Perspective Learning for Taiwanese Students:

Using English to communicate with the world

跨文化溝通：台灣學生用英語與世界交流

0
 Perspective learning for Taiwanese students:
Using English to communicate with the world
跨文化溝通：台灣學生用英語為世界共通語

Forewords

As globalization continues, the competence and skills in intercultural

communication (IC) has become more important and necessary. There are three
purposes for writing this teaching material: First, most textbooks written in English for
college students situate from a western perspective, and are intended for western
(English-speaking) students. This book is written with Taiwanese students as the target
audience. Second, as English takes the role of a global language, students around the
world (particularly those in non-English-speaking countries) learn English to
communicate with the world. So this book positions itself in the context of global
English and English as a lingua franca (common language), providing English
learners and users practical guides in intercultural communication. Third, the goal of
this book aims to help develop the fundamental worldview, or perspective, as the
ultimate foundation to achieve intercultural communication. It is my belief that the
origin of our mind, 心 or こころ, to a great extent determines the success of our
intercultural communication with others. The main goal of this book is to help
Taiwanese students expand their worldviews, develop empathy to understand
various perspectives, and grow as global citizens in intercultural communication.

I hope this book can help you open your mental door and walk out into the world. For
language majors, the purpose of learning languages is to make your life more colorful
in addition to being able to making a living with the linguistic tools. Stay humble (謙
卑) and curious so that you can learn more and become a better person.

Step outside of your comfort zone! People will not grow if not challenged. Meeting
new people, shocked by new cultures, tortured by new experience, all these are what
make life so interesting! In your four years in the university, you will probably have
the most memorable period in your life because you will explore not only the world
but also yourself. If there is only one lesson that you can remember after the course, I
hope the lesson is to always reflect on your worldview (think about yourself, how you
see and feel about the world and why). Become more aware of yourself and your
worldview. This is the title of the book: Perspective learning. Please keep this
question (how do I see everything?) in mind throughout your life!

By: 柯宜中 Ke, I Chung

2015. August, Taoyuan, Taiwan

1
 Table of Contents
Structure of the book ………………………………...3
1. Why study intercultural communication (IC)? ………………………………...5
=>1.1 Local stories ………………………………...6
=>1.2 Myths about IC ………………………………...7
=>1.3 Globalization and its implications for students’ life …………..………12
2. Culture as..? ……………………………….14
=>2.1 Common definitions ……………………………….15
=>2.2 Dimensions ……………………………….18
=>2.3 Metaphors ……………………………….22
=>2.4 Cultural values ……………………………….24
=>2.5 Low vs. High context culture ……………………………….31
3. Study our own culture ……………………………….35
=>3.1 ‘Our own cultures’ ……………………………….36
=>3.2 Common cultural foundations in East Asia………………………………40
4. Identities in IC ……………………………….45
=>4.1 Who am I? ……………………………….46
=>4.2 Johari Windows ……………………………….49
=>4.3 Us, them, or we? ……………………………….51
5. How culture affects communication ……………………………….53
=>5.1 Perception ……………………………….54
=>5.2 Stereotype, prejudice and discrimination ………….……………………57
=>5.3 Ladder of inference & Ethnocentrism ……………………………….62
6. Nonverbal communication ……………………………….66
=>6.1 Greetings ……………………………….67
=>6.2 Gestures ……………………………….70
=>6.3 Personal space and physical contact ……………………………….72
=>6.4 Paralanguage ……………………………….74
7. Languages in IC ……………………………….76
=>7.1 English as a lingua franca and multilingualism …………………………77
=>7.2 English varieties (World Englishes) ……………………………….81
=>7.3 Produce understandable English ……………………………….85
=>7.4 Communication strategies ……………………………….88
=>7.5 Globish ……………………………….91
8. ICC and its applications: Conclusion & case studies …………………………..94
=>8.1 Intercultural communicative competence ……………………………….95
=>8.2 Empathy ……………………………….98
=>8.3 Cultural adjustments ………………………………100
=>8.4 Case studies ………………………………102
Appendix A. Intercultural movies ………………………………104
Appendix B. Intercultural resources ………………………………106
Bibliography ………………………………107
Index ………………………………108

2
 Ming often visited a Thai restaurant nearby. His mother liked Thai food. Once
when they took a family trip to America, people misunderstood them
(Taiwanese) for Thai because the beginning sound of Taiwan and Thailand is
the same. Ming once wondered if there were some connections between Taiwan
and Thailand when he noticed that Karaoke (singing) was popular in both
countries. Some Thais in the restaurant also looked similar to local Taiwanese!

Chapter Two: A look at ‘Culture’

＊ Culture is a complex concept, involving a group of people and their ‘mental software’.
＊ ‘Culture’ vs. ‘culture’ (Big C vs. Little c)
＊ 3 P’s in culture: Perspective, practice and product.
＊ Metaphors (compare to real things) help us better understand the concept of culture.
＊ Hofstede’s cultural values: Orientation to group, power, and tolerance of uncertainty
＊ High-context vs. low-context culture

Culture is the whole way of life. –Raymond Williams, 1958

Culture is the way of life of a people, the sum of their learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and
material things. –Edward Hall, 1976

2.1 ‘Culture’
What is culture? Culture is everywhere in life, sometimes defined as a way of life.
If life is culture, then what is not culture? Human life differs from animal life
mostly because of culture. We live our life in certain ways, and these ways
constitute (make up/build) our culture. It is said that there are over 160 definitions
for the word ‘culture’ (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952). Depending on our perspective
(viewpoint), culture may be defined differently. Table 2.1 below summarizes some
definitions in different fields:
Table 2.1 Defining Culture
Field/perspective Definition of culture Associated words
Archaeology (studies of The vestiges/remains (what is left by ancient Civilization
prehistoric people and their peoples) found in different areas but created in
cultures) the same period
Anthropology (studies of Knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs Tribe, custom,
cultural development of and any other capabilities and habits acquired tradition,
living humankind) by man as a member of society
Sociology (studies of human The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and Norm, value,
interactions/society) the materials of a group of people mentality
Arts The taste of arts and manners favored by a Taste, Class
group of people
Business Mental programs of an organization, a Software of the
company, or a society mind
Biology (studies of living The growing of micro-organism in nutrient Cultivation, growth
things) medium

3
 We start from the most different definition in biology.
Biologists develop ‘micro’ living organism. For biologists,
culture is related to growth of living creatures. The feature of
‘growth’ and ‘cultivation’ in biology highlights one important
feature: Culture is learned gradually in the environment and
through social interactions. It is constantly changing just like to
micro-organism in the lab: cultures adjust to the changing
environment. We absorb cultures from our living surroundings, mainly family, school,
and community. What we absorb are the values, knowledge, customs, manners, ways 註解 [柯宜中1]: take in

of thinking and doing. We may call these ‘content of culture’. In intercultural

communication, we mostly use the definitions in sociology: the observable things and
behaviors and the invisible thoughts and values of a group of people.

Remember, in different academic fields, culture is defined differently. We will explore

more about ‘culture’ in the following sections.

Common definitions
 The values, beliefs, manners, and worldviews of a group of people.
 The learned patterns of perception, values and behaviors shared by a
group of people. (Martin & Nakayama, 2014)
 A learned system of meaning and behavior passed from one generation
to the next. (Eckert, 2006)
 A system of rules and norms that affect our life in implicit ways.
 the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic,
or age group.
An important point to remember is that culture is always about a group of people,
not individual persons. When we talk about culture, we refer to patterns of
thoughts and behaviors by a certain group of people. A culture is created and
maintained by a group of ‘people’, as people change culture while being greatly
affected by culture from childhood.

Personality, Culture, and Human Nature

Before we explore deeper into ‘culture’, we start from ‘what is NOT culture’. One way
to understand a new idea is by asking what this idea is not. Although culture can be
defined as ‘the whole way of life’, culture cannot be everything. Not every part of life
is culture. Some of our thoughts and behaviors may be related to culture, but others are
not. By understanding which parts of our life and behaviors are NOT direct results of
culture, we get a better idea of what culture is.

4
In Figure 2.1 below, Geert Hofstede, a famous scholar who studied cultural values in
the 1970s, uses the model of a pyramid to illustrate ‘three levels of uniqueness in
human mental programming’. How a person thinks, behaves, and reacts is based on
three different interconnected levels:

 Bottom level ‘human nature’: We do and think some things because we are humans:
for instance, we want to sleep, eat, and stay alive. These are universal and inherited
characteristics. This is the bottom level because we are human beings first, cultural
beings second and individual person last. Humanity is the foundation of all human
cultures.

 Middle level ‘culture’: We also do and think some things because of our culture:
this might determine, for instance, when we eat and sleep, and how far we try to
survive. Similar habits, manners, and customs of a group of people come from
shared ‘cultures’. These are cultural characteristics which are specific to a
particular group of people, and are learnt, often from family and school.
 Top level ‘personality’: We also do and think some things because of our individual
personality. These characteristics are specific to us as individuals, and are both
inherited and learnt. We develop certain values and habits due to our personal
preferences and special environment. For example, we may prefer certain foods,
sleep in a certain position, and use a particular way to survive.

The three levels are also connected: human nature forms the basis, so all cultures
would not go against human nature; the culture that conflicts human nature would 註解 [柯宜中2]: be in opposite 和..衝
突
disappear since one important function of culture is to help human beings survive in
the environment. Individual personality is affected by the culture, and sometimes
people develop particular behaviors that go against their group culture as a form of
resistance to a dimension of the collective way of life. People do a particular behavior
based on humanity, culture and personality working together.

When trying to understand the behavior of a person, it is important to consider all of

these three levels. In IC, people have a tendency to only look at cultural differences,
neglecting the bottom part, humanity, and the top part, personality.

5
 Inherited and Learned
Specific to individual
Personali

Specific to group Culture Learned

or category

Universal Human Nature

Inherited

Figure 2.1 Three levels of human mental programming (Hofstede, 1994)

Using these three levels to analyze human behaviors can help us better see the
influence and roles of culture in intercultural communication. When we see certain
behaviors, we have to carefully judge the sources of the behaviors to avoid a common
problem in intercultural communication: blame everything on culture. When
meeting foreigners, many people would see culture as the source of every difference.
They explain everything simply based on cultural differences. But in many cases, they
are just personality things.
By pointing out the importance of ‘human nature’, it reminds us to not only focusing
on cultural differences, but also shared commonalities. Though we grow up in very
different cultures, it is quite possible that we share some similar interests, love similar
kinds of music and movies, and do some similar sports. Since all cultures are built on
the foundation of humanity, there must be some shared parts between different
cultures. We build intercultural friendship from these commonalities, not cultural
differences.

6
Also this model urges us to see each individual differently because we all are unique
combination of the three elements, and no one is the same even though the first two
levels in our pyramids are the same. There are interactions between these three levels:
some people’s personality may conflict with their culture while others are perfect fit.
So expect to meet very different individuals from the same culture!

Discussion questions: Where do you ‘see’ culture? Can you describe how ‘culture’
affects you and who you are?

 2.2 Dimensions of culture

2.2.1 Culture vs. culture

One common way to understand the idea of culture is to see culture in two different
ways (Halverson, 1985): Big C ‘Culture’ includes more concrete and real things like
history, geography, art, architecture, literature, music, movie, clothing, food, and so
on. ‘Big’ means that we usually see it first because they catch our attention.
Sometimes Big Culture is also called the exterior (outside part) while little culture is
the interior (inside part). We see the outside part first, and it takes much time to
understand the inside part of a culture.

“Big C” culture “Little c” culture

Big C culture refers to visible parts in a
culture, for example, festivals, art, popular
music, literature, dance, and food. When
learning about a new culture, the big C
cultural elements would be discovered first.
It is also called ‘objective culture’ in that
everyone can see Big Culture, which in turn It is also called ‘subjective culture’ because
reinforces the culture that it represents.
Little c culture, on the other hand, is the
more invisible type of culture like norms
(what is proper and improper in social
interactions), how to behave,
communication styles, verbal and
non-verbal habits, myths and legends, etc.
these mental patterns and habits exist within
each individual, who is often unaware of
them since they take it for granted.

7
 Up until now most of you should have been more familiar with ‘Culture’ than
with ‘culture’. Big Culture is obvious and objective, meaning that everyone can
see it. In your previous textbooks and lessons, teachers often use food, festival
and (national) flag to talk about culture. Most people also refer to big Culture more.
When people talk about culture in daily life, they usually mean big Culture. But big
Culture is only the surface. Especially nowadays with globalization, cultures
influence each other. People also bring in elements from other cultures into their
own culture. In more extreme cases, traditional cultures are turned into
performance for tourists while local people no longer follow these traditions.

We need to go deeper to understand little culture, which is often hidden and

subjective, meaning that we cannot see it, and everyone may see it differently
because it involves invisible ideas like beliefs, values, and ways of doing, being
and communicating. Little culture also changes more slowly. Deeper beliefs and
values are passed down from parents and teachers to the next generation, who
also pick up the hidden ideas unconsciously by growing up in the cultural
environment. Understanding little culture helps us interpret people’s behaviors 註解 [柯宜中3]: give the meaning of
解讀
and thoughts, and this is more important in IC than knowing big Culture like
festival, food, and clothing.

Now we are going to explore the connections between Culture and culture.
Understanding little culture is important in IC because it helps us better interpret
the behaviors of our friends. People often interpret what they see from their own
culture; that is, they get the meaning from their own culture. This is the source of
many cultural misunderstandings. For instance, when we see a person shaking
head, we assume that it means ‘no’. But sometimes when an Indian person shakes
head, it could be ‘maybe’. Often the meaning of a thing, action, or behavior comes
from culture, so we have to understand the little culture before we really know the
meaning of some action by a person from another culture. After understanding
the reasons why people do something in some ways, we can deal with IC better.

2.2.2 Product, Practice, and Perspective

According to the National Standards for Foreign Language Education Project (2006) in

8
America, culture can be seen from three levels: the philosophical perspectives, behavioral
practices, and products – both intangible (not concrete) and tangible (concrete,
observable) – of a society. They are called three P’s of culture (perspectives, practices, and
products). Below we further explain the three P’s:
 Products are what people create that show their culture. They represent tangibles such
as food, clothing, books, and tools, and intangibles such as songs, parables, dances,
rituals, language, and laws –the “artifacts” of a culture.
 Practices are how people lead their life and do things. They include social norms, ways
註解 [u4]: System of persons ranked
of communication, conventions related to hierarchy, power, class, status, and gender
one above another 階層組織
roles – constituting the “norms” of a culture.
 Perspectives explain why people do certain things in a certain way or the rationale for
their lifestyles. They are cultural beliefs, values, and worldviews (our mental models or
ideas about the way the world works) – the core or foundation of a culture.

These three P’s are connected to form a culture. We can use the ‘onion’ metaphor to
refer the 3 P’s to three layers of the culture onion. Product is the outer peel, and the second 註解 [柯宜中5]: skin 果皮

layer is practice, and the core part is perspective. The core part is the smallest, while the
outside part is the biggest, meaning that many cultural products have the same core cultural
perspective.
Take ‘sky lantern’ as an example; Taiwanese people fly sky lantern on Lantern Festival,
15 days after the Chinese New Year. Sky lantern is a cultural product, and its cultural
practices involve when, where, and how it is flied. If we explore deeper to understand its
history, meanings and the hidden worldview, then we can know the cultural perspective of
sky lantern. We can do such 3P’s cultural analysis for any cultural product to enhance our
cultural knowledge.

9
 WHY
people do it

HOW
people do it

WHAT
people
make/do

Perspective:
Religion,
value, belief

Practice: manner,
festival, norm
Product: music, dance,
clothes, food, art, house…

Discussion questions: Choose one cultural product (could be from your own
culture or another culture) and use the 3 P’s framework to analyze the cultural
practice and perspective associated with the culture product.

10
2.3 Metaphors
Because ‘culture’ is a complex idea, if we compare
culture to real objects, we may be able to understand
the idea more easily. The way we compare culture to
something is by identifying (finding out) some similar
features/characteristics between ‘culture’ and the
metaphor (real object). Let’s first begin by looking at
the features of ‘culture’:
1. We cannot see or even feel the existence of (little) culture as we are immersed in it. 註解 [u6]: Dip into water 沉浸

We may see cultural products (big culture) like arts or literature, and cultural festivals,
but they are expressions or representations of culture. Culture is like the spirit or ‘chi’
氣 behind these observable things or events.
2. Culture is quite complex, and may be analyzed in layers or levels. Many people divide
‘culture’ into several connected layers or levels from surface to the core. We see what
people wear, eat, use, and how they do it. But to understand why they wear certain
clothes in certain time/occasion, we need to spend more time doing our homework,
studying their history, environment, and traditions (just like 3 P’s; product, practice,
and perspective are connected).
3. The real environment and history play a crucial role in the development of culture.
Evolution theory by Darwin says that humankind developed from ‘apes’, or
human-like monkeys. Culture is what makes humans different from monkeys. In
different environments, people developed different ways to survive. After thousands
of years of history, cultures in the world become what they are now. Therefore, it is
impossible to understand a culture without knowing its environment and history.

11
 4. Culture is ever changing. People follow old/traditional cultures, but also create new
cultures. Therefore, it is common to observe great differences from one generation to
the next. Your parents and you would have different cultural values. So culture does
not always stay the same. We cannot expect a group of people from a certain culture
to behave in a certain way like their previous generations (their parents and
grandparents).
5. A broad description of a group (e.g., all Taiwanese) seldom serves as an accurate
description for each individual functioning within it, since each may also belong to
various subgroups within the culture (e.g., Chinese-Taiwanese, Minnan-Taiwanese,
Hakka, women, men, youngsters, company workers…). In addition, those subgroups
can often be broken down into further subgroups (e.g., Taipeier: Southerner, XX
school graduates, YY fans…). Each subgroup may have a unique culture, but again
the culture may not describe an individual who belongs to the subgroup.

Main features of culture

* Mostly invisible (little culture>big Culture)
* Connected layers/levels (3P’s: product, practice, and perspective)
* Affected by the environment and history: Cultures in a hot place are different from
those in a cold place. Those near a river or the sea are different from those in the
mountains. Historical events also shape a culture.
* Culture is learned through socialization process, not inherited genetically. Family
and later school play the main role of socialization.
* Constantly changing, but core part like beliefs and values may stay unchanged. For
example, in the past, females were not expected to work, but now females can be a
boss or even become the President of a country. On the other hand, within family,
mother still play the major role in child-raising and housework.
* Culture influences individuals differently, and certain cultural traits are shared by
certain members.
* We become aware when losing it or meeting other culture
* Overlaps among different cultures

Discussion questions: We know that not everyone in the same culture share the
same values. While most people are quite used to their own culture (the culture in
which they grow up), some people dislike their own culture, so they emigrate to
another country/place or suffer (feel painful) in their culture. What do you like or
dislike about your own cultures? (Family, school, club, ethnic, national, gender…)

12
 2.4 Cultural values (Hofstede)
Studies on various national cultures in the world find that some cultural values
stand out the most. Gert Jan Hofstede from Holland was originally working in IBM,
but accidentally became interested in national cultures. He later published a famous
book called Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. This section is based
on this important work that examines cultural values in the multinational employees of 註解 [u7]: Different national, from
different countries
IBM.
Hofstede used value statements to measure cultural values. For example,
respondents (people who fill out a questionnaire) from different nations would mark to 註解 [u8]: Give an evaluation, an
answer
what extent they agree to the statement ‘leisure time is important’. After collecting a
large amount of responses, he proposed several major cultural value dimensions that
show national cultural differences. If you are interested to learn more about them,
google his name and you will find many related websites.
Below we only discuss 2 important dimensions: (1) orientation (overall attitude) to
group (how people perceive (see)/value their group) and (2) their idea about
interpersonal relationship based on different power status (who is higher or lower in
status).
1. Orientation to group
This is in general the most important dimension in cultural values. It points to our
priority to groups. Do we think ‘I’ is more important than ‘we’? How do we see ‘him’
or ‘they’? Many behaviors and phenomena can be explained based on this value. For
instance, in individualist cultures, employees work in ‘cubicles’ which provide a
certain level of privacy while in collectivist cultures, employees work together in an
open office. In family, siblings are told to sacrifice for each other in collectivist
cultures, while in individualist cultures, siblings are given equal rights despite birth
order. In collectivist cultures, children learn to think as ‘we’, not I.

The key word here is priority, which means comparatively more importance is given
to A instead of B. Therefore, in individualist culture, group is also important, while
self is sometimes more important. It is not correct to say that people in individualist
culture are selfish since they consider their own rights first. It is also wrong to say that
selfish people have individualist cultural values, because emphasizing individual
rights is different from being selfish, which suggests ignoring others. Being selfish is
more an individual personality trait than a cultural pattern. But if you grow up in a
collectivist culture, you may regard individualist people as selfish because they do not
value the group as much as you do.

On the other hand, if you grow up in an individualist culture, you may regard
collectivist people as unfair because they value relationship more than qualification or
ability. There is an interesting saying in Chinese:有關係，就沒關係；沒關係，就有關係
=>[literal translation] if you are related (we know you), then no problem (you can
make the deal or do things easily). But if you are not related (we do not know you),

13
then there could be a problem. Again this does not mean that collectivist people are
unfair. This only highlights the pattern that collectivist culture values group harmony
and interpersonal relationship more.

Below we explain in more details the two orientations.

 Collectivism: (group is more important than individual.)

The word ‘collective’ means forming a whole. When used to describe people, it
usually describe a (homogenous-same quality) group. Collectivism value group
harmony and group reputation, so children are taught to put their family, clan (家族),
community, and nation (different levels of ‘group’) above their individual self. They
are expected to think for the best of the groups, sometimes at the price of their
personal interests. [犧牲小我，完成大我] Children are usually taught to listen to their
parents’ teaching and suppress their personal opinions, which are less important than
family opinions. Since group harmony is the priority, people are expected to speak
politely, sometimes even hiding their true feelings to preserve group harmony. Face is
important, and argument or conflicts should be avoided. Below are the main features
of collectivism:
- Group harmony should always be maintained. Therefore, saying what you think
indirectly is valued. You should always be polite and consider the group and
your listener first. The communication style is indirect, subtle, and
relationship-oriented. When disagreements arise, people deal with it through
indirect negotiation or a third party to preserve the relationship. Collectivist
people avoid arguments and dislike conflicts. Harmonious relationship is more
important than settling disputes.
- Relationships are more important than the task at hand. Much time is spent on
rituals for maintaining relationships. So for business negotiations, people will
first get to know each other, maybe eating together or singing karaoke to
develop closer relationship. Collectivist people are not used to doing business
with strangers. They need to know (personally) their business partners to have
trust before discussing real business. One common way to maintain good
relationship is to ask about family or private matters. Since family is important,
introducing your family to business partners is necessary to build relationship.
(For individualists, they may feel uncomfortable about personal questions). This
can also be reflected in self introduction. Collectivists introduce themselves by
introducing their family, their parents; sometimes even grandparents, and
siblings.
- “We, us, harmony, sacrifice” are important words that reflect collectivist
cultures. Collectivists often see group (family, class, nation…) reputation more
important and their personal achievements come from their group. In school,
students are expected to behave in the same manner because they belong to the
same school/class. Anyone who is different from others is often punished and
regarded as weird (in extreme cases, bullied) because s/he damages ‘group

14
 harmony’, or the sameness of the group (school/class). Teachers may also
control students by organizing students into groups and give rewards and
punishment based on group performance, not individual performance.
Individual students in these groups are expected to look after each other and
seek ‘group’ achievements, not their own individual achievements.

Also because group is more important than individual, collective people often
have to make sacrifice for the group. That is, they lose personal interests or
gains for the sake of their group. Teamwork is valued, and people cooperate
with each other to make their team perform better. Some common mottos also
reflect collectivist value: 團結力量大/三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮/兄弟齊
心，齊力斷金 (a similar proverb in English: United we stand, divided we fall.
But it is used in competitions or wars, a little different from the cultural contexts
of the Chinese proverbs.)

 Individualism: (individual is more important than group.)

Hofstede found that English-speaking cultures such as England, America, and
Australia show a strong tendency in individualism. Individualists value individual’s
rights and independent thinking. In these cultures, children are raised by being treated
like an adult; parents ask children’s opinions and let them make many decisions for
themselves. They are expected to speak for themselves, express their thoughts directly,
and make achievements without others’ help. Below are the main features of
individualism:
- Saying what you think directly is valued. You should honestly tell others your
opinions, even though it might hurt others’ feelings. As a result, the
communication style is straightforward, as individualist people often offer their
thoughts without considering too much about how the listener might feel.
Therefore, conflicts and arguments are normal. Individualists would not feel
uncomfortable with a person who they argue with because they expect each
other to say what they think directly.
- The task that you are expected to do is more important than relationships.
Getting things done is more important than keeping good interpersonal
relationships. In business negotiations, Personal relationship is a plus, but not
necessary. They do not have to know each other deeply to make business deals.
Since they believe each individual is responsible for everything s/he does,
family and friends (who you know) is not related in business dealing.
- Self, self-respect, self-actualizing, individual, I, me are important words that
reflect individualism. The value of a human being, in individualist culture, lies
in ‘self’; thus from childhood self-confidence and self-respect are developed
when adults (parents and teachers) give children many opportunities to succeed
and praise their success. Adults also respect children’s ideas and opinions. The

15
 meaning of life is to ‘actualize’ oneself (實現自我); that is, use one’s potential
to do things that one wishes to do.
- Privacy, individual rights, and individual properties are valued. Each person is
responsible for everything s/he does, and each individual should have his/her
own privacy, rights, and personal belongings. In collectivist family, every
family member shares the same house and all the space. Parents enter children’s
rooms freely; basically all rooms in the house are public. On the other hand, in
individualist family, each child has her/his own room (if affordable) and even
parents need to get children’s permission to enter the room. Each child’s
belongings are labeled clearly, unlike in collectivist family in which most things
are shared between siblings.

Comparisons of individualism and collectivism

Collectivism
Individuals are taken care by (big)
family and community, and they should
take care of others, too.
Group harmony is more important, so
speak politely and indirectly.
Relationship more important than task
The word ‘we’ is used more than ‘I’.
Sharing among group members
Get involved with others in the same
group
Divide others into in-group and
out-group (one of us/them)
Individuals are expected to behave in
similar ways as others in the same
group.
Individualism
Individuals take care of themselves and
their immediate family (parents &
children).
Speaking one’s mind directly is
expected.
Task more important than relationship
The word ‘I’ is used more than ‘we’.
Privacy and personal space
Mind own business
See others as just individuals
Individuals are expected to behave in
their own ways, showing their
personality and unique opinions.

Communication issues
For collectivists, when they meet individualists, they would have the impression that
the individualists are rude, not considerate, and arrogant. This is because
collectivists are used to communicate indirectly, saving each other’s faces. Most East
Asians are collectivists, so we need to interpret others’ behaviors and words carefully.
Most individualists are simply saying what they think without any intention to hurt our
feelings. We should not judge them in the same way.

On the other hand, individualists would see collectivists as dishonest, not being true to
themselves, and sometimes the label ‘corrupt’ may be attached to collectivists for
their emphasis on relationship. So when we (collectivists) deal with individualists, we

16
can adjust our style to care less about others’ feelings and face. Instead, we focus on
the message or idea that we want them to understand.

A common misunderstanding between collectivists and individualists happens when

the collectivists disagree to the opinions of the individualists. Since collectivists
usually avoid arguments and conflicts, they seldom express rejections directly. They
may use ‘um, well, let me think about it’ these kinds of vague words but not ‘no, I
don’t agree, not good’ these kinds of direct expressions. Individualists would then
misunderstand this as ‘maybe’, and think that the collectivists do not disagree or reject
their ideas. They would be surprised, sometimes angry, when later the collectivists
make their disagreement more clear after the individualists push their ideas again.

What is the meaning of ‘Ha-i はい’ in Japanese?

１. Yes. (That’s right. Or I agree with you.)
２. I understand what you say.
３. I am aware that you are talking to me.
４. I am not interested in what you say, but to be polite, I have to make some sound.
５. All of the above.

A Japanese businessman visited a local factory to discuss a potential deal. The local
host explained in details all the questions by the Japanese, who kept saying ‘はい’
when hearing his words. The local host thought that the Japanese should be
interested in buying their products because he kept saying ‘はい’ (yes). That evening
they also had a dinner together, chatting happily. So he was very surprised that a
week later, the Japanese company informed his factory that they were not interested
in their products. He also learned a lesson about the meaning of ‘はい’.

2. Orientation to power
In business this is the most important cultural dimension because management mostly
concerns power, which decides how resources are used and which actions to make.
How people see and deal with power is a central topic in management. Power distance
is defined as “the extent to which the less powerful members…expect and accept that
power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 2001, p. 61) Power and authority also play
an important role in social relationships.

 Large Power Distance:

- Power, privilege and status are good. The society needs to have different levels.
People have their own place in the society: Smarter or more capable people get
more power to do good things for the society as a whole. People believe that
humans are born unequal, so different levels in the society are good.

17
 - Less powerful people depend on those who are more powerful to give them
guidance and advice.
- Style of speech is formal. Politeness is important because it shows status.
- Subordinates/employees and children expect their boss and parents to give them
orders. They do not speak without being asked. The order is mostly decided by
the powerful, and the powerless people learn first by following the order by the
powerful people.
- Respect, master, obeying are important words that reflect cultures of high power
distance. Less powerful people should respect more powerful people, who are
regarded as master with expertise.

 Small Power Distance:

- Privileges and status symbols are not valued. Everyone should be equal.
- There should be interdependence between less and more powerful people. This
means, we need each other no matter powerful or not.
- Style of speech is not very formal, but more casual between people of different
power.
- Subordinates/employees and children expect to be consulted; that is, their boss
and parents would ask their opinions before making decisions.
- Rights, negotiation, fairness are important words that reflect cultures which
have low power distance.

Comparisons of large and small power distance cultures

Large power distance culture (hierarchy) Small power distance culture (equal)
People are born unequal. People are born with equal rights.
Power, privilege and status are valued. Privileges and status symbols are not
valued
More powerful/capable people should Everyone in the group decides the fate
decide the fate of the whole group of the group.
Taller organization (pyramid) Flatter organization
Less powerful people expect more More powerful people consult the
powerful to give orders and instructions. opinions of the less powerful people.
Respect, master, obeying Rights, negotiation, fairness

Communication issues
For people from a large power distance culture, they would see those from a small
power distance culture as not respecting the elders or authority. They may use
‘rebellious’, ‘unruly’, and ‘improper’ to describe people from a small power 註解 [柯宜中9]: Resisting authority
叛逆
distance culture. As can be seen in Figure 2.2, most Asian countries belong to large
註解 [柯宜中10]: Un+rule+y 不守規
power distance group, so it is normal for us to regard Europeans and Americans as 矩
‘disrespectful’ or ‘always challenging us’.

18
For people from a small power distance culture, they would see authoritative bosses,
teachers, or parents (people with power) and obedient/weak employees, students and
children in a large power distance culture. We may hear many native English teachers
complain that Taiwanese students are all passive followers, listening to others without
their own voices. They do not understand that Taiwanese students show respect to
teachers this way, and it does not mean that students do not have their own thoughts.
Cultural differences may lead to cultural misunderstandings.

Figure 2.2 Power distance vs. Individualism, by country

Power distance and orientation to group are highly related as seen in Figure 2.2. There
are some exceptions like France and Belgium, but in general, collectivist countries
usually have larger power distance. Those countries on the green line have
corresponding cultural values for these two dimensions. Taiwan and Thailand are
located close by, both with high collectivist numbers and medium-high power
distance.

Remember that Hofstede’s study focuses on the national level, not individual level.
So it is only a possible cultural reference and often we meet individualist people
from a collectivist country. His study only tells us that it is more likely that we meet
collectivist people from a collectivist country and knowing collectivist cultural
values can help us better communicate with these people.

19
Discussion questions: What are your cultural values more similar to?
(Individualism/collectivism/large/small power distance)
2.5 Low vs. High context culture and its implications on IC
One important dimension that affects IC a lot is to what extent a culture depends
on ‘context’ to communicate (Hall, 1967). Context is like the background of an event,
the conditions or circumstances that are relevant to an event or a fact. Nothing happens
in a vacuum, and the specific time-space with everything surround the event can be 註解 [u11]: Empty space with nothing
真空
seen as the context. For example, when you walked into a class and saw Teacher, you
said ‘hello’. The context of this ‘hello’ would include the time (when), who (who you
are and who the teacher is), where (which classroom), what (which class, what
happened before in the class and between you and Teacher) and many more
information.
In a low-context culture (such as American, German, and Swiss), communication
is done mostly through direct language and messages. People do not expect others to
guess their meanings from the context and other clues like facial expression and tones.
Messages are explicitly expressed in the language. People in Germany, Northern 註解 [u12]: Fully and clearly
expressed 外顯的
Europe tend to have such low-context communication style. They would say “please
stop talking in the library. The rule is: keep quiet.”
In a high-context culture (such as Japanese, Arabic, and Latin American),
communication is done mostly through hints in the context. People do not directly
say what they mean, particularly if it may threaten the face of the listener. They expect 註解 [u13]: Hurt implicitly 威脅

others to pick up their meanings from their facial expression, tones, history (what they
have said or done in the past) and the immediate situation. People in East Asia are
regarded as mostly using high-context communication style. They would probably
stare at those who are talking in the library, and then say “this is library.” They expect 註解 [柯宜中14]: Look at someone
attentively 瞪
the listeners to know that they should not talk in the library.

Context
Words Words

Context
Message in low-context culture Message in high-context culture

The graphs above show the differences in the message delivered by people in
20
low-context and high-context culture. In low-context culture, people use specific
words that include many details of their message. Context (situation, occasion) only
plays a secondary role in communication. They do not assume that the listener stands
on the same ground as they do, so they provide many details and background of their
message. On the other hand, people in high-context culture usually use words that only
make sense in the specific context. The dotted line surrounding ‘words’ in the graph
above means that the words are part of the context. The same words, if used in a
different context, would have very different meaning. In the same context, different
words may still have the same meaning because in high-context culture, the message
is conveyed mostly by context, the particular situation, facial expression, gestures, and
tones.

Below is a conversation in a Japanese movie that illustrates

high-context communication style.

Invitation
From the movie ‘Shall we ダンス？’—A Japanese movie [8:21”].
1. Male student: 先生 (せんせい)。[Teacher]
2. Female teacher: どうなさったんですか？[What is it?]
3. Male student: あ、今日は、どうもありがとうございました。
[Ah, today, thank you very much.]
4. Female teacher: いえ、わたし、玉子先生みたいに教えるのは慣れていない
から。[No, I was not able to teach so well as teacher Tamako.]
5. Male student: いいえ，全然、そんなことないです。感動しました。[No,
definitely, no such thing! (you were very good) I was impressed.]
6. Female teacher: どうも。[Thanks]
7. Male student: あ、いや、どうも。…あ、食事をしてなかったものですから、
食事して帰ろうと思ったんですけど、一人で食べるのは味気ないし、もし先生
もお腹すいていらしたらと思って...[Ah, nothing. Well, I have not had
dinner yet, and intend to eat before returning home. It is not interesting
to eat alone, so if teacher has not eaten, either, then...]
8. Female teacher: あのー、申し訳ないんですけれども、教室の外で生徒さん
と個人的にご一緒するのはどうも...[Well, I am very sorry. Eating together
with my student privately outside of the classroom is quite...]
9. Male student: あー、そうですか。[Ah, I see.]
10. Female teacher: どうも、失礼いたします。[So, please excuse me (I am
leaving).]

The conversation above illustrates the communication in a high-context culture.

The male student would like to invite the female teacher to have a meal together, but

21
he did it in a very indirect way that he never actually asked the question at all (would
you like to have a meal with me?). He first started the conversation with a thank-you,
small talk not related to his main intention. This is very common in high-context
culture as people build a relationship first before discussing main ideas. In line 7 he
changed the topic to his main intention, inviting the teacher to have dinner together.
But he did it in a very indirectly way, pausing in the middle of a sentence to let the
listener complete the sentence.

In such a high-context culture, communication is quite indirect, and people read

the situation (air or atmosphere/空気を読む) to guess the message. The words that
people say cannot be understood if the situation is not understood first. If we do not
know their relationship and the situation, we cannot understand exactly the meanings
of their words.

In high-context culture, knowing how to interact with other people is important.

There are certainly interaction patterns that are like rituals in communication. For
example, to make a request in Japanese, many Japanese people would follow the four 註解 [柯宜中15]: Ask someone to do
something
steps below instead of ask for help directly:
1.Attention: あのう (a starting sound)
2.Excuse me, sorry すみません
3.Sorry to bother you, but..失礼ですが
4.A little favor to ask ちょっと

Refuse indirectly：ちょっと(somewhat, a little (inconvenient))、考えておきます

(Let me consider about it). Or agree first, and then use ‘but’ to reject a suggestion. For
example, “it’s a good idea, but I am not available.” “That sounds great, but
unfortunately I cannot go.” In collectivist cultures, it is less likely to hear people
saying “I’m not interested” because this is more direct comparing to “I would like to,
but I have other obligations.” (I am forced to say no to you.) The former is more
face-threatening than the latter, but again when the speaker is indeed not interested,
this kind of ‘white lie’ (say something opposite to their mind to let the listener feel
better) may become a problem if the listener is from an individualist low-context
culture who takes the words for their literal meanings.

American version of the same scene (39:00”):

(They met outside after the class. The teacher’s (Jennifer Lopez)
precious coat had stain (dirty spots) and the student (Richard Gere)
tried to comfort her. Then he invited her directly.)

1. Male student: I..I haven't eaten yet, If you haven't eaten yet, maybe
we can go and... get a bite, Someplace close, You know, I saw a
Chinese over here, We could use chopsticks and drop an endless
variety of things on our clothes.
22
2. Female teacher: I'm sorry, I prefer not to socialize with students.
3. Male student: Oh, OK, All right.

Comparing the American version with the Japanese one, we can find that the
American male invited his teacher directly. The invitation “we can go and get a bite” is
quite clear, and he even mentioned a particular restaurant. Teacher’s rejection was also
direct and clear by using ‘not’. In contrast, the Japanese teacher’s declination did not 註解 [u16]: Noun of ‘decline’, to
reject in directly. 婉拒
contain the word ‘not’. She only said ‘very sorry’, and did not complete her sentence.
The Japanese teacher expected the student to finish the sentence on the listener’s side
just like the male student did not finish his sentence when asking his teacher to have
dinner together.

A common Japanese metaphor for conversation is ‘catch-ball’. The speaker throws a

ball (message) to the listener, and the listener has to ‘catch’ it. By ‘catching’, it means
actively receive the message. If the listener does nothing, the ball will fly by and the
message is not received. To catch the message, the listener has to observe closely what
the speaker is doing so that she knows when the speaker is going to throw the ball
(message), how fast the ball is (how the message is delivered). To catch the ball it
takes efforts and techniques. Speaker and listener cooperate to make a conversation
happen. So if the listener is from another culture, s/he would probably have great
difficulties catching the ball (message) from the speaker because s/he does not know
when and how to catch the ball.

When people from the opposite cultures meet, misunderstandings would happen very
often. Low-context people would complain ‘what are they saying?’ ‘Why don’t they
complete their sentences?’ ‘Why don’t they tell me what they think?’ On the other
hand, high-context people would also wonder ‘why cannot they understand me? Why
are they so dull and silly and rude?’ If both sides become more aware of the different
communication styles, then they each can make adjustments to make their intercultural
communication more efficient and effective.

Discussion questions:

１. What is your communication style? Low-context or high-context? How do

people in your family speak? Very specific or indrect?

２. If you meet a person with a very different communication style, what problems
may happen? How can you adjust your ways of communication?

23
 Ming was curious about the Indian classmate Raj. He had watched some
Bollywood movies, and thought that most Indians like to sing and dance. So he
invited Raj to join school’s dance club. Raj said ‘Thank you. But I have no plan to
join a club as of now.’ Ming thought that Raj was just being shy or polite, so he
kept inviting him. After several times, Raj would not talk to Ming anymore.

Chapter Five: How culture affects communication

＊ Our perception is affected by cultural framework.
＊ Stereotype as a perception influences how we see and interact with others.
＊ We need to become aware of how we make judgments and decisions.

5.1 Perception (psychology)

Our senses (we can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell) help us understand the world
around us. But there are so many things going on in our surrounding world at the same
time that we can only pick up some parts. Psychologists (scientists who study human
minds) have found that people often neglect many details in our surroundings because
our mind is not able to process so much information. Magicians often use this in their
tricks to fool people by diverting their attention.
Seeing something physically does not mean that we know what we see.
‘Perception’ is a word used to describe the process in which we select, organize, and
interpret information from our senses. To perceive is to ‘see’ and make sense of what 註解 [柯宜中17]: Understand, realize,
comprehend 理解意義
is seen. In other others, to perceive is to see with our brain, not just what our eyes see.
Since people select different parts, organize and interpret them differently, it is
common that two people at the same scene describe quite differently what they ‘see’.
For example, look at the picture below for ten seconds. Write down what you see, and
then compare with your classmates.

24
Do you see two English words? What do they suggest about this picture? Yes, it is a
screenshot of a computer game. Besides clowns, what do you see? Do you see roller
skates (直排輪)? A toddler(剛會走路的幼兒)? A father, mother and daughter? An
alien (外星人)? A wizard (巫師)? There are so many things in just one picture, and we
all see different things in the same picture. So imagine the differences that people have
when they see the same movie. And our real life is more complex than a movie.
註解 [柯宜中18]: very small
We only see a tiny part of what our eyes receive. You might be surprised to find out
that your classmates see some details that you did not see! We select those that are
meaningful to us, and process the image. After the image reaches our brain, we need to
make sense of the image. We add meanings to what we see so that we can understand
what are going on in our context. Meanings come from our learning experience, which
is greatly influenced by culture. You might hear a saying that we see the world not
through eyes, but through mind. It is our mind that determines what we see.

25
How our mind sees the world is called ‘perspective’. The same thing can be
‘perceived’ in many different ways. People interpret the same event differently. We
might see different things if we change a perspective! Look at the pictures below:

Seeing is NOT believing! These are all famous pictures that psychologists drew to
stress the point that perspectives decide what we perceive. This also reminds us not to
believe that what we see or perceive is always true. We need to keep an open mind
because from another perspective the same thing would have quite different meanings.

From many English learners in East Asia, the differences between the meanings of the
words ‘see’ and ‘look’, ‘hear’ and ‘listen’, are not that clear because in their first
language the translation for the two words are the same. But again, the differences lie
in the keyword: ‘attention’. Of course, both ‘look’ and ‘listen’ are intransitive verbs,
that is, verb used without object. You cannot say ‘look/listen me’. This actually relates
to the main difference: whether we do the action with attention or not. When we see
something with attention, we are ‘looking at’ something. Same with ‘listen’. When we

26
receive visual and audio inputs (that is, when we see or hear), we
must actively pay attention to certain information in these inputs and
interpret to make senses and understand the messages. This is
particularly important in listening because unlike visual images, we
cannot hear the sound again. Paying attention is very important in
IC.

How we see the world is greatly affected by our cultures. Culture affects where to pay
attention to (select), how to connect the selected information, and how to draw
meanings in the end. For example, as we mention earlier in Chapter 2, most people in
East Asia are collectivists, focusing on groups and relationships. So when they see the
picture below, they tend to focus on more the background (where this picture is taken,
what is the situation) and the relationship between the people, compared to people
from individualist cultures, who would pay more attention to the two people in the
picture. Can you guess who they are, what they are doing, and where this picture was
taken?
This may be explained by the high-context
culture in East Asia. Since in the
high-context culture, communication relies
much on the context, people have to learn to
read the context quickly. As a result, they
make senses of what they see by trying to
understanding the context first. The
information of the place, time, interpersonal
relationship, and situation of the picture is
important for people from high context
cultures. On the other hand, in low context
cultures, those who speak directly and use much body language are considered good
communicators. Thus listeners focus on the speaker first, not the context.

Discussion questions:
1. Why do our eyes sometimes ‘betray’ us? Why is seeing not believing? Give
some personal examples of ‘misperception’ (see something incorrectly).
2. If we cannot trust our senses (seeing, hearing…), then how can we know what
is real and true?

27
 5.2 Stereotype, prejudice and discrimination

A stereotype is a generalized idea or image that many

people have of a particular type of person or thing or a
group of people, but which is not totally true in reality.
The word comes from printing, where it was used to
describe the printing plate used to produce the same image over and over again.
We have stereotypes when we believe that a group of people hold the same
features such as ‘Dogs are noisy’, ‘government officials are corrupted’, ‘Japanese
people are polite,’ and ‘Americans are casual.’ When we think of a group of people,
a specific image would appear in our mind. This image is our stereotype about this
group of people.

Everyone has more or less certain kinds of stereotypes. It is inevitable that we

have stereotypes. Many stereotypes come from mass media (Africans are poor,
people in the Middle East are always fighting, and Indians are dirty and smelly).
Other possible sources include education (think about the pictures in your
textbooks), our own experience (impressions from people we meet), and the
experience of our family and close friends. We are forming stereotypes
unconsciously anytime when we get into contact with a group of people. We
collect the information and later it helps us understand some general patterns of
how a group of people might have. Then we can adjust our interactions with them
with the knowledge, but we must be careful not to assume all people from the
group are the same.

If we know nothing about a group of people, for example, people from

Seychelles, then we would not have stereotypes about them. We must know
something about the group of people before we have any stereotype. Usually, the
more we know about and get into contact with people from a certain culture, the
more stereotypes we have. Therefore, East Asians have many stereotypes about
one another: for instance, Japanese are polite, Koreans always try to win, Chinese
are good at doing business, and Taiwanese are friendly to foreigners.

Stereotypes may be positive or negative. We are less aware of positive

stereotypes because we all know that we should not have negative stereotypes,
which often lead to prejudice and discrimination. The examples in the last
paragraph are positive stereotypes, but they could be interpreted negatively:
Japanese are over polite that makes them insincere; Koreans put winning above
everything so that they sometimes cheat; Chinese focus too much on making
money so that corruption is normal; Taiwan are too kind to foreigners that they
are easy to be taken advantage of. A positive stereotype for us may be a negative
one for them. When a stereotype does not fit reality, problems would arise.

28
 Stereotypes could be generally true or complete false. Most stereotypes only
reflect the most obvious features of a group of people, and they are seldom good
indicators of the reality, which is often complex. Any group people would consist
of many kinds of people, so a stereotypical image could fall anywhere in the
normal distribution as shown below:
Boys speak little Girls are talkative

Speak little
Talkative

quiet talkative
Figure 4.1 Gender stereotypes
In the figure above, the vertical black lines are our stereotypes about boys and
girls. We might believe that most girls are talkative but according to our standard
(the black line), in fact only one third are indeed talkative while most girls are not
really talkative as we think. This stereotype is generally false. On the other hand,
the other stereotype ‘boys speak little’ may be generally true because in reality
over two thirds of boys speak little. Of course the definitions for ‘talkative’ and
‘speak little’ are very subjective and we cannot scientifically measure the two
features. So no one can tell exactly to what extent a stereotype is true. But we can
get a relative estimation. For example, the stereotype ‘young Korean girls want to
have plastic surgery to create a beautiful face’ can be examined by using surveys
to get an estimation of the percentage.
Our stereotypes about another group of people may be the result of relative
comparisons between us and them. Suppose that they are three groups of people, A, B,
and C, and group A is quiet, group C is talkative, with group B in between. So while
group A would think group B is talkative, group C would think group B is quiet.
Consequently, there are two conflicting stereotypes of group B, from group A and C.

Group C
Group A
quiet
talkative

Group B
Quiet Talkative

29
 We have stereotypes about other groups of people as well as our own groups.
Again our stereotypes about ourselves are formed from comparisons and contacts with
other groups. Many of the stereotypes about ourselves are the opposite of the
stereotypes of other groups that we look up to. When compared to the clean
environment in Japan, Taiwan seems quite dirty. Taiwanese are not as considerate and
polite as Japanese. But if the comparison is with another less-developed country, then
the perception would be quite different.

Most countries try to present their best side to outsiders. In tourism promotions
foreigners can only see the positive side. As a result, most outsiders at first only hold
positive stereotypes about a group of people. With more knowledge about the group of
people, then both positive and negative sides will be known. Insiders know much
about their own group, so many self-stereotypes (stereotypes about our own group) are
negative.

Generalizations and categories are necessary, but when we apply these categories
directly, they can be a problem that prevents us from effectively interpreting a
situation. Our perceptions will be affected by our stereotypes. In intercultural
communication particularly, it is important to be aware of how stereotypes may affect
our perceptions and thus how we make senses of the subsequent behaviors in
intercultural interactions. If we believe in something, we tend to focus on it when we
spot it [this is called perception bias]. If we believe dogs like to bark, and we would
remember dog-barking instances more vividly while not paying attention to
non-barking dogs. Similarly, if we believe in a negative stereotype about a group of
people, we tend to notice the negative behavior when we see them while ignore the
cases when they do not do the negative behavior.

The results of stereotypes create prejudices and discriminations. Prejudices are

prejudgments we have about a group of people based on stereotypes. We decide/judge
before we know the person based on his/her group and our stereotypes about his/her
group. We have biased perceptions about the person due to his/her group identity.
What usually follows is discrimination; that is, we make actions based on the
prejudice. We do something unfair to the prejudiced person.

For example, if our stereotype of people with dark skin is that they are poor,
then when we see a person with dark skin we would prejudge the person to be
poor, not rich. If we are shop owners selling brand products, we would believe that
they cannot afford pricy/more expensive products. [This is an example of
prejudice.] Then if the person asks us to offer more information about a pricy
product, we would be reluctant to tell. Some of us may even say ‘this product is too
expensive for you; would you like that one (a cheaper product)?’ The actions that
we take based on prejudice are called discriminations.

30
 We might treat a group of people better or worse based on our positive or
negative stereotypes. Both positive and negative discriminations lead to chain
reactions, or positive/vicious cycles. Using the same example, probably due to our
recommendation, the customer with dark skin does buy the cheaper product; then
this confirms our stereotype. We would say ‘see, I knew they are poor and can
only afford cheaper products.’ Then the stereotype becomes stronger. We never
consider that it is our action that leads to the result, not because our stereotype is
correct. This is called confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias

Prejudice based on race is called racism, while sexism and ageism are
prejudices based on sex and age respectively. We form prejudices based many
characteristics with race/skin color, sex, and age among the most common. Other
common sources of prejudices include ethnicity, region/hometown, accent/
language use, and appearances (face, shape, and height). People prejudge others
based on many possible features, sometimes quite ridiculous! (Small-eyed people
are dishonest; curly-haired people are passionate, and so on.)

Since prejudices are powerful, people may perform one of their identities to
take advantages of positive stereotypes and avoid the disadvantages brought by
negative stereotype. A young East Asian boy may use the positive stereotype that
Asians are smart and good in math to get better treatments. Since he knows that
people see young people as immature and male as impulsive, both negative
stereotypes, he would emphasize his identity as an East Asian and try to hide (at
least make them less visible) his age and gender identities. Therefore, knowing
people’s stereotypes is important!

31
 The power of perception and stereotype is stronger than most people expect. A
famous experiment was carried out in an American classroom. Researchers
randomly chose 20% of the students from the class and told the teacher that these
students were talented and had potentials. In fact they had the same IQ score as the
rest of the class. One year later, researchers found out that these chosen students
scored 4 more points in IQ tests than the other students! Teacher’s positive
expectation might lead to more attention to these chosen students, who might also
have higher self-expectation. They thus studied harder and achieved higher. This is
called ‘Pygmalion effect’ (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968).

On the other hand, we may safely guess that the opposite would be true if a
student is labeled ‘failure’ or ‘loser’. Even if the student does quite well in a test,
teacher may even suspect cheating or use ‘luck’ to explain the high score. This
shows people see the same results of behaviors differently based on their
perceptions of the person who does the behaviors.

In many cases we are not aware of our discriminations against certain groups
of people. We take for granted our perceptions and stereotypes and believe that
we treat everyone equally. Numerous researches have shown that no human
beings can avoid having bias and stereotypes. Next section you will be asked to
examine your perceptions to become more aware of our ways of thinking.

Discussion questions:

1. How can we find our stereotypes about other groups and ourselves?

2. How to deal with these stereotype so that it will not affect IC?

3. What can we do if others have prejudices and discrimination against us?

32
 5.3 Ladder of inference & Ethnocentrism

The Ladder of Inference first developed by

Chris Argyris (1990) is a tool for understanding
our thinking process and analyzing our
perceptions. As mentioned in the first section
of this chapter, we have certain ways of seeing
the world, influenced by the cultures in which
we grow up. These ways of seeing the world
are like the glasses that we wear to see the
world. If we wear a different pair of glasses,
we see a different world. The Ladder of
Inference is another metaphor for the ‘worldview glasses’.

The word ‘infer’ means ‘to derive by reasoning, conclude or judge from
evidences.’ The Ladder of Inference describes a common mental process in which we
select certain information from some behavior we have observed. We try to find out
the meanings of the selected information and in this meaning-making process, certain
assumptions are made. We then come to conclusions about the meanings of the
behavior. We then adopt new beliefs about the world based on the conclusions. We
climb the ladder of inference as we interpret and evaluate a certain behavior. As we
reach the top of the ladder, we do certain actions based on the conclusions.

We climb the Ladder of inference all the

time often unconsciously. It could be a certain
look or gesture. For instance, teachers would
see a student closing her eyes and not moving
at all during a lecture. This sight could trigger
teachers to start to step on the Ladder of
Inference:

※She’s very tired.

※She’s not listening to my lecture.
※She’s not interested.
※She doesn’t care about my course.
※She has no respect for me
※She is not serious about studies
※I should wake her up and embarrass her so
that she could learn a lesson.
⁞

33
Teachers first ‘select’ the sight of the student closing her eyes, and describe the sight
as being tired. More meanings are then added as teachers try to explain for the sight:
not listening to the lecture and not interested. After interpretation, evaluation takes
place. Teachers may judge the student based on the interpretation: the student does not
care about the course. Some teachers would have some theories about the phenomenon;
for example, ‘students who sleep in class are not afraid of the teacher or have no
respect for the teacher.’ The conclusion that teachers came to is ‘this student is not
serious about studies’, and based on this conclusion, teachers take actions (wake her
up and embarrass her) hoping to help the student.

There are other ladders that teachers can climb. They can see it differently:
※She’s digesting my lecture => Explain more clearly.
※Her family had an emergency last night so she did not sleep at all. => Let her rest.
※A dust went into her eyes => Ignore her.
⁞
Remember that there are many possible ladders of inference that we can climb; that is,
we can explain what we see in many different ways, so we should be careful not to
jump to the conclusion too soon. Stereotypes and prejudgment would determine which
ladder we climb, because we believe in our stereotypes and prejudices. By slowing
down our judging process, we can become more aware of what information we select
and how we describe the information (the first two steps of the ladder). Be careful
about which ladder to climb and we are more likely to climb the right ladder.

Ethnocentrism (ethno (race/culture/people) + center + ism)

It seems natural to see the world through the glasses that we wear all the time. In
other words, we have a tendency to see everything from our own cultural perspective
even though other cultures are involved. We would not be aware or simply forget that
people from other cultures may see the world differently. So if East Asians see foreign
guests wearing their shoes into their living room, they would regard these foreign
guests as rude or barbarian/uncivilized. This is an ethnocentric view.

Ethnocentrism is seeing the world from our own cultural lens; our culture is the
center of the world, thus the best and most reasonable one in the world. Other cultures
are not as good as our own culture. Ethnocentric view is common: the literal meaning
of China is Middle/Central Kingdom; Middle East is called Middle East because this
was the view of the Greek, which also called East Asia ‘Far East’ and West Europe
‘the West’. [For East Asians, Middle East should be called the West and Europe ‘Far
West’!] A lot of place names reveal the perspective of the name givers. Tokyo (the
East capital) is called Tokyo because its location is to the East of The Capital (Kyoto).
Can you guess the origin of the names of Nanjing (south capital) and Beijing (north
capital)?

34
 The reason why some Europeans recognize Taiwan by the name of Formosa is
because the name was given by Europeans in a European language. Throughout the
history, ethnocentric views have continued to influence our world. In recent decades,
with globalization and increasing intercultural communication, people have started to
become more aware of it and the view of the minorities (people who are not
mainstream or those with power) has been more widely acknowledged.

Cultural Shock
When do you feel “shocked”? What shocks you? Shock is like big surprise
that you never expected. You meet a world that is so different from your
own. We are so used to seeing people wave hello that we are shocked when
meeting someone who says hello by rubbing noses with us. When we meet
cultural differences, it is typical to feel unreal and strange. Many people
would see other different cultures as ‘bad’, ‘undeveloped’, and ‘abnormal’. It
may be human nature that we see foreigners as lower than us (people in the
same group). In English the word foreigner comes from ‘outsider’ and
‘stranger’. ‘Barbarian’ (野蠻人) also means outsider or foreigner in Roman
Empire. In Chinese, we call foreigners 番仔, which is similar to barbarians.
Therefore it seems normal that people look down on foreigners. But of
course we now know this is not good for the world, since no one want to be
looked down. Everyone is a local in their own society, but a foreigner in
another society. Thus, we need to deal with cultural shock by adjusting our
worldviews and attitudes.

In our daily life within our own culture, we always believe that others think just
like us. This is because indeed most people growing up in the same culture share
similar ways of thinking. When we are used to this phenomenon, we bring this
ethnocentric view to IC. But due to our stereotypes about other groups of people, we
may go to the other extreme: foreigners do not think like us; they think in their own
ethnocentric ways. Therefore, in intercultural encounters, we believe THEY
(Japanese) think just like THEM (What we know about Japanese). We assume that
all Japanese people we meet would pay attention to details just like all Japanese
people are supposed to do. Over-generalization (applying our partially correct cultural
knowledge to all members of the group) may be a barrier for effective IC. 註解 [u19]: Something that prevents
progress, 障礙

35
 Instead of relying on our own culture (ethnocentric view) or our knowledge about
other cultures (stereotypical view), a better approach is to take a contextual view that
focuses more on the immediate situation and an open mind to understand more about 註解 [u20]: become involved, have
the people we are engaged with. Recognize the complexity of human beings, and keep interactions, get into contact 相關

a humble attitude to learn about the diverse human world!

Discussion questions:
1. Why do we feel so uncomfortable seeing something quite different from our
cultural norms (like those upside down maps)?

2. When you meet a foreigner for the first time, would you guess that he likes
our food (just like we do and East Asian foods are well-know for its taste) or
dislikes (due to some possible reasons)? Based on what do you make the
judgment? If you are going to treat him a local dish, which dish would you
choose? (Which dish do you think he would like it and why?)

36
 After a while, Ming stopped inviting Raj to dance. But he felt unhappy. One day
they met on the street, and Raj smiled at him while putting his palms together in
front of his chest. Ming was confused and interpreted it as that Raj was praying.
He shook his hand to mean that he doesn’t need Raj’s prayer, but found Raj’s
confused face. Raj started to speak Indian English that Ming could not catch up.

Chapter Six: Nonverbal communication

Key points
＊ Body language and other nonverbal communication is important in IC.
＊ Cultures affects the physical distance between people in conversations.
＊ The way we speak or use language differs due to culture.

6.1 Greetings
Research showed that over 70% of the messages in speaking are
communicated outside of language. We rely much on visual input to
understand the world. In face-to-face IC, body language creates the first
impressions, which play a powerful role in communication. In
telephone, the volume, speed, tone, and quality of the voice
(paralanguage) greatly affect how we receive the message (meaning) in
the language. In this section we first look at the greetings and hand
gestures that people from different cultures may use.

Right now ‘hello’ in daily life and handshaking in business has

become quite common in greetings. Still, there are some general
patterns for different cultures. For most Asians, having body contacts
with strangers or someone they just meet is unacceptable. Bowing,
waving hands, and prayer-like position (see right) are common ways
of greeting. Touching another person’s body (particularly head) is a
taboo (not allowed) in most Asian countries if we are not familiar with
the person.

In contrast, Latin peoples like Hispanics, Italians, French and Portuguese would
have body contact in greetings like hugging, patting each other on back and
kissing on the cheek or hand. Males and females probably would greet different,
and greetings between people of the same gender would be different from
greetings between people of different genders. Age, status, and social positions
would all affect greeting manners, so the safer way is to observe and follow the
lead from the local people.

In the case of eye contact, generally looking at each other’s face is expected.
But in high-power distance cultures (East Asia), a subordinate (employee) usually
does not look at her boss directly in the eyes. This may also apply to student-teacher
and child-parent situations. It is impolite in these cultures to stare at a person with a
higher position. So avoiding eye contact in this situation is out of respect. However,
for many westerners, avoiding eye contacts is a sign of lack of confidence. Westerners

37
would regard most East Asians as shy and timid judging from their lack of eye contact.
In English classes, East Asian students may look at western teachers directly to give
the teachers support and show their interests in the course. On the other hand, many
East Asians find westerners rude and arrogant probably due to their aggressive eye
contact.

Greeting is the first step in intercultural encounters, and a good impression may be
critical. Like the old Chinese saying, ‘good beginning is
half success’, a culturally proper greeting could be quite
helpful in building intercultural relationship. The picture
below shows American President Obama bowing to and
handshaking with Japanese Emperor. Both the American
and Japanese greeting manners were taken in this case.
Using the greetings from both cultures is a possible way
to make both sides happy, and this is called cultural
adaptation. Obama was much younger than the Emperor,
so in Japanese culture Obama should bow lower. Obama
was criticized in the U.S. for showing too much respect
to the Emperor judging from the bowing position, but
when politics is involved in intercultural communication, there will never be a
perfectly proper way because of cultural differences. Compromise or adaptation is
inevitable, and it is better than adopting either culture. If Obama only did handshaking,
he might be criticized for not showing respect to the Japanese culture. If he only
bowed, then he would be described as forgetting his own culture.

Physical appearance also affects our perceptions. Height, weight, body shape, hair,
and dress all create certain impressions. Remember we talk about how stereotypes
change the way we treat people. If in our culture, taller people are regarded as smarter,
then we have to be very careful when meeting tall foreigners because we cannot judge
their height as being smarter. Maybe most people from their culture are taller than
people from our culture, Moreover, the stereotype that taller people are smarter may be
only a myth, or the stereotype comes from the fact that most people in our culture are
not tall.

How people dress themselves and the

accessories they wear (for example, necklace,
bracelet, hair clip, and belt) are also related to
culture. We often judge other people based on
their appearance, and our judgment comes from
our own culture. Our ethnocentric tendency
often leads to certain cultural stereotypes just
because of other groups’ clothing. We regard
Japanese people as polite because we see them
wear formal suits and put on makeup before
38
they go to public places. We think Americans are casual because we often see them
wear T-shirts and jeans. We see Muslims as mysterious because they dress in a quite
different way. Just like the comic shows, both the bikini girl and Muslim woman think
the other person dressed in an improper way because the female dresses according to
the male’s wish. Clothing only reflects cultural preferences, and we should respect
different cultural preferences and try to understand others’ thoughts and values instead
of judging others from our own cultural preferences.
We interpret nonverbal body language intuitively based on our own cultural rules
because humans tend to believe body language is universal, part of human nature, not
related to culture. There are some common elements in human’s body language that
may be universal, like smile and frown. But there are many more other parts of body
language that are not universal. They are formed culturally. Gestures are almost
exclusively cultural in nature.

Discussion questions:

１. Shaking hands and bowing at the same time is a rare case in which the greeting
manners from both sides can be practiced at the same time. In most cases, two
sides have quite different greeting manners, so how should we greet to our new
foreign friends? Use our usual manner, their usual manner, or a third way? For
example, if you (a Taiwanese who greets by waving hands) meet a new friend
from Latin America and their usual greeting manner is touching each other’s
cheek gently, would you let your new friend touch your cheek? What if your
new friend is of a different gender (if you are a girl, then he is a boy.)?

２. Following Question 1, how do you deal with a over-passionate foreigner who

ignores your messages of avoiding body contacts and keeps greeting you by
trying to hug you or kiss you on the cheeks? How can you tell if the person is
just friendly greeting or trying to take advantages of you by playing the role of
an innocent foreigner?

３. Can you find some connections between cultural values (see chapter 2) and
greeting manners? (For example, East Asians greet people without touching
their body. This relates to collectivism because…)

39
6.2 Gestures
We use hand gestures quite often to help make our messages more clear. Since
gestures are commonly used, when the same gesture has different meanings in
different cultures, misunderstanding would occur. Now think about the following
questions:
 How do you call someone over? What about a
dog? Do you move all of your fingers or only
one finger? With your palm up or down?

 How do you mean OK? How about no?

 How do you praise good performance?

 Do you use gestures to mean numbers? For

example, zero, one, two…

 When you take a picture, do you have any

special gestures? Why? What are the meanings
of these gestures?

The same gesture, if used differently in different situation, could have quite different
meanings. Look at the following pictures. What are the possible meanings?

Also it is common that people from different cultures use different gestures for the
same function. For example, saying goodbye:

The same hand waving gesture could mean ‘goodbye’, ‘no’, ‘stop’, ‘I don’t know’,
‘see here’ and ‘five’ depending on the situation. Common gestures serve multiple
functions, and we have to read the gestures along with facial expressions and whole
body language.

40
Many gestures come from the language that people use.
The “quotation” gesture in the picture is often used by
English-speaking people, but not by East Asians
because in our language we do not have this
punctuation. In Chinese the quotation marks are ｢｣.

Similarly, foreigners may be confused about the gesture

on the left, which could be × (no, or wrong), and 10 (十).
When vendors in local traditional markets use this
gesture to foreigners, they might misunderstand it as
‘no--you cannot buy this, or this is not for you.’

In addition to hand gesture,

other body movements may also cause misunderstandings.
For example, Indian people may shake their head sideway
with their face looking at you while their head moves
slightly, somewhat like a ‘bobble head’. This does not
mean that they mean ‘no’. Instead, it means they are
listening to you, paying attention to and respect for you.

Discussion questions:

Are there any gestures that you have difficulties understanding its meaning? Or
gestures that foreigners may be confused about?

41
 6.3 Personal space and physical contact

In addition to cultural differences of body contact, in different cultures, people have

different personal space or comfort zone. How far we position ourselves to the other
person in conversation is not only personal, but also cultural (Hall, 1966): in some
cultures people would keep a farther distance from others compared with other
cultures.

Generally when in public, the closer we are to a person socially, the closer we
position ourselves to the person physically. So for family members and close friends,
we feel comfortable being quite close to them because they are intimate to us. For
normal friends and acquaintances, we would position a little further. For strangers and
people that we meet for the first time, the distance would be even farther.

If we are not aware of the fact that in different cultures the personal space is
different, then we might position ourselves too close or too far from the other person
from another culture. Compared to American culture, we in Taiwan do not position
ourselves that close with our intimate friends and family. We seldom hug or have
constant physical contacts with people close to us. But our social space is not as large
as the American’s (3 meters). Of course there are individual differences, meaning
different people within the same culture would still have different concepts of personal
space, but general cultural patterns can still be found.

Taiwanese’s personal space American’s personal space

When we have conversations with a foreigner, we need to consider how close should
we sit or stand. If too close, we may seem offensive, but if too far, it may appear that
we are not interested in making friends. Cultural misunderstandings often happen due
to different ideas of personal space. One of the reasons that Taiwanese people are
considered being shy may be due to our larger personal space with new acquaintances.
We also avoid physical contacts, not allowing others to touch our body. For people
from a culture that values physical contacts, they naturally see our behaviors as ‘being
shy’, not open to outsiders.

42
 Physical contacts are an important part in intercultural communication. East Asian
cultures are considered ‘noncontact’ cultures comparing to ‘contact cultures’ in Central
and South America, Middle East, Northern Africa, and South Europe. In noncontact
cultures, people seldom touch others in public places, and they do not maintain long
eye contacts (that is, they do not look at others’ eyes directly for a long time in
conversations). On the other hand, in contact cultures touching others (on the hands,
back or shoulder) is seen as a friendly gesture.

If you are an exchange student going into a contact culture, you may experience
some cultural shock in physical contacts. Your host family may express their
hospitality by being physically close to you and touching you constantly. To perform
as a polite guest, you probably would not refuse even though you feel uncomfortable
about being touched, but your facial expressions could cause misunderstandings. Your
host family may interpret your facial expressions in a negative way, and this may
create a vicious cycle. Therefore, instead of suppressing your feelings, you should tell
your host family honestly that in your family/culture, people seldom touch each other.
You may not be able to get used to such physical contacts in a short time. You tell
them what kinds of touch you feel comfortable, and let them know that you will
gradually feel more comfortable about body touch.

People from a contact culture may make mistakes by

touching a place which is not supposed to be touched. In a
movie called Gran Torino, which highlights the Hmongs
people (who used to live in Laos, but emigrated to
America due to Vietnam War) in America, the main
character touched a Hmong child on his head to show
kindness, but touching people’s head is considered rude
and sometimes insulting in both East and Southeast Asia.
In Chinese, ‘touch head’ (摸頭) has the meaning of a
higher-positioned person pacifying/patronizing a lower-positioned person. So if a
person is touched on the head (被摸頭), he is seen as obeying the person who touches
her/his head, and this is usually used in a negative way, suggesting the person gives up
his ideals or original ambition, which could be quite insulting.

Discussion questions:

１.Find out your personal space. Experience how it feels if someone invades your
‘intimate’ space by getting close to you while speaking.
２. What are the differences between a friendly touch and sexual harassment?

43
6.4 Paralanguage
Para=> beside, alongside
Paralanguage => vocal features that accompany the speech, not considered part of
language.
When we speak, language is the content, but the way we speak is also very important.
Below are the major aspects in paralanguage:

Volume: Loud voice in casual conversation is generally not desired in Taiwan. If a

person speaks loudly, it may be interpreted as careless, not considerate to others, and
impolite. But in Arabian cultures, loud voice symbolizes strengths and sincerity. If you
speak with a low voice, it could be interpreted as lack of confidence and weak.

Also when we speak in a second or foreign language, probably due to lack of

confidence, we usually speak with a lower volume than we do in our first language. If
our volume is too low, then people cannot even hear what we speak. Therefore, when
you use English in IC, try to speak a little louder than you usually do in your first
language. Though we might pronounce a word wrong, it is still better than people not
hearing what you say. People can guess from your wrong pronunciation.

Speed Females tend to speak faster than males in most cultures. Youngsters speak
faster than elders. Besides individual differences, we may find some cultural
differences in speaking speed. Perhaps influenced by their first language, nonnative
English speakers speak English in different rates. Japanese English speakers tend to
speak slower, while French and Spanish English speakers speak faster. Hindu/Indian
English speakers may speak more words between pauses. In Taiwan, people with a
high speaking rate are usually regarded as nervous, unstable, a bit frenetic, and
fast-pace; that is, generally negative. But speaking speed may differ in different
cultures. So we have to be careful not to form incorrect impressions based on the
speed.

When using English as a lingua franca in IC, a little slower speed may be helpful
because for your friends English is also not their first language. They also need time to
process your words. Therefore a little slower speed makes sure that you have time to
pronounce words clearly, especially keywords.

Pitch/intonation: Usually high pitch indicates emotion, while low pitch may be a sign
of lack of interests or enthusiasm, or in other words, in down moods. To what extent
people show their emotion no matter in body language or paralanguage may be
influenced by culture. In Taiwan most people do not show strong emotion, particularly
negative emotions because harmony is very important. Thus we seldom hear strong
intonation or high pitch in public places. But in individualist cultures, since harmony
and interpersonal relationship are not as important as rights and reasoning, people may
use stronger intonation to express explicit emotions.

44
 High-pitch childish female voice may sound cute for Taiwanese people, but
people from other cultures may feel it immature and informal. By comparing the news 註解 [u21]: main broadcaster in the
anchors in different cultures, we will find the desired pitch/intonation in formal news 主播

situations in that culture.

Most Taiwanese tend to speak English with a flat tone, or lack of intonation.
Especially the stress sound of a word is often not pronounced strong enough. While
we do not need to intentionally speak with dramatic intonation, adding some tones by
emphasizing keywords should help IC.

Silence/pause If we listen to conversations in different cultures, we would find that in

some cultures there are more and longer pauses, that is, more silent time. Taiwanese
conversations usually do not have long pauses; silence in conversation is embarrassing
for most Taiwanese. In contrast, Japanese are more careful in speaking, and would
often think for a while before replying. We need to pay more attention to the cultural
patterns of silence and pause and do not assume that all people have the same pattern
like us. We are too used to our own cultural patterns that we do not change our
conversational style even when we are in intercultural conversations.

In some cultures it is okay or even expected that you interrupt someone else’s talk.
Overlapping (more than two people talking at the same time) is normal and people are
very used to it. In other cultures, such interruptions would be seen as rude and
disrespectful.

Now that you are aware of paralanguage, you can practice different ways of speaking
English. Paralanguage greatly affects the impressions that you give in intercultural
communication.

Discussion questions: How does paralanguage affect our message? Provide some
examples to illustrate.

45
 Ming thought that Raj was speaking Hindu language, but soon realized that it
should be English. ‘Why would Raj speak Hindu to me? It must be English.’ But
even though Raj repeated again in slower speed, Ming could only recognize a
few words like ‘I, you, where.’ Ming remembered Teacher’s advice and asked Raj
to write down on a paper. He understood immediately that Raj wanted to know
where Ming lived.

Chapter Seven: Languages in IC

Key points
＊ We need to understand ‘Englishes’.
＊ Learn how to produce understandable ‘Englishes’.
＊ Learn useful conversation strategies in IC.

7.1 English as a lingua franca and multilingualism

Most students in Taiwan start to learn English in childhood, no later than the first
grade in the elementary school. We know that English is an international language,
used not only in IC but also in local societies. English is highly valued in Taiwan for
its usefulness in business and communication. But what about the situations in other
parts of the world? How do people around the world learn and see English?

We know in English-speaking countries people speak English at home as their

first language/mother tongue and English is their national language. These countries
(see the dark blue ones in the map below) include United Kingdom (England, Wales,
Scotland, and Northern Ireland), U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Due to
British and American colonization in the 18th and 19th century, in many countries
English is still an official language, a second language, and a common language
(lingua franca) within the country widely used in their local societies (see the light
blue ones). India, South Africa, Philippines, Kenya, and Nigeria are among the biggest
with over 200 million English (as a second language) speakers. There are a large
number of so-call ‘English schools’ where English is used as the medium of
instruction.

46
 Since the end of the Cold war in 1990, English has been taught in schools all over
the world. In Europe, with the rise of the European Union (EU), the need for a
common language made English the de facto (in fact) lingua franca. In Asia,
globalization and information technology help increase the value of English as the
common communication language tool. Consequently, the number of people who
know ‘some’ English has increased exponentially in the last two decades. Nowadays 註解 [u22]: grow very quickly, from 2
to 4 to 8 to 16 指數型成長
the number of nonnative English speakers is much larger than the number of native
English speakers. Worldwide speaking, it is more likely to meet nonnative English
speakers than native speakers. In most IC occasions, English is used as a lingua franca
(common language).
For example, imagine in your class, you have a group discussion task. Your group
members come from Korea, India, and Vietnam. Most likely you would use English to
discuss, unless your foreign classmates speak the local language well. Even if you
participate in an exchange program to study in an English-speaking country, it is still
quite possible that in your class you meet classmates from all over the world.
Using English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a little different than using English as a
first language or when we use English to communicate with native English speakers.
Of course we need to use the right words and understandable pronunciation. But there
are some special features in ELF communication. Below we discuss these features.

Accommodation
To accommodate in IC means to adapt or adjust to the unique/ special ways of using
English by other speakers. Since ELF speakers have different English learning
experiences in addition to different cultural backgrounds and first languages, they
sometimes use English in a special way. To accommodate the different ways of using
English is to accept the unique (nonstandard) usages instead of demanding them to use
the more standard usages (Kaur, 2009). For example, for English native speakers,

47
people ‘make’ or ‘become’ friends, but if someone use “let’s ‘do’ friends [probably a
direct translation from Chinese 做朋友]” we accept the special way and reply ‘I’ll do
friends with you.’
The influence from speakers’ first language creates special ways of using English.
In another example, when our clients use ‘flat board’ to mean tablet computer such as 註解 [u23]: people who buy our
products 客戶
iPad, once we understand what ‘flat board’ refers to, we accommodate by using ‘flat
board’ instead of ‘tablet’ in our conversation. In this way, the communication is
smooth and efficient. If we insist to use ‘tablet’ because it is the term used by native
speakers (thus considered the correct word for the object), then we need to explain to
our clients who have no idea what a tablet is. The explanation would be
time-consuming, and may cause other misunderstandings because ‘tablet’ has other
meanings, too, not only tablet computer.

Accommodation is not only at the word level. It could be turn-taking habit: if your
friend usually think for a few seconds before speaking, you should wait patiently and
change your turn-taking habit (start talking again if your friend does not make any
sound). It could also be how we speak that helps our audience get our message: slower,
louder, emphasizing vowels and certain consonants, repeating keywords, adding
gestures when speaking, and writing down keywords while speaking. There are many
ways we can accommodate each other and they greatly help communication.

Accommodation is necessary for successful IC in ELF because the priority is

exchanging ideas and English is simply a language tool. We adapt to not only others’
unique English(es), but also special verbal communication styles. As mentioned earlier
in Chapter Two, people from different cultures communicate differently. The more we
are aware of this and adjust to the differences, the better we can communicate
interculturally.

Let it pass
When we cannot understand what other ELF speakers are saying, and if the message is
not directly related to the main/core purpose of communication, we could just ignore
the ‘undecodable’ saying, smile and keep the conversation flowing smoothly (Firth,
1996). Sometimes the unclear saying would become understood when more
information and contextual cues follow afterward, and in other cases, the saying is
totally ignored as the conversation changes to other different topics. In most casual
conversations and chatting, the point is not to get the point across, but to say
something at the moment to build friendships. As mentioned in Chapter Six, nonverbal
language plays a key role. In such casual chatting just letting the unclear saying pass
without clarification could be the most proper way to deal with non-understanding. We
do not need to understand every word in a conversation. We can learn more about our
friends from other aspects while building a good relationship.

48
Active listening and feedback
Communication is a two-way process. That is, the listener also has to actively pay
attention to the speaker. Unlike in intra-cultural communication where people share
the same cultural background, in intercultural communication it is exactly because of
the lack of common foundation that both sides share the same responsibility in making
the communication successful. It takes two to tango; one hand cannot clap, so both
speaker and listener need to make effort in communication. We know that the speaker
should produce understandable English and use all possible ways to get the meaning
across, but on the other hand, the listener cannot sit back and wait passively for the
message to arrive. The listener must actively guess and give feedback to the speaker
instantly so that the IC can be successful. Listeners do all they can to receive the
message, even guessing the possible message, thus helping out the speaker in the
process.

Active vs. passive listening

One useful feedback is repeating what the speaker just says. Because we need
more time to process the English phrases that we hear, repeating what we hear is the
first step to make sure that we hear the sound correctly. In the meantime, we can think
about the possible meanings of what we hear. The speaker can confirm if the listener
hears correctly what s/he wishes to say. More ways of active listening are provided in
section 7.3.

Using several languages

In addition to English, the local language in the immediate context, each other’s
first languages, and other regional lingua franca are possible languages that we can use.
Do not assume that English is the only linguistic resource we can use in IC. For
example, a conversation between a Taiwanese and Korean in Japan may use English,
Japanese (the language of the place), Chinese, and Korean (the first languages). Since
English has become a global language, many people around the world now learn a
second foreign language, usually a language of one of their neighboring countries or
regional lingua francas like Chinese and Japanese in East and Southeast Asia, Arabian
in Middle East and north Africa, Russian in former Soviet Union countries, Spanish,
French or German in Europe, Spanish in Central and South America, Swahili in East

49
Africa, and Hindi-Urdu in South Asia. We use all possible linguistic resources to help
communication, and using several languages may be more effective and efficient in
certain situations.

In sum, successful ELF users would try their best to make sure that they are
understood and understand others by building common ground and keep good
interpersonal relationship in their interactions. Unsuccessful ELF users, on the other
hand, often blame their failure to personal communication style and the lack of
knowledge in English. There are people with basic minimum English who can
communicate quite well in IC. Remember, language is only a small part in IC!

Discussion questions: Among the skills mentioned in this section, have you
ever used any of them? Can you recall your own experience of using English to
communicate with foreigners? How can these skills help you in your
intercultural communication?

50
 7.2 English varieties (World Englishes)
Because English is spoken by people all over the world, most people use English
as their second language. They have their first language, or mother tongue. So you
would hear Taiwanese English, Japanese English, Indian English (Hinglish), Singlish
(Singaporean English)… We call all these “Englishes”. In intercultural communication,
it is important that we can understand these Englishes, because we cannot avoid them.
We have to accept them because it is very normal for nonnative speakers to have
accents and different ways of using English.
Non-standard Englishes may share certain common features that are regarded as
errors in standard English (Jenkins, 2000; Kirkpatrick, 2010):
1. Omit (not use) be-verb or article (a/the) or preposition or ‘s’ in plural nouns and
third-person present-tense verbs:
-I done it before. She very smart kid. He like drink milk.
-You buy 5 apple last week. Apples still here in morning.
2. Add ‘s’ for uncountable nouns or with ‘a’ before a plural noun, additional
prepositions and other unnecessary (redundant) words
-Give to me this informations and knowledges, please!
-They talk to about dinner. It is a delicious meals.
3. Subject-verb disagreement: single-plural and tense
-They was good students. There is three girls.
-I play game ten times since children.
4. Change/ungrammatical word order in a sentence (influenced by another language)
-I know what is Englishes. You dance like?
-More we communicate. Soon possible as early good.
5. Mix in their first language or other languages or directly translation from another
language
- Aiyah! You kena scolded if speaking Singlish lah!
- People mountain people sea. Give you some color to see see, Ado-a!
6. Pronounce ‘th’ sound as ‘s’ ‘t’ ‘d’ ‘f’ or ‘v’: think => tink, sink, dink, fink
7. Pronounce long and short vowels / voiced and voiceless consonants similarly:
beat/bit, take/tack, wait/wet, mate/mad, I’m feeling/filling it, bad/bat/bed/bet/bait/bay
8. Pronounce voiceless consonants as whole syllables or do not pronounce the last
consonant:
first => firsuta/ first => firs

Although these Englishes sound or seem quite different from the English language
taught in school, there are some skills that may help you understand Englishes:

1. Tell yourself that they ARE speaking English, not other languages! Attitude
decides whether your brain processes the sounds that you hear. If you believe it is
not English, then your brain automatically turns off the English switch and you will
continue to believe that they are not speaking English. (Remember confirmation
bias in Chapter 5?) You have to remind yourself that they must be speaking English

51
 and force your brain to focus on the sounds that they say.

2. Guess what they would say in that specific situation. Predict possible words; do
not wait passively! You can train yourself by turning off the volume when watching
TV programs or movies and guessing the possible conversations. Remember in the
last chapter we mention that nonverbal language accounts for over 70% of the
communication? Do not rely too much on verbal language. Instead, rely mostly on
nonverbal language when your friend does not speak understandable English.

The ability to read the situation or the atmosphere (空気を読む) can be trained,
and the more you observe various situations in real life, novels, movies, and TV
programs, the better you are at reading the situation. If you watch movies from
other countries then you can learn how people in different cultures behave in
certain situations such as dining, hosting guests, small talk/chat, and shopping.

3. Look for key words. Key words are content word like nouns (food, sport,
hobby...), verbs such as ‘like’ ‘go’, and ‘want’, and adjectives (far, soon, bad…).
We do not need to understand every word. As long as we catch the key words, we
can get the message. For example, if in a cafeteria your friend says something to
you, and you only get the following words:
 Mike, XXX is really XXX, I wish I can XXX more.
Among the ten words, you get 7 words, but since you miss the key words, you have
no idea what your friend is saying to you. Now in the next example, even if you
only catch the three key words, you still know the main message.
 …Mango…….delicious……..eat….
So your friend wants to eat mango. You can then confirm with your friend using
these keywords and your body language.

See if you can guess the message of the sentences. Someone is asking you a
question.
In class
 Could…..notebook…?
 ….dead…..homework?

In train
 ….OK….luggage…up…?
 ….change sit, sit….?

4. Ask them to write down the key words, and pay attention to how they pronounce
vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Find out the pattern so that you can better guess the key words
that they are speaking. Don’t feel ashamed to ask people; it would be even more
embarrassing if you misunderstand and make big jokes!

52
 Many Japanese English speakers would pronounce the consonants in individual
syllables. So ‘English’ would be pronounced as ‘Engurishi’. Japanese language
also borrows many words from English. See if you can understand the following
Japanese English:

We, da Matsumoto faa-me-ly, livu in a manshon. Ater dis mo-men-to, I am

waa-ching beisu-booru on terebi. Mai wai-hu i-tsu ow-to shaa-ppin-gu ater a
depaato, an-do later she wi-ill su-da-pu ater a suupaa to ge-ter pooku choppu, pan,
bataa, jamu, an-do perhapusu sun-mu sooseji fo bu-re-kefe-su-ter.
When we become more familiar with an accent, we can understand it easier. In
‘Outsourced’ we can find the contrasting accents between American and Indian
English. American English has stronger intonation, more contrasts between long
and short vowels with more movement in mouth muscles, while Indian English
features short choppy sentences and comparably less movement in mouth muscles.
So long vowels may sound like short vowels.

Try to see these accents as normal in IC, and learn to understand these special
accents. Do not feel that it is the speaker’s responsibility to pronounce ‘standard
English’ and blame the speaker for poor pronunciation. The purpose of IC is to
understand each other, and people speak in various ways. Everyone has accents;
even among native speakers, they don’t necessarily understand all accents by other
native speakers. We have to recognize the different accents and see them as natural.

5. Use text and visual channels more in the beginning. Do not let accent problems
stop you from getting the message. Smartphone is convenient as it can show
words, pictures, maps, and websites.

In traditional communication, people often use only one channel, particularly

voices in telephone and face-to-face interactions. People expected that oral language
alone was sufficient to convey the message. Nowadays with the advance of technology,
human beings are now equipped with more powerful tools that help us communicate
more effectively and efficiently. The secret is to use several channels (visual in
particular) at the same time to communicate. When we say ‘Taiwan is a small island,’
the message would be more clear and vivid if we use our hands to gesture ‘a small
island’, showing pictures of ‘small islands’ and world map to highlight our point. All
these channels help us communicate the same idea, and you might be surprised to find
out that sometimes these unconventional visual channels are more effective!
With our personal representation tool (smartphone), we can communicate with
people who only speak very little English or other common languages. Translation
function is useful at the vocabulary and common phrase level; it is convenient when
we want to say ‘very good’ or ‘dinner’. But keep in mind that not everything is
translatable. That is, many cultural products and practices would not make sense when

53
they are translated. Translation function is useful for common daily life which is
shared by all human beings. We also should try several similar expressions in our first
language or English because the word/phrase we choose at first may not be specific
enough and translation would magnify (make it larger) the gap. For example, the
meanings of ‘dinner’, ‘supper’, and ‘evening meal’ may be similar in English but
when translated into another language, they may be quite different. Also do not rely
totally on translation because mistakes are common. Try to use other ways to
communicate as well.

For cultural products and practices, showing pictures, images, and videos are more
effective than simply describing it verbally. But only showing these on smartphone
may be confusing because most pictures and videos are only supplementary and serve
as resource. We decide how to use them to help communicate what we want to express.
Remember, always use several channels together. So before showing a picture, we
need to explain why we show the picture, and use the picture to help our expressions.
Sometimes as listeners, we can show a picture to confirm with our friend whether the
message that we receive is correct.

Another useful function of smartphone is using maps to locate ourselves and the
places that are in conversation. Using a map to tell your new friend your tour
definitely is more effective than without a map. When you are in a trip, this function
would be quite handy. Whether you wish to introduce your own country or learn more
about another country, maps provide detailed information.

Information available on the Internet is accessible through smartphone, but how to

use them strategically at the right time to the right person is more difficult than people
imagine. Internet cannot offer answers to every question and many answers are not
totally accurate. Therefore, even though smartphone is powerful, its power depends on
its user, in what ways it is used to help IC.

In the case when smartphone is not available, we can still use our ‘right brain’ to
communicate in addition to left brain. Right brain is in charge of image while left
brain is language. Drawing and speaking at the same time is an example of using both
brains. Many symbols are universal and more powerful than language. The popularity
of emoticons (such as , ^=^, and <3) shows their usefulness in building relationships.
We do not have to draw in details; instead, using symbols may be enough! (See
activity book)

6. Consider possible misspelled, mis-pronounced, misplaced

and misused words.

It is possible and likely that mistakes in spelling,

pronunciation, and grammar happen in ‘Englishes’ by
nonnative speakers. We have to guess from the context the

54
correct word. There are some commonly misspelled words: accept/except/expect,
affect/effect, hear/here, image/imagine, lose/lost/loose, fall/fell/feel, quiet/quite,
their/there, meat/meet, its/it’s, fair/fare, hole/whole, than/then, to/too/two, and
word/world. Think about words with similar sounds, or similar spellings. Do not read
Englishes in the same way as we read textbooks; be prepared for possible mistakes
and guess the correct meaning from the wrong words by reading the situation and
double check with the speaker/writer. Check Engrish.com for more interesting
examples. Though the website makes fun of these mistakes from a native-speaker’s
perspective, we can use the website to know some common mistakes nonnative
speakers make and see if we can guess the real meanings.

Similarly, there are some words often pronounced differently, with most differences on
vowels (longshort) and certain consonants (th, fr/tr/dr/br/gr, r/l): eyes (ass),
ship/sheep/shoo, sit (shit/seat/sheet), suit/suite/sweet, foot/fruit/food, sink/think/thing/
and the examples in this funny video on intercultural communication.
For misplaced words, we have to change the order of some words and add or delete
some prepositions in our mind to understand the sentence. Or simply look for key
words (content words: nouns, verbs and adjectives) to get the message. In addition,
misused words are more common, and all these mistakes may appear in the same
sentence to make understanding it very difficult. For misused words, many are literal
translation from the speaker’s first language. Again, we should guess based on the
context (immediate situation and possible meanings).

See if you can understand the message of the following sentences:

1. I you good friend, problem no, me visit!

2. School fun no, like no school go!

3. You how? This eat eat, good eat.

55
7.3 Produce understandable English

On the other hand, we need to learn how to speak understandable (Taiwanese) English.
Below are some tips that help others better understand our English.

★Stress: Pronounce key words clearly

1. Make sure you pronounce the stress of a word (重音) correctly. Wrong stress of a
word with multiple syllables (多音節) is one of the main source of miscommunication.
Some words when pronounced in different stresses have different meanings: for
examples, record, permit, present, produce, object, and suspect.

Word stress has some patterns you can follow. When you pronounce similar types of
words, you can know which syllable to stress. Find out the word stress patterns below:

A. decision, relation, infection, competition, transaction, combination, mention

B. Economy, economic, economically. Strategy, strategic.
Politics, political, politician Electric, electricity
C. Environment, environmental Photograph, photographer, photographic.

2. In a phrase, some words are pronounced lightly, not stressed at all because they are
not key words. If you stress them, it would sound very unnatural and may be
confusing since listeners would miss the key words. For example: “a lot of the classes”

What words should not be stressed in the following sentences?

I would like to have a cup of oolong tea.
Do you watch the World Cup? Which is your favorite team?
Which words should be stressed? Why?

We can practice keywords beforehand so that in important occasions our messages can
be clearly understood. Search ‘text to speech’ online and you will find many websites
that help you change text into speech. You type in the words you want to say, and you
can hear how they are pronounced.

★Emphasis This goes with the pitch and intonation. Taiwanese seldom use emphasis
when speaking in English. We know that keywords are important because they carry
the main message. Therefore, we should emphasize keywords when we speak in
English. Most Taiwanese students speak English in a flat tone without much emphasis,
and this might create comprehension problems for foreigners. Practice saying the
following sentences with emphasis on keywords. Record your speech with your
smartphone and listen to the recordings:
56
 I need two train tickets to Kolkata, Class four.
 Could you recommend me a cheap but nice hostel nearby?
 Teacher, would you please explain the grading policy again?

★Another is the pronunciation of vowels. In British English the o in ‘got’ is

pronounced more like the o in ‘dog’ while in American English it is pronounced like
the o in ‘iPod’. The word ‘can’ may also be pronounced differently. We may notice
that some foreigners pronounce long vowels like short vowels: take => tag. Pay more
attention to different Englishes spoken by people around the world. Meanwhile we
need to make sure that our pronunciation of vowels is not too different or they may
cause misunderstandings.

In Chinese language (Mandarin), the length of a vowel is the same, so sometimes

when Chinese speakers speak English, they may pronounce long vowels and short
vowels similarly, for example, ‘beat’ and ‘bit’, ‘heal’ and ‘hill’ (Walker, 2010). So
remember to pronounce long vowels longer in order to prevent misunderstandings.

★Confusing words: Choose your word carefully among the possible ways of
expression to avoid misunderstanding. Below are some words that often
create confusions.
Can, can’t, cannot
When we say “can’t”, people may mishear it as “can”,
just the opposite. So you had better say “cannot” to
avoid misunderstanding. When expressing negative
messages, it is suggested to say ‘not’ clearly (do not, will
not, may not) to prevent misunderstanding. Even though it
may sound more direct and not polite, saying ‘not’ clearly
prevents serious misunderstanding. Similar sounds with quite
different meanings (see below) could cause big problems,
so it is safer to pronounce ‘not’ separately.
Won’t vs. want haven’t vs. heaven

Toilet vs. restroom/restaurant vs. bathroom

Although the word ‘toilet’ is less formal than ‘restroom’, to avoid confusion, using
‘toilet’ is suggested because ‘restroom’ and ‘restaurant’ are pronounced quite similarly.
Both needs (to eat and to urine/pee) are common for travelers so the host might take
you to the restaurant while you want to go to the restroom. You can say ‘toilet’ or
‘washroom’.

In Taiwan, toilet and shower/tub are usually in the same room. So in Taiwan we see
toilet in a bathroom. But in Japan, toilet and shower/tub are in different rooms. So if

57
you are not going to have a shower, do not ask ‘where is the bathroom’. [People do not
pee in bathtub!]

Say the numbers right

Number is very important because it is almost always a key word in a sentence. The
information of the number is very critical. Wrong pronunciation or stress would cause
misunderstanding which may have serious consequences.

Fifteen and fifty sound similar, so you should stress the second syllable in ‘fifteen’ and
the first syllable in ‘fifty’. When you say the number, also use your gesture to
reinforce your message. The number system in English language is different from that
in the East Asian languages. In English, they go up by thousands. So one thousand
thousands are a million, one thousand millions are a billion, and a thousand billions
are a trillion. In Chinese, we use 萬-ten thousands and 億-a hundred millions. So 20
萬 has to be transformed into 200 thousands in English.

When talking about money numbers, be sure to indicate clearly which country’s
money we are referring to. When we say ‘two thousand dollars’, it means $2,000.
The sign $ in general means U.S. dollar (USD). Below are the major currency (money)
symbols:

€ £ ¥ CY¥ ₩ A$ NT$
Euro Pound Yen Renminbi Won Australian New Taiwan
(RMB) dollar (AUD) dollar

Discussion questions: Have you ever said something in English that others
cannot understand or they misunderstand? Share your experience.

58
 7.4 Communication strategies

Below are some useful communication strategies we can use in IC:

Strategy Explanation Example

Ask Make good use of 5W1H. Ask the How did you do it?
questions correct question! What did you do?
Resource Use smartphones, real things, body Show picture, map,
language and other possible PPT…when speaking
resources to help expression
Follow-up Keep the conversation going by What do you mean?
questions asking a follow-up question, either In what way?
as a speaker (tag question: isn’t it? Why (not)?What makes
Right? What do you think?) or as a you say that?
listener (what do you mean? For example?
Examples?). Do you like XXX?
(mentioned earlier)
Speaker

Filler Speakers use empty words to gain ‘well’, ‘you know’,

time to think. ‘actually’, ‘yes’,
Self- Repeat what we have said to gain ‘Repeat’ is okay. Repeat is
repetition time to think. Also the listener can okay. You make yourself
understand more clearly in case they clear. Clear!
miss some part when you say it the
first time.
Self- Correct any mistakes we hear. He is, no, she was…
correction
Paraphrase Speakers use vocabulary of similar I used this thing (hand
meaning to express themselves when gesture) that kills
they cannot think of the right word.
You can show them pictures and mosquitoes with
draw on paper. electricity/electric power.
Backchannel Feedback to keep the conversation OK, Oh, Yeah, Um, Sure,
going. People know you are of course, Exactly,
listening, and will tell you more.
Ask for Signal non-understanding, confusion Say that again?
Listener

repetition over pronunciation or stress. Sorry, I didn’t hear it.

Ask for Repeat the key words or the word (Sorry), what is…
clarification that you don’t understand. Or I did not hear it clearly;
directly ask the meaning. do you mean…?
Ask for Use your own words to describe So you mean…
confirmation what you just hear Let me make sure that…

59
Filler (well, yea, right, um, let me see…): East Asians tend to speak carefully and
need more time to think, partly due to our cultural background, partly due to using
English, which is not our first language. So we can use fillers/sounds that tell our
friend that we have something to say or are not finished yet. This is especially useful
in conversations with people from a culture with a more aggressive conversation style.
If we do not signal that we have something to say or wish to continue saying, others
would immediately jump in and we may not have a chance to express ourselves at all.
Paraphrase: This is a very important skill in IC. Using the ‘correct’ (standard) word
may not help because your friends do not understand it when their English proficiency
is limited. On the other hand, we are not native speakers, and in the context of
non-English-speaking countries, many things or concepts have no equivalent English
translations. So it seems inevitable that we have to use simple English to describe
something or some concept.

For example, in Taiwan ‘electric mosquito swatter’ is commonly used, but most
people do not know ‘swatter’. If we say ‘something that kills mosquito with electricity
and it looks like a racket’, then most people can imagine it and if they have stayed in
Taiwan for a while, they would know it.

Using simple language to describe something is more difficult than most people expect.
You can try this by using your first language. Imagine a foreigner knows a little about
your first language, maybe only basic vocabulary, and you need to explain how to
worship ancestors at home. How can you explain it using simple words?
How to paraphrase: Describe its size, shape, color, function, and user. Think about
who uses it in what ways for what purpose at which place or occasion and when it is
used. See if you can find similar or related words. Make sure you add body language
and if possible, some visual illustrations like hand drawing or relevant pictures.
Practice would help; the more you try this, the better you are.

Backchannel: This is the first step in active listening. The sound we make tells the
speaker that we are ‘actively’ listening. We hope to encourage the speaker to continue
telling us more. So the possible sounds are mostly positive words like yes, yeah, right,
um-hum, exactly, certainly, sure, definitely, and of course. You can also signal for
non-understanding; for example, “what? Pardon? Sorry, again, please” while showing
a puzzled face.
Repetition: Speakers repeat the same words or phrases to emphasize and re-send the
message again. In oral conversations, because what we say disappears right away,
repetition is encouraged in IC due to language and cultural barriers. It takes more
effort to get the ideas across in IC. As for listeners, if we are not sure about a certain
word, we can ask for clarification by repeating the word with a rising tone. Repeating
the last word by the speaker could be a kind of backchannel, showing that we have

60
heard the word. A further step in active listening is to paraphrase what we hear, using
our own words to say the same message that the speaker intends to tell us. In this way
the speaker can point out any misunderstanding without having to retell the same thing
again. Below is an example:

 This electric mosquito killer is very : Really? (backchannel)

useful and powerful.

 I use it to kill not only mosquitos, : Insects? (Repetition)

but also cockroaches, spiders, all
kinds of small insects!

 Yes, insects. : Do you mean that you use it to kill

anything that has six legs like ants, bees,
butterflies…(active listening/confirmation)
 Right, small living things/creatures.

Confirmation: A major problem in communication is that the speaker assumes the

listener receives the exact message, but the listener either misses it or understands the
message differently. If you are the speaker and the message is very important, then you
must confirm (double check) with the listener to make sure that the message has been
understood correctly. Ask the listener to retell the message in her own words. If you
are the listener, you should also confirm with the speaker by paraphrasing the message
in your own words. Communication gap is common and normal because we only
listen to what we wish to hear and neglect the important messages that we dislike (see
Chapter 5 about perception). We understand messages based on our own cultural
frame, so we need to retell the message in our own words to prevent misunderstanding
the message sent by those from another culture.

Upload your
PPT before next Bring PPT in
class! next class!

61
 7.5 Globish
Globish is the combined word of ‘global’ and ‘English’. It refers to 1,500 basic
English words which, if used properly, are enough for people around the world to
communicate interculturally, as Nerriere and Hon (2009) argued. The idea is that basic
English can lead to successful intercultural communication. Instead of using more
formal and metaphorical/elegant English, basic words which carry direct meanings are
more effective in IC, especially in ELF situations.

In English classrooms teachers always ask you to learn more sophisticated (complex,
more difficult, more specific) words that can express yourself more precisely and also
show your proficiency level. Indeed you need to keep learning more words because
you also need to communicate with native English speakers and other proficient
nonnative speakers. But the idea of globish is that when we communicate with people
from different cultures, using simple and direct ways of expression in English is the
best approach (method) because the exchange of ideas trumps (is more important than) 註解 [u24]: This is a metaphorical
word, not a globish word. In bridge or
using beautiful and elegant English. other card games, trump is the card of
a suit (spade, heart, diamond, or club)
The secret to using globish is to learn how to combine simple words together to that is higher in rank.王牌

express our ideas. You may click the link to learn more about the 1,500 Globish words.
I believe you all have learned these basic words. The key is whether you can use them
properly in real situations. The idea of producing basic understandable English in
globish is useful to improve IC. So in IC we should remind ourselves not to use
difficult words and words that may be confusing for people from a different cultural

62
background.

What are the words that would confuse people from other cultures? Idioms and
metaphorical/figurative language would likely confuse many people. Idioms are
words or ways of expressions used by a special group of people. As a result, other
groups of people often have difficulties understanding them. For example, ‘pull one’s
leg’, ‘kick the bucket’, and ‘southpaw’. Often we use idioms without being aware that
they are idioms, and we would blame the listener for not understanding (what we think)
the simple expression.

A lot of idioms contain metaphorical or figurative expressions. That is, the literal
meaning of the word is different from the real meaning of the expression. For example,
one student once complained that her Indonesian friend did not know ‘puppy love’.
Her partner thought that she liked dogs very much. ‘Puppy love’ is an idiom and a
metaphorical expression. The student did not know other ways to express the meaning
of ‘puppy love’ and was not aware that the usage is an idiom. Metaphorical
expressions are very common; here are some examples: I am seeing red; this month
our family cannot meet both ends; this is a dog fight; we will hit the road tonight.
With English native speakers, most of these metaphorical expressions would not cause
communication problems. But with other nonnative English speakers, they would
become a barrier, something that does not help get the meaning across. To avoid using
idioms and metaphorical expressions, we need to first understand the difference
between literal and real/implied meanings of a word.

Word Literal meaning Possible real/implied meanings

Mother female parent Love, warmth, home, harbor, talkative…

Red Red: color Fortune, blood, danger, warning…

Cow Stubborn, productive, silly…

Instead of using the metaphorical word or phrase, we use the word whose literal
meaning is closer to the implied meaning of the metaphorical expression. So instead of
saying ‘seeing red’, use ‘angry’. Not ‘meet both ends’ but ‘make enough money to
live’. Think again the real meaning of the expression, and try to use the direct way to
use English.
The same words can have different implied or hidden meanings in different contexts
by different speakers in different cultures. Sometimes a direct expression may be

63
understood in a metaphorical way due to cultural differences. ‘I climbed over the wall’
may be interpreted metaphorically as happening in the online world (by-pass the
internet control) even though you mean the action in the physical real world. Therefore,
we need to give as much information as possible to avoid misunderstanding. The more
details we provide, the less likely that a misunderstanding occurs.

Some suggestions from the Economist style guide (how to

be clear and simple):
=> Never use a Metaphor(譬喻), simile(隱喻) or other
figure of speech (比喻) which you are used to seeing in
print. [If the real meaning can not be read from its literal
meaning--for example, when a dog does not mean a real
dog but stands for someone--, do not use it.]

=> Never use a long word where a short one will do (Use
easy words instead of difficult words since the purpose is
to let your reader/listener understand your ideas).

=> Never use the Passive (被動式) where you can use
the active.[“people often misunderstand passive
sentences” is better than “passive sentences are often
misunderstood”.]

=>Use the language of everyday speech, not that of

spokesmen, lawyers or bureaucrats (官僚) (so
use let instead of permit, people /not persons,
buy /purchase, way out/ exit, rich/wealthy, show/
demonstrate, break/ violate).

64
 Ming later found out that Raj was a good tennis player, and they often played
tennis together. He hoped to get to know more about Raj so he read books and
websites on Indian culture. He knew the philosophy of Hinduism and the general
history of India. Even though he had great knowledge of Indian culture, there
were still many communication problems since Ming still could not imagine Raj’s
situation as an Indian studying in Taiwan.

Chapter Eight: ICC and its applications in real contexts

Key points
＊ Three levels of understanding in communication
＊ ICC requires knowledge, skills, and awareness.
＊ Empathy is the heart of ICC.

Why cannot Ming imagine Raj’s life in Taiwan? What more can Ming do in addition
to learning more cultural knowledge and having more intercultural experience?

Intercultural communication competence (ICC), or the ability to communicate

successfully with people from another culture, will become more and more important.
It is inevitable that we meet foreigners and deal with them. Therefore, we should
develop our ICC. This chapter offers some ways you can do to enhance your ICC.

8.1 Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)

3 levels of understanding: Intelligibility, comprehensibility, and interpretability

Understanding as a listener in communication starts from: (1) receive and

recognize the sounds (intelligibility), (2) decode and comprehend the literal/linguistic
meaning of the sounds (comprehensibility), and (3) interpret the real/cultural meaning
of the sounds (Smith, 1990). The graph below illustrates the understanding process:

Intelligibility Comprehensibility Interpretability

Recognize the sound Comprehend the Interpret the intention

of the words (ðə taym meaning of the words of the speaker (please
ɪz ə bɪt ərli) (the time is a bit early) move to a later time)

Skills (speaking & Knowledge (linguistic Awareness (contextual

listening) & cultural) & cultural)

♦ Intelligibility is the degree to which we can recognize the sounds. Every one
speaks in a unique way, so we may not be able to hear a speaker’s voice
clearly. If a speaker’s voice is intelligible for us, it means that we can repeat
the same sounds without any errors. As mentioned in Chapter 7, we might

65
 hear sit/shit/sheet/seat as the same sound. Intelligibility depends on both the
speaker (whether a clear and understandable sound is made) and the listener
(the sensitivity to different sounds). We can train our intelligibility by
developing our speaking and listening skills.

♦ Comprehensibility means that we understand the meaning of what the speaker

says after we recognize the sounds. Linguistic and cultural knowledge is
needed because we have to know the literal meaning of each word and
phrases, and to understand the meaning of a phrase or a whole sentence, we
need grammatical and some cultural knowledge if metaphorical expressions
are used.

♦ Interpretability means that you can interpret the meaning behind words in the
context; that is, the intention of the speaker in the particular situation. This
goes beyond the language level. Interpretability requires cultural and
contextual awareness. If we can stand in others’ shoes, seeing the same
situation from their perspective, then we can know the real intention of the
speaker. To be able to understand others’ perspective, we have to become
aware of their cultural background (where they come from) and the
immediate situation (contextual awareness, why they are here, and
communication goals)
The 3 levels of understanding are helpful when we evaluate communication failures.
We can analyze the failures by looking at the three levels and see where goes wrong.
Read the following examples and evaluate which level(s) causes the problem.
 In an online exchange with Japanese students, an interesting incident happened. My
group member called my nick name “A mei” because of my Chinese name. When a
Japanese student said, “A-mei now?” I thought that she was calling me. But actually
she was asking whether it was raining since in Japanese the word ‘rain’ is pronounced
as ‘A-mei’!
 I had a foreign e-friend who became my friend on Facebook because we were in
the same discussion forum about fashion. One day she left a message in my FB: ‘I saw
a catwalk yesterday. So excited!’ I was a little surprised and replied, ‘I didn’t know
that you are a cat lover?!’ She gave me a LOL and then explained to me about catwalk.

 I was applying for a short-term summer program in the U.S. last month. Calling the
office to ask about what to bring, the funny clerk told me, “We provide almost
anything. But if you feel lonely, feel free to bring your parents!” I was confused at first,
but my parents always wanted to visit America, so I replied, “you mean I can bring my
mom and dad?” The clerk apologized and told me he was just joking with me. I was so
disappointed!

3 elements in ICC: Knowledge, skill, and awareness

66
 To be able to communicate in intercultural situations, we have to enrich our
cultural knowledge, develop our communication skills, and constantly reflect on our
attitudes toward intercultural encounters (Byram, 1997). The easier part is learning
about cultural facts, products, practices, and perspectives. We can study them by
reading on our own as cultural information has become widely available. The
development of skills depends on our practice. Knowing the skills is much easier than
actually being able to do it. We know that we should ask a follow-up question to get to
know more about our shy foreign friend, but maybe we just cannot find a suitable
follow-up question. We can learn various ways of expressing our ideas and of how to
understand others, and the most effective way is learning by doing. We try these skills
in real situations. The last element awareness is related to how we see the world,
whether we can avoid ethnocentric view and remove the ‘glasses’ that prevent us from
seeing the true human nature of our foreign friends. This requires constant reflection
on our intercultural experience.
If we compare ICC to a human body, then
awareness is the brain that controls the whole body.
Skills are the body part that carries the brain.
Knowledge is like the limps and muscle that enable the
Awareness
body to move and make actions. Our mind (心/こころ)
/Attitude and worldview is the most important element in ICC.
Awareness and attitude would decide how we approach
intercultural communication.
Therefore, even though your skills are not good and
lack of cultural knowledge, you can still have
Skills successful IC because you are willing to learn in the
process. You develop skills and acquire knowledge
along the way.
But if you have much knowledge and great skills,
but your worldview is still ethnocentric and limited,
then in some occasions you may still struggle because
you cannot see your own blind spots and you do not
learn in the communication process.
Knowledge Of course the ideal human body would be smart
brain, healthy body, and strong muscle. We need to
have knowledge, skills and an open and learning attitude to succeed in IC.
How to enhance your ICC? Here is a list of things you can do:
 Reread world history and geography again, and check keywords (names of countries,
famous people, places and events) in English.
 Choose a handful of cultures that interest you and study deeper about it.
 Plan a trip to a country that you have never been to.
 Invite a foreign student to be your study pal. You study together and learn from each
other. You can teach each other your first language.
 Participate in an online forum (of your interest) with many international netizens.

67
 Watch movies or TV programs from various countries in the world. Bollywood, 註解 [u25]: Bombai Hollywood 寶來
鎢 印度電影
Nollywood, Japanese and Korean drama, European movies…Broaden your world!
註解 [u26]: Nigeria Hollywood:
 Write about your intercultural experience. Document what happened and your African movies
thoughts about the experience.
 Imagine being another person. Pretend being your mother, sister, best friend, or pet.
 Improve your English or any other languages you are learning!

Assess your ICC

1. Cultural knowledge: Try out traveler’s test!
2. Communication skills: To what extent do people understand your idea?
3. Awareness and attitude: How aware are you about your ethnocentric thinking?

8.2 Critical Intercultural Communication Tools: Empathy and heart of humanity

Many students when first
meeting foreigners would see
these foreigners from their
own culture, or taking an
ethnocentric view. We
sympathize 同情 (imagining
and interpreting the thoughts,
experiences, and perspectives of others from our own lens) rather than empathize 同
理 (trying to understand the thoughts, experiences, and perspectives of others from
their own perspectives). When we see a westerner trying to use chopsticks awkwardly,
we may feel that if we provide her a fork, she would appreciate it. We had an
unpleasant experience in which we had to use fork in America since chopsticks were
not provided in the restaurant. As a result, we sympathize that the westerner is not able
to use chopsticks, so we help her out by giving her a fork. But to our surprise, she
refuses to use the fork, and continues to practice using chopsticks. So if we emphasize
with her, then we need to observe her closely to find out that she is not forced to use
chopsticks. We may see that she wishes to be able to use chopsticks. Therefore, what
we should do is to help her learn how to use chopsticks. Because we do not want to
use a fork to eat, we assume that westerners are just like us; they do not want to use
chopsticks. This is seeing the world from our own perspective. We have to understand
that other people may have different experiences and expectations, so a better way is
to learn more and imagine ourselves being in their shoes.

In another example, we may look at ‘hijab’ (head veil worn by

Muslim women) and think, “How shameful, unfair, and
oppressive.” We may sympathize with the women in the Muslim
cultures and feel frustrated, angry, and sad when seeing them
wearing hijab. We believe that we understand their situation. And
68
yet, we have only viewed their experience through the lens of our own culture, putting
our own ideals onto a foreign cultural context. If we are willing to truly understand
their culture and try it out, it is possible that we might view a practice such as wearing
hijab from a completely different perspective, understanding the benefits gained by
those practices within that particular cultural context. The environment, climate,
family traditions, growing experience, and sense of security are some possible reasons
behind the practice, and we need to change our perspective to appreciate this practice.
Empathy can serve as a cross-cultural bridge. To have empathy with others means that
we must do our best to understand their context, priorities, values, and the cultural
meanings that they give to events, objects, norms, and practices. True empathy
requires that we put aside our own biases, preconceptions, and cultural values so that
we might fully explore others’ cultures.

There are many moving stories about empathy. A story tells how a grandmother
sacrificed herself for the family. In a big family, the grandmother always took fish tail
when the family had a meal. The rest of the family thought that she preferred fish tail.
It was not until grandma was sick that the family found out that grandma actually did
not like fish tail; she took it because she knew the rest of the family did not like to eat
fish tail, and someone had to eat it. Grandma was empathetic for her children in the
family, but the family was not sensitive enough to realize this.
In another story, Hua, a local Taiwan student, was delighted that her classmate Dyah, a
Muslim international student, was going home with her for dinner. She had invited her
many times and Dyah finally agreed. Hua’s parents were happy that Hua brought her
international friend home. Hua asked Dyah if there was anything that she could not eat,
and Dyah replied, ‘no pork’. But at dinner, Hua found that Dyah only ate vegetables
and avoided any dishes with meat. Hua kept telling Dyah that this was chicken, not
pork, but Dyah just would not try. Later Hua learned from another Muslim friend why
Dyah would not try a chicken dish. It was because she had unpleasant experience with
meat dishes in Taiwan. Pork oil and pork products are commonly used in Taiwanese
food, but Hua was not aware of it at all. Hua treated Dyah the same way as she treated
everyone else, but empathetic people would understand that everyone is different,
standing on different grounds. We usually see others’ matters from our own
perspective, thus unable to truly understand them.

From the above stories, we know that most people only see things from their own
perspective. Most of us have never been in others’ shoes, and we never really
understand how it feels to be another person. Therefore, empathy is not natural for
most people. To develop empathy, we should start from learning more about others
and constantly reminding ourselves not to see things only from our own perspectives.
We need to practice climbing different ladders of inference (Chapter Five); that is, we
try to interpret the same thing from different perspectives.

69
Discussion questions: There are many movies and TV series about people swapping
(exchange) their souls/minds to experience what it is like to be another person. It
could be between couples, siblings, parent and child, or boss and employee. If you
can choose to swap your minds with someone, who would it be? Why?
8.3 Cultural adjustments

Tourist Pseudo-local IC expert

Foreigner
Outsider

Figure 4.2 Cultural adjustments to a new environment (W curve, proposed by

Gullahorn and Gullahorn, 1963)

Expatriate (people who work abroad) studies on cultural adjustments have shown that
most people go through several stages when adapting to a new culture. When we first
arrive at a new environment, we are like tourists going to a different country.
Everything seems so novel, interesting, and exotic and we enjoy the change of scenery
from our home culture. This is the first stage. But as we get to know more about the
local culture, we gradually feel uncomfortable due to cultural differences. We might
have much cultural shock experience, from food, climate, to social manners. Being a
foreigner could make us feel depressed and frustrated. We miss home food, home
products, and home people. Eating sandwiches and pastas for a few times is joyful, but
eating them every day could be a torture for East Asians. The weather may also add
pains to the foreigner life. It could be dry, cold or windy, very different from the warm
and damp weather in Taiwan. This is the cultural shock stage.

Then, we probably will learn to adjust to the local life. We get used to the food and
weather, or at least find ways to make us more comfortable. We gradually feel like
becoming local people, though this could be just temporary. We take on a pseudo-local
identity—by pseudo (fake) it implies that we wish to be seen as local, but both we and
the local may still have doubts about our identity as local people. Pseudo means false,
appearing to be. As we encounter more cultural differences at a deeper levels
(worldviews, values, beliefs), we may realize that we are still outsiders even though
we appear to live a local life. We may have local friends, but due to lack of common

70
cultural backgrounds, there is still mental distance that we cannot share everything.
The second low point is called mental isolation because at this point we feel frustrated
inside for differences in deeper values and beliefs.

It takes much time to understand deeper cultural values and beliefs, and in the second
adaptation stage, we go deeper and beyond our ethnocentrism, which is viewing the
world from our own cultural perspective. As we dig deeper and deeper into the cultural
core values and beliefs, we come to accept the local culture and integrate into it. We
could become IC experts moving freely between two different cultures. Figure 4.2
below illustrates the process.

The w-curve model suggests most people would go through these stages, but certainly
not all people. Some may show different patterns and knowing these stages may help
us better prepare for possible challenges in intercultural adjustments. Moreover, when
people return to their original culture from another culture after staying there for
several years, some would have ‘reverse cultural shock’; that is, they are shocked by
their original culture because they have adapted to another culture. In sum, preparation
for possible cultural impacts is necessary in our life.

Discussion questions: Graduating from high school and going to a university

could be seen as entering a new culture. Do you feel any cultural shock/surprise
in the university? How do you deal with these cultural challenges? (For
example, no assigned seats in class, no homeroom teacher, not many tests, the
fact that you can decide how to spend your time…)

A story from a Taiwanese student studying abroad (Liu, 2013)

Kiki wanted to study abroad since her childhood because she liked arts and she regarded Taiwan
not a creative environment. After graduating from an art school, she chose to study communication
design in New York because she believed it was a good place to learn design and arts. At that time,
her parents did not expect her too much; they just hoped that she could find her interests.

When she first stepped into the airplane to the USA, she regretted her decision to study abroad and
cried right away. Then she arrived in New York, and the language school was in the mountains. It
was snowing heavily. While it was her first time to see the snow, she was not excited. Instead, she
felt lonely and cried with tears, in her small room with a bed and a chair that accompanied her.

In Taiwan, she did not focus on learning English because she was always drawing. As a result, her
English abilities were poor. The first great shock for her was when she went to the supermarket.
Once when she wanted to buy normal saline (salt water for contact lenses), she tried for a long time
but failed to let the staff understand what she wanted despite using her body languages. So next
time she had to check and write down all the English words for the stuffs that she needed. She was
forced to think and prepare what problems she might encounter in her daily life in New York. For
example, when she went to the bank to apply for a bank account, she could have them so magically
without understanding any English because she had done her homework by going through all the
processes beforehand. But it was very painful and inconvenient for Kiki. She regretted not learning
English well as a student in Taiwan.
71
8.4 Case studies

Ming’s intercultural journey provides some interesting scenarios that we can learn
a few lessons from. Remember, similar experience may happen to you in the near
future!

A. Online exchange

Ming participated in an online video chatting program with Japanese students.

This was his first time to have real conversations with a Japanese person. He
looked forward to the chatting, and prepared much to say in the session. But
during the video chatting, his Japanese friend did not say much. Whenever Ming
asked a question, it seemed to take forever for his partner to come up with an
answer. Ming felt quite embarrassed about the silence as he waited for the reply,
so he usually started another topic. His Japanese partner would then quietly listen
to his ideas. Ming wondered if he was not interested, not good in English, or a slow
thinker. He was not sure what to do in the next session.

Q: What should Ming do in the second session?

B. Friendship in Japan

Ming became an exchange student in his junior year. He was so excited to

have the opportunity to study for one semester in Japan. There were a series
of surprises during his first month in Japan. As he got used to the food,
language, and walking on the left side, he was so happy to get more familiar
with a local student, Ichiro, who usually sat beside him in class. Ichiro rented
a studio outside the campus while Ming stayed in the school dormitory. Ichiro often 註解 [u27]: One room apartment

invited Ming to visit him when available. Ming knew where Ichiro lived but had
never stepped inside. Ming was curious but he did not go to Ichiro’s place until
one Sunday afternoon when he happened to be near Ichiro’s place. That afternoon
Ming originally was going out with another Taiwanese exchange student, but she
was suddenly sick. So Ming called Ichiro and told him that he would like to visit his
place and was already outside of his room. Ichiro sounded very surprised and
confused. He only told Ming to wait. It then started to snow, and Ming was freezing.
But he could only waited outside Ichiro’s room. Ming dared not to knock on Ichiro’s
door because he had told Ming to wait. 30 minutes later, Ichiro finally opened the
door, and had an awkward face. Ming only stayed for a few minutes and soon left
because Ichiro seemed not welcoming him. He wondered what went wrong.

Question: What happened? How should Ming deal with this? How to keep
intercultural friendship?

72
C. Teacher-student relationship in the U.S.

After graduating from the university, Ming went to the U.S. to study for Master’s
degree. It was a totally different experience as American teachers were very
friendly and treated Ming like normal friends. In the U.S. Ming introduced himself
as ‘Mike’, his English name. “Call me Mike,” said Ming. “Mike means money in my
language and I want to be rich!” Ming regarded this line of introduction funny and
should help him fit in. Coincidentally, his teacher was also named ‘Michael’, and
classmates called the teacher Michael. Michael asked Ming, “Why not use your
Chinese name, Ming? Isn’t it the name that your parents gave you?” Ming did not
know how to answer this question because he had never thought about this
before. He guessed that maybe Michael was not happy that he chose a same name
so that teacher would like him to use another name. Meanwhile, even though
Michael was friendly, Ming was not sure how to treat teacher Michael: be more
friends-like or stay in the vertical relationship and use polite ways to talk to
Michael? Ming had never called any teachers’ first name before. It was very
uncomfortable for Ming.

Q1: If you were Ming, how would you answer Michael?

Q2: Do you think Ming’s interpretation of Michael’s question is correct?

Q3: How would you deal with this kind of teacher-student relationship?

Foreigners’ views on Taiwanese using an English name

D. Colleague relationship in a multinational company

After obtaining his Master’s degree, Ming then worked in a multinational company
in Taiwan. In his project team, there were two German engineers. They spoke
fluent English, and were easy-going people. Ming often chatted with them at tea
breaks. However, in a recent meeting, Ming had an argument with them. The
German colleagues explicitly criticized Ming’s proposal, saying that Ming’s ideas
were not feasible. Ming was quite unhappy about this, and felt losing face in the
meeting in front of the boss. The boss later adopted the Germans’ ideas, not Ming’s.
Shortly after the meeting, the two Germans saw Ming at the office café, and
happily invited him to have a drink after work. Ming just could not believe that
they acted as if nothing happened! Ming felt quite hurt and wondered how to deal
with them.

Q: What would you do if you were Ming? Can you explain what happened based on
what you learned in this course?

73
 Appendix A Intercultural Movies
Nowhere In Africa 何處是我家 (Germany & Kenya) *****Tragedy/War
Outsourced 世界是平的 (U.S.A. & India) **** Comedy
Lemon tree 檸檬樹 (Israel and Palestine) ***** Conflict
金盞花大酒店=The best exotic Marigold Hotel (Britain & India)****Drama
血鑽石=Blood diamond ****(Africa/Sierra Lione & West) Tragedy/War
火線交錯=Babel (Multicultural USA) **** Conflict
救救菜英文=English Vinglish (India & U.S.) *** Drama
The motorcycle diaries 革命前夕摩托車日記 (South America) **** Drama
Lost in Translation 愛情不用翻譯 (Japan & America) **** Drama
金山=Iron road (Canada & China)****Drama
末代武士=The last samurai (Japan & America) **** Tragedy/War
Crash 衝擊效應 (Multicultural L.A.) *** Conflict
享受吧！一個人的旅行=Eat, pray, love (US, India, & Bali) *** Drama
A touch of spice 香料共和國 (Turkey and Greece) *** Drama
鯨騎士=Whale Rider (New Zealand) *** Drama
盧安達飯店=Hotel Rwanda (Rwanda) *** Tragedy/War
我的名字叫可汗=My name is Khan (Muslims in the US) *** Drama
經典老爺車=Gran Torino (Hmongs in the US) ***Ethnical conflict
海鷗食堂=かもめ食堂 (Japan & Norway) ** Artistic
芭樂特 : 哈薩克青年修理美國文化=Borat (Warning: Disgusting scenes) ** Travel
苿莉人生=Persepolis (Iran) ** Drama
少女奧薩瑪=Osama (Afghanistan) *** Drama / Tragedy
爸媽不在家=Ilo Ilo (Singapore & Philippines, house helper) *** Drama
My Fat Greek Wedding (Greece & US) *** Comedy
雨季的婚禮=Monsoon wedding (Punjabi & Indian marriage) ** Drama
囍宴=The Wedding Banguet (US & Taiwan & China) ****Comedy
麵包與玫瑰 (Mexico & US)** Drama
天堂邊緣 The Edge of Heaven (Turkey & Germany)**Tragedy
內人外人系列 (New Taiwanese)
娘惹滋味 (Migrant workers in Taiwan)*****
金孫=The golden child (Taiwan traditional vs. modern & Vietnam)** 外配
野蓮香=My little honey moon (Taiwan & Vietnam) ** 外配
吉林的月光=The Moonlight in Jilin (Taiwan & China)**
歡迎來到德國=Almanya - Welcome to Germany (Turkey & Germany)***
一路有你=The journey (Malaysia & England)***
小孩不笨=I not stupid (Singapore, intergenerational communication)**

74
What you may do in the movie project

1. Understand the cultural background: basic geographical information,

environment, economy, history.
• How does the film help you better understand the particular community and its
culture?

2. General questions for evaluating a film

• What is the film about? Summarize the film plot.
• What is the message of the film?
• Were there any images or sounds you found particularly impressive?
• Who are the different characters portrayed in the film?
• Were there any images or sounds you found particularly impressive?
• What do you think of the ending of the film? If there were a sequel (part II) to the
film, how would you like the story to continue?

3. Questions for evaluating the intercultural aspects of a film

• What cultural aspects, values, attitudes, and behaviors of the respective cultures
are shown?
• Do you see the 3 P’s of culture? (Product, practice, perspective)
• Are there stereotypes in the film? What are they? By whom? About whom?
• Are characters portrayed as stereotypes, or are they like real-life people?
• Which character do you identify with the most? Why?
• Can you understand the motives (why they do things in the movie) of the main
characters, even if you don’t sympathize with them?
• Were you aware of the cultural problems/issues shown in the film before you
watched it?
• How has the film changed your attitude towards the problem and/or groups
portrayed in the film?
• Imagine you belong to the ethnic group in the film. How would the film be received
by the ethnic group or minority portrayed in the film?

4. What have you learned after watching the movie? Write about any new
thoughts that arise/appear.

75
 Appendix B Intercultural resources

Websites
CIA world facts (check basic information about each country)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Relationship words (greeting, thank you, goodbye…) in different languages
http://users.elite.net/runner/jennifers/index.htm
Learn more about Taiwanese culture
http://www.culture.tw
Net-journalists around the world report local stories in different languages
http://globalvoicesonline.org/
Travelpod: Travelers’ experience and stories. The link is the test. Search for the place that you wish
to visit and read people’s stories
http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq

Panorama 光華雜誌 is a Taiwan magazine that introduces Taiwanese cultures in English, Japanese
and Chinese.

Books

菊花與劍: 日本文化的雙重性 人類學家眼中的美國人

瞧這些英國佬 跨文化競爭力: 文化智商

元氣地球人/ 在天涯的盡頭 歸零 地名的世界地圖

跨國灰姑娘: 當東南亞幫傭遇上臺灣新富家庭

76
Bibliography

Argyris, Chris (1990). Overcoming organizational defenses: Facilitating organizational learning.

Upper Sadle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon, UK:
Multilingual Matters.

Chang, Shau-Ju (2007). A graphic approach to teaching communication-concerned, cultural general

constructs: Its rationale, design and application. English Teaching & Learning 31(1), 1-42.

Held, David, McGrew, Anthony, Goldblatt, David, & Perraton, Johnathan (1999). Global
transformations, politics, economics and culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Eckert, Susan (2006). Intercultural communication. Singapore: Thompson.

Firth, Alan (1996). The discursive accomplishment of normality. On “Lingua Franca” English and
conversational analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 26(2), 237-259.

Gibson, Robert (2002). Intercultural business communication. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Hall, Edward (1966). The hidden dimension. New York: Doubleday.

Hall, Edward (1976). Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.

Halverson, R. J. (1985). Culture and vocabulary acquisition: A proposal. Foreign Language

Annals, 18(4), 327-332.

Hofstede, Geert (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and
organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage

Holliday, Adrian, Hyde, Martin, & Kullman, John (2004). Intercultural communication. London:
Routledge

House, Juliane (2012). Teaching oral skills in English as a lingua franca. In Lubna Alsagoff, Sandra
Lee McKay, Guangwei Hu, & Willy Renandya (Eds.), Principles and practices for teaching
English as an international language (pp.186-205). NY: Routledge.

Jenkins Jennifer (2000). The phonology of English as an international language: New models, new
norms, new goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jenkins, Jennifer (2006). World Englishes: A resource book for students. New York: Routledge.

Jenkins, Jennifer (2007). English as a lingua franca: Attitude and identity. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Kaur, Jagdish (2009). English as a lingua franca: Co-constructing understanding. Saarbrücken:

VDM Verlag.

Kidd, Warren (2002). Culture and identity. NY: Palgrave MacMillan.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2010). English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong:

77
 Hong Kong University Press.

Kroeber, A. L., & Kluckhohn, Clyde (1952). Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions.
Harvard University Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology Papers 47(1).

Liu, Nan-Hsi (2013). Reverse culture shock: The experiences of Taiwanese reentry. Master’s thesis,
Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan.

Martin, Judith, & Nakayama, Thomas (2014). Experiencing intercultural communication: An

introduction. (International edition) New York: McGraw-Hill.

Matsumoto, David (2000). Culture and psychology: People around the world. CT.: Wordsworth.

National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. (2006). Standards for foreign language
learning in the 21st century. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press.

Nerriere, Jean-Paul & Hon, David. (2009). Globish: The world over. Paris, France: International
Globish Institute.

Robertson, Roland (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture. London: SAGE.

Rosenthal, R.; Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.

Stringer, Donna, & Cassiday, Patricia (2003). 52 Activities for exploring value differences. Boston:
Intercultural Press.

Walker, Robin (2010). Teaching the pronunciation of English as a lingua franca. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Williams, Raymond (1948). Culture and society. London: Chatto and Windus.

78