Intercultural communication

Inhoud
Exam information...................................................................................................................................1
Topic 1: Intercultural communication....................................................................................................1
Topic 2. Prejudices & stereotypes..........................................................................................................4
Class 3. (21/09/2021) - …....................................................................................................................9
Topic 3. (Inter)cultural shock..................................................................................................................9
Topic 4. Values.....................................................................................................................................12
Topic 5. Differences in Communicative organisation...........................................................................12
Topic 6. Protocol..................................................................................................................................12
8/11/2021 – Desdobles....................................................................................................................13
Topic 7. Politeness............................................................................................................................13
Topic 8. Misunderstanding in Intercultural ….......................................................................................17

Exam information
 30% of the course
 19/01 at 9:30, 2h
 Questions
 About main topics
 Some exercises
 Re-watch the presentations of classmates
 DO WE HAVE TO PASS THE EXAM TO PASS THE WHOLE COURSE OR NOT???

Topic 1: Intercultural communication

1. Why is it relevant for international studies and relations? (A question to think about ourselves)

2. Why do we communicate?
 Exercise to compare two types of communication that allow us to understand how
communication works: a conversation between people VS signals between machines
 When communicating
 1. We exchange information
 2. We negotiate our interpersonal relationships with others
- Possible types of relationship: Consensus or conflict relationship, egalitarian or
hierarchical
 3. We build our identity and that of others
- We build our own image and we perceive that of our interlocutors
 4. We change the situation and the environment

3. How does communication work?

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  From the two previous examples, the keys to how human communication works can be
deduced
 The interlocutors: not mere emitters or receivers, they are involved in the interaction,
they negotiate meaning and are affected by what happens when they communicate
 The interlocutors: not only interpret what is said explicitly, but also from the knowledge
they have of the context they interpret the implicit meaning
 The message
 Participants in communication never receive exhaustive information
 The codes that bring together semantic meaning cannot anticipate the incalculable
variety of communicative context and potential meanings of expressions
- Ex. Dictionary would be the compilation of the lexical codes of a language
 SO interlocutors, in the case of linguistic communication, have to make inferences that
 A) complete explicit information
 B) Explain and justify motives, goals and reasons for their own expressions and that of
the interlocutor

Communication: Process (Bateson)

 Ostention: the act of showing or demonstrating something (in communication), the intention
to communicate something
 Interlocutor: the sender and/or receiver, someone who participates in (linguistic)
communication
 Code: coding (creating) & decoding (understanding)
 Context: the situation the interlocutors are in which can be influenced by many factors like
the location, the event, the language, the previous relationship between the two etc.
 Channel: Verbal or non-verbal, in person or online (ex. Social media) etc.
 Medium: the thing with which the communication is done = speaking?
 Messages: what is transmitted, what generates meanings

Examples
A) “Open the window” => meaning: open the window close to where you are
B) “There’s too much smoke” => meaning: There is more smoke than what the person considers to
be acceptable, because you are smoking, indirectly asking to stop smoking or to go smoking
somewhere elso

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  Communication
 NOT mere transmission of information
 Communication/ communion/ community
 Create communities
 Organize (the life of) communities
 Represent
 Communication => social practice

4. Dimensions of intercultural communication

 Intercultural communication
 Def: transcultural, “between”, cross-cultural… communication

4.1 Linguistic dimension

 Differences between:
 Personal/impersonal
 Direct/indirect (especially when ordering or suggesting)
 Explicit/implicit when addressing personal issues
 How to externalize emotions
 What tone of voice, what rhythm, what words to choose
 How to take turns or give the floor
 What physical position and what distance to adopt
 Different ways of speaking
 Conventions: how to express contrast, emphasis, highlight information
 Difficult to control its influence: different uses/the same use different meanings
 Different ways of structuring information
 Conventions: orders, what is considered logical, relevant
 Different ways of organising communication in each context
 We will explore examples of communication in the classroom
 Example: differences between classes in high school & university?
 Regulation of situations and activities: purposes, distribution of roles, interventions…
 Different expectations: What to expect, what can and cannot be done

4.2 Psychosocial dimension

 When communicating, there may be misunderstandings:
 They are seldom understood as the result of differences when communicating, but are
explained according to traits that are believed to be essential to the speakers and the
groups to which they belong (stereotypes and prejudices): “arrogant”, “false”,
“hypocrites”, “exhibitionists”
 Differences activate prejudices and stereotypes, and affect communication: they
facilitate or hinder it
 We negotiate our relationships with others
- We build our identity and that of others
- We build our own image and perceive that of our interlocutors
- Ex. Voice volume and arrogance

4.3 Cultural dimension

 Cultural values affect communication

 Values such as individualism : with social distance and personal space (interpersonal
bubble)

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  Collectivism: with the expression of closeness, with implicitness
 The importance of hierarchy: with the use of honorifics and respect treatments

4.4 Social dimension

 Intercultural communication situations are usually presided over by asymmetry and power
differences
 Communicative differences can serve/be used to legitimize the power of certain groups of
speakers and the social exclusion of others
 Complex dimension: interaction of social levels; in concrete situations the social order is
reflected

Problems of the cultural diversity for communication

Different Different ways

predominant of using
cultural language and
values communication Misunderstandings
Cooperation / Conflict
Different
interpretation
s and images
of the other

Implications
 When expectations are not met (as we expect communication to happen in a specific
situation): misunderstandings may occur
 Misunderstandings are seldom understood as such: they derive from essential traits of the
speakers and the groups to which they belong: arrogant, false, hypocritical, exhibitionist
 They activate prejudices
 Situations of intercultural communication are usually presided over by
 social asymmetry
 national frameworks
 power differences in communication
 Differences can serve/be used to legitimize the power of certain groups of
speakers and the social exclusion of others
 Complex dimension: interaction of social levels, in specific situations the social and
geopolitical order is reflected

Extra
 Reading Topic 1
 Exercise Obama

Topic 2. Prejudices & stereotypes

Psychosocial dimension: intergroup beliefs and social identities in communication

How do stereotypes and prejudices affect communication?

 Example: video of Sandra Bullock acting and saying stereotypical (racist) things about black
& Mexican people

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  Shows how prejudices have an impact on communication

1. Intergroup beliefs and impact on communication

Constituents of otherization

Intergroup beliefs
 Stereotype
 Def: generalization based on social category (real or imaginary) neglecting group diversity
(inter-personal) => includes cognitive component
- Realistic approach: personal and social factors => “abnormal” bias, what is (ab)normal
to you
- Socio-cognitive approach: need for processing information => “natural” bias, what is
(un)natural to you
 Stereotypes can be
 Conscious
 Descriptive
 Precise
 Only first hypothesis
 Modifiable
 Automatic vs controlled processing (Petty & Wegener, 1998)
 “Beliefs and situation that weaken the automatic processing of stereotypes” (Devine,
1989, 1995)
 Prejudice (Allport, 1954)
 Negative (hostile) attitude based on mere group membership => includes emotional
component
- Preconceived idea + evalution: judgment without data (Gardner, 1994

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 -“Halo” effect, self-confirmation
 Obvious and subtle
- Sexism: traditional/hostile and benevolent/ambivalent
- Racism: Brazen (biological, ethnocentric) and covert/subtle (aversive,
modern/symbolic)
 Can lead to discriminatory behaviour and expressions

Argumentation: Latent or Subtle prejudice

 Symbolic: the minority group threatens the values and norms of the majority
 It denies the actuality of discrimination
 There is an absence of positive emotions about the outgroup
 It is demanded that the outgroup complies with meritocratic expectations/norm
- “they have to make an effort to assimilate/adjust”
 Complains because they are “too demanding”/”demanding too much”
 Opposition to positive support policies
- “they are given unjustified advantages” (equity)

Discrimination
 Def: the unequal treatment of people when they are perceived as members of a group or
social category
 UN: any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or
national or ethnic origin, which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or imparing the
recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life
 Examples of language discrimination? When someone is not willing to communicate with
someone because they don’t speak a certain language

Examples
 Negative stereotype: “members of group x are lazy, unreliable and slovenly”
 Prejudice attitude: “I don’t like (people who belong to) group x”
 Discrimination: “I prefer to exclude them from the neighbourhood, avoid hiring them”

Culturalism and essentialism

 One more aspect of the construction of the other, focused on culture
 Stereotypes based on cultural traits
 Defining people by cultural traits
 Culturalism def: the idea that individuals are determined by their culture
 that these cultures form closed, organic wholes
 that the individual is unable to leave his or her own culture but rather can only realise
him or herself within it
- involved “objectification” of a person or group: culture is the element that explains
their behaviours and world views
- Culture is understood as an element constituted by cultural features, which are
considered static features
- The same tendency not to see people as individuals but as representatives of
homogenous groups (culture)
 Essentialism def: A step further as culturalism!
 The superficial characteristics of people are considered an expression of their underlying
nature

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Otherization
 Opposition dynamics (polarization): Us VS them
 The perception of any group as different, in terms of their ethnicity, class, gender etc.
 Both images are interdependent: negative description of the other implies a positive vision
of us
 It attributes to others traits considered negative: barbarism, illness etc.

Social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978, 1984)

“Part of the individual’s self-concept that derives from the knowledge of their belonging to the social
group together with the evaluative and emotional meaning associated with said belonging”

 Feeling of belonging (+ affective and evaluative implications)

 It is built on the intergroup comparison: we define “us” and “them” is a dialectical
relationship of inclusion and exclusion
 It serves to build/maintain/ reinforce individual and collective self-esteem (status)
 It is not a fixed trait: person + situation
 Instrumental VS affective function

Social categorization: Consequences

 Perceptual distancing and homogenization of outgroup members
 Reinforcement of intergroup boundaries
 “halo” effect, self-confirmation
 Assign people to contextually relevant categories
 Contexts of competition or conflict, which highlight intergroup comparison and salience
(cognitive activation) of a social categorization
- Reinforce stereotypical perceptions (of the outgroup, the in-group (minority) and the
self) and normative in-group behaviour
- Reinforces intergroup differentiation and discrimination

Extra
 Read article & watch video: Why Amy Cooper’s Use of ‘African-American’ Stung
(https://nyti.ms/3esh10o)

2. How can they be solved? How can we manage the situations in which there is a lack of
communication or conflict?

What do to (strategies)
 1. Changes in social categorization
 2. Changes in social and personal beliefs that moderate effects of automatic categorization
 1. Values
 2. Attitudes
 3. Social representations (nation, culture)
 4. Intercultural sensibility: respect, tolerance, acknowledgement
 3. Changes in (intercultural) communication

1) What to do: Reduce intergroup bias

 1. Changes in social categorization
 Decategorization => Individualization
- Dilute the boundaries between groups and reinforce the salience of personal identity

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 - Change for knowledge (common interests)
 Ex. Instead of The Chinese People: Chinese Delegation
 Ex. Jabu instead of a South African girl
 Recategorization
- The category is changed (for example, national membership becomes European;
citizens of world)
- Reinforcement of the identity in a common in-group (superordinate)
- European construction after the second world war is an example: seeing oneself
European
 Multual intergroup differentiation
- Maintain group boundaries and perceptions as distinct groups-in the context of
coorperation (interdependence) where similarities and differences are recognized and
valued => reinforce generalization
- Win-win strategy: for example North/South differences serve to design a better plan
for an effective cooperation in Europe
 2. Act on social and personal beliefs that moderate effect of automatic categorization
 Values: Universalism VS Nationalism
 Broaden Cultural values: not just if a person was born in a place, and extend to other
people who moved there and adopted cultural values
 3. Changes in communication: intercultural communication
 Let the other talk more
 Respect and listen to his/her opinions
 Empathy
 No-imposing
 Reflexivity
 Example: the EU language policies => encourage knowing languages in the EU

3. Hate Speech
 Def: Hate speech defames, belittles, or dehumanizes a class of people on the basis of certain
inherent properties; typically having to do with race, ethnicity, gender or religion
 Attributes to that class of people certain highly negative qualities taken to be inherent in
members of the class
 Typical examples
 Immorality
 Intellectual inferiority
 Criminality
 Lack of patriotism
 Laziness
 Unworthiness
 Greed
 Attempts of threats to dominate their “natural superiors”
 Strategies - The method of defamation typically includes:
 Salient exemplars: Trump’s racist attacks on Latinos and Muslims, attempting to
stereotype all of them and smear entire classes of people on the basis of a handful of
individual cases
 Extolling the false virtues of the opposite class, suggesting that the defamed class lacks
those virtues (ex. Otherness)

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  Metaphor based on fallacious understanding: evolution = X are more evolved (social
Darwinism)
 Support of violence against these groups

Class 3. (21/09/2021) - …
 Missed first hour

Video: Microaggressions in the classroom

Microaggresions

 Don’t hurt intentionally (not sure if I agree with this definition)

 1) Microassault
 2) Microinsult: can come across as a compliment but is disrespectful
 “You’re pretty for a black girl”
 “Wow, you speak really good English” => assuming this person in foreign
 3) Microinvalidation: when someones experience doesn’t get validated
 “my experience as a woman blabla” “ooh it’s not too bad”
 “I don’t see colour”
 Overgeneralizing

 How do you react to it?

 Tell them how you feel
 Be assertive: “this is hurtful, don’t do it”
 Sometimes people don’t want to know though because it’s their reality, we all have a
different image of how the world works
 The professor didn’t really prepare to answer how to deal with it..
 Classmates comments: you can decide not to be friends with them anymore if they ex.
Make racist comments, don’t understand homosexuality etc. BUT just like your race or
sexuality doesn’t fully define you, someone’s opinion on one topic maybe shouldn’t
define them?
 Stereotypes can be useful, but not
 Stereotypes could be positive & negative
 Bv. “Latina’s like to dance”
 Conclusion: big lack of this information in the education system

Topic 3. (Inter)cultural shock

Culture shock
 Def: a set of emotional reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from one’s own
culture, to new cultural stimuli which have little or no meaning, and to the
misunderstanding of new and diverse experiences

Causes of cultural shock?

 Having unrealistic expectations
 Not being prepared enough
 Radical change
 Being in an unfamiliar context
 Being lost
 Having too much input

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  People having unknown manners
 Feeling trapped
 Uncertainty
 Lacking moral support
 Discrimination
 Language shock & fatigue
 Conflict in values
 Communication mistakes

How does it manifest?

 Feeling sad, lonely, anxious, vulnerable
 Excessively worrying about your own health
 Missing your family friends, country
 Being afraid of doing new things
 Having trouble speeling or concentrating
 Having stomach-ache or headaches
 …

Stages of cultural shock

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Stages of cultural shock

 1. Honeymoon
 Fascination and excitement about the new culture, curiosity about linguistic and cultural
differences and an emphasis on cultural similarities
 2. Culture Shock
 Confrontation with different values and behaviours, confusion and anxiety and
criticism/rejection of the new language and culture
 3. Adjustment
 The learning of new linguistic, social and cultural norms and increase in one’s level of
comfort and well-being and respect for the new culture (e.g. different ways of being) and
language
 4. Adaptation
 Awareness and understanding of cultural differences, an increase in autonomy and
satisfaction, a dual cultural/linguistic identity
 5. Reverse cultural shock
 The process of readjusting, re-acculturating and reassimilating into one’s own home
culture after living in a different culture for a significant period of time

What can you do?

 Learn the language
 Learn about the country
 Observe people
 Ask for help
 Share your culture
 Keep in touch with family/friends
 …

Extra: have a look at exercise & video at end of ppt!

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Topic 4. Values
Values
 Def: Broad preferences for a certain state of affairs (e.g. preferring equality over hierarchy)
 Values are transmitted by the environment in which we grow up, like the behaviour of
parents or teachers showing us what is acceptable and what isn’t
 Values are pretty much shaped by the time we hit 10-12 years of age
 They are defined as desirable goals (or means)
 Are applied through situations
- Can be relevant to family, work, friends => equality, success, freedom
 Relatively durable => stability can change
- They are durable but they can change when we travel
 Small and shared number of values
- There are some individual differences in values
 Sorted by their relative importance + structure
 Hierarchy of values: honesty > freedom > security
 Value system: interdependence/ configuration
 Rokeach (1973): how societies organize values (freedom and equality are at the same
level?)
 What when several values are relevant to the same situation?
 Dilemmas and conflict of values arise
- Ensure equality or individual freedom?
- How do I consider my values? Importance to individual efforts/wellbeing?
 Example: group assignment: personal relationship of just the accomplishment of the task

Why do we study values?: Functions

 They guide our decisions (guide behaviours)
 They are used to justify past actions (I have chosen this study because… I’m interested in..)
 They guide attention and perception: Active selection depends on our values
 Criteria for evaluating people and events (we expect certain things or behaviours from
others)
 Define expectations
 Model: Social structure => Socialisation => Values => (individuel/collective) action
 Values are used to describe people’s and groups’ orientations
 Advantage: Synthesis
 Risk: Stereotyping and over-simplification
- Avoid confusion between cultural and individual level
- Below the mean, we can find people with other value orientation

Controlled study by Hofstede

 Geert Hofstede’s experience
 He analysed a large database of employees’ scores collected through IMB between 1967
and 1973, covering more than 70 countries, of which only the 40 largest were used
initially and then expanded the analysis to 50 countries and 3 regions
 Book: Culture consequences (1980)
 International business work and international relationships are based on this
theory
 2001 version: broad model of 74 countries and regions, and 6 dimensions

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  Homogeneity in background data: same education years (PhDs), medium-high social
class, similar salaries/incomes, similar interests (traveling and living abroad) in all
countries

Hofstede’s model
 Then… differences can be attributed to “culture”
 “at the core of culture, you’ll find values”
 He starts to analyse the means, and with factorial analysis on means, he assigned tags by
trying to explain high-low Mediums
 4 dimensions to help differentiate between cultures
 Collectivism/individualism
 Power Differences
 Femininity/masculinity
 Avoidance to uncertainty

1st Dimension: Individualism VS Collectivism

 Individual goals VS group goals
 Importance to the individual or to the group
 Linked to the importance of social relationships
 Ex. USA = Individualism, China = Collectivism
 Consequences of living in an either individualistic of collectivistic society
 1st) Emphasis on collective goals
- Subordination of the individual to the group
- Compliance: norms and rules
 2nd) Importance of the network of social relationships
- The importance of family
- Guanxi: quality and quantity of social relationships
 3th) Importance of own group
- Number of inner groups
- Differentiation between in- and out-group
- It is critical if one is excluded in collectivist societies
- Differential application of values and standers
- I VS We
 4th) (Psychological) consequences of Individualism – Collectivism
- Autonomous/ self-sufficient person (self) VS interdependent (collectivist)
 See individual of collectivist goals
- Self-realization VS adaptation to the expectations of the in-group
 Ex. Modesty, self-criticism
- Self-esteem: assessment of competition VS Self-assessment

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Communication: ceremonies, acts, meetings…
 In the United States, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" but in Japan, "the tallest nail gets
hammered down.”
 In the United States: numerous contests and ceremonies recognize individual achievement.
People are publicly rewarded for their accomplishments - being the smartest, the youngest,
the most resilient, the funnest, or "the best" at whatever they aspire to.
 Collectivist cultures, on the other hand, emphasize harmony and cooperation. Collectivists
strive for group approval, which is achieved not by standing out but by conforming to the
group norm. From the perspective of the collectivist, an individual who stands out from the
group breaks the harmony. Collective ceremonies: the individual is a part of the group.
 Class participation: individual (autonomy of thought), group (work groups, choirs)

Individualism & collectivism in communication (This part I don’t really understand)

 Conversation maxims: Quantity, Quality (truth), Relevance, Mode (direct vs. Indirect)

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  Beliefs on conversation : importance of
 Loquacity (indiv.) VS Silence (Collect.) as an interpersonal social contral strategy
 Fluency VS reserve (and acceptation of communicative anxiety)
 Economy VS Elaboration and Animation
 Lebra (quantity): Silence = communicative act (tolerance indiv. < Collect.)
 Functions (collect.)= Sincerity, discretion, shame, disagreement
 Okabe (mode): analytical (indiv.) VS Synthetic thought (Japan)
 Direct: High clarity & precision, assertiveness, use of “I”
- CBS system: clarity, brevity, sincerity
 Indirect: “it’s cold here”, high potential, less open, less pronouns
- Useful in research of the interlocutor’s indirect messages
 Yum (relevance): high ambiguity

2nd Dimension: Power distance

 Societies which accept power inequality as (not) normal or (non-) legitimate
 + Egalitarian/ (- hierarchical) societies: individuals are interdependent
- Same importance to all
 + Hierarchy: Employees are seen as subordinate, below chiefs/bosses
- Their work is more important/valued than the employees’ work
 Def: the extent to which less powerful members of country’s institutions and organisations
expect and accept that power in unevenly distributed
 Grade differences: big or small power distance cultures
 Differences of contexts: families, bureaucracies, between friends/couples
 Ex. Military organisations are defined by the distance of power
 Culture with less distance emphasizes that inequalities between people must be minimized
 there must be interdependence between the least powerful and the most powerful:
forms of treatment
 In cultures with a small power distance, family members are generally treated as equals and
family decisions are made democratically
 Ex. USA, Canada, Austria

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3th Dimension: Avoidance of uncertainty
 Expresses the degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty
and ambiguity
 The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown
situations
 The extent to which they have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is
reflected in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance
 Reality: many point of view in low means uncertainty avoidance cultures
 High or low tolerance to cultural diversity
- Strict (tight): with many rules and looking for an absolute truth (organize chaos)
- Permissive cultures: tolerance to other ways to (ex. India)
 Def: degree to which members of a particular culture feel threatened by uncertain or
unknown situations
 Hofstede argues that this feeling is expressed through nervous tension and in feeling the
need for predictability and for written and unwritten rules
 Degree differences
 Cultures with a weak orientation to avoid uncertainty:
- uncertainty is seen as a normal part of life, where each day is accepted as it comes
- people are comfortable with ambiguity and are guided by the belief that what is
different is curious
 Cultures with a strong orientation to avoid uncertainty
- Uncertainty in life is a continuous threat that must be fought
- Life can be stressful when feelings of urgency and high anxiety are typical
 Uncertainty avoidance cultures avoid ambiguity in most situations and seek structure in their
business organizations, home life, and relationships

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4th Dimension: Masculinity/ femininity
 Classic gender roles, and if there is an overlap between both (overlap = meaning more
feminine?)
 Masculine: Instrumental roles
- success, being the best and the winner, Assertivety, achievement and power oriented-
public spaces
 Femininity: Expressive roles
- Care and quality of life, private space
 Fundamental idea: What motivates people? Wanting to be the best? (Masc)
Liking what you do? (Fem)
 It depends on the roles: to what extent the roles of women and men are distinguished or
overlapped
 To what extent values traditionally seen as masculine (competitiveness) or feminine (care)
predominate in the whole of society: care policies

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Cultural orientations
 Eastern/Asian Countries: culture more based on the ideas of Confucius (China, Japan…)
 Long term Orientation: how to deal with long-term or shot-term goals and hwo to look back
to the past-present

Values on communication
 Individualism VS collectivism
 In-outgroup distinction
 => Harmony (avoid conflict) in-group relationships
- No questions about credibility of what is saying, trying not to make threat against
his/her “face (saving face)
 => not being focused on the interlocutor: individual societies
- Assertivity (is his/her problem) => direct negative feedback
 Gudykunst & Ting-Toomey (1988)
 Established connection between Low-context/ High-context & Individualist/collectivistic
cultures

Low-Context Cultures & High-Context Cultures

 Low-Context: direct, explicit, precise, simple, open, reflects speaker’s emotion in language,
repetition is frequent
- Related with societies with a different background (not a common background) and a
little shared knowledge (USA…)
- Ex. Germany, Scandinavian countries, UK, USA…
 High-Context: Indirect, assumptions, ambiguous, layered, reserved speaker and sensitive to
the interlocutor’s feelings, messages are implied but explicitly expressed, you need to read
between the lines, non-verbal blues
- Related with countries with a long shared history (Japan)
- Relationship-oriented societies (collectivist)
- Homogeneous population
- Ex. East, Arabic, Latin America, Southern Europe, Japan, China…)

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Contextualisation in the communicative code (Hall, 1989): Low/high Context Cultures

 Low/high context cultures are relative, not absolute values

 A same culture could be perceived as lower or higher context from other cultures which are
on the left or the right of that culture (see image with circles)

Strategies to work with people from high-context cultures: reading between the lines
 1) Ask for clarification
 2) Try to obtain more relevant information throughout open questions
- less yes/no questions
 3) Describe the other culture with positive attributes and show your difficulties
- Ask for help

Strategies to work with people from low-context cultures: being explicit as much as I can
 1) Be clear and specific
 2) Asser your opinions
 3) Recap main points (write them down if possible)
 4) Ask for clarification
 Use this approach when you work in a multicultural team

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Topic 5. Cultural differences in Communicative organisation
 In class: comparison between English & Spanish parliamentary debate

1. The linguistic Dimension of the Communication

 Communication is regulated socially by

 Norms
- How to speak
- When
- Who can speak (right to intervene)
- About what
- To whom
 In the process of language acquisition we acquire a “communicative competence”:
 How to use that language in a culture
 The context of the communicative situation is key feature in order to chose the language
variety or to decide how to speak
 This is the reason why when we change the language when we are in another country, we
have to increase/enrich our “communicative competence”

Linguistic uses are regulated in the communicative events

 Difficult issue: same linguistic uses are able to have “different values” in different
communicative events + each interlocutor had different “expectations”
 “Hello” = greeting
 “Hello” = telephone answer
 In communicative situations
 1. The same speaker can use language in a different manner depending on the
communicative situation
 2. Their interpretation depends on his/her communicative competence
 3 main parameters in communicative events
 1. Misunderstandings
 2. Part of the communication is transmitted in a no-explicit way
 3. Expections & what I am used to: we use our past similar-communicative experiences
to understand the next ones
 The communicative events are affected by
 A) (analysis of this topic) the communicative situation or context: expectations from
(non-)similar situations
 B) (Politneness) The social Relationships between the interlocutors: Power differences
(P+, P-) or Social Distance (D-, D+) (i.e use of polite forms of pronouns in Spanish;
honorifics in Japanese)
 C) How information is managed: what particular inferences have to be drawn, what has
to be taken literally and what is not relevant…

Communicative Events

 People within the same culture at different contexts (family, friends, at social institutions…)
handle themselves in the Communicative (or Speech) Events with interactive patterns.
Native speakers can come from different speech communities, so you have to know the social
norms of these speech communities
 Communicative Event types (are acquired by Social training)

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  After-dinner conversation, marriage, class…
 Associated to the Discourse Genres:
 Debates
 Talks
 Interviews
 Police interrogation
 Conferences and Lectures
 Public meetings
 Spontaneous Conversation: the most common communicative situation which
implies verbal exchanges. It is a non rigid rule-governed interaction when topics,
participants, tone… can change. However the spontaneous conversation is
governed by a systematic organization. We have rules for organizing turns,
for limiting overlaps or for solving a problem.

Components of Communication (Hymes, 1972)* for analysing the Communicative Events

 1. The Setting (S)

 Time and Place
 Psychosocial Scene
 2. Participants (P)
 Age, Sex, Social Status
 Relationships
 Constellation of Participants
 3. Ends (E)
 (General/Individual) Goals
 Purpose of the Event
 4. The Act Sequences (A)
 How Speech Acts are organized
 What Topics are adressed
 5. The Key (K)
 Tone
 Manner
 6. Instrumentalities (I)
 Language
 Dialect and en Variety
 Channel
 Kinesics and Proxemics
 7. Norms (N)
 Socio-cultural rules of interaction and interpretation
 8. Genre (G)
 Lecture
 Informal Conversation…
 Note that these elements are inter-dependent and have different weight

 Ex. In an interview
 “Participants”: core element
 Interaction norms, speech acts… are dependent of the kind of relationship between the
participants and the “setting”

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1. Setting
 Time & place (physical circumstances) and psychosocial circumstances (scene)
 A) Time-place of the setting
 External Physical Boundaries: where the interaction takes place (in a dinning-room, a
pub…)
 Inner Physical Boundaries: how the space is organized (the dinning-room table, at the
bar (or at table) in a pub; up-down sits)
 External Temporal Boundaries: The beginning and the End of the Communicative Event
(time, place and season)
 Inner Temporal Boundaries: the different Sequences within a communicative Event
 B) Psychosocial scene
 Type of interaction: formal/informal, serious/festive (Hymes, 1972)
 The temporal and spatial positions of the participants (reveal some role-relationships):
in rows, circles, around tables, on the floor… the sit facing the door…

2. Participants
 Psychosocial features:
Age, sex, Ethnic identity, Social Status, Rol, linguistic issues (native language, dialectal variety
used and slang)… Select those which are relevant for the Communicative Event we are
analysing
 The rol of the participant in the communicative event:
The Rol depends on the situation. One can be the boss in an Enterprise at Job; A father at
home, and the son when he is in his parents’ house… The way of using the language would
be affected by the rol
 Relationships among the participants:
Hierarchical relationship, or equal status relationship, close or distant. It is established in
advance but it is building up during the interaction and it can be negotiated
 Constellation of participants:
Type of relationships among the participants like main speaker-general audience, moderator-
speaker-audience…

3. Ends: Outcomes and Goals

 Ends-Outcomes and Ends-Goals (Social Outcomes, and individual Goals)
 Institution purposes: I.e. Medical interview: what can be expected from that
 Individual goals: can be different between the participants
- but Doctor and Patient can have different goals. For example, if Doctor has a bad day
or lags behind with the appointments probably he want to finish the interview as soon
as posible but the patient would be able to want a better explanation about his
disease or a prescription
- They have to negotiate:
OUTCOMES:
 reach a deal
 Conflict of Interest
 Each part has accomplished some of the deals

4. Act Sequences (topics and message content)

 Topics: what topics are developed
 How many topics and how topics are managed
 Some topics are culture-specific and difficult to be overtly identified

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  How the content is organised in that communicative event
 This is not quoting what participants are saying, but summarising the topics and sub-
topics as well as transitions from one topic to another one
 Ex. 1. (form-content): He prayed, saying “oh Lord, I would like to recover from this” (message
form and content) VS (content) He prayed that he would get well

5. Key: Register, Tone and Manner (Mood)

 Register: Formal/informal
 Politeness expressions are in the former one
 Tone
 Serious
 Sincere VS Sarcastic
 Friendly VS hostile
 Sympathetic VS Threatening
 Mood
 psychological state when we utter the message
 Ex. for giving condolences in Spain, we have to show sadness and calm)

6. Instrumentalities: Channel, dialect and language variety, Non-verbal elements and backchannel
 Channel:
 Spoken-written language
 other codes: morse, drum language
 Sign language: visual channel
 Language variety:
 Dialenct
 Variety of language: (non-)standard variety, slang
 Choice of different ones, changing or using both in a same event
 Kinesics and proxemics
 Eye contact
 Body posture
 Movement of hands, arms, nods…
 Backchannel
 Silence
 And “mmm, hm, uh..” with communicative functions (= I’m listerning, I see)

7. Norms of interaction and interpretation

 Appropriate behaviours and shared knowledge within a community of Speakers
 Norms of interaction: how interaction is regulated
 Who can speak
 How turns are organised
 Way of intervention: May I… or spontaneously
 Interruptions are allowed or not
 Overlapping speech
 Norms of interpretation: shared frameworks, background knowledge in a culture and the
expectative withing this culture (they are not translatable to other culture)
 Presuppositions, intentions, inferences (what it is not said but understood, politeness…)

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Regarding Norms
 Insults are accepted in parliamentary debates
 Acting (Bordieu’s): Confronting and Strategic Alliances
 Parliamentary Insults: Looking for a response, and that response is taken into account for
the audience
 Their words must not offend the dignity of the assembly

Regarding norms: the rhetoric of isults

 Insults rhetoric functions: to move, to enjoy, to teach
 Aristotle rhetoric deals with:
 Logos (reason)
 Ethos (Moral standards of the speaker)
 Pathos (Audience’s feelings)
 Logos and Ethos are important, however the pathos (audience’s feeling) is crucial to gain
credit
 Insults can be oriented to
 1) Logos (reason)
- Call the attention
- Distract about the real topic
- They have a huge impact
- In order to catch Audience’s interest
 2) Ethos (moral of the public speaker)
- To gain support of the audience and to hurt the confidence/trust of the interlocutor
- To discourage the other parliamentary interlocutors and make them more vulnerable
- To defy their authority
- To get a better social image (credibility and personal prestige) to gain support in the
polls
- To cause harm in other parliamentary Ethos (values, social and more values, beliefs
and actions)


Topic 6. Protocol

1) What’s protocol?

 doing the right thing, at the right time for the right season
 Good manners & common sense
 Rules of etiquette for diplomates
 It has to change to keep up with the time

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2) Why do you think it’s important?

 Following it, can make you look good

 It can make everything flow, put people at ease
 It shows respect for what’s happening

 Following protocol makes you look good

 We show an image of ourselves when we communicate
 Protocol can show respect & honour
 Which makes it important for diplomatic & formal settings
 Doing things differently can be misinterpreted

Protocol in business settings

 Who starts/ends the meeting?

 How do you sit at the table?
 Protocol around business cards?
 Example China: Take card with two hands, read it (or fake) to show interest, never put in
in your back pocket
 Which language should be spoken?

Definitions protocol (see ppt)

 More regulated and more homogenized part of intercultural communication

 Goal: to prevent …

Different ways of seating people during meeting (see ppt)

8/11/2021 – Desdobles
 Only started after half an hour, fkn useless
 Explanation home task
 Okay to watch the first 20 min
 We have to divide the debate into different parts
 Context is important, you have to know what happened before the debate

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  Spanish debate??? Can we watch a different video??

Topic 7. Politeness
Bad notes second hour:

Being polite in cultural context

 What is to be polite or unpolite?

 A note on the wall saying “do not use other peoples food and milk”

Politeness

What is to be polite or unpolite?

 In any situation, in any speech act, we are impiying faces and politeness
 Ex. Note on the fridge: “do not use other people’s milk and food” = a kind of politeness, a
way of being kind of polite by remembering that there is a shop across the road

Linked with

 Politeness: a linguistic concept which implies the “Face” we are showing/creating

 Messages are uttered depending on the interlocutors’ faces

1. A frame for politeness (Goffman)

1.1 Presentation of SELF (face) in Everyday like (by Goffman)

 We’ll talk about how we understand the concept of face in western societies & China
 “Face works”: works in order to be able to save and preserve the self-image following a
consistent line
* the things we are doing in order to save and preserve the self-image following a consistent
line
* this implies: consistency by protecting the present self-face
* effect: the (non-)acceptance of the self-image by others
*faces are based on cultural values in society

2. Psychological point of view

2.1 Converstation dealing: politeness strategies

 Brown and Levinson: give a psychological theory of Goffman’s face & represent them as if
they are universally valid

“Face” concept

 Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson

 Say there are different kind of “face”
- Off = individual face: Negative face = the own space (own time, space, body, goods
and ideas)
 Tendency to protect the own territory, intimacy, the power to take decisions
and the have control over the own acts and ideas
- On = Social face: Positive face = “social » face, tendency to be cared and appreciated
by others
 Tendency to join others, to built a social image and to try to convince others
about the own reality

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  Both show we act differently when we are alone or when we are around others

The face threats

 In interaction: managing both FACES + face threatening acts (FTAs)

 Examples of FTAs
 Interlocutors’ Negative Face: Threats to the independeny: asking personal questions,
directive speech, actes (do this), acts to force others, interruptions…
 Interlocutors’ positive face: Threats to the social value/face: do not care about the
interlocutor, not value others, critize somebody, regrets or to reject somebody
 Politeness: a set of verbal strategies to be able to diminish the threats and to preserve both
faces

The five strategies when asked a FTA

Left) Asking the question directly, avoidance process (to avoid a topic, to hide some emotions…)

 ne pas accomplir le FTA

Right) Trying to ask the question in a polite way (Sorry for the question, can I ask a personal
question?) = adding some softeners trying to diminish the social threat

 accomplir le FTA

Tactis (strategies) of negative face, politeness or deference strategies

 trying not to restrict the independence of others (see page 51 of Scollon and Scollon reading)
1. Be pessimistic (we assume that the other cannot do it)
2. Not to invade the personal space
 Some linguistic strategies in order to diminish threats (see picture below)

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Strategies of positive politeness

 To show the others that they are socially accepted and cared
 “I am involved or I am with you”
1. To show attentive to others’ likes and feelings
2. to show we belong to the same group as the others belong :” ooh it’s so hard for us
nowadays to see friends and family”
3. Be optimistic: we assume that the others understand us and be pleased with our wishes

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How to choose a tactic/strategy

 The speakers consider:

 Social distance
 Power differences (ex. Boss & employee)
 Formal/informal situation
 Degree of imposition
 The strategies to solve the threats or to repair face => depending on the degree
of the threat

3. Limitations of the theory of Brown and Levinson

3.1 Cultural differences and politeness

 Main issue: they don’t talk about the facts that politeness is culturally bias
 1. It seems that their theory can be applied to any situation in any place in the world
 They don’t take cultural differences into account
 They don’t take differences within the same society into account
 2. Preference by authors for the Negative politeness strategies and avoidance (Kerbrat)
 3. Preference by authors for the Social Distance concept

Emi Takamori Conference – Politeness in Japan (13/12/2021)

 A language that’s a bit complicated when it comes to politeness

 Stereotypes: hardworking, modest, serious
 A lot of differences between generations
 Differences between oriental and western world

Varied ways to be polite in Japanese:

 Acto de habla de la peticion:

 Koi (venir, imperativo)
 Kite (venir, forma de indicación)
 …
 See ppt
 Social distance
 Power difference
 Formality (different grades)
 Informal
 Formal

Topic 8. Misunderstanding in Intercultural …

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