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Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Communication. Lecture One. Basics. Me Course Webpage http://personal.cityu.edu.hk/~enrodney/intercultural_communication/index.html Attendance Policy Textbook. Project. 30% Ethnographic research project

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Intercultural Communication

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  1. Intercultural Communication Lecture One

  2. Basics • Me • Course Webpage http://personal.cityu.edu.hk/~enrodney/intercultural_communication/index.html • Attendance Policy • Textbook

  3. Project • 30% • Ethnographic research project • Choose a site of investigation in which you can observe communication between members of different groups (e.g. workplace, residence hall, online community) • Instructions on gathering and analyzing data can be found in each chapter of the textbook under the heading ‘Researching Interdiscourse Communication’

  4. Two Minute Talk • 10% • ‘My Intercultural Experience’ • Talk about an intercultural encounter which you had • Relate it to at least one concept we have talked about in this course • No notes/PowerPoint etc. permitted • Approx. 2 minutes (no more than 3 minutes) • Q and A • Talks will begin at 9:30 every Thursday • Speakers will be chosen at random • Points will be deducted for students who are not present to give their talk

  5. Final Examination • 40% of final grade  • Multiple choice • Short answer • Essay (analysis of inter-cultural situations)

  6. What is Culture? • The problem with culture • Is it a thing that you have? • Is it a group that you belong to? • Is it something that you live inside of? • Is it something that you do? • ‘Lumping’ • ‘Binarism’ • Stereotyping

  7. Task • In small groups consider the various definitions of culture and rank them according to the ones you like best.

  8. Which of these belongs to ‘culture’ ? • Facial expressions • Religious beliefs  • Religious rituals  • Importance of time  • Paintings  • Values  • Literature  • Child-raising beliefs  • Ideas about leadership  • Gestures  • Ideas about fairness  • Ideas about friendship  • Ideas about modesty  • Eating habits  • Understanding of the natural world  • Concept of self  • The importance of work  • Concept of beauty  • General world view  • Concept of personal space  • Rules of social etiquette  • Housing

  9. What are cultures based on? • What features do we use to divide people into different cultures? • Race/Ethnicity • National Origin (political boundaries) • Behavior • Beliefs/Values • Religion • Age/Gender/Sexuality • Occupation • Interests

  10. What is a Discourse Approach? • A way of solving the problem of ‘culture’ • Divides ‘culture’ into 4 components • Ideology (beliefs, values, assumptions) • Patterns of Relationships • Ways of Communicating • Ways of Learning • Replaces the word ‘culture’ with the term” • ‘Discourse Systems’

  11. ‘Discourse Systems’ Face Systems Ideology Socialization Forms of Discourse

  12. Different Kinds of Discourse Systems • Regional/National/Global • Corporate • Professional • Gender • Generational • Interest Groups

  13. The Discourse System of Yoga • Ideology (Health, Hinduism) • Relationships (Teacher, Students) • Forms of Discourse • Sanskrit words (Sirasana, padmasana) • Directions (exhale, place right foot on the left thigh…) • Comparisons with animals, plants, objects) • ‘Let’s do a dog.’/‘She does a great cow’ • Learning: Formal/Informal

  14. Task: How many cultures (‘discourse systems) do you belong to? • List the different discourse systems you belong to and some features of these discourse systems

  15. Multiple Overlapping Discourse Systems Female Youth Chinese City UStudent Christian Hong Konger

  16. Inter-discourse Communication • Inter-discourse (inter-cultural) communication occurs… • Between people • WITHIN people • In any given situation multiple discourse systems are involved

  17. Focus of analysis • NOT on people • Eg. ‘Chinese are like this’ and ‘Americans’ are like that’ • But, on actions and situations • Each situation is a ‘nexus of practice’ in which elements from different discourse systems mix • Finding areas of conflict and overlap

  18. The Ambiguity of Language • People don’t mean what they say • People don’t say what they mean • Can you tell me what time it is? • What do you want for your birthday? • Word level ambiguity • Sentence level ambiguity • Discourse level ambiguity • Ambiguity in paralinguistic and non-verbal communication

  19. Ambiguity • Why don’t you get lost! • Gao tsou!!!!!!!!!!! • I love you • A: We’ll have to get together for lunch sometime. • B: Yes, we must! • Ni chi fan le ma? (sik zhou fan mei?) • Hai meiyou (zhong mei)

  20. So...how do we understand each other? • WE JUST GUESS! • We make inferences based on.. • Context (situation, relationship) • World Knowledge • Previous Learning and Experience • OUR set of rules about communication (eg. conversational style)

  21. Inferences • We must draw inferences about meaning • Our inferences tend to be fixed, not tentative • Our inferences are drawn very quickly

  22. Why don’t we say what we mean? • To protect ourselves • To protect others • To ‘mean’ more than we say • To joke • Because a certain amount of ambiguity in life is pleasurable • Rapport (showing closeness) • Because ambiguity is the nature of language and other symbol systems (we have no choice)

  23. Intercultural Miscommunication • Usually we do not know that miscommunication has occurred • Conflicting Expectations • Conflicting Interpretations • What is the source of the conflict? • Sometimes it is not ‘culture’ • Understanding what discourse systems are involved and how they affect one another • Differences don’t always result in miscommunication • Similarities don’t always result in smooth communication

  24. What is the source of the problem?

  25. Trying NOT to miscommunicate

  26. Task • Watch the video • What are some of the reasons for the miscommunication?

  27. Avoiding Problems • Expecting things to go wrong • Increasing shared knowledge • Dealing with miscommunication

  28. Researching Interdiscourse Communication FIRST STEPS WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHY

  29. Ethnographic Research • Fieldwork (observing ‘people in action’) • Participant observation • ‘Strange-making’ • Contrastive observation

  30. Ethnographic Data • Four kinds of data • Members generalizations • ‘We do this…’ • Individual Experience • ‘I do this…’ • Observation • From your interactions • Comparison with researcher • ‘I do this, but you do that’/ similarities and differences

  31. Choosing a ‘Site of Investigation’ • All situations are potential sites of intercultural (‘interdiscourse’) communication • Choose a site that you visit regularly • Preliminary investigation • What’s going on here? • What are the activities and social practices that are taking place at this site? • How might these activities and practices be affected by the different discourse systems (‘cultures’) that people participate in? • What is the potential for miscommunication in these different activities or practices?

  32. Keeping ‘field notes’ • Maintain a notebook dedicated to this project • Write in it on a regular basis • Record observations as soon as possible • Work through procedures suggested in the textbook • Bring your notebook to class

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