Communication Between Cultures. Cengage Learning

[Meinard Hartmann]

Welcome to our free online Intercultural Communication Coursebook/reading materials. We found that by asking students to rent or purchase the most recent textbook or hoping they would buy less expensive versions online, students often ended up with the most costly book or went without a textbook. It occurred to us that a FREE Open Education Resource (OER) book would better meet the needs and pocketbooks of students.

We are excited to learn with students as the semester progresses. Students are encouraged to ask questions and put forth their ideas about the course topics and concepts, theoretical and practical, to improve their understanding and contribute to the course itself.

This chapter reviews some of the primary terms and concepts related to intercultural communication. In general and, in particular, we will define and explore terms, concepts, and skills correlated to starting the semester off strong for students studying intercultural communication. In subsequent chapters, the concepts this chapter outlines are more thoroughly treated. The end of this chapter concludes with more information about identity and a preview of a discussion activity for online or classroom applications.

Now, the classroom cannot be the only path to progress in successfully navigating cultures, intercultural concepts, variety and personal connections, and the nuances of culture learned through travel that immerses one in a given culture. Over the past 50 years, new cultures have relocated to the United States due to economic globalization and migration due to war, drought, and other climate-related disasters, extreme poverty, failed states characterized by inter-gang war and its robbing and torture of civilians, civil war, and oppressive governments. Crises change cultures and forced migration, yet they have brought different cultures to Minnesota, allowing the culturally curious to learn about displaced cultures.

In intercultural settings, the communicators might not share the same language or verbal communication. Verbal communication is defined as an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols used to share meaning (Introduction to Communication, 2022).

Another definition from Lustig & Koester (2005) in their book, Among Us, explains that culture is a learned set of shared interpretations of beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that includes the behaviors of a large group of people. In so doing, culture links to human symbolic processes (p. 13).

Regardless of the definition of culture used, individuals experiencing a new culture or witnessing a foreign newcomer to their area, especially outside their language, know the frustrations of learning. Reducing frustrations and developing a variety of intercultural communication skills are helpful.

Culture is learned, transmitted from generation to generation, based on symbols, and is a dynamic and integrated system (Samovar, 2011, p. 17). These characteristics of culture are demonstrated in the video at the end of the chapter and are discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

Intercultural communication happens in all communication contexts: intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group/team, public, and mass communication. Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies (2016) shares:

The topic of cultural identity will be explored throughout the semester and later in this book. Exploring the key concepts of identity is helpful as we begin our first look at the topics this course will cover. Professor Shannon Ahrndt in her online creative commons textbook, Intercultural Communication, shares:

For example, we may derive aspects of our social identity from our family or from a community of fans for a sports team. Social identities differ from personal identities because they are externally organized through membership. Our membership may be voluntary (Greek organization on campus) or involuntary (family) and explicit (we pay dues to our labor union) or implicit (we purchase and listen to hip-hop music). There are numerous options for personal and social identities. While our personal identity choices express who we are, our social identities align us with particular groups. Through our social identities, we make statements about who we are and who we are not.

Personal identities may change often as people have new experiences and develop new interests and hobbies. A current interest in online video games may give way to an interest in graphic design. Social identities do not change as often because they take more time to develop, as you must become interpersonally invested. For example, if an interest in online video games leads someone to become a member of a MMORPG, or a massively multiplayer online role-playing game community, that personal identity has led to a social identity that is now interpersonal and more entrenched. Cultural identities are based on socially constructed categories that teach us a way of being and include expectations for social behavior or ways of acting (Yep, 2002). Since we are often a part of them since birth, cultural identities are the least changeable of the three. The ways of being and the social expectations for behavior within cultural identities do change over time, but what separates them = from most social identities is their historical roots (Collier, 1996). For example, think of how ways of being and acting have changed for African Americans since the civil rights movement.

Human civilization is familiar with conflict. History is full of conflict over politics, religion, language, resources, and more. The bottom line for the peace imperative is a question. Can individuals of different races, ethnicities, language, and cultures co-exist on this planet? It would be nave to assume that simply understanding intercultural communication issues would end war and conflict, but this question does underscore the need for all of us to learn more about cultural groups other than our own.

Vocabulary important to the demographic imperative are heterogeneous and homogeneous. If a population is considered heterogeneous, there are differences in the group, culture, or population. If a population is considered homogeneous, there are similarities in the group, culture, or population.Diversity is the quality of being different. A nativistic group is extremely patriotic to the point of being anti-immigrant.

The recent trend toward globalization or the creation of a world market in goods, services, labor, capital, and technology is dramatic. To be effective in this new global market, we must understand how business is conducted in other countries and cultures because more and more of our domestic economic growth depends on global success. An accurate understanding of the economies around the world is also crucial to compete on the world stage. The bottom line when considering the economic imperative is the ultimate impact of globalization on the average person.

In 1967, a futurist named Marshall McLuhan coined the iconoclastic term, global village, which has become the vanguard for the technology imperative. The term refers to a world in which communication technology unites people in remote parts of the world. As you know, it was decades later before personal computing came into existence, but today new technology is introduced almost daily. Technology has made communication easier. Information is so easy to access and manipulate, that we are now confronted with the impact of fake news and purposeful disinformation.

Deardorff, D. K. (2004). The identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization at institutions of higher education in the United States (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database. (UMI No. 3136104)

Krumrey-Fulks, K. (n.d.). 1.3: Cultural Characteristics and the Roots of Culture [Webpage]. Open Oregon Educational Resources. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from -3-cultural-characteristics-and-the-roots-of-culture/

It is through intercultural communication that we come to create, understand, and transform culture and identity. Intercultural communication is communication between people with differing cultural identities (Samavor, et. al).

Source: Culture and Psychology by L D Worthy; T Lavigne; and F Romero is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Additionally, "a symbol is something that stands in for or represents something else. Symbols can be communicated verbally (speaking the word hello), in writing (putting the letters H-E-L-L-O together), or nonverbally (waving your hand back and forth). In any case, the symbols we use stand in for something else, like a physical object or an idea; they do not actually correspond to the thing being referenced in any direct way" (Communication, pp. 113-114).

Samovar, et. al (2018) add, "we purpose that nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and [their] use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source and/or receiver.

Co-culture refers to, "groups or social communities exhibiting communication characteristics, perceptions, values, beliefs, and practices that are sufficiently different to distinguish them from other groups and communities and from the dominant culture" (Samovar, et. al., 2009, p. 13).

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