5.5 Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication is communication between people with differing cultural identities. Culture and identity are created, understood, and transformed through intercultural communication. Given the almost “border-less” nature of business, it is essential to become adept at communicating effectively and respectfully with others from different cultures. Another reason you should study intercultural communication is to foster greater self-awareness (Martin & Nakayama, 2010).
Culture refers to the shared symbols that people create to solve real-life problems. Human social life is necessarily conducted through the meanings humans attribute to things, actions, others, and themselves. In a sense, people do not live in direct, immediate contact with the world and each other; instead, they live only indirectly through the medium of the shared meanings provided by culture. This mediated experience is the experience of culture.
Culture can be defined as patterns of learned and shared behavior that are cumulative and transmitted across generations. We see patterns in the systematic and predictable ways of behavior or thinking across members of a culture. Patterns reflect how people think and feel, as well as what they believe. These patterns emerge from adapting, sharing, and storing cultural information. Patterns can be both similar and different across cultures. For example, in both Canada and India it is considered polite to bring a small gift to a host’s home. In Canada, it is more common to bring a bottle of wine and for the gift to be opened right away. In India, by contrast, it is more common to bring sweets, and often the gift is set aside to be opened later.
Culture is the product of people sharing with one another. Humans cooperate and share knowledge and skills with other members of their networks. The ways they share, and the content of what they share, helps make up culture. Older adults, for instance, remember a time when long-distance friendships were maintained through letters that arrived in the mail every few months. Contemporary youth culture accomplishes the same goal through the use of instant text messages on smartphones.
Behaviors, values, norms are acquired through a process known as enculturation that begins with parents and caregivers because they are the primary influence on young children. Caregivers teach kids, both directly and by example, about how to behave and how the world works. They encourage children to be polite, reminding them, for instance, to say “Thank you.” They teach kids how to dress in a way that is appropriate for the culture.
Culture can be easily mistaken for the superficial signs that offer some indications of cultural expression. However, culture is much deeper than the eye can see, as shown in the culture iceberg of Figure 5.5.1, which is an adaptation of Edward Hall’s original version and which is commonly used to help visualize the hidden depths of culture.
Figure 5