Intercultural Communication : A Discourse Approach

In this regard, the issues about the role and the place of international communication become an integral part of life both for the humankind in general, as well as for the individual. Though being quite turbulent, the actual process of intellectual brainstorming was meant for intercultural communication. This span of time was of great importance for the enlargement and progression of the field. Many intercultural theorists have refrained from analyzing cultures separately (or as compared to cross-cultural); they have to study the interaction between two different cultures. Instead of focusing on individual communication behaviors, they preferred to find out on how the process of communication is affected by different behaviors (Brislin 1982; Gudykunst and Kim, 1984; Samovar et al., 1981). Emphasis was put on the term “intercultural” from the study of what cultural differences meant in terms of intercultural interaction. Studies focusing on behaviors within one particular culture (known as “culture-specific”) had increased the importance of studying communication process across cultures (known as

Secondly, culture is made up of many aspects and is still widely debated upon exactly how it should be defined. But according to Julia Wood (2017), culture “is a way of life—a system of ideas, values, beliefs, customs, and language that is passed from one generation to the next and that reflects and sustains a particular way of life” (p. 8-1). Furthermore, if the definition of culture cannot be agreed upon, then the aspects that create it must be universal. To be considered a culture, the aspects of first becoming an identifiable group; with a shared history who have an accumulated pattern of shared values, beliefs, and actions, through shared verbal and nonverbal codes must be

Because “it is through cultural signs and symbols that we are so often able to communicate with one another” (Thompson, 2003, pg 15), it is almost a given that in intercultural communication we will encounter barriers which will need to be overcome in order for communication to be productive.

There are many perceptions about culture, different people give different views. Traditionally culture has been defined as the set of rules, guidelines, laws, symbols practiced across different contexts in the minds of the people. Culture can today be defined as human made part of environment(Herkovits,1955).The subjective view includes the multidimensional array of shared beliefs , norms , values of a particular group(Thomas,1994). Humans are seen as producers of culture and are being influenced by it (Segall, Desan, Berry,& Poortinga, 1999). Culture is defined by criteria, place, time and language(Georgas &Berry,1995)

4. Understanding intercultural communication in interpersonal communication, greatly influence the way one delivers a message. For example, before one delivers a message, they have to take into consideration the receivers culture and whether it is high- or low- context. Knowing the difference between high- and low- context cultures is important. High-context cultures are collectivist cultures, and low-context cultures are individualistic cultures. Collectivist cultures believe that the group’s goals are more important, an individual’s success is determined by the amount of cooperation and contribution towards the group. Individualistic cultures believe that the individual’s goals are more important, and that person’s success is determined on exceeding others.

Defining culture appears to be a challenging task for academics, this is why there are possibly more than 150 definitions of culture and it is difficult to actually find a universally accepted definition because the word holds different meanings to different people and as a consequence it is open to many interpretations. Even if academics find it hard to define, it is possible to see that different statements have some common patterns. Academics agree on the fact that culture is something that has to be learned and consequently shared; moreover, culture involves thinking, feeling and acting. Often culture goes way beyond what meets the eye; Edgar Schein stated that even if it is possible to observe and to get to know the artefacts that are

In today’s society, our culture is made up of many different types of people from all different backgrounds. Over time, intercultural communications have become essential not only in the business world, but everyday life as well. Intercultural communications can best be defined as the study of communication throughout a variety of social groups/cultures, and how these differences effect the way we interact with one another. Our nation is made up of individuals with very dissimilar religious, educational, social, and ethnic backgrounds, so naturally a wide range of opinions and beliefs are formed and expressed, and the need to understand these differences arises. Although we mostly experience intercultural communications in the US, there is also international communications to consider, which is more associated with government and business concerns on the global level.

Intercultural communication is a product of the direct communication by means of lan-guage or non-verbal expressions between people from two or more different cultures. However, the concept of intercultural communication does not only include verbal lan-guage, but also body language and emotions. In contrast to just face-to-face communi-cation, a broader term defines intercultural communication as the level of mediatized in-tercultural communication, such as in radio, television, movies, internet and literature. In order to further concentrate on the term intercultural communication and resulting prob-lems one first has to understand how people communicate. Therefore, a model of com-munication will be presented and the sub-division of verbal and non-verbal communication further elaborated.

Through multicultural, societies, international organizations and online connections, communication has become an international _ and therefore an intercultural _ matter.The importance of understanding culture parameters and mutual perceptions is rapidly increasing in fields such as business, education, resolution and more. Communication between people from different cultures has been increased greatly due to media.Language

Culture is a way of living. People all around the world have different cultures, which affect their life, personality and relationships. As the world population is becoming more and more diverse, the need to possess good communication skills has increased. Therefore, one must acknowledge the ways to communicate effectively with different cultures, without abandoning his/her own native culture.

The paradigm of culture is essential in the human day-to-day conversation of cross cultural communication. To effectively and appropriately communicate with an individual of a different culture an individual needs to fully understand the beliefs, norms and stereotypes affiliated with the culture. The process of learning a language accompanies the positives and negatives of what is acceptable within the culture in the context of communication. To equip and guide the learner, simultaneously diffusing cultural assumptions which are considered untrue. This essay illuminates the impact of cultural blunders, reviewing previous studies of effective communication and cross cultural barriers in communication, supported by focus on the Chinese and French culture. Although a group is not defined by its cultural expectations because individuals differ based on various influential factors. On the other hand, it can also be argued that a part of cultural awareness entails knowledge of behaviours and linguistics, which associates with stereotypes. The lack of zeal to learn about the culture and lack of delve; results in an individual’s reliance on stereotypes which may be informative in outlying what may be acceptable within a specific group. However, can be of negative results consequent to miscommunication between communicators of differing cultures. The areas of cultural assumption, nonverbal communication, and face saving will be analysed thoroughly in reference to the Chinese and

Intercultural Communication: A discoursed approach by Scollon, R, Scollon, S; & Jones, R.H. (2011) identifies various

First of all, it is important to note that there are a number of definitions of cultural and intercultural communication. For instance, Piller (2011: 16) indicated that intercultural

Demands for intercultural communication skills are increasing as more and more businesses go global or international. They realize that there are barriers and limitations when entering a foreign territory. Without the help of intercultural communication they can unknowingly cause confusion and misunderstandings. For these intercultural businesses to breach the cultural barriers encountered when stepping into foreign grounds it is vital for them to fully understand the cultural differences

Culture is a broad term which has been described by various philosophers since decades. It has been claimed by Raymond Williams to be “…one of the two or three most complicated words in English language” (Williams, 1976). Different definitions of the term, culture may have distinct descriptive ways and criterion to evaluate human activity. It is important to define the broad base of the sophisticated term ‘culture’, in the sense used later in the paper, to narrow down the discussion on our topic.