Intercultural Awareness Course (short version)

2. Intercultural Awareness Course (short version)

3. Why take this course?

4. What is the course like? This is a short version of the EURAXESS Intercultural Assistant Course. It takes you on a short journey to explore some aspects of culture and intercultural communication at your own pace. If you wish to go deeper into the subject, you can take the longer version of the course. Question time When you seethis image, take a pause and think on the questions that follows it for a while and then go on.

5. A definition of culture

6. The Substance of Culture Remember this?

7. Above the waterline

8. Below the waterline

9. We judge about a culture only on the basis of its tip…

10. Question time http://www.ikea.bg/living-room/Sofas-and-armchairs/fabric-sofas/Three-seat-sofas/ektorp-55703/59164914/ • What will make the greatest impression on a visitor to your own culture? Why? • Is this element the same in other places / organizations?

11. Culture and context

14. Examples of high-context cultures: Mediterranean, Slav, Central European, LatinAmerican, African, Arab, Asian, American-Indian • Examples of low-context cultures: Germanic, English-speaking ones

15. Time

16. Is time money across the globe?

17. Space “Contact” peoples (such as Southern Europeans, Asians and Arabs) maintain closer interpersonal spacing than “noncontact” peoples (such as the Americans and Northern Europeans).

18. Question time • What distance do you feel comfortable with when greeting people? • If other people’s being late is likely to make you experience negative emotions, how can you deal with it? • Do you prefer to talk to people in person or to send emails/text messages?

19. Erin Meyer’s Culture Map The CultureMapmodel is built on eight areas of cultural variations. This “map” is designed to help you understand where your own and other cultures are placed on these eight scales.

20. 1.

21. 2. Evaluating: Direct Negative Feedback Versus Indirect Negative Feedback Different cultures give and decode feedback in different ways. This does not depend on whether a culture is a low-context or a high-context one. When in France, expect to be given very direct feedback. If you are in the USA, locals would rather give you feedback in which critique is carefully intermingled with positive messages.

22. Persuading: Principles-First Versus Applications-First 3. These two types of building your argumentation to persuade someone are again culturally bound. The principles-first type means providing the whole picture. The application-first type means outlining what has to be done in detail and later providing the background. InWestern cultures, firstexplain what has to be done in concrete details. In Asian cultures, start with the background information.

23. 4. Leading: Egalitarian Versus Hierarchical Cultures vary according to Power Distance, which also affects leadership, hierarchyand power.  It is based on the dynamics of how an organisation distributes authority and what the relationship between bosses and workersare. If you are in an egalitarian culture (i.e. North American, Scandinavian), you can disagree with your superiors. If you are in a hierarchicalone (i.e. Latin American), you have to act and communicate through the established appropriate channels.

24. Deciding: Consensual Versus Top-Down 5. In mostegalitariancultures, expect consensual decision making. In most hierarchical cultures, expect top-downdecision making. However, this is not always the case. For example, the Japanese culture which is highly hierarchical, values consensual decision making.

25. 6. Trusting: Task-Based Versus Relationship-Based InGermanyand the Netherlands, expect “task-based trust”. This means that your confidence in someone else’s abilities to do a job or perform a task is created through having worked together. In China, Brazilor India, expect “relationship-based trust”. This means that your confidence in someone else’s abilities to do a job or perform a task comesfromyour affective relationship with a person you have socialised with.

26. Disagreeing: Confrontational Versus Avoids Confrontation 7. The way we disagreeand react to confrontation differs. In some cultures, it is believed that confrontation may have a positive effect. In others, there may be a complete avoidance of disputes and open disagreement. InFrance, people don’t find confrontation problematic. In Japan(like in most Asian cultures), confrontation is seen as harmfulto harmony.

27. 8. Scheduling: Linear-Time Versus Flexible-Time This scale again has to do with the monochromic-polychromic distinction above. If you are in a linear-time culture (such as Germany or the USA, expect people to stick to schedulesand observe plans and deadlines. If you are in a flexible-timeculture (such as Italy, Brazil or India), expect people to consider schedules changeable. Meyer: 2014

28. Question time Imagine you don’t agree with your superior. Would you rather avoid expressing this openly? Think of a situation in which you have witnessed such confrontation. Was the result constructive or damaging to the work atmosphere? Why?

29. Who are you? This depends on • The rolesyou play in life: a daughter, a friend, a PhD student, a researcher, a member of EURAXESS staff • Your religion • Your birth place • Your current home place • Your ethnicity • Your gender • The things you like • The things you don’t like...

30. Question time Finish these sentences: • (People from my hosts culture) are… • (People from my own culture) are…

31. Identity and intercultural communication • Identity is not only a question of how you perceive yourself. Others identify you, and you may not like the label they give you. • You perceive reality through generalisations. However, this can lead to some negative consequences when communication across cultures.

32. Identity and intercultural communication

33. Identity and intercultural communication

34. Cultural adaptation

35. The stages of cultural adaptation

36. Question time • What can you do not to feel isolated or uncomfortable in a new culture? • What can you do to make others feel at ease in your own culture?

37. The following sources have been used to prepare the Intercultural Assistant website, self-test and self-access courses Bennett, Milton J. "A Developmental Approach to Training for Intercultural Sensitivity." International Journal of Intercultural Relations10, no. 2 (1986): 179-96. doi:10.1016/0147-1767(86)90005-2.  Bennett, Milton J. Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, & Practices. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2013.  Black, J. Stewart, and Mark Mendenhall. "The U-Curve Adjustment Hypothesis Revisited: A Review and Theoretical Framework." Journal of International Business Studies22, no. 2 (1991): 225-47. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490301.  Brander, Pat. All Different, All Equal: Education Pack: Ideas, Resources, Methods and Activities for Informal Intercultural Education with Young People and Adults. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2004. Byram, Michael, Barrett, Martyn, Ipgrave, Julia, Jackson, Robert and María del Carmen Méndez García Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters: Context, Concepts and Theories. Language Policy Division, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, France, 2008.  Fellows, Richard, and Anita Liu. Research Methods for Construction. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons, 2015. Goman, Carol, K. How Culture Controls Communication. Forbes online. NOV 28, 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-controls-communication/2/#63b32d566362. (Last access: 30.03. 2018)  Hall, Edward T., and Mildred Reed. Hall. Hidden Differences, Studies in International Communication: How to Communicate with the Germans. Hamburg, W. Germany: Stern Magazine, 1983.  Hall, Edward Twitchell. The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. New York: Anchor, 1989.  Hall, Edward Twitchell. Beyond Culture. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2003.  Hofstede, Geert, and G.J Hofstede. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2005.  Hofstede, Geert. "Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context." Online Readings in Psychology and Culture2, no. 1 (2011). doi:10.9707/2307-0919.1014. Karaasenova, Desislava. Cultural Dimensions of Academic Mobility. PhD Thesis. 2018.  Meyer, Erin. The Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. New York: PublicAffairs, 2014. Meyer, Erin. Navigating the Cultural Minefield. HBR. May 2014. https://hbr.org/2014/05/navigating-the-cultural-minefield. Last access: 30.03.2018. Palaiologou, Nektaria. "Becoming Interculturally Competent through Education and Training." Intercultural Education22, no. 2 (2011): 232-33. doi:10.1080/14675986.2011.567083.  Samovar, Larry A., Richard E. Porter, Edwin R. McDaniel, and Carolyn S. Roy. Communication between Cultures. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2017.