English Final

The Importance of Intercultural Communication

8.1 Explain why it is important to learn about intercultural communication.

How many reasons for studying intercultural communication can you think of?If you are like many students, entering college has given you more opportunities than ever before for intercultural contact, both domestically and internationally. You will communicate better in these situations if you have a good understanding of intercultural communication. In addition, increased knowledge and skill in intercultural communication can improve your career effectiveness, intergroup relations, and self-awareness. Let's look at each of these reasons more closely.

Intercultural Communication and the Individual: Cultural Values

8.3 Describe how cultural values influence communication.

In Chapters 5 and 6, we described how culture Culture influences verbal and nonverbal communication. You might think that these differences would be important to understanding intercultural communication; however, just as important is understanding cultural values, which are the beliefs that are so central to a cultural group that they are never questioned.

The Individual, Intercultural Communication, and Society: Politics, History, and Power

8.4 Explain the roles that politics, history, and power play in communication between people from different cultural backgrounds.

As you have probably gathered by now, intercultural communication never occurs in a vacuum, but must be understood in the context of larger societal forces. In this section, we first focus on social, political, and historical forces; second, we turn our attention to the role of power in intercultural communication.

Ethics and Intercultural Communication

8.5 Give three guidelines for communicating more ethically with people whose cultural backgrounds differ from your own.

How can you communicate more ethically across cultures? Unfortunately, no easy answers exist, but a few guidelines may be helpful.

First, remember that everyone, including you, is enmeshed in a culture and, thus, communicating through a cultural lens. Recognizing your own cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs will make you more sensitive to others' cultures and less likely to impose your own cultural attitudes on their communication patterns. Although you may feel most comfortable living in your own culture and following its communication patterns, you should not conclude that your culture and communication style are best or should be the standard for all other cultures. Such a position is called ethnocentrism, which you learned about in Chapter 3. Of course, appreciating and respecting other cultures does not mean you don't still appreciate and respect your own.

Second, as you learn about other cultural groups, be aware of their humanity and avoid the temptation to view them as an exotic "other." Communication scholar Bradford Hall (1997) has cautioned about this tendency, which is called the "zoo approach."

When using such an approach, we view the study of culture as if we were walking through a zoo admiring, gasping, and chuckling at the various exotic animals we observe. One may discover amazing, interesting, and valuable information by using such a perspective and even develop a real fondness of these exotic people, but miss the point that we are as culturally "caged" as others and that they are culturally as "free" as we are (Hall, 1997, p. 14). From an ethical perspective, the zoo approach denies the humanity of other cultural groups. For example, the view of African cultures as primitive and incapable led Whites to justify colonizing Africa and exploiting its rich resources in the nineteenth century.

Third, you will be more ethical in your intercultural interactions if you are open to other ways of viewing the world. The ways that you were taught about the world and history may not be the same as what others were taught. People cannot engage in meaningful communication if they are unwilling to suspend or reexamine their assumptions about the world. For example, some Europeans believe that the United States becomes involved in other countries' affairs so that it can control its oil interests, whereas many U.S. Americans believe that concern over human rights is the motivation. If neither group will consider the opinion of the other, they will be unlikely to sustain a mutually satisfying conversation.

Improving Your Intercultural Communication Skills

8.6 Discuss ways to improve your own intercultural communication skills.

How can you communicate more effectively across cultures? As with ethics, no magic formula exists, but here are several suggestions.