INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Intercultural communication skills are those required to communicate, or share information, with
people from other cultures and social groups.

While language skills may be an important part of intercultural communication, they are by no means
the only requirement.

Intercultural communication also requires an understanding that different cultures have different
customs, standards, social mores, and even thought patterns.

Finally, good intercultural communication skills require a willingness to accept differences these and
adapt to them.

A Starting Point for Intercultural Communication

A desire for intercultural communication starts from the point of view that communication is better if it
is constructive, and does not suffer from misunderstandings and breakdowns.

Intercultural communication requires both knowledge and skills. It also requires understanding and
empathy.

Effective intercultural communication is a vital skill for anyone working across countries or continents,
including those working for multinational companies either in their home country or abroad
(expatriates).

It is also crucial for anyone working with people from other cultures to avoid misunderstandings and
even offence. Those studying languages often encounter issues of intercultural communication.

Knowledge for Intercultural Communication

Key areas of knowledge for those wanting to improve their intercultural communication are:

Some knowledge of the cultures, organisations and institutions, history and general way of living of
different communities and nations.

Recognition that these aspects affect behavioural norms. For example, there is considerable ‘history’
between the Greeks and Turks, and therefore it may be considered potentially a problem to serve
Turkish food to a Greek person.

An understanding of how culture can affect communication and language. For example, people from
Nordic countries are often said to speak more directly than native English speakers who tend to use
more ‘polite’ language. Scandinavians in the UK have reported causing offence to English people by
failing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ enough.

Some understanding of the conventions that may govern behaviour in certain specific intercultural
environments, such as views on the role of women, or the licence (or otherwise) permitted to children.

Crucially, awareness of your own and other people’s beliefs and values, and a willingness to recognise
when these may clash.

Sensitivity towards cultural stereotypes that may affect and interfere with intercultural communication.
Applying Your Knowledge

Once you have developed this knowledge and understanding, you can start to apply it to your
communications across cultures and even languages.

Some useful starting points may be:

Demonstrate your willingness to meet others at least halfway by learning a few phrases in their
language.

This is easy if you know that you’re going on holiday somewhere, but it’s also important for expatriate
assignments and other business trips. A few phrases, even if it’s only ‘Good morning’, ‘good evening’,
and ‘thank you’, will go a long way.

There are plenty of free language resources available on the internet so there is no excuse for ignorance.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his
language, that goes to his heart. -Nelson Mandela

Talk to people who know the culture about common traps and problems.

Before you go, find people who know the region to which you’re travelling, and ask their advice. Ask
your co-workers what people commonly do that’s just ‘wrong’, or what problems they have
encountered, and learn from it. Listen carefully to their answers, including what they don’t say, as this
can tell you a lot.

For more about this, see our pages on Questioning and Listening.

Adapt your behaviour, and don’t always expect others to adapt to you

This includes not being offended if someone unwittingly does something that you find difficult to accept.
You don’t have to accept it, but it’s best to explain politely why you find it hard, not just go off in a sulk.

You may also want to read our page on the Ladder of Inference to be aware of some of the traps and
miscommunications that are potentially possible.

Check your understanding and that of others

The best way to avoid misunderstandings is to listen carefully and check understanding regularly in the
course of a conversation. Ask questions to make sure that you have understood, and ask others to recap
what you have said to ensure that they have understood you.

For more about this, see our pages on Active Listening and Clarifying.

Don’t be afraid to apologise

You can usually see quite quickly if you have caused offence. The fastest way to manage that is to
apologise, and ask what it was that you did. A confession of total ignorance will often go a long way to
mitigate offence. Ignoring it will just offend further.
Use local television to learn about behavioural issues and norms

You wouldn’t want to rely on television dramas as your only source of information, but they can provide
useful insights. In the UK, for instance, Coronation Street or EastEnders could give you an idea of what’s
considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Comedies are perhaps less reliable as they often
use communication difficulties to generate laughs.

Reflect on your experience

As with so many aspects of life, a little reflection about your experience can help you to put it in context,
especially if you are able to discuss it with someone else in a similar position.

For more about this, see our page on Reflective Practice.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/intercultural-communication.html

Culture Defined

Before we can discuss intercultural communication, we need a working definition of

culture, so that we are all talking about the same thing. There are several definitions of
culture available. The one we will use here is, "learned, shared symbols, language,
values, and norms that distinguish groups of people." Let us discuss each of these
components in turn.

First, this system of symbols, language, values and norms is learned by the members of
the culture, and shared by the members of the culture. None of these components has
inherent meaning; rather, meaning is assigned by the members of the culture and
taught to other members of the culture. This sharing of learned symbols, language,
values, and norms defines a culture, and distinguishes it from other cultures.
Symbols are things that represent ideas. Symbols can be words or nonverbal items.
For example, a vertical line that is crossed about one-third of the way down, with a
shorter horizontal line, forms a type of cross that has come to represent Christian belief.
As another example, the color red is considered good luck in China. There are
numerous symbols in each culture, and the same symbol has different meaning in
different cultures. For example, making a fist with the thumb sticking up vertically means
"good job," or "A-okay," in some cultures, while it has a very offensive connotation in
other cultures.

Language is a bit more complex than it may appear at first glance. Researchers
estimate there are approximately 6,800 different languages in the world. This is the
distinction most people consider when thinking of language. When we talk about
culture, we are definitely talking about those national languages -- but we are also
talking about something more. Different groups of people use language differently.
Consider the slang terms and jargon used by people of different ages, regions,
professional fields, and other social groups. For example, in the American South, it's
common to hear that people are "fixin" to do something, though that term is not widely
used outside of the South. A young person in the U.S. is "sicks" if he is "cool," but for
those of us a bit older, "sick" is not something positive. Consider how lost you often feel
when two friends from a field that is not your own have a conversation about their work;
it almost seems as if they are speaking a foreign language. The same is true for serious
athletes -- their "lingo" is neither widely shared, nor widely understood by outsiders. In
these examples, language defines a social group, and distinguishes one social group
from another.

Values are standards that people of a culture use to decide whether something is

"good" or "bad." For example, Americans value individualism -- the idea that the needs
of the individual come before the needs of any group, while many cultures prize
collectivism -- the idea that needs of the group outweigh the needs of the individual.
Different religious groups prioritize different values. In some religions, extramarital
sexual relations is strictly forbidden, while the same behavior is perfectly acceptable by
value systems of other religions. When we consider U.S. political affiliations -- and the
infamous gridlock on Capitol Hill -- we can perhaps more clearly see that different
groups of people hold different values. In this example, Democrats and Republicans as
general groups assert very different positions, and within those two major affiliations,
numerous factions argue among themselves over what is right and wrong for society. In
these ways and countless others, different groups of people hold different values.

Norms are rules or expectations that guide people's behavior. Festival and religious
celebrations fall under this category, as do traditions. Each culture has its own
guidelines for celebrating a couple's union and honoring the dead, for example. On a
smaller scale, certain unspoken dress codes apply within social groups--you probably
wouldn't wear a bathing suit to a night club (unless you're in a beach town where that is
the norm). Similarly, you probably wouldn't yell loudly during a religious ceremony while
the leader is speaking; such behavior would be considered extremely inappropriate.
However, the same behavior is perfectly acceptable in a comedy club. Norms are all
around us, and have become such an entrenched part of our daily lives, that we don't
usually even realize we're complying with them. But if we don't, we know there will be
social repercussions. An outsider is often marked by his or her violations of a group's
norms.

A culture is defined and represented by the symbols, language, values, and norms that
are learned and shared by all members of a social group. Differences in use and
interpretation of symbols, language, values, and norms distinguish one culture from
another.

Co-culture
The idea of co-culture is alluded to in the above definitions, and means smaller cultural
units within larger cultural groups. When we consider the variations in meaning and use
of symbols, language, values, and norms among groups of people such as men and
women, ethnicities (e.g. Italian-American culture), religious groups (e.g. Hindu culture),
political groups (e.g. conservative culture), people of different ages (e.g. youth culture),
people of different sexual orientations and identities (e.g. transgender culture), different
professions (e.g. the legal field), different athletic involvements (e.g. hockey culture),
and different regions -- even from one side of town to the other -- we are talking about
co-cultures. We each belong to numerous co-cultures. This is an important idea, as our
co-culture memberships help shape our values, attitudes and beliefs -- and our
interpretations of others' communications, as we will see in a moment.

Perceptual Filters

Each of us has a unique set of experiences in the world. These are things we've seen
and been exposed to, and the ways in which we've been treated at certain times. The
idea of perceptual filters suggests that each experience forms a type of filter through
which we interpret our worlds. When we witness an event, or receive some
communication, we process it through our own unique sets of perceptual filters to
discern meaning. Because sets of perceptual filters are unique to each individual, each
person will process an event or communication slightly differently. This helps explain
why different people have different versions of the same event, such as a car accident
they've witnessed or a story someone else has told. This also helps explain different
interpretations of a singular message.

Co-culture memberships each offer a set of perceptual filters through which we interpret
our worlds and the communications of others. An ex-convict may perceive the close
proximity of another person as a severe threat, while a collegiate wrestler may not think
anything of it, even if both individuals are the same gender, race, age, region, religion,
and socioeconomic background. Different sets of perceptual filters help explain different
interpretations of the same communication behavior--and misinterpretations and
misunderstandings among individuals.

Triangle of meaning

The triangle of meaning also helps explain how different people have different

interpretations of the same communication behavior. It works like this:

Imagine a triangle. At one point of the triangle is the symbol used to represent
something, such as a word. At the second point of the triangle is the idea in your mind
that this symbol represents. The third point of the triangle represents the actual thing
being represented by the word. See the diagram below.

Figure 2.1: Triangle of meaning

The triangle of meaning helps explain misunderstandings and misinterpretations,

because we each may have slightly different interpretations of a symbol, based in part
on our unique sets of perceptual filters. For example, you and your friend are cooking
together and she asks you to hand her "the knife." Happy to oblige, you hand her the
10" chef's knife in front of you. However, your friend wants to peel the apple in her hand,
rather than slice it, and she wanted the paring knife. You don't usually peel your apples -
or use a paring knife at all, for that matter -- so your set of perceptual filters doesn't
consider this possibility when your friend asks you for the knife. You do, however, often
slice apples and you use a chef's knife to do so, so this filter does exist in your set of
perceptual filters. Therefore, you handed your friend the chef's knife. This
misunderstanding is not likely a big deal and your friend will probably simply say, "No, I
meant the paring knife," which you then hand her, and that is the end of it.

These types of misunderstandings can lead to arguments, however, when one person
expects the other person to understand exactly what is intended, and the one receiving
the communication understands it differently -- based on his or her own set of
perceptual filters. The idea of the triangle of meaning can help assuage tensions in
misunderstandings, if we keep in mind that each of us possesses our own set of
perceptual filters, and it is through this unique set of filters that we interpret our worlds,
and the communications of others.

Competent communication within the context of intercultural communication essentially

means keeping in mind that each of us belongs to our own culture and collection of co-
cultures, and that communication behaviors are interpreted through a set of perceptual
filters that is developed, in part, through our cultural and co-cultural memberships. What
is intended in our communication, or encoded, may or may not be interpreted,
or decoded, in the same way as intended. When this occurs, competent communicators
seek understanding, rather than resorting to frustration and anger. Keeping in mind the
concepts of perceptual filters and the triangle of meaning can help us become more
competent communicators.

Communication Competence Components

Researchers have broken down the characteristics of competent communicators into

five (5) areas: self-awareness, adaptability, empathy, cognitive complexity, and ethics.
We shall define and discuss each, in turn.

Want to learn more? Take an online course in Interpersonal Communication.

Self-awareness means being aware of your own communication behaviors. Part of this
is self-monitoring, which means that you observe your own communication behaviors
and ensure they are appropriate to the situation. As an example, if you are someone
who tends to use foul language, you would self-monitor while you're in a place of
religious worship -- such as a church, temple, or mosque -- and refrain from such
language usage in this environment.

Adaptability is the ability to adapt your communication to the environment you're in.
That is, you wouldn't communicate in the same way to your closest friends as you would
to your co-workers. Rather, while you're at work, you would adapt your communication
behaviors to the norms and standards of the communication environment at work, and
when you're with your friends, you adapt to that social environment accordingly.

Empathy means that you communicate with another person while putting yourself in
that person's shoes, so to speak. For example, if your friend has just announced he is
getting a divorce, you would consider that friend's frame of mind and refrain from
bringing up how great your own significant relationship is at the moment, aware that
such statements will likely only serve to make your friend feel worse about his or her
own challenging situation.

Cognitive complexity is the idea that another's communication behavior can have
multiple sources. This means that when someone is sharp with you, it could be from
something you've done, yes, and perhaps that person is reacting to you. However, it
could also be a result of that person's physical well-being at the moment -- perhaps s/he
has a headache or didn't get enough sleep the night before -- or something in that
person's life that is weighing on him or her at the moment.
Ethics means to communicate in ways that are morally correct. That is, when someone
is particularly vulnerable, we don't take advantage of that person's weakened state to
get him or her to agree to something that s/he otherwise would not likely have done.

Those who are proficient in each of these five (5) areas of communication are considered

competent communicators