Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication between peoples is an integral attribute of the human society development. Not a single country, even the one considered most powerful in political and economic aspect, can meet cultural and aesthetic requests and needs of the humankind
without applying to the world cultural heritage, spiritual heritage of other countries and peoples. The modern world is developing towards globalization. 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.
In this opportunity I am going to present a piece of work very meaninful to me that make me reflect about individuality and the relationship with intercultural communication which leads to the primary goal of this study that was to better understand the
avenues for intercultural adaptation available to individuals living
abroad.
Identity and Intercultural Communication
Identity is a key component in human being because it says who we are and who another think we
are. There is interesting a theory named impression management which stand that
we can control the impression other peoples have about us, but it is not always
true. Interaction plays an important role in the development of our identity.
As it is known, there are three modern communication perspectives that refer to
identity. Interest me a lot how these perspective have a specific meaning and
porpoise itself but, at the same time they are interrelated each other. In this
paper I am going to explain about the social, the interpretive, and the critical
science perspective and, how they work in contexts.
Thinking Dialectically About
Identity
The social science
perspective emphasizes that identity is built in part by us and in part in
reality to a group affiliation. As a matter of fact, every unique culture has
its unique definition of individual. Generally speaking, most western cultures
emphasize their individual privilege, and extremely protect their right of
privacy. For instance, in the United States of America, every one claims his or
her privacy when he or she goes to a restroom. Nevertheless, this privacy of
owning personal space is merely a dream for those who live in less developed
countries, even in some developing countries (most of them in Africa and Asia),
and people living there have to share their bathroom and showers with others in
public restrooms, which is hard to imagine for those in western culture, who
were born with silver spoons in their mouth. When it comes to which part is
more critical than others, in accordance with the communication theory of
identity, Scholl, Wilson, and Hughes (2011) indicated that, “We apply the
Communication Theory of Identity to investigate how patients display their
ethnic identities during intercultural patient-provider interactions. Ethnic
identity displays play a large part in reflecting patients’ and providers’
assumptions about the other, as well as their communicative needs.” (p. 1022).
From this description of the communication theory of identity, ethnic, as a
matter of fact, is taking up considerable position in that theory. No one could
deny that communication in intercultural area is indeed a symbol as far as the
intercultural communication self is concerned, Kramsch (2011) demonstrated
that, “The self that is engaged in intercultural communication is a symbolic
self that is constituted by symbolic systems like language as well as by
systems of thought and their symbolic power.” (p. 361). In fact, language,
thought, and so forth are some parts of symbolic
systems.
The interpretive perspective
builds on the criteria of identity main form discussed
beforehand, but takes a more active turn. As we have already mentioned the
individualism in diverse culture, whether to take others’ point of views
seriously and how to react others’ viewpoints, are completely different and
distinct. For illustration, most American people usually do not really care
about what other people say or how other people think about their behaviors.
They, nonetheless, just continue doing what they want to do for the purposes of
showing their individual characteristics or creativities. Whereas, Asian people,
such as some Chinese, would sincerely take care of others’ opinions or feedback,
and they would like to change their ways and behaviors in accordance with
others’suggestions or what others deem important. When it comes to how to
resolve issues of misunderstanding
and conflict among different and diverse culture, Cisneros
(2011) illustrated that, “In today’s globalized world, we need to communicate
values clearly and constructively across cultures and religions to avoid
misunderstanding and conflict and to find shared solutions to the issues
affecting human communities across the world.” (p. 249). As a matter of fact, a
composer cannot write enchanting melody with one note, and a painter cannot
paint landscape with only one color. The world is a treasure house where the
unique cultural achievements created by people of all countries are displayed.
Cultural diversity is a basic feature of both human society and today’s world
and an important driving force for human progress. As history has shown, in the
course of interactions between civilizations, we not only need to remove natural
barriers and overcome physical isolation, we also need to remove obstacles and
obstructions of the mind and overcome various prejudices and misunderstandings.
We should uphold the diversity of the world, enhance dialogue and interaction
between civilizations, and draw on each other’s strength instead of practicing
mutual exclusion. When this is done, mankind will enjoy greater harmony and
happiness and the world will become a more colorful place to live in. Recently,
a research has been done for the purposes of observing how the intercultural
communication course influences some students who study in different
universities. Nelson and Temples (2011) indicated his perspective that, “Eleven
students at six universities took part in an internet-based intercultural
communication course in addition to courses at their host universities,
generating data in the form of online postings, final course papers, e-mails to
the instructor, and retrospective evaluations. Ines, a Mexican student in
Canada, appeared to reconcile her identity successfully as a nexus of
multimembership.” (p. 63). Thus, the fact showed that the intercultural
communication course, in fact, exerted a positive influence on those students
who participated in that
research.
The critical perspective
not only emphasizes the active nature of identities, but also, it
emphasizes the contextual and usually conflictual parts of identity development.
Hardly did I know anything stranger than someone argues that we should analysis
the identity and intercultural communication without considering about the
historical factor. Anderson (2011) described that, “The imposition of
Euro-American orders of time has had a major impact on indigenous North American
peoples throughout the history of contact.” (p. 229). Hence, from this
illustration, we could see how the critical perspective, such as history,
impacts the identity and intercultural communication. History, as an essential
element, indeed exerts positive or negative impacts on the development of
identity. With 5000 years history of the ruler of emperor in China, it is hard
to find comprehensive democratic system that exists in the United States of
America, whose history is no more than 300 years without vestige of
emperor.
In some cases, learning the
intercultural communication will assist us to live better abroad. Ruble (2011)
described that,“The primary goal of this study was to better understand the
avenues for intercultural adaptation available to individuals living abroad.”
(p.369) From this point of view, for those who want to study and live abroad, it
is necessary to comprehend the essence of intercultural
communication.
In accordance with one
handbook that mentioned about intercultural communication, Sorensen (2011)
firmly illustrated their perspectives that, “Their fellow contributors look at
how intercultural communication should be investigated and interpreted at a
larger, theoretical level and at what actually happens in particular
local-global contexts.” (p. 495). Therefore, it is far from hard to get the
conclusion how significantly important the intercultural communication could be.
Conclusion
When it comes to
thinking dialectically about identity, which is a core issue for most people,
it invariably refers to the social science perspective that emphasizes identity
is built in part by us and in part in reality to a group affiliation, the
interpretive perspective that builds on the criteria of identity main form
discussed beforehand, but takes a more active turn and the critical perspective
that not only emphasizes the active nature of identities, but also, it
emphasizes the contextual and usually conflictual parts of identity development
As a matter of fact, a composer cannot write enchanting melody with one note,
and a painter cannot paint landscape with only one color. The world is a
treasure house where the unique cultural achievements created by people of all
countries are displayed. Cultural diversity is a basic feature of both human
society and today’s world and an important driving force for human progress. As
history has shown, in the course of interactions between civilizations, we not
only need to remove natural barriers and overcome physical isolation. We also
need to remove obstacles and obstructions of the mind, and overcome various
prejudices and misunderstandings. We should uphold the diversity of the world,
enhance dialogue and interaction between civilizations, and draw on each other’s
strength instead of practicing mutual exclusion. When this is done, mankind
will enjoy greater harmony and happiness and the world will become a more
colorful place to live in.
References
Anderson, J. (2011).
The History of Time in the Northern Arapaho Tribe. Ethnohistory,
58(2),229.
Cisneros, A. (2011).
UNDERSTANDING THROUGH APPROPRIATION IN
INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE ON ETHICS. Journal of Religious
Ethics, 39(2), 246-259.
Kramsch, C. (2011).
The symbolic dimensions of the intercultural. Language Teaching,
44(3),354-367.
Nelson, G., &
Temples, A. (2011). Identity Construction as Nexus of
Multimembership:
Attempts at Reconciliation Through an Online
Intercultural Communication Course. Journal of Language, Identity, and
Education, 10(2), 63.
Ruble, R. (2011).
The Communication of Advice on an Online Message Board for
Language
Assistants in France. Journal of Language and Social
Psychology, 30(4), 396.
Scholl, J., Wilson,
J., & Hughes, P. (2011). Expression of Patients’ and Providers’
Identities
During the Medical Interview. Qualitative Health
Research, 21(8), 1022.
Sorensen, K. (2011). The Handbook of critical intercultural communication