Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life

John R. Baldwin, Robin R. Means Coleman, Alberto González, Suchitra Shenoy-Packer

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781444332360
• eBook ISBN: 9781118559017
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Written for students studying intercultural communication for the first time, this textbook gives a thorough introduction to inter- and cross-cultural concepts with a focus on practical application and social action.

• Provides a thorough introduction to inter- and cross-cultural concepts for beginning students with a focus on practical application and social action
• Defines "communication" broadly using authors from a variety of sub disciplines and incorporating scientific, humanistic, and critical theory
• Constructs a complex version of culture using examples from around the world that represent a variety of differences, including age, sex, race, religion, and sexual orientation
• Promotes civic engagement with cues toward individual intercultural effectiveness and giving back to the community in socially relevant ways
• Weaves pedagogy throughout the text with student-centered examples, text boxes, applications, critical thinking questions, a glossary of key terms, and online resources for students and instructors
• Online resources for students and instructors available upon publication at www.wiley.com/go/baldwin

Part one

Foundations

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1 A rationale for studying intercultural communication

Why should we know about other cultures?

2 Action, ethics, and research

How can I make a difference?

3 Origins

Where does our “culture” come from?

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If you try to build a structure of some sort, you know that you need certain materials to make it—bricks, wood, plastic, metal—and some plan for the structure—a blueprint. As you consider these things, you will need to think of how the building will be used. Will it be a restaurant? A bank? A hockey rink? But before you lay the first brick, you must make sure that your building is on firm footing: you need a good foundation.

In the same way, we will soon describe the things that make up intercultural communication (part two), the ways we use it (part three), and the different functions we can use it for (part four). We provided a general road map to the book at the end of the Preface. But before we do any of that, we need to lay a groundwork—a foundation—of some basic principles. That is the purpose of the first part of the book.

In chapter 1, we provide a rationale for studying intercultural communication. Many companies and students no longer require a reason for studying intercultural communication, as the need for skills in this area are part of conventional wisdom. Still, you may find the facts in the section interesting, and as you talk to future employers of your skills in intercultural communication, some of them may still need convincing of the need to consider culture. Even though there are many benefits of studying intercultural communication, there are also some limitations, which we also address. Finally, we speak briefly about the history of the study of intercultural communication. We speak of it because it gives us context for what we study, and context is important to understanding what we do and why we do it. We treat it briefly, as we want to keep our focus primarily practical.

Chapter 2 introduces what we feel are the most important principles for practicing and researching intercultural communication. We could, here, discuss what it means to be a “competent” communicator across cultures, but we need to know more about sending and receiving messages first. It is important that we be aware of what it means to be ethical in our communication, so we discuss different ethical approaches in depth. It is an ethical position by the authors that leads us to feel that communication—and intercultural communication especially—should be related to civic and political action, so we introduce these terms and their relationship to intercultural communication. Finally, as much of what we understand about culture involves research of some sort, we introduce different ways of seeing the world as they relate to studying culture and communication.

Finally, in chapter 3, we are ready to introduce a definition of culture; but we notice that defining culture is not that easy, because people from different disciplines often see culture in different and opposing ways. We discuss some of these ways and provide our own tentative definition. We describe some of the key components of culture, such as values, norms, and beliefs, and then provide a model to help explain the influences that might be present, to greater or lesser degrees, in any communication, but especially in intercultural or intergroup communication.

With these foundations—a reason to study culture and communication, an ­understanding of ethical communication and civic engagement, and an view of the nature of culture—we will be able to look more closely at the components that impact the creation and interpretation of messages between and within cultures.

Chapter 1

A rationale for studying intercultural communication: Why should we know about other cultures?

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Building a rationale: Why do we need to know about intercultural communication?

The history and focus of intercultural communication: Where did we come from?

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Chapter objectives

After this chapter, you should be able to:

Provide several reasons, with evidence, as to why it is important to study intercultural communication

Describe possible limitations of studying intercultural communication

Summarize briefly the history of intercultural communication as a field of research

In 1994, a tsunami hit countries in the Indian Ocean, triggered by an earthquake ­measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale—the power of about 23,000 atomic bombs (National Geographic News, 2005). The tsunami destroyed whole cities and vast tracts of farmland and made many formerly occupied islands uninhabitable. It killed more than 225,000 people in countries including Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Maldives (Brunner, 2007). The World Bank Fact Sheet (Tsunami recovery in Indonesia, Dec, 2006) listed the need for 80–100,000 homes and noted the destruction of more than 2000 schools and 100 health facilities. The World Bank enlisted the help of 15 nations and international agencies (the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Commission) to help with the repair and restoration of the region (Aceh Post-Tsunami Reconstruction, 2006). Many such disasters have occurred since, including the 2011 earthquake and resulting ­tsunami in Japan (see Figure 1.1).

In this story, we see a major international crisis that required multicultural and ­multinational cooperation. While this case reflects an obvious need for intercultural communication, individuals can also benefit from such an education, even if they never travel outside of their hometown. Many students around the world today are re-investing in their ­community, with a sense of social responsibility that surpasses that of their parents. Many readers of this book are members of that generation, but even those of different ages may find themselves increasingly aware of the world around them. In this chapter, we highlight the importance of understanding intercultural communication. We then turn our attention to the reasons that we should bring that understanding back to the communities—local, regional, and world—in which we live.

Figure 1.1 International workers cooperate after the Japanese Tsunami of 2011. What role could you have in international cooperation to solve world problems?

Source: YONHAP/EPA.

Building a rationale: Why do we need to know about intercultural communication?

Many university researchers, journalists, business leaders, civic leaders, and bloggers around the world have begun to call our attention to the need to understand cultures and intercultural communication. Whereas at one time, one had to justify the need for an organization or individual to study other cultures, in today’s globalized world such a need seems simply to be assumed. The reasons and benefits of studying intercultural communication are broad, from personal growth to community investment to financial incentives. We review these and other motives here.

But before we begin, we should probably define some key terms. Each of these is complex, and we will discuss them in more detail in chapter 3. We will define culture simply as the way of life of a group of people, including symbols, values, behaviors, artifacts, and other shared aspects. Culture continually evolves as people share messages, and, often, it is the result of struggle between different groups who share different perspectives, interests, and power relationships (Hecht et al., 2006). For our purposes, communication is the process of creating and sending symbolic behavior, and the interpretation of behavior between people. And intercultural communication occurs when culture impacts the communication between two or more people enough to make a difference. This differs from international communication, which focuses on media systems. Communication between diplomats and international politicians is intercultural, but this is a special type of communication as the communicators represent not only their own interests, but also those of larger organizations or nations. This last form of communication might take place for economic advancement or for the addressing of world problems. UNESCO, in its 2009 World Report executive summary, highlights the need for dialogue across many areas of social and global development. In its closing recommendations, it advocates the development of guidelines for cross-cultural dialogue, the creation and distribution of audio-visual (mediated) materials that are culturally sensitive, the promotion of (cross-cultural) media literacy, the development of minority–majority member dialogues within national cultures, and the creation of “real and virtual forums” for the development of “cultural intelligence” in the business and marketing world (UNESCO, 2009, p. 35). In fact, the name of the UNESCO report involves “cultural diversity” and “intercultural dialogue.” But as we shall see, addressing global problems is only one reason to study intercultural communication.

The personal growth motive

Many students live in the here and now—the world of room- o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• About the website
• Walk through
• Part one: Foundations
• Part two: Elements
• Part three: Messages
• Part four: Contexts
• Index