Becoming Competent: Improving Intercultural Communication

1. Becoming Competent: Improving Intercultural Communication The survival of mankind will depend to a large extent on the ability of people who think differently to act together.” –Hofstede

2. Problems in Intercultural Communication • Seeking out people like us • Withdrawing from interaction with strangers • Experiencing feelings of anxiety • Uncertainty reduction • When meeting a stranger, primary concern is to increase predictability about the behavior of the other person. • The Hidden Grip • Looking at everything from our own culture’s perspective

3. Problems con’t. Stereotyping…. Organizing our images into fixed and simple categories to stand for an entire group of people. (This narrows our perceptions)

4. How do we learn stereotypical views? • Parents • Religion • Social groups • Peers • Mass Media • Fear of Person

5. How does stereotyping hamper Intercultural Communication? • Stereotypes are a kind of filter. They only allow in information that is consistent with information we already hold. • Sadly, truth is never given a chance.

6. Another problem in Intercultural Communication—Prejudice • Deeply held negative feelings associated with a particular group. • Feelings of hostility built into this. Like stereotypes, directed at a social group and its members (race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.). Evaluative dimension.

7. Functions of Prejudice Remember--prejudices serve various functions (even negative ones) for the people who hold them. • Ego-defensive (My grades are low b/c prof feels sorry for minority students and gives them higher grades) • Utilitarian (those poor people have so little education, they’re lucky to have the jobs we offer them.) • Knowledge – • A person is able to categorize, organize, and construct their perceptions of other people in a manner that makes sense to them—even if the sense-making is not accurate. • Makes the world easy to deal with. • We don’t perceive individuals, but rather groups of people. • Labels deny the existence of the individual’s unique characteristics.

8. Causes of Prejudice: Scapegoating Singling out a group of people to bear the blame for events or circumstances that hurt the dominant group. Blacks, Jews, immigrants, gays, etc.

9. Another problem in Intercultural CommunicationRacism The belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race. Existed for centuries…all over the world. skinhead KKK Mississippi Burning 1964 White supremacy in CDA

10. Harmful effects of Racism • Devalues the target person by denying their identity • Destroys the culture by creating divisions and making it less cohesive Dad's Teasing of 3 yr old

11. Tokenism --a form of racism It’s when one or two people from a particular minority group are hired as symbolic representation of the entire minority group (an organization or individual won’t appear racist if they show a “token” bit of non-racism)

12. Some ways to avoid Racism • Be honest with yourself • Object to racist jokes and insults • Respect freedom • Examine the historical roots of racism

13. Culture Shock • When thrust into another culture and experience psychological and physical discomfort • Anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social dealings • Powerful disruption in our routines, ego, and self image

14. The song is best esteemed with which our ears are most acquainted.” – English Renaissance composer William Byrd “Severe culture shock is often a positive sign indicating that the expatriate is becoming deeply involved in the new culture instead of remaining isolated in an expatriate ghetto.” --Adler

15. Four Stages of Culture Shock 1. Optimistic Phase Everything is soooo exciting! Ohh, let me try that! Say Cheese.... 

16. 2. Cultural Problem Phase~I want my Big Mac and fries!~These buses are so crowded ….The next guy to pinch me is getting slapped!~Flies on everything! And the cockroaches in my kitchen….Ugh…. I hate this place!U

17. 3. Recovery Phase • You’re starting to make some adjustments and modifications Events and people are now more predictable and less stressful U

18. 4. Adjustment Phase

19. Re-entry Culture Shock • You miss your new international friends • You miss the prestige you had o’seas • Highly critical of your own culture and its materialistic mentality

20. A Philosophy of Change • Language is an Open System (aal) • We have Free Choice “The difficulty in life is the choice!” —George Moore, Irish novelist • Communication has a Consequence If you strike mud against the wall, even though it does not stick, it will leave a mark. So too, communication, whether verbal or non, leaves a mark.

21. What is Communication Competence? Behavior that is appropriate and effective in a given context (you have the ability to analyze the situation and select the appropriate mode of behavior.—What an accomplishment!)

22. Basic components of Communication Competence Motivation You WANT to interact with someone from another culture. Knowledge About the other person and their culture Possess necessary communication skills Skills need to be adapted to the rules of interaction that are appropriate to the host culture Good character The sum total of a person’s choices. If you are not perceived by the person of another culture as a person of good character, your chances for success will be diminished.

23. Greatest Barrier to Intercultural Communication Ethnocentrism The notion that one’s own culture is superior to any other. Learned at the unconscious level

24. First step to becoming culturally competent • Knowing yourself and knowing your culture

25. Develop Empathy The ability to recognize and understand another person’s perceptions and feelings, and to accurately convey that understanding through an accepting response.

26. “Through empathy we are willing to imaginatively place ourselves in the dissimilar other’s cultural world and to experience what she or he is experiencing.” --Ting-Toomey “We should not judge another person until we have walked two moons in his moccasins.” —American Indian saying

27. Cultural Relativism vsCultural Universalism Cultural Relativism: There are no absolutes in what is right or wrong and good or bad behavior; instead it depends on each cultural group Cultural Universalism: Regardless of context or culture, there are universal codes of conduct that apply to all people and all cultures • Ethical principles hold for everybody and not simply for some.

28. What are Ethics? • A reflection of your convictions • Judgments that focus “on degrees of rightness and wrongness, virtue, and vice, and obligation in human behavior” • Provides the tools for making difficult moral choices • The balancing of competing rights when there is no “correct” answer

29. Guidelines for an Intercultural Ethic • Be Mindful of the power of communication Giving your full attention to what is transpiring right now (mindfulness) • Respect the worth of the individual • Seek Commonalities among people and cultures Values that bind people together (Golden Rule) p 359 • Recognize the validity of differences • Take Responsibility for your actions • Be Motivated

30. Congratulations! Now you are Culturally Competent, ready to meet the world, wherever your life’s journey takes you.