Mattias Callouet

03/04/2023
COMM 305 : Cross-cultural Communication
Midterm

A.2:
When one encounters an intercultural interaction, the key to make a joyful

memory of this interaction is using skills necessary for a good understanding from

both sides. We will explore five necessary skills from Understanding Intercultural

Communication (Stella Ting-Toomey and Leeva C. Chung) that I plan to consciously

integrate in my daily life, and we will discuss how the integration of them in my daily

life can benefit me.

The main skill to adopt if one wants to become more of a flexible intercultural

communicator is the practice of the mindful O-D-I-S method (p.62). This method

includes different steps. First, learn to observe attentively the verbal and nonverbal

signals that are exchanged in the communication process. Then, try to describe

mentally and in behaviorally terms what is going on in the intercultural interaction.

Generate multiple interpretations out of what we observed and described before

suspending our ethnocentric evaluation and open our mind to better understand the

differences between one’s culture and someone’s else. Apply the O-D-I-S method on

a daily basis can develop my patience when I am having an interaction with

someone from another culture and ensure the good memory of it. This method also

avoids the creation of conflicts based on misinterpretation or misunderstanding.

Using the O-D-I-S method would also be a way to challenge the stereotypes I can

have about one’s culture and be a starting point for my journey to become a flexible

intercultural communicator.
 With the knowledge of the O-D-I-S method, one can go farther by developing

his mindful listening and identity validation skills (p.87). In other words, once one is

able to acknowledge the existence of differences between cultures, he can open his

mind paying close attention to verbal and nonverbal signs before validating or

rejecting someone’s identity. As an international student, I was anxious about being

rejected by the students in the United States. I never felt rejected since I arrived at

the University of Jamestown. Hence, I came to realize that validating one’s identity

without judgement over his gestures or verbal cues makes this person feel

incorporated and go through culture shock more smoothly. Feeling included in a

group one just arrived in helps him to overcome the stages of the w-shape

adjustment model: honeymoon stage, hostility stage, humorous stage, in-sync stage,

ambivalence stage, reentry culture shock stage and resocialization stage (p.102). I

want thereof to make everyone feel included in the culture I am part of, as I felt here.

Following the development of his capacity to include everyone in his culture,

one might want to develop his understanding of languaculture (p.128). Languaculture

refers to the necessary interdependent ties between language and culture. The rules

and patterns of a language are built on the values, premises, and worldviews of a

speaker. The features of a language: syntactics, morphology, phonology, semantics

and pragmatics; deciphers it. With a better knowledge of the structure of a language,

I think that talking to people with a foreign language will be easier for me because I

would be able to notice the cultural input of the person in it. Acknowledging the

strong ties between language and culture can also make me realize my own cultural

input in the languages I speak and therefore I would be able to explain why I say

certain words with a specific tone or volume.

 Knowing how to approach languaculture is not enough to become a complete

flexible intercultural person. Being flexible when one observes and identifies non-

verbal display rules (p. 153) is primordial to lose an ethnocentrism point of view, or in

other words realize that one’s country and culture are not the only one in the world

nor the ‘normal’ one (p.14). Non-verbal display rules refer to the set of rules

concerning the meaning or the way of executing non-verbal actions. These rules

differ from one culture to another. Hence, practicing the observation of non-verbal

cues and approaching them on a completely neutral interpretation would help me

become more open to learn the different meanings of non-verbal cues. I already pay

a lot of attention to facial expression for instance, and I cannot control my judgment. I

need to analyze everything I see, and facial expression is the main non-verbal cue I

pay attention to when I talk to someone. Therefore, learning neutral interpretation

before judging and defining definitely what I see is a big step I need to take towards

the unconscious competence stage (p.31).

Finally, becoming a flexible intercultural communicator is not an easy task. I

still need to work on my patience in a general way to not seem rude or

unsympathetic. If I achieve to include the O-D-I-S method, mindful listening, identity

validation, the understanding of languaculture and the observation and identification

of non-verbal display rules; I would become able to create stronger relationships with

people from other cultures. Travelling would become much more easier as well and I

would also be able to teach my relatives about the basics of intercultural interactions.

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B.3:

Intercultural communication involves various skills and capacities to master in

order to not end in an embarrassing situation or create a conflict at work for instance.

Each culture has its own ‘unspoken’ rules that everyone knows except people from

other cultures, if one does not do research before travelling. These ‘unspoken’ rules

often deal with: the proxemics, the natural personal space and distance between

people; the nonverbal cues; the haptics, the perceptions and meanings of touch

behavior; and the paralinguistic features, or voice qualities (p.137–145) We will

discuss how mastering these ‘unspoken’ rules can help one to better appreciate

certain aspects of a culture.

First of all, mastering the ‘unspoken rules’ of a culture means better

appreciating the warmth of the people. The way people from a culture greet each

other and show their attachment to them is one of the experiences a stranger would

live everyday while abroad. Greeting someone often involves haptics and

proxemics. The use of both of them depends on whether it is a Low-contact culture

or High-contact culture (p.145). The members of Low-contact cultures barely touch

each other, prefer indirect eye gazes, and speak in a low tone. (p.145) while the

members of High-contact cultures often look at each other in the eye directly, face

each other, touch, or kiss each other, and speak with loud voices (p.144). For

instance, the well-known ‘bise’ or ‘kiss on the cheek’ in France is not universal.

French people do not kiss everyone they meet on the cheek. Although French

people are mostly part of a high-contact culture, they only use this warm way of

greeting someone with their relatives or close friends even though the worldwide

thought of it presents this method as universal. For instance, if, at work, a new
worker from another culture kisses one of his colleagues on the cheek, he might be

rejected violently because it is not the proper way to say hello to a colleague. It can

get even worse if a traveler from another country tries to kiss a woman he just met

on the cheek because people could see that as a sexual assault. Thus, learning the

haptics and proxemics rules of a culture can avoid being arrested or rejected even

though one thought doing good.

Understanding the meaning of the nonverbal cues of a culture can prevent

some embarrassing moments. Nonverbal cues can be facial expressions, or

kinesics, gestures or even eye contact (p.138). One needs to be very careful when

traveling abroad because of the meaning of the nonverbal cues that can be

completely different from one culture to another. For example, putting the thumb and

index finger together and making a circle with our other three fingers straight can be

the same as showing the middle finger in Brazil. It can also mean “O.K.” in the

United States, “money” in Japan, “zero” in France, and it can imply that the person

who gets this gesture addressed to is homosexual in Venezuela and Turkey (p.141).

In Japanese culture, children are taught to look at others' necks because this way,

the others' eyes still fall into their peripheral vision. Generally speaking, in Japan, it is

considered disrespectful to maintain eye contact with others. Thus, learning how to

use and interpret nonverbal cues depending on the culture can save someone’s

face.

Once one can appreciate completely the warmth of the people and the

gestures of them, he should focus on paralinguistic features. Hence, he would be

able to appreciate plainly the language itself. Paralinguistic features refer to the

accent, pitch range, pitch intensity, volume, articulation, and rate of a language. In

other words, it refers to how something is said (p.137). All these features vary from a
culture to another. For instance, African Americans tend to have emotionally

expressive voices and are passionate about their conversation points and therefore

speak loud and with strong sounds which is often mistaken for anger. (p.138)

Paralanguage is the most difficult to manage out of the four skills we are discussing

here because if, for example, a foreigner tries to speak to a local with the language

of the country he is visiting; the local may misinterpret what is said because the

traveler does not necessarily know how to create subtle variations in the sounds to

intend specific nuances of sarcasm, playfulness or humor for example (p.138).

In conclusion, learning how to use and interpret the proxemics, nonverbal

cues, haptics, and paralinguistic features of a new culture can lead to a better

experience for the local and the foreigner. When an intercultural interaction occurs

between two members of different cultures, both of them should be aware of all

these possible differences that, if not taken in consideration, could result in

embarrassment or disappointment.

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C.2:
Stella Ting-Toomey and Leeva C. Chung defines, in their book Understanding

Intercultural Communication, Ethnocentrism as a defense mechanism used to view

our culture as superior to other cultures and thus, we perceive our way of life as the

most reasonable and proper (p.163). The article by P. McIntosh on White Privilege

gives an example of what is ethnocentrism and how we can change it. We will start

by discussing how both sources refer to the reasons and causes of ethnocentrism

before continuing with the consequences of ethnocentrism depicted in both sources.

Then, we will discuss how racism is presented in both sources and the effect it has

on the boundaries between ingroup and outgroup memberships before ending with

how we can put an end to our ethnocentric mind.

Our textbook provides three reasons for ethnocentrism. The first one is our

tendency to define what goes on in our own culture as natural and correct and what

goes on in other cultures as unnatural and incorrect without questioning our

statement. The second reason is our tendency to perceive ingroup values, customs,

norms, and roles as universally applicable. In other words, our tendency to deny the

existence of different ways to do and interpret things. The last reason is our

tendency to experience distance from the outgroup, especially when our group

identity is threatened or under attack (p.163). As an example of ethnocentrism,

Peggy McIntosh, describes in her article how “whites are carefully taught not to
recognize white privilege” (p.1), that is to say, how being white means being superior

over everyone else. According to her, white privilege is like male privilege. They both

give “unearned power” to its members. A power they do not even know themselves

about.

Ethnocentrism often results in the creation of stereotypes about other

cultures. According to our textbook, stereotypes are “exaggerated pictures we create

about a group of people on the basis of our inflexible beliefs and expectations about

the characteristics or behaviors of the group (p.165).” Most past of the time,

stereotypes are unfounded and false. They are starting points for a work on

ourselves and not endings. In her article, Peggy McIntosh says: “then I remembered

the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter

are oppressive. I began to understand why we are justly seen as oppressive, even

when we do not see ourselves that way.” (p.1) Considering White women oppressive

can be a stereotype from African American culture and it might not be completely

true but acknowledging this stereotype about White women can be a starting point

for change. Ethnocentrism and stereotypes often lead towards racism. The line

between ethnocentrism and racism is thin.

Racism is a tool people use to mark ingroup-outgroup membership

boundaries. In other words, using racism comes back to the idea of “us versus them”

(p.168). “Us” would be white people and “them” would be every person of color. As

McIntosh explains: “Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the U.S. think that

racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see

“whiteness” as a racial identity” (p.4). Most white people acknowledge the existence

of other racial identities based on the color of the skin while refusing to consider

“whiteness” as a racial identity itself because they consider “whiteness” as the

natural color of the skin. This is typically an ethnocentric point of view most white

people have. According to Ting-Toomey and Chung, racism is based on three

principles: feelings of superiority based on biological or racial differences or both;

strong ingroup preferences and solidarity and rejection of any outgroup that diverges

from the customs and beliefs of the ingroup; and a doctrine that conveys a special

advantage to those in power (p.175). The idea of “earned strength and unearned

power” (p.4) in the White Privilege article is the basic example of what is racism.

Racism confers dominance of a group over another one. In other words, it marks

boundaries between the two groups. These boundaries influence our perception of

the other group and its culture. For instance, our attributions, the explanations we

find for their behavior, can be positive if it is for people in our group, negative if it is

for people form the outgroup or situational in some cases (figure p.166). This said,

racism, stereotypes, prejudices and ethnocentrism in general can be avoided.

The main tool to reduce or even lose completely an ethnocentric mind is the

development of one’s intercultural sensitivity. The figure on the page 165 of our

textbook present 6 different steps from denial to integration. Denial is the first stage

where the person refuses categorically to acknowledge the existence of other

cultures and considers its own as the only one (p.164). As an example, Peggy

McIntosh refers to the avoidance of the topic of White privilege on page 4 of her

article: “For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject.”

The next step, Defense refers to the “us versus them” stage where one’s own culture

is experienced as the only good one. Others might exist but they are not “natural”.

Individuals in this stage often feels threatened by the outgroup and create

stereotypes in order to reduce their power and assert dominance on it (p.164). For

instance, Peggy McIntosh talks about white people being taught at a young age to
recognize racism only “in individual acts of meanness by members of their group”

and not in “invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on their group

from birth” (p.5). After Defense comes Minimization which means referring to all the

people on the earth being the same in the end except for superficial food customs

and holiday celebration differences (p.164). Peggy McIntosh illustrates this stage

when she explains the effect of white privilege over “the myth of meritocracy, the

myth that democratic choice is equally available to all.” (p.5) She argues that making

people believe that everyone is equal in the end, just props up the people already in

power. Once an individual accepts the existence of cultural differences, he leaves

the stage of Acceptance to go towards Adaptation (p.164) as Peggy McIntosh did: “ I

decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of

white privilege in my life.”(p.2) The last stage is Integration in which an individual

intentionally incorporates other cultures customs and values in his own.

In conclusion, our textbook, Understanding Intercultural Communication, and

the article on White Privilege are complementary sources. In other words, the

textbook mainly presents and explain the concepts and ideas about ethnocentrism

while the article gives an actual example of all the concepts and ideas.

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 Sources:

 McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, PDF

version.

 Ting-Toomey, Stella and C. Chung, Leeba, Understand Intercultural

Communication, Second edition, Oxford University Press, 2012.

 Uono, Shota, and Jari K Hietanen. “Eye contact perception in the West and
East: a cross-cultural study.” PloS one vol. 10,2 e0118094. 25 Feb. 2015,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4340785/