Chapter 14: Intercultural Communication

Chapter Learning Objectives

1. Understand culture as a construct.

2. Consider readers and colleagues from other cultures.

3. Explore relationships between cultures.

4. Reconsider your perspective about culture and how it affects your writing process.

5. Learn how to acknowledge cultural differences through frameworks.

Intercultural Communication Topics

• 14.1: What Is culture?
• 14.2: Understanding Cultural Context
• 14.3: Deepening Cultural Understanding
• 14.4: What Is Intercultural Communication?
• 14.5: Ethnocentrism + Stereotypes
• 14.6: Concepts of Face
• 14.7: Cultural Dimensions
• 14.8: Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time
• 14.9: Common Language Issues
• 14.10: Slang + Colloquialisms

14.1: What Is Culture?

Let us begin with this working definition:

Culture consists of the shared beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, values, and assumptions shared by an identified group of people.

As you work through this chapter, remember these five things about culture as listed in Merck’s Technical Communication:

1. It is learned. Geert Hofstede views culture as consisting of mental programs, calling it softwares of the mind, meaning each person “carries within him or herself patterns of thinking, feeling, and potential acting which were learned throughout their lifetime.” Similarly, Peter Senge argues that mental models lock individuals and groups into a specific perception about the world. Like a computer, we are programmed to act or behave in certain ways. The conscious and unconscious learning we undergo, over time, turns into beliefs that we consider to be valid. We then teach each other that these beliefs are cultural norms, and they are then expressed in our daily lives as behaviors and actions.
2. It is shared. Although you may think of yourself as an individual, you share beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, traditions, and assumptions with people who grew up or live in similar cultural backgrounds. It is easier for you to relate to someone who has shared value systems and ways of doing things than someone who does not share the same values. The patterns of culture bind us together and enable us to get along with each other.
3. It is dynamic. Culture is dynamic and thus complex. Culture is fluid rather than static, which means that culture changes every day in subtle and tangible ways. Because humans communicate and express their cultural systems in a variety of ways, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what cultural dynamics are at play. It is important to pay attention to the cultural context of a communication to understand the depths of its dynamic properties.
4. It is systemic. In systems theory, systems are interrelated interconnected parts that create a whole. There are patterns of behavior, deeply rooted structural systems, which are beneath the waterline. What we see at the top of the iceberg are the behaviors; we do not see what contributes to those behaviors. To address the system, one must be able to address the underlying patterns. These patterns, because they are deeply embedded in the system, will take up significant effort, time, and resources. Changes to the system are slow and gradual; visible changes may not appear until months, or even years, later.
5. It is symbolic. Symbols are both verbal and nonverbal in form within cultural systems, and they have a unique way of linking human beings to each other. Humans create meaning between symbols and what they represent; as a result, different interpretations of a symbol can occur in different cultural contexts.

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14.2: Understanding Cultural Context

Before you move forward in addressing other cultures, take a quick survey to see where you identify individually. Erin Meyer, in her 2014 book The Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business, explores not just expectations and understandings informed by culture but also how different cultural context thresholds affect transcultural communication.

For starters, you might take Meyer’s self-assessment questionnaire: What’s Your Cultural Profile.

Now that you have a partial idea of your cultural profile, take a moment to watch these two videos. First, in this YouTube video, Meyer discusses context: “Low Context vs. High Context Societies.” Next, view this video from Meyer’s web page that discusses “upgraders” and “downgraders” and their role in culture and disagreement: “Lost in Translation.”

As Merck mentions in Technical Communication, we often conduct a piece of communication for a given reader, but how often do you think about the primary reader’s culture? What would you change in the communication if the reader has a different cultural threshold? How much thought do you put into colors, layout, and language? Are there different instances where you need to build a relationship or be more direct, more visual?

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14.3: Deepening Cultural Understanding

Give yourself a little test with a little help from Rentz and Lentz (2021): How much do you actually know about the following individuals that live all over the United States?

• A young man wearing long side curls and a yarmulke
• A young woman wearing a hijab
• A fortysomething Caucasian man driving a pickup truck and wearing a John Deere ballcap
• A person using sign language to communicate
• A person wearing a gay pride t-shirt

A common Arabic phrase translates to “Not all of my fingers are the same.” This phrase celebrates diversity and warns against the idea that everyone from a certain culture will act and react similarly. People in any country who identify with a particular culture will do so to varying degrees. In technical writing, it is further important to understand cultural communication because, like other cultural systems, organizational culture controls the behavior, values, assumptions, and beliefs of organizational members. It is a combination of organizational members’ own beliefs and the values, beliefs, and assumptions of the organization. It is the role of the organizational leader, as a change agent, to help create a positive organizational culture that meets the demands of a competitive environment, board and shareholder expectations, and employee career satisfaction.

As a professional communicator in contemporary society, you need to be aware that the very concept of community is undergoing a fundamental transformation.

Intercultural and international business communication has taken on a new role for students as well as career professionals.

Global business is more than trade between companies located in distinct countries; indeed, that concept is already outdated. Intercultural and international business focuses less on the borders that separate people and more on the communication that brings them together. Business communication values clear, concise interaction that promotes efficiency and effectiveness. You may perceive your role as a communicator within a specific city, business, or organization, but you need to be aware that your role crosses cultures, languages, value and legal systems, and borders.

However, it is important to know we are still working with human constructs. From the building we erect that represents design values to the fences we install that delineate borders, our environment is a representation of culture, but it is not all that is culture. Culture involves beliefs, attitudes, values, and traditions that are shared by a group of people, as well as the psychological aspects of our expectations of the communication context.

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14.4: What is Intercultural Communication?

In defining intercultural communication, there are eight components of communication to work with, and yet the writer still must represent holistic meaning. It may be tempting to consider only the (1) source and (2) receiver within a transaction as a representation of intercultural communication, but doing so could mean missing the other six components—(3) message, (4) channel, (5) feedback, (6) context, (7) environment, and (8) interference—in every communicative act. Each component influences and is influenced by culture. Culture is represented in all eight components with every communication. In this context, all communication is intercultural.

It may be tempting to think of intercultural communication as interaction between two people from different countries. While two distinct national passports may be artifacts, or nonverbal representations of communication, what happens when two people from two different parts of the same country communicate? From high and low Germanic dialects, to the perspective of a Southerner versus a Northerner in the United States, to the rural versus urban dynamic, geographic, linguistic, educational, sociological, and psychological traits influence communication. It is not enough to say that someone from rural Southern Chile and the capital, Santiago, both speak Castellano (the Chilean word for the Spanish language) so that communication between them must be intracultural communication, or communication within the same culture. What is life like for the rural Southerner? For the city dweller? Were their educational experiences the same? Do they share the same vocabulary? Do they value the same things? To a city dweller, all the sheep look the same. To the rural Southerner, the sheep are distinct, with unique markings; they have value as a food source, a source of wool with which to create sweaters and socks that keep the cold winters at bay, and in their numbers they represent wealth. Even if both Chileans speak the same language, their socialization will influence how they communicate and what they value, and their vocabulary will reflect these differences.

Take this intranational comparison a step further. Within the same family, can there be intercultural communication? If all communication is intercultural, then the answer would be yes. Imagine a three-generation family living in one house. The grandparents may represent another time and different values from the grandchildren. The parents may have a different level of education and pursue different careers from the grandparents; the schooling the children are receiving may prepare them for yet another career. From music, to food preferences, to how work is done may vary across time; Elvis Presley may seem like ancient history to the children. The communication across generations represents intercultural communication, even if only to a limited degree. But suppose you have a group who are all similar in age and educational level. Do gender and the societal expectations of roles influence interaction? Of course. (Revisit the first Try This from “Deepening Cultural Understanding.”) And so among these students not only do the boys and girls communicate in distinct ways, but also not all boys and girls are the same. With a group of sisters, there may be common characteristics, but they will still have differences, and these differences contribute to intercultural communication. We are each shaped by our upbringing, and it influences our worldview, what we value, and how we interact with each other. We create culture, and it creates us.

Culture is part of the very fabric of our thought, and we cannot separate ourselves from it, even as we leave home, defining ourselves anew in work and achievements. Every business or organization has a culture, and within what may be considered a global culture, there are many subcultures or co-cultures. For example, consider the difference between the sales and accounting departments in a corporation. We can quickly see two distinct groups with their own symbols, vocabulary, and values. Within each group, there may also be smaller groups, and each member of each department comes from a distinct background that in itself influences behavior and interaction. Now, change that context to a piece of communication leaving your computer. Who will read it? Who could read it? What will your colleagues or readers of another culture take from it—intended or not?

Sometimes, the focus of technical communication is quite easy; the primary reader is clearly targeted through demographic research. But think about how much more effective, more dynamic, a communication could be if the writer considered the potential cultural perspectives at work when the document is read.

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14.5: Ethnocentrism + Stereotypes

Jandt (2016) notes that ethnocentrism is a barrier to effective intercultural communication. To be ethnocentric is to believe in the superiority of one’s own culture. On one hand, it is normal to believe that one’s own culture is “better” or better at performing numerous tasks—perhaps in terms of government policies, health care practices, and even the “right” way to chop vegetables. After all, our own culture is oftentimes our only point of reference. Nevertheless, there is a WHOLE WORLD out there that feels the same way as you do. Rwandans feel like their way of life is the “right” way, as do Qataris, Fijians, and Chileans. Who is right? Who is wrong? There is more than one way to get something done, and it would behoove you to look at yourself in the mirror and attempt an open mind for other ways of doing things and other belief systems.

Extreme ethnocentrism leads to a rejection of the richness and knowledge of other cultures. It impedes communication and blocks the crucial exchange of ideas and skills among people. Because it excludes other points of view, an ethnocentric orientation is restrictive and limiting.

When creating graphics, it is important to keep your audience in mind. This relates not just to the content you share but also to how that content appears on the page. For example, one color alone can have different meanings across different cultures. The color red means “power, passion, danger” in the USA, but it means “religion” in Latin America, “mourning” in South Africa, “purity” in India, and “happiness, luck” in Southeast Asia. Similar differences exist across cultures with other colors, too, so be aware that the choices you make for your graphics may communicate ideas you do not actually intend.

Jandt notes another stumbling block to intercultural communication: stereotypes, which are sweeping judgments based on group membership. Anyone can stereotype and anyone can be the subject of being stereotyped. Stereotypes are harmful in three different ways:

1. They cause us to assume that a widely held belief is true when it may not be.
2. Continued use of the stereotype reinforces and perpetuates the belief.
3. Stereotypes can become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” for the person stereotyped.

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14.6: Concepts of Face

Neuliep (2021) discusses the concept of face as founded by Stella Ting-Toomey. Ting-Toomey and others argue that persons in all cultures have face concerns. Face represents an individual’s sense of positive image in the context of communication. Everyone in all cultures has face concerns during conflict. “Losing face” is feeling shamed and overtly noted as “being wrong” in a situation, oftentimes causing grave embarrassment. Additionally, “saving face” is the act of regaining ground in a conflict and avoiding losing face. Most of us daily ensure that someone does not lose face within our daily negotiations, hence we assist in others saving face.

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14.7: Cultural Dimensions

• 14.7.1: Individualism vs. Collectivism
• 14.7.2: Power Distance

Geert Hofstede (2010) developed a well-known model in order to describe behavioral patterns among cultures. His model consists of several cultural dimensions, namely Individualism vs. Collectivism; Power Distance; Masculinity vs. Femininity; Uncertainty Avoidance; Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation; and Indulgence vs. Restraint. While all of these dimensions, heavily lauded and heavily criticized, have their merits for consideration, we will focus on the first two for our purposes.

14.7.1: Individualism vs. Collectivism

Jandt notes that this dimension refers to the way people define themselves and their relationships with others. In highly individualist cultures, such as those found in the global north and northern Europe, people look well after themselves and their immediate families. When meeting a new person in individualist cultures, you want to know what that person DOES. You tend to define people by what they have done, their accomplishments, what kind of car they drive, or where they live. In individualist cultures, goals are set with minimal consideration given to groups other than perhaps the immediate family.

Highly collectivist cultures, such as those found in many Asian and South American countries, emphasize relationships among people to a greater degree. Collectivist cultures stress interdependent activities and suppress individual aims for the group’s welfare. People are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups that oftentimes continue throughout a lifetime.

Individualism and collectivism are associated with direct and indirect styles of communication. In the direct style found in individualist cultures, the speaker’s wants, needs, and desires are embodied in the spoken message. For example, if an individualist wants a window closed within a classroom, they may overtly state, “Please close the window.” On the other hand, in the indirect style of the collectivist, the speaker’s wants, needs, and goals are not obvious, and the recipient needs to “read between the lines.” For example, if a collectivist wants the same classroom window closed, they may state, “It sure is cold in here.” The recipient is to glean understanding that the speaker wants the window closed.

The more we learn about differing communication styles, the better we become at navigating them for mutual benefit between the speaker and the recipient.

14.7.2: Power Distance

Jandt (2016) states that power distance is the way in which different cultures deal with inequality, such as superiors vs. subordinates. Hofstede believes that power distance is learned early in families. In cultures with high power distance, such as Qatar, China, and Thailand, children are expected to be obedient toward parents and adults rather than being treated as more or less equals. Additionally, people are expected to pay high respect to those of higher status, such as a professor, a politician, or a supervisor. Cultures with high power distance have power and influence concentrated in the hands of a few rather than distributed throughout the population. Conversely, cultures featuring lower power distance, such as Sweden, Germany, and Canada, treat their population more like equals. In low power distance universities, there isn’t a problem with students questioning their professor’s lecture details. Additionally, bosses are treated more like someone to work with rather than a father figure to look up to.

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14.8: Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time

Rentz and Lentz (2021) note that those from monochronic cultures such as the US, Japan, and the Netherlands tend to be monochronic in that they regard time as something that must be planned in order to be used as efficiently as possible. They strive to meet deadlines, to be punctual, and to work on schedule. Conversely, other cultures such as those found in India, Brazil, and Turkey are polychronic and view time in a more relaxed way. In business negotiations, the people in these cultures move at a deliberate pace, engage in casual talk before getting to the main issue, and value relationships over efficiency.

Use of Space

Rentz and Lentz (2021) also note that people from different cultures manage their personal space differently. In southern Europe and Latin America, for example, communicators may stand closer than what is considered “normal” in the global north. To take another example, those people from the UK, Sweden, and Japan will stand orderly in line and wait their turn, while people from France, China, and India tend to jostle for space when boarding trains, standing at ticket counters, or shopping.

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14.9: Common Language Issues

• 14.9.1: Two-word Verbs

Rentz and Lentz (2021) list two of the more troublesome areas for non-native speakers of English as the use of two-word verbs and colloquialisms. As you attempt to communicate with non-native speakers, it would be a good idea not to overuse the following two components.

14.9.1: Two-word Verbs

Two-word verbs are phrasal verbs that consist of the verb proper as well as an additional component, which is oftentimes a preposition. Think about the stark differences between look up, look out, look down, and look around.

14.10: Slang + Colloquialisms

These can also cause problems when your reader or listener is not familiar with them. Think about all of the sports metaphors we use: “Hayden hit a home run on his final exam!” “I need to call time out on our argument.” “Johara aced her parallel parking on her driver’s test.” Furthermore, in the US, we use colloquialisms every day. They are colorful and fun to use, but they may cause a great deal of confusion for non-native speakers. Rentz and Lentz (2021) offer up some great examples to follow for your intercultural communication:

Watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk about the single story here:

Take notes of her comparison/contrast of Nigeria vs. the USA. What did you learn?

Watch the following videos that discuss Indian head-nods. Which did you like the best…and why?