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1、Lecture 3 Improving Intercultural Communication CompetenceI. Potential barriers in effective intercultural communicationInteracting with people from diverse cultures is often difficult and more often than not frustrating, so much so that misunderstanding seems unavoidable. Efforts such as good inten
2、tions with a sweet smile, friendliness and kindness, even the offer of benefit, seem to be of little help. Why is intercultural communication so difficult? An important answer to this question is: many communicators naively take it for granted that all humans are alike and as a result, we can automa
3、tically communicate with people from different cultures effectively and successfully. Seldom do we know that the assumption of similarity among people hampers rather than helps effective communication. However, there are also other potential problems that lie in the process of intercultural communic
4、ation. Identification of these problems will help us to avoid or to reduce breakdowns in intercultural communication.1.The assumption of similarityThe hazard assumption that we are all alike instead of being different seriously hinders effective communication across cultures. The notion that People
5、are people is as dangerous as it is sentimental. As a matter of fact, each member of a society is unconsciously socialized into his or her society, influenced unconsciously by his or her own cultural values, world views and norms. We must accept the fact that as cultures differ, we are unlike, and b
6、eing unlike, we seldom know how people of different cultures behave, think, and feel. As we naively assume that people of other cultures are like us, we tend to automatically use the norms or rules underlying our thinking, behaving and feeling as standard to judge, evaluate and interpret the behavio
7、r or message, both verbal and nonverbal, of people of different cultures, and in doing so, misunderstanding is inevitable. Even the same behavior can be interpreted differently. Eg. Students of different cultures interpret differently what may be called a greeting smile they receive by non-acquainta
8、nce American students walking on the campus. For a Chinese man in the U. S., a smile like this is likely to mean interest or affection. Or if a girl smiles at a male stranger in China, the man is likely to take it for interest. A smile from a boy in the street at a female stranger could possibly be
9、assumed to be rude or a sexual maniac. For the Japanese students newly arrived in the U. S., it would be rude to smile at people they dont know. A smile from a boy would be interpreted as impolite behavior. For Koreans, they have to take time to get friendly with strangers. They seldom smile at stra
10、ngers. A smile from an American student like this would likewise make Arabian students embarrassed and they may feel that they may have got something wrong with the way they get dressed. On the other hand, American students think that foreign students are very unfriendly. To them, it is natural to b
11、e smiling and friendly. 2.StereotypingWater Lippmann (Public Opinion), a News reporter in America, called attention to the concept of stereotyping as early as 1922, and he indicated that stereotypes were a means of organizing our images into fixed and simple categories that we use to stand for the e
12、ntire collection of people. Other definitions to stereotyping or stereotypes are:Stereotyping is a complex form of categorization that mentally organizes our experiences and guides our behavior toward a particular group of people. (Samovar, Porter, Stefani, 1998) Stereotyping is a way of thinking th
13、at does not acknowledge internal differences within a group, and does not acknowledge exceptions to its general rules or principles. (Scollon & Scollon, 1995)Ideological statement or stereotyping often arises when someone comes to believe that any two cultures or social group, or according to Scollo
14、n and Scollon, two discourse systems, can be treated as if they were polar opposites. Cultural ideologies in intercultural comparison are the fallacy of opposing two large cultural groups upon the basis of some single dimension. E.g. the introduction of topics in discourse and the sense of time. Ste
15、reotyping arises from such ideologies by focusing upon individual members of cultural groups. It is the process by which all members of a group are asserted to have the characteristics attributed to the whole group. Stereotyping is simply another word for overgeneralization. The difference is that s
16、tereotyping carries with it an ideological position. Characteristics of the group are not only overgeneralized to apply to each member of the group, but they are also taken to have some exaggerated negative or positive value. These values are then taken as arguments to support social or political relationships in regard to members of those groups. Eg. Conservative British men, romantic Italians (without admitting individual differences)the sense of time urgency i
