Unit 2-8. Approaches to intercultural communication

Guidelines for extensive reading of ESP texts

A READER by American scholars Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter, Edwin R. McDaniel is based on the idea that successful intercultural communication is a matter of highest importance if humankind and society are to survive. This text is theoretical and practical so that the issues associated with intercultural communication can be first understood and then acted upon. This broad-based, highly engaging reader, compiled by the authors who defined the course, includes a balance of articles – some commissioned solely for this text – that discuss the classic ideas that laid the groundwork for this field, as well as those that investigate the field's latest research and ideas. Material is presented in context, which allows students to read, understand and then apply the concepts to their lives to ensure that they are effective, culturally aware communicators.

 

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Text 2-8. APPROACHES TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION.

(Based on Intercultural Communication: A Reader by Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter, Edwin R. McDaniel)

 

Social interaction.

Although the ability to communicate effectively has long been an important aspect of any social interaction between people from different cultures, within the past two decades it has become essential. In the wake of the Berlin Wall falling on November 9, 1989, the power structure of the international community moved from a bipolar (United States and the Soviet Union) to a unipolar (United States) position. Now, the movement is rapidly toward a multipolar international arrangement. Responsible world leaders are working toward greater cooperation on all fronts – economic, political, and military. President Obama’s policy of engaging other nations, even when their aims appear counter to U.S. interests, demonstrates this trend toward increased international integration and crosscultural interaction.

Movement to a more global, interconnected community has been abetted by dramatic technological changes, such as digital communication advances that permit the uninterrupted transfer of large amounts of data across national borders and breakthroughs in transportation that facilitate the rapid, economical movement of people and goods over vast distances. These events, often referred to collectively as “globalization,” have brought about unprecedented levels of interaction among people from different national, ethnic, and religious cultural backgrounds.

Media originating in one country are generally available throughout the world. Multinational and transnational organizations, replete with multicultural workforces, are now commonplace. An increasing number of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are engaged in emergency relief, humanitarian assistance, and charitable service work around the globe. World tourism, once available only to the wealthy, is a growth industry, with package tours to international destinations tailored to almost any budget. Nations with declining birthrates and aging populations are recruiting health care workers from abroad. Immigration, international marriage, and intercountry adoptions have added to U.S. cultural diversity. For example, for the ten-year period 1999–2010, U.S. State Department statistics report that over 178,000 children from other nations were adopted by U.S. families (“Total Adoptions,” 2010).

Broadly speaking, globalization has brought about the realization that modern societies must learn to cooperate in order to prevent their mutual selfdestruction. There is a growing perception that employment of force may result in near-term solutions but will ultimately create problems that are more complex.

Increased concern over the planet’s ecological degradation resulting from climate change and pollution has raised awareness of the need for international cooperation on a scale previously unseen. There is also a recognition of the need to engage in global cooperative efforts on a number of other issues—nuclear arms, terrorism, over-population, world poverty, and escalating competition for natural resources.

Closer to home, the United States is faced with such culturally related domestic concerns as immigration, an aging population, growth of minority groups, and ideological divisions. Solutions, either whole or partial, to these circumstances will require increased intercultural understanding.

Before moving further into the study of culture and communication, we need to specify our approach to intercultural communication and recognize that other people investigate quite different perspectives. For example, some scholars who examine mass media are concerned with international broadcasting, worldwide freedom of expression, the premise of Western domination of media information, and the use of electronic technologies for instantaneous worldwide communication. Other groups study international communication with an emphasis on communication between national governments—the communication of diplomacy, economic assistance, disaster relief, and even political propaganda.

Still others are interested in the communication needed to conduct business on a global basis. Their concerns include such issues as cross-cultural marketing, negotiation Broadly speaking, globalization has brought about the realization that modern societies must learn to cooperate in order to prevent their mutual self-destruction.

As tides of immigrants and refugees continue to arrive in the United States and other developed nations, we will be confronted with increased cultural diversity. If we are to continue to assert that cultural diversity is a valuable, desirable asset and embrace the concept of a global village, we must quickly learn to accept and tolerate the resulting differences. Your authors do not profess to have the solution to these problems. However, as a means of better preparing you for life in the global village, which will require frequent interactions with people who experience the world differently from you, we do hope to stimulate thought and discussion about the advantages and difficulties of multiculturalism and the need for effective intercultural communication.

 

Looking Back

One of the most noticeable changes over the past two generations is just how international the world has become. As a result of media and transportation advances, you now have access to a wide variety of products and services from abroad. Depending on your location, U.S. cable TV companies now offer channels in Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, Russian, and many other languages. For example, DISH TV has available more than 170 international channels in 28 different languages (“International,” 2010). A visit to your local supermarket will reveal a variety of ethnic foods, many imported from other parts of the world. In urban areas, small ethnic food stores have become the norm. For instance, in La Jolla, California, a small Iranian market sells a selection of fresh feta cheeses imported from France, Bulgaria, Denmark, and Greece, as well as delicious pistachios from Iran.

A heightened awareness of culture in the U.S. armed forces is another significant change from the past. During the Vietnam conflict (1961–73) and the first Gulf War (1990–91), culture was an afterthought at best. However, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has brought the importance of cultural understanding into the spotlight and several programs designed to instill cultural awareness have been developed. The U.S. Army has instituted the Human Terrain System, which co-locates civilian socio-cultural experts with commanders and staff to provide a source of knowledge on local peoples and their culture (“Human,” 2010). In order to acquire and effectively employ cultural knowledge, the U.S. Marine Corps established the Center for Advanced Operational Cultural Learning, which has the mission of training personnel in the application of language and culture to operations (“Center,” 2010).

Globalization has brought profound changes to the commercial sector, including the creation of numerous transnational corporations whose reach influences markets around the world. For example, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver, and others, employs over one million workers in more than 110 countries (“Taking”, 2009). In earlier years, international corporate managers came to the United States to launch their careers, but now it is common to see U.S. managers heading to foreign locations.

In 2009, for instance, 24 percent of the graduates from MIT’s prestigious Sloan School of Management took positions abroad (“Job,” 2009). Among U.S. employers, workplace diversity is a continuing source of concern, and training courses designed to make employees aware of cultural differences and varied communication behaviors have become routine.

Residence abroad has also increased “because the globalization of industry and education tramples national borders,” and among the developed nations, the foreign-born population exceeds 8 percent on average (“Others,” 2009). This international movement also includes students in higher education. Current estimates are that over three million students are studying in a country other than their own, and some 672,000 foreign students were attending U.S. universities in 2008 (“Leagues,” 2010; “And,” 2009).

Contemporary U.S. demographics probably represent the most easily noticeable change relating to crosscultural issues. Quite simply, the United States has become much more multicultural over the past fifty years. A glance around your classroom will probably reveal a mix of people from different ethnicities, nationalities, age groups, and, less obvious, sexual preferences.

Most of these classmates will be U.S. born, but some may be from other countries. This is because people born outside the United States constitute 13 percent of the total population, the largest percentage among the developed nations (“Ponzi,” 2009). And lest you think all immigrants work in low-wage, dirty jobs, the 2000 census indicated that “47 percent of scientists and engineers in America with PhDs” were foreign born (“Economics,” 2009, p. 84). Immigrants in the United States often group themselves together in urban areas, where they retain their language and culture, unlike their predecessors in the early twentieth century who were expected, and indeed often forced, to assimilate to the dominant U.S. culture. A particularly vivid example of contemporary U.S. cultural diversity was the 2010 census website, which could be accessed in over fifty languages (“United States,” 2010).

Changing demographics in the United States also present fertile ground for future clashes between people of varied cultures. According to multiple reports, minorities will represent the collective majority by 2050, and 19 percent of the total population will be foreign born (Passel & Cohen, 2008; “U.S. Census,” 2008). This demographic shift is expected to produce considerable social change as members of minority ethnicities continue to replace the white majority in political, commercial, and educational positions of power.

In the commercial sector, changes are already occurring. In states such as New Mexico and California, where Hispanics constitute over 30 percent of the population, Spanish-language media programs are common, and several large U.S. retailers, including Walmart, have opened stores in Texas and Arizona specifically catering to the Hispanic market. According to a Walmart press release, the new stores “feature a layout and product assortment designed to make it more relevant to local Hispanic customers” (Moreno, 2009; “New Supermercado,” 2009). This is an excellent example of how culture influences our lives. We are comfortable with the things we know and are drawn to them, but we are often uncomfortable with things we do not know and frequently avoid them.

Food for Thought

A review of various websites containing information about the opening of the Walmart Supermercado stores revealed instances of vitriolic comments, with calls for people living in the United States to learn English and adopt the U.S. culture. Think about the following: Have you ever traveled abroad? Did you see any U.S. fast food outlets such as those listed below?

Starbucks in Berlin, Pizza Hut in Beijing, Denny’s in Tokyo, Taco Bell in Bangalore, Burger King in London, KFC in Paris, Wendy’s in Mexico City.

How did you feel? How do you think the local residents might have reacted when those restaurants were opened in their home country? Why?

This contemporary mixing of people from varied nationalities and ethnic groups, brought about by immigration, global business connections, the ease of international travel, Internet social networking sites, and increased societal acceptance is also dramatically increasing the number of international interpersonal relationships. In Europe, international marriages (also referred to as interracial marriage, biracial marriage, cross-cultural marriage, intercultural marriage, interethnic marriage, and intermarriage) are growing in number (Pulsipher & Pulsipher, 2008), no doubt abetted by the European Union’s emphasis on cultural diversity. A recent report indicates that in the United States “7 percent of America’s 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970” (Crary, 2007). These cross-cultural unions are expected to increase, and such couples will encounter a host of challenges, both within society and between themselves. Cultural issues such as identity, gender roles, religious traditions, language, communication behaviors, conflict styles, child-rearing practices, family acceptance, and many, many more, including some as mundane as food choices, will have to be managed.

The issues of the future we have mapped out in this section represent only a portion of the cultural challenges you will need to confront in the increasingly globalized social order. Others problem areas requiring intercultural skills include the following: Religious fundamentalism will continue to present inflexible opinions on a variety of U.S. domestic subjects—gay rights, same-sex marriage, pro-life/pro-choice, etc.—which can lead to violent confrontation.

International fundamentalism remains the motivation for many terrorists and underlies the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Aging populations coupled with declining birthrates will create a shortage of indigenous workers in many developed nations, requiring a still greater influx of immigrants. These new, younger arrivals will be needed to fill vacant jobs and to contribute to the tax base supporting national social welfare programs.

We began with a discussion of how globalization has harnessed the forces of contemporary geopolitics, technology, economics, immigration, and media to produce an ever-shrinking world community, making interaction among people from different cultures more and more common and necessary. We end with a reflection on the requirement and urgency for greater tolerance of cultural differences generated by this new multipolar world order. The world’s population, as well as U.S. domestic demographics, continues to move toward a pluralistic, multicultural society at a quickstep pace. The social forces behind this movement will not easily or soon subside. The resulting cultural mixing requires that we, both individually and as a society, become more tolerant of the varied beliefs, worldviews, values, and behaviors of people from other cultures. Acceptance or tolerance may not be appropriate in every situation, nor is universal, unquestioning acquiescence to every difference advocated. We do, however, have to be willing to “live and let live” on a broader scale. That we do not yet seem able or prepared to do this is demonstrated by ongoing international and domestic struggles.

The international community is beleaguered with sectarian violence arising from ideological, cultural, and ethnic differences. As we write this chapter, conflict between religious factions in Iraq appears to be resurging. In the Darfur region of Sudan, people continue to be killed and driven from their homes as a result of cultural and racial differences. The longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, and there is little promise of a solution in the near future. The dispute between India and Pakistan continues over who should control the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir in the Himalayas. The conflict between the Russian government and separatist movements in the Caucasus continues to ebb and flow. The indigenous Uygur ethnic minority in western China continues to exhibit animosity toward government policies favoring immigration into the region by other Chinese ethnic groups, especially the Han. Drought, famine, a burgeoning population, and ineffective governmental control continue to exacerbate ethnic and religious violence throughout the Horn of Africa. Maoist insurgents in eastern India, claiming that the government exploits poor rural peasants, have escalated their violence. The global war on terrorism, a product of variant ideological and cultural perspectives, continues with little prospect of a final solution. Disagreement over what constitutes human rights remains a source of tension among many nations.

Intolerance of differences is also a continuing issue within the United States, where we are divided over a seeming multitude of culturally based issues, many of which fall along a conservative vs. Liberal ideological divide. The demands of coping with the diverse customs, values, views, and behaviors inherent in a multicultural society are producing increased levels of personal frustration, social stress, and often violence.

 

Instruction: Above are three meaningfully tied paragraphs of greater length than those in previous texts. They contain general information in the field of global changes producing impact on American society.This text abounds in facts and names which may sound vaguely familiar but as a would-be professional in crosscultural communication you are advised to take your time and clear out for yourself the connotations behind these facts and names. Tone questions ask you to determine the author's feelings about the topic by the language that he or she uses in writing the passage. Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.

Your task is to understand the texts and determine the authors’ feelings about the topics.

Sample Tone Questions

• What tone does the author take in writing this text?

• How could the tone of this text best be described as?

Sample Answer Choices

The following adjectives indicate if the author's feelings are positive, negative, or neutral

• Positive • Humorous • Worried

• Favorable • Negative • Outraged

• Optimistic • Critical • Neutral

• Amused • Unfavorable • Objective

• Pleased • Angry • Impersonal

• Respectful • Defiant

If you read the italicized sentences in paragraph 3, would the tone of this paragraph most likely be positive or negative? Choose the right descriptors from the list above.

Note: The italicized words in paragraph 3 indicate a negative attitude. Words like ‘The international community is beleaguered’, ‘animosity, conflict, dispute’ and similar words can "reverse" the tone of the passage.

Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.

Sample Attitude Questions

If you read the italicized phrases in paragraph 3, would the author’s attitude most likely be positive or negative? Choose the right descriptors from the list above.

Organization questions ask about the overall structure of a passage or about the organization of a paragraph.

A Sample Question

· Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

Answer Choices

A general concept is defined and examples are given.

Several generalizations are presented, from which a conclusion is drawn.

The author presents the advantages and disadvantages of..._.

The author presents a system of classification for...__.

Persuasive language is used to argue agains....

The author describes....

The author presents a brief account of...

The author compares____and__________...

Sample Question

· What is the author's attitude toward the the fact that globalization has brought about the realization that modern societies must learn to cooperate in order to prevent their mutual self-destruction?

Questions about previous or following paragraphs ask you to assume how the passages are organized, what would be the topic of the text. To find the order of the passages, look for clues in the first lines. To find the topic of the text, look in the first and last lines.

Sample Questions

· With what topic would the text most likely begin?

· What does the second paragraph most probably discuss?

· Can it be inferred from the text which paragraph most likely sums up the author’s attitude towards the topic?