Intercultural communication in English
1. Globalization (what & why)
1)Dictionary: to organize or establish worldwide
2)Wiki: Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity.
3)Globalization refers to the establishment of a world economy, in which national borders are becoming less and less important as transnational corporations, existing everywhere and nowhere, do business in a global market.
4)Globalization refers to “time-spaces compression”. That is, the way in which the world appears to be getting smaller. (Reasons: the increasing global mobility of people; the impact of new electronic media on human communications)
5)At the same time, people all over the world are faced with the same environmental issues that affect all cultures.
6)Global instability stems from clashes between cultures as humankind creates catastrophes(灾难) that are far wor than natural disasters.
7)Culture interdependence: people from different cultures attempt to get along with each other and try to decrea conflicts.
Driving force: technology, particularly telecommunications, computers
2. Culture
1)People who are raid or live in a particular place probably speak the same language, hold many of the same values, and communicate in similar ways.
2)the group of people who share the same ancestry
3)commodities or products that are internationally exported and imported
4)a particular way to satisfy our human needs. Maslow: physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, lf-actualization
5)The coherent learned, shared view of a group of people about life’s concerns that ranks what is important, furnishes attitudes about what things are appropriate and dictates behavior.
6)Culture is coherent, learned, the view of a group of people, ranks what is important, furnishes attitudes
2.1 elements of communication
1)Context: the interrelated conditions of communication(aspects: physical ttings, historical, psychological, culture)
2)Participants: the participants in communication play the roles of nder and receiver, sometimes of the messages simultaneously.
3)Messages: elements: meanings, symbols, encoding and decoding.
4)Channels: a channel is both the route traveled by the message and the means of transportation.
5)Noi: noi is any stimulus, external or internal to the participants, that interferes with the sharing of meaning. They include: external noi, internal noi, mantic noi
6)Feedback: some kind of verbal or nonverbal respon
3. Different lands, different friendships
1)European: friendship is quite sharply distinguished from other, more casual relations, and is differently related to family life.
2)American: a friendship may be superficial, casual, situational or deep and enduring.
3)French: F is one to one relationship that demands a keen awareness of the other person’s intellect, temperament and particular interests; friends generally are of the same x; disagreement and argument are the breath of live; compartmentalized (a man play chess with a friend for years without knowing his political opinion)
4)Germany: F is much more articulately a matter of feeling; friends are brought to the family; disagreement on any subject that matters to both is a tragedy.
5)English: F is bad on shared activity, and are formed outside the family circle.
4. Comparing and contrasting cultures
Frederick:
Human nature orientation; man-nature orientation; time orientation; activity orientation; social orientation
Kluckhohns and Strodtbeck:
Human nature; relationship of man to nature; n of time; activity; social relationships
4.1Cultural dimensions (Geert Hofstede)
Individualism versus collectivism
Uncertainty avoidance
Power distance
Masculinity versus femininity
Long-term versus short-term orientation
5. High & low context cultures
Adding: from wikipedia
Low context culture and the contrasting "high context culture" are terms prented by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his book Beyond Culture. Low context culture refers to a culture’s tendency not to cater towards in-groups. An "in-group" is defined by the authors as being a discrete group having similar experiences and expectations, from which, in turn, inferences are drawn. Low context cultures, such as Germany or the United States make much less extensive u of such similar experiences and expectations to communicate. Much more is explained through words or verbalization, instead of the context.
