Intercultural Communication

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Intercultural Communication

• Week 4
• Time, Space and Context

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UDS

• Utilitarian Discourse System
• Global business culture
• Roots in 19th century European philosophy
• Spread by British and American imperialism and
  economic domination
• Mixing with local cultures

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Edward T. Hall

• Famous American Anthropologist
• Hall, E.T. (1959). The silent language. Garden
  City, NY Anchor Press/Doubleday.
• Hall, E.T. (1977). Beyond culture. Garden City,
  NY Anchor Press/Doubleday.
• Hall, E.T. (1983). The dance of life. Garden
  City, NY Anchor Press/Doubleday.
• Hall, E.T. (1985). Hidden Differences Studies in
  International Communication. Hamburg Gruner
  Jahr.
• Hall, E.T. (1987). Hidden differences Doing
  business with the Japanese. Garden City, NY
  Anchor Press/Doubleday.
• Hall, E.T. (1990). Understanding cultural
  differences. Yarmouth, ME Intercultural Press.

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Three Levels of Culture

• Informal Level
• Most important
• Learned by example/modeling
• Often unconscious
• Exist like air around us
• Formal level
• Learned by rules
• Technical level
• Theories behind rules
• Reasoning and abstractions
• What we learn in school to justify informal
  system

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The Silent Language

• Spradley and Phillips (1972)
• Asked overseas volunteers what they found most
  difficult about adapting to a foreign culture
• Top three items
• Language
• The pace of life
• punctuality

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Punctuality in Brazil

• As a visiting professor in Brazil, Levine (1988)
  discovered that college students there had a very
  different conception of class time compared to
  American students. When the time came to meet his
  first class, Levine arrived twenty minutes late
  to an empty classroom (Levine Wolff, 1985).
  But, unlike in the U.S.A., that did not mean that
  the class had already been there and left.
  Rather, it meant that none of the class had even
  arrived! Then, when class was over, only a few
  students left. The rest hung around for an
  additional half hour.

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Flexibility in Time

• Latin Americans vs. North Americans
• Stereotypes
• Lazy/irresponsible

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Punctuality and Values

• Levine asked US and Brazilian college students
  about what makes a successful person
• US students rated people who were never late for
  appointments as more successful
• Brazilians rated people who were always late for
  appointments as more successful
• Why?

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Time

• UDS Timeabstract, measurable, independent of
  circumstances, synthetic
• Compare ? many cultures time measured in natural
  cycles (eg. Crops)
• Chronos (clock time)
• Kairos (appropriate time)

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UDS Metaphors for Time

• Time is money
• Spend time
• Waste time
• Run out of time
• Save time
• Lose time

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Depth in time

• How deep is the past?
• For Americans
• For Europeans
• For Arabs
• For Chinese
• For Hong Kongers?
• For your generation?
• For your parents generation?
• For your grandparents generation?

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How far ahead is the future?

• For Americans
• For Chinese?
• For Hong Kongers?
• For you?
• For your parents?

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Attitudes towards the past and the future

• Golden Age view
• Utopian view
• Traditional Chinese/Confucian view
• Maoist/Dengist view
• American view
• Your view?
• Your grandparents view?

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American view of time

• Scheduling 15-30 minute intervals
• Punctuality
• On time5 min. 10 min. 15 min. 20 min 30
  min. 45 min. 1 hour late

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American view of time

• Urgency
• Monochronism
• Activity
• Variety

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Urgency

• Type A personality
• hurry sickness
• Ruralcity
• Genders
• Generations
• Professions
• Contexts
• Effect of technology

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Task

• Rank the countries/regions based on how fast
  paced you think they are.

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Pace of Life

• Fast societies and slow societies
• Urban vs. Rural
• Bornstein (1979)
• Population correlates with walking speed
• V0.86 log P 0.05

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Pace of Life

• Rank the following countries on your impression
  of their pace of life (fast vs. slow)
• England
• Japan
• USA
• Taiwan
• Indonesia
• Italy

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Levine and Wolff (1985)

• Measured
• Walking speed
• Accuracy of bank clocks
• Post office speed

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Results
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Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time

• Monochronic
• Linear, tangible, divisible
• Single focus Events scheduled one item at a time
• Schedule takes precedence over relationships
• Emphasis on punctuality
• Adherence to plan

• Polychronic
• Circular, holistic. Flexible
• Multiple focus Simultaneous attention to
  different things
• Greater involvement with people
• Change plans easily
• Easily distracted

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Monchronic vs. Polychronic

• Northern European and American
• Mediterranean, Latin American Asians
• Different discourse systems (generations,
  professions) in a society are different
• People adhere to different patterns in different
  situations (eg. At work vs. at home)

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ageric vs. non-ageric

• How does one define being busy
• Thinking vs. Doing
• Especially important in corporate discourse
  systems
• Looking busy

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Variety

• Related to sense of time passing
• Boredom
• Cultural differences
• Urban-rural
• Generational
• Effects of technology

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Rhythm

• Synchrony
• People tend to move in synch
• Places develop rhythms
• Groups develop rhythms
• Feeling of being out of synch

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Task

• Rate the different discourse systems you are
  familiar with based on the dimensions we have
  discussed

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Proxemics

• The Hidden Dimension (1966)
• human perceptions of space are molded and
  patterned by culture
• differing cultural frameworks for defining and
  organizing space can lead to serious failures of
  communication and understanding in cross-cultural
  settings
• personal spaces that people form around their
  bodies
• cultural expectations about how streets,
  neighborhoods and cities should be properly
  organized.

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Territoriality

• In animals
• Relates to ownership and power
• Some places are reserved for people in power
• Different cultural patterns

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Use of Space Business

• North Americans
• big boss has the corner office on the top floor,
  deep carpets, an expensive desk, and handsome
  accessories. The most successful companies are
  located in the most prestigious buildings.
• France
• the highest-ranking executives sit in the middle
  of an open area, surrounded by lower-level
  employees.
• Middle East
• fine possessions are reserved for the home, and
  business is conducted in cramped and modest
  quarters.

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Task Space and Power

• Look at the floor plan of the EN department and
  try to determine who has the most and the least
  power

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City U Corporate Discourse System

• Offices
• Size
• Windows
• Corner

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Personal Space

• Intimate space
• the closest "bubble" of space surrounding a
  person. Entry into this space is acceptable only
  for the closest friends and intimates.
• Social and consultative spaces
• the spaces in which people feel comfortable
  conducting routine social interactions with
  acquaintances as well as strangers.
• Public space
• the area of space beyond which people will
  perceive interactions as impersonal and
  relatively anonymous.

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Personal Space

• In the United States people engaged in
  conversation will assume a social distance of
  roughly 4-7
• in many parts of Europe the expected social
  distance is roughly half that
• Americans traveling overseas often experience the
  urgent need to back away from a conversation
  partner who seems to be getting too close..

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Personal Space

• The distance one keeps with the other person may
  influence the response one will get
• If you are too close to a person who is used to
  keeping a certain physical distance in
  conversation, this person may feel threatened.
• If you keep the same distance with a person who
  is used to physically closer interaction,
  physical distance may be interpreted as
  psychological distance.

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Proxemics

• The Hidden Dimension (1966)
• human perceptions of space are molded and
  patterned by culture
• differing cultural frameworks for defining and
  organizing space can lead to serious failures of
  communication and understanding in cross-cultural
  settings
• personal spaces that people form around their
  bodies
• cultural expectations about how streets,
  neighborhoods and cities should be properly
  organized.

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Elevator Rules

• What are the rules are for standing in the
  elevator? Where do people stand when there are
  only two or three people? What happens when a
  fourth person enters the elevator.
• How would you feel if there were two people on
  the elevator and a third person entered and stood
  right next to you?
• What happens when the elevator becomes more
  crowded and there are now four or more people?
• How close will people stand? What is allowed to
  "touch?"
• What do people look at in a crowded elevator?
• When is it permissible to talk to the other
  people?

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Elevator Rules US

• 1. If there are only two or three people on an
  elevator, each person usually leans against the
  walls. If a fourth person boards the elevator,
  the four corners are normally occupied.
• 2. This would be a breach of our personal
  space. We would feel very uncomfortable and
  move or get off the elevator at the next stop.
• 3. When there are more than four people on an
  elevator, the occupants begin to follow a complex
  set of rules for behavior. Everyone turns to face
  the door. Hands, purses, and briefcases hang down
  in front of the body. People usually scrunch up,
  rounding their shoulders, so that they take up as
  little space as possible.
• 4. People dont touch each other in any way
  unless the elevator becomes very crowded, and
  then they only touch at the shoulders or upper
  arms. If you see an overcrowded elevator, you
  will probably choose to wait for the next one.
• 5. Everyone usually looks at the floor indicator
  located above the door.
• 6. It is unusual for people (who are strangers)
  to speak to each other in an elevator unless they
  are sharing some kind of similar experience.
  (Such as a conference) People who do know each
  other will usually speak softly. When a group of
  people enter the elevator and do not follow these
  rules, other occupants usually feel very
  uncomfortable.

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Use of space Cities

• United States cities are customarily set out
  along a grid
• In France and Spain a star pattern is preferred

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Context

• We cant pay attention to everything in the
  context
• Culture provides a screen that determines what we
  pay attention to and what we dont

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High vs. Low Context

• Low
• Most of the meaning in the words
• Background information more explicit/verbalized
• Narrower social networks
• New couple

• High
• Most of the meaning in the context
• Background information more implicit/tacit
• Wider on social networks
• Old couple

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High/low context depends on

• Situation
• Relationships
• Past experience
• Culture

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Situation

• Low context
• Law court
• High context
• Getting along with your girlfriend/boyfriend

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High context

• Chinese language
• Tones
• Time
• Number

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HC
context
meaning
Infor- mation
LC