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In cultures were being or relationality has a greater emphasis, human relations are at the forefront of most individual's concerns. It might even be considered rude to ask what someone does for a living in a social setting, at least before taking in some of the hospitality of the host in the form of food and drink. Social and emotional perceptions of value are of great importance. One example of how this might affect commerce is that in the United States, how much something costs may have great significance in determining people's purchasing decisions. However, in France, where there may be a greater stress upon relationality, buying from a local market owned by someone who lives near a consumer's home may have equal impact upon a consumer's choice of store as the store's price or time-saving and convenient location.
How can an understanding of the difference between "high-context" and "low-context" cultures help in communicating between members of each culture?
Mean what you say!' To the ears of an American, such an assertion seems like a truth one should almost take for granted. However, this belief that the surface meaning should convey the literal meaning of what someone says is simply an example of our low-context culture of communication. In a low-context culture, meaning does not vary very much depending on who someone is speaking to,...
In America, 'no' means 'no' whether one is speaking to a toddler or the CEO of a major corporation. But in Japan, a high-context culture, 'no' is never said. Rather 'maybe' often means 'no,' at least when sealing with business associates. How one says something, and to whom one says something, is of supreme importance in a high-context culture. In other words, the context makes the meaning.
High-context cultures can seem very difficult to interpret when someone is a visitor from a low-context culture. For example, in Japan, the degree to which one bows to a superior, or the fact that a superior must never be openly contradicted or challenged in public, is an unspoken social rule. An outsider may not understand this and commit an unwitting breach of social etiquette. A visitor from a high-context culture to a low-context land may be taken aback by the directness with which people speak. Also, his or her lack of willingness to challenge authority may be read as weakness or timidity. And at worse, when the individual from a high-context culture uses the same cultural signifiers such as 'maybe' to mean the same things they do back home, low-context individuals may simply assume that 'maybe' means 'maybe' and take the person at his or her word. An awareness of these differences, however, can prevent such transgressions of protocol and meaning.
He must instead keep aware of the accepted verbal and nonverbal communication gestures of other cultures. He should break out of the habit of preferring or revering his own verbal and non-verbal communication over those of others. Cultural relativism views all cultural practices as good. But unlike cultural relativism, effective intercultural communication does not state that al cultural practices as good. Rather the effective intercultural communicator exerts efforts to
Some cultures are overtly emotional, while there are others which believe in keeping emotions concealed, or only reveal them to a "rational" degree. Naturally such differences often lead to problems. Following are two examples from international diplomacy, cited by the University of Colorado's Conflict Research Consortium, which illustrate that lack of awareness of a certain culture and its values can result in longstanding misunderstandings, whereas accommodating cultural differences and
Intercultural Communication When people from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other, they face various problems in effectively communicating their messages and expressing their thoughts, expectations, and beliefs (Paulston, Kiesling, & Rangel, 2012). These problems lead to serious intercultural communication issues in multicultural societies. Researchers have found that difference in languages is not the sole reason of intercultural communication problems; people fail to effectively communicate due to different cultural dimensions that
Intercultural Communication in the Workplace: As the world continues to experience globalization because of the numerous technological advancements, intercultural communication has become an important element in today's working environments. Intercultural communication is critical because workplaces are currently made up of people from diverse backgrounds, races, ethnicity, and cultures. Therefore, understanding intercultural competence and communication is vital since it helps in promoting effective communication in the workplace. Such understanding also helps in
In addition to vocabulary shaped by environment, different languages also develop arbitrary differences in idiomatic expression. For just one example, modern Hebrew has a word pronounced "dafkuh" that does not translate directly into English. It is used to denote "just at that time," or "exactly that person," or "that very day" in a manner that suggests either irony, coincidence, misfortune, or even sarcasm, in the following manner: "I knew someone
Within my team of Americans are several African-Americans and three Latinos. In the book Intercultural Communication: A Reader (Samovar, et al., 2008) the authors point out what scholars, sociologists and alert journalists have known for a long time: "…Although Latinos are generally aware of the Black experience, there is little understanding of Black culture. Equally problematic is the lack of awareness among Blacks about Latino culture" (Samovar, p. 183). Albeit