Intercultural communication - 1

The concept of culture

I. The definition of culture
1. There is no one definition of ‘culture’. There are different definitions and approaches to the
notion of culture, e.g.:
Culture is...
- “a vast unexplored region of human behaviour that exists outside the range of people’s
conscious awareness” (Hall 1990)
- “everything that people have, think, and do as members of society” (Ferraro 2005)
- “a system of symbolic resources shared by a group of people” (Klyukanov 2005)
- “the collective programming of the mind which distiguishes the members of one group
or category from another” (Hofstede 1994)

2. Culture can be explained as the set of the learned values, behaviours and beliefs that is
shared by members of a social group. This is the kind of knowledge that, like our first
language, we initially acquire without conscious awareness (= socially acquired knowledge).

3. The most popular way of explaining culture is ‘the iceberg metaphor for culture’:

(Source of illustration: www.indoindians.com/lifestyle/culture.htm)

All the aspects of culture can be divided into two groups:

a) visible aspects of culture → the observable part of the iceberg which is often referred
to as ‘objective culture’.

b) invisible aspects of culture → the non-observable part of the iceberg which is known
as ‘subjective culture’. These aspects can only be suspected, imagined or intuited. In
most cases, the invisible aspects of culture influence or cause the visible ones. That
is why we have to know the invisible values, attitudes and traditions to understand
people’s behaviour in a particular culture.

Note!
Someone’s behaviour makes more sense when you understand the value or belief behind
it.

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4. Dominant culture is a set of the attitudes, values, beliefs and customs that the majority of
people in society hold in common.

5. There are different levels of culture referring to different groups of people, for example:
• national – French, Brazilians, etc.
• ethnic – Arabs, Catalans, etc.
• regional – Quebec, Bavaria, Northern Ireland, etc.
• gender – men, women
• generation – seniors, teenagers, etc.
• social class – working class, middle and upper class
• organizational – company (e.g. IKEA, Japan Airlines), higher schools, etc.

6. In English (and some other languages) there are two meanings of the word ‘culture’ - in a
sense of high culture and in a sense of anthropological culture. The first meaning – high
culture – focuses on intellectual and artistic achievements. For example, you can speak of a
city as having a great deal of culture because there were many art exhibits, concert
performances and public lectures. Similarly, we can speak of a particular period in history,
such as the Elizabethan period (1558 – 1603) of England, as a high point in English culture
because of the great number of musicians and poets of that time.
If we use the word ‘culture’ in its anthropological sense (as in studies of intercultural
communication) we mean that culture is any of the customs, worldview, language, kinship
system, social organisation, and other taken-for-granted day-to-day practices of a group
which set that group apart as a distinctive group (Scollon and Scollon 1997).

7. The individual’s cultural orientation begins at birth. As we grow and learn the first language,
we become accustomed to particular ways of being (verbal and nonverbal behaviour
patterns). The process of learning one’s culture is referred to as ‘enculturation’ (= cultural
conditioning). It is a life-long process. Both children and adults learn to act in certain ways
in new situations (e.g. business professionals become accustomed to a particular workplace
culture).

8. Enculturation entails “observation, interaction, and imitation and is both conscious and
unconscious” (Fortman & Giles 2006: 94). According to other researchers, acquiring a new
behaviour pattern (an aspect of culture) can comprise even 5 steps:
• observation (= instruction) – at this stage, you are only beginning to become aware
of a particular behaviour but you haven’t tried to do it yourself;

• imitation – now you try to carry out the activity, it may be difficult for you and you
are trying not to make mistake all the time;

• reinforcement – at this satge, people encourage you when you do it right and correct
you when you are wrong;

• internalization – you know how to do it, even without needing much reinforcement;
you may still have to pay attention to what you’re doing, but not as much as during
imitation and reinforcement stages;

• spontaneous manifestation – now you are able to do it the right way even without
paying any conscious attention to what you doing; it comes naturally.

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9. ‘Socialisation’ is “the process by which a person internalizes the conventions of behaviour
imposed by a society or social group” (Kramsch 1998: 131). Thus, we can say that
socialisation is the process by which we learn our culture.

10. The pyramid of human uniqueness (Hofstede 1991):

The piramid shows three dimensions of human behaviour: personal, cultural and universal.
This way Geert Hofstede illustrated the “three levels of uniqueness in human mental
programming”:
a) personality (= personal dimension) - it describes the ways in which each one of us is
different from everyone else, including those in our group; it is a combination of
genes and the personal experiences (it is a unique mental programme of the
individual);

b) culture (= cultural dimension) – it refers to what a particular group pf people have in

common with each other and how they are different from every other group; it is
education, language, behaviour, norms, values, rituals, religion, perspective of time
and space, political system, etc.;

c) human nature (= universal dimension) - it refers to ways in which all people in all
groups are the same; it is hunger, aggression, grief, survival instinct, affection,
communication, etc.

11. National cultures have a huge influence on people’s values, attitudes and behaviours. There
are absolutely no “right” or “wrong” values or norms, provided that human rights are
respected.

12. ‘Intercultural communication’ is interpersonal communication that involves interaction

between people from different cultural backgrounds. The terms ‘cross-cultural’ and
‘intercultural’ are sometimes used interchangeably. However, according to some scholars,
‘cross-cultural’ and ‘intercultural’ are different concepts:
a) cross-cultural communication refers to the comparison of communication behaviours
and patterns in two or more cultures;

b) intercultural communication involves interaction between people from different

cultural backgrounds.

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Note!
When we make statements about cultures we can’t avoid some generalisations. No discussion is
possible otherwise. The generalisation is potentially accurate and useful information, however, you
should remember that its actual accuracy and usefulness will depend on the context and specific
circumstances.

EXERCISES:

Exercise 1: Match the value or belief to its manifestation (you can choose from following
values/beliefs: informality, egalitarianism, relying on only oneself, respect for
age, honesty, directness, respect for authority, indirectness, fatalism, importance
of family).

1) Expressing your disappointment through irony, satire. - ………………………….

2) Arriving at a meeting without a tie. - …………………………..
3) Taking time off work to visit your mother in the hospital. - ……………………….
4) Refusing to help the student next to you during an exam. - ……………………….
5) At a meeting, openly telling your boss he’s wrong. - ……………………..
6) Listening to an older person even though you’re not interested. - …………………………..
7) In court, telling the truth under oath. - …………………….
8) Letting interns give their opinions on sales figures. - ……………………….
9) Asking the engineer’s opinion of something he’s an expert on. - ………………………..
10) submissively accepting that some events in life are pre-determined. - …………………..

Exercise 2: Decide if each behaviour is universal, cultural or personal:

1) Going to a job interview unshaved. - …………………..

2) Wearing a bathing suit when entering a church. - ………………………
3) Considering leeches to be good for curing blood-related diseases. - ……………………
4) Running away from a lion. - …………………………..
5) Enjoying tacos with spicy sauce. - …………………………
6) Sleeping. - ………………….
7) Men opening doors for women. - ………………………..
8) Preferring playing poker to doing homework. - ……………………
9) Dressing up for a job interview. - ……………………….
10) Being wary of going into a deep, dark cave. - ………………………….
11) Calling your secretary ‘love’. - …………………..
12) Regretting having lost the family fortune. - ……………………….
13) Saying ‘Excuse me’ after inadvertently bumping into someone. - ……………………..
14) Showing respect to a police officer. - ………………………
15) Feeling sad at the death of your father. - …………………….
16) Sleeping with a bedroom window open. - ……………………
17) Being wary of strangers. - ………………………
18) Considering snakes to be ‘evil’. - …………………….
19) Eating regularly. - ………………………….
20) Eating with knife, fork, and spoon. - …………………..
21) Wearing white mourning robes for 30 days after the death of your father - ……………...
22) Not liking wearing mourning robes for 30 days after the death of your father. - …………

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