Communication and Culture (with Journal Entry L4-1)

Communication difficulties can occur when we interact with people from other cultures because of differences in language, values, gestures, emotional expression, norms, rituals, rules, expectations, family background, and life experiences.

As you watch the “Communicating Between Cultures” video (23:02 minutes), think of similar personal experiences that could have been included in this video. In one of the discussion forum's during this lesson you will be discussing a personal experience related to this video.

Watch video entitled Communicating Between Cultures via PSU Libraries (PSU access accounts).

Watch embedded video entitled Communicating Between Cultures via YouTube (PSU or FPS access accounts) by clicking on the video below. Once the video starts playing, click on the broken lined box symbol in the lower right corner of the video frame for the full screen video.

---

Stop, Think, and Reflect: Journal Entry L4-1

Now is a good time to pull out Textbook 1 and look up your host country. Identify at least three (3) differences in communication (verbal or non-verbal) between your home country and your project's host country and discuss how these differences might impact your project. Discuss what you can do to make sure these differences do not impact your project.

Before you move on, reflect on your answers to these questions. Then write your answers or reactions and submit them in the text box of the Journal Entry L4-1 assignment page before you move on to the rest of the course content.

---

When thinking about your own intercultural communication competencies, focus on these four key skills:

1. Using verbal and nonverbal skills appropriate to different settings.
2. Effective communication during stress caused by unfamiliar settings.
3. Understanding how you became the person you are and how your own culture influenced you.
4. Expanding knowledge of other cultures’ values and norms.

Barriers to Intercultural Communication

As you develop the skills needed for effective intercultural communication, it isn't possible to learn the values, norms, and verbal and nonverbal communication aspects of all cultures. Athough we will examine these differences for a subset of cultures to help develop a deeper understanding of how they affect our ability to work with others, a more efficient approach is to examine the barriers to intercultural communication as this can help you improve your intercultural communication skills. LaRay Barna (1997) identified six barriers to intercultural communication (adapted from Barna, 1997):

1. Anxiety
2. Assuming Similarity Instead of Difference
3. Ethnocentrism
4. Stereotypes and Prejudice
5. Nonverbal misinterpretations
6. Language (Barna, 1997)

You have learned about ethnocentrism, stereotypes, and prejudices, in earlier lessons. This lesson will review the other four barriers.

Anxiety: When individuals are so anxious about not knowing what they are expected to do in a new situation, this can cause barriers during the communication process. In a study by Sugawara (1993), while only 8% of U.S. co-workers reported feeling impatient with the Japanese coworkers’ English, 30% of Japanese co-workers felt that their co-workers from the U.S. were impatient with their language and 60% felt that language was the primary contributor to communication problems with their U.S. coworkers.

Assuming Similarity Instead of Difference: Many misunderstandings can arise from assumptions of similarity. When assuming that individuals of other cultures are similar to ourselves we interpret their behavior based on our own interpretation of the same behavior in our own culture. For example, culture influences whether emotions are displayed or suppressed and in what situation. When we view emotional display (or lack of display) through our own filter we can easily misread the situation.

Nonverbal misinterpretations: Cultural understanding is critical when interpreting nonverbal symbols, signs, and signals. Most people expect differences in languages across cultures but they are less likely to expect and be able to recognize how nonverbal gestures and behaviors are different. People often rely on gestures to overcome language barriers. Nonverbal communication will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

Language: Language differences can contribute to intercultural communication misunderstandings in a number of ways. There are differences in vocabulary, syntax, idioms, slang, and dialects that contribute to our ability to understand others. There can be translation difficulties between languages when the full meaning of a word is not shared between the languages. When language is forced on a group of people by others with power it is more likely to become a barrier to communication.