtitles).
This film examines the intergenerational conflicts faced by a family—a Chinese master chef and
his three daughters. The eldest daughter works in a professional office and is the most
Westernized of the three; the second daughter is a school teacher; the third works in a fast-food
restaurant. The film illustrates the changes occurring within the Taiwanese culture through the
escapades in love and work of the three daughters. Most instructive are the ways in which the
daughters interact with their father during their traditional Sunday dinners at which he prepares
• The Namesake (India/U.S., 2007; director: Mira Nair 2006; screenplay: Sooni Taraporevala;
novel: Jhumpa Lahiri; length: 122 min).