Intercultural Communications

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• Intercultural Communications
• Professor Lu Le
• 2006-2007 2nd semester
• May 29

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• What is communicative competence?
• An integrative ability that includes
• linguistic knowledge of the culture
• cultural knowledge behind the language
• intercultural awareness
• behavioral flexibility or adaptability
• communicative skills and strategies.

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Chapter 8 Intercultural Perception

Time allocation 2 hour Main Content Stereotypes
Ethnocentrism Forms of Prejudice
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I. Stereotypes Definition A stereotypes
is an overly simplified way of thinking about a
person, group, etc.
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• Cases of stereotypes
• p. 277
• stereotypical knowledge of English, French,
  German, Italian, Russian and American

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Stereotypes found in three major cities in China

• Beijing people outside the city are all
  subordinates
• Shanghai people outside the city are all
  peasants
• Shenzhen people outside the city are all poor
  people

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• B. p. 278-
• stereotypical perception of other cultures in
  language expressions
• Greek (p. 279)
• Greek gifts I fear the Greeks, even when
  bringing gifts.
• ????????, ?????
• He is Greeking. (He is cheating at cards.)
• This is Greek to me. It is gibberish.

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• Dutch (p. 279)
• In Dutch in trouble
• Dutch courage courage induced by drinking
• Weve been Dutched. (We have been cheated.)

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Culture and Perception

• Three steps
• -- selection
• -- organization
• -- interpretation
• Culture has a great effect on the perception
  process.

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• Examples of ethnocentrism
• the national league baseball championship World
  Series (implying no other country has baseball
  teams) (p. 2910
• Greek word barbarians refers to those people
  living around them who did not speak Greek(p.
  291-292)
• China the Middle Kingdomthe center of the world
• The Supreme Courts degree of control over tribal
  affairs (p. 292-293)

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• Cultural Relativism
• all cultures are of equal value
• the values and behavior of a culture can only be
  judged using that culture as a frame of reference
• the only way to understand the behavior of
  others is in the context of their culture.
• there is no right or wrong merely difference

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• III. Prejudice
• Definition
• negative attitudes directed toward groups,
  especially racial and religious groups, that are
  formed by highly personal and unreasoned
  generalizations about all or most members of the
  group.

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• Symbolic racism
• Negative feelings about a given group because
  the group is interfering with aspects of their
  culture. Holders of symbolic racism care only
  about their own life.
• Eg. Europeans fear of Chinese, esp. people from
  Wenzhou.

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• C. Tokenism (p. 309)
• Do not want to admit the negative feelings about
  a given group. Engage in unimportant intergroup
  behaviors as a token.

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• D. Arms length prejudice (p. 309)
• Friendly toward outgroup members in certain
  (formal) situations but holding the same members
  at an arms length in other situations (intimate)

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• E. Real likes and dislikes (p. 310)
• Eg. Littering and spitting

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• E. The familiar and unfamiliar
• Reflection of peoples reference for what is
  comfortable and non-stressful.

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• Questions
• 1) any red-neck racism in China / Shanghai?
• 2) any symbolic racism in China / Shanghai?
• 3) any Tokenism in China / Shanghai?
• 4) your experience of arms-length prejudice?
• 5) any reason for Chinese being disliked by some
  peope?
• 6) your experience of the familiar and
  unfamiliar with out-groups

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• Assignment
• Make a speech of 3 minutes on one of the
  following topics
• causes of prejudice
• prejudice a terrible cancer

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• Japanese vs. American in indirectness in
  expression Please close the door(P. 192)
• The door is open. (A)
• Its cold here. (J)

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• -- receiver centeredness vs. sender centeredness
  (p. 192)
• Meaning
• Sender centered communication linear, one way
  from sender to receiver. Meaning is in the
  messages created by the sender. Emphasizing how
  to formulate the best message, how to improve
  delivery skills. Important to have formal
  training of debate and public speech.
• Receiver centered communication emphasizes
  social relationships. Meaning is in the
  interpretation, emphasizing sensibility to
  capture the under-the surface meaning and to
  understand the implicit meaning.

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• Eg. East Asian students visiting American homes
• Puzzle why are they asked what they want?
• Difference
• North America individual freedom of choice
• East Asia to practice anticipatory
  communication and then accommodate

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• Assignment
• Reading Sharing Knowledge Yes and no. p. 165
• 2. Find a piece of writing or speech written down
  in Chinese that illustrates
• process orientation, indirect
  communication and receiver centeredness.

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preview

• Chapter 7
• Personal Space cases p. 254
• Monochronic and Polychronic Time p. 271
• Chapter 8
• Culture and Conception p. 283
• Ethnocentrism p. p. 291
• Forms of Prejudice p. 307
• Chapter 10
• Culture shock p. 365-380
• Cultural adaptation p. 385