Intercultural and

Global
Communication
 03
Intercultural Communication
Ethics and Competence
 Identifying Your Culture
The first reference you make when people ask you to identify
yourself may go as you identifying yourself as a Filipino, Fil-
Am, Half-Chinese, etc. This is natural as we identify
ourselves as part of a race or nationality.
Identifying society and culture n such ways makes the simple mistake of assuming
that everybody from the same nation or country has the same set of assumptions and
beliefs. But remember that there are regions regarded as distinctive(Ilocanos,
Bicolanos, Kapampangan.).
You Belong Without Knowing It
You were born into a society, a nationality, and a heritage;
you live somewhere, you follow certain rules that exist in a
society; you speak a particular language or set of languages
that people around you use; you eat particular foods and can
identify ethnic cuisine of other nations.

Observe on the traits that you have in relation to the

collective traits of other members of your culture and other
culture. You will notice that almost everything you know and
do (aside from the things you learn at school) is created and
transacted by the society you grew up in.
You Do It Without Knowing It
Your talk indicates or displays your cultural membership.
Your culture is written in your voice not only in the language
you speak but also the thought you express and assumptions
you make.

For Caviteños, our punto may tell other people where we are
from. Slightly sound like the Manileña/os, we are from
Dasma, Imus, or Bacoor. Have a stronger accent, we are from
Upland Cavite.

This is a good evidence that our assumptions of

culture is limited to what we know as the
“differences” cultures have.
Ethics Across Cultures
(Kale, 1997)
● Ethical communicators address people of other
cultures with the same respect that they would like
to receive themselves.
● Ethical communicators seek to describe the world
as the perceive it as accurate as possible.
● Ethical communicators encourage people of other
cultures to express themselves in their uniqueness.
● Ethical communicators strive for identification
with people of other cultures.
● Hate speech includes threats or
verbal slurs directed against
specific groups or physical acts
such as burning crosses or spray-
painting swastikas on public and
private property (Walker, 1994).

On the pictures
Top: Ku Klux Klan burning crosses.
Bottom: Swastikas on random wall.
 Barriers to
04 Intercultural
Communication
As developed by LaRay M. Barna (1997)
 As understood from the previous lessons on the
dimensions of culture, we are operating under
different cultures and most of the time, we view
our own culture as the ‘correct’ one, or just simply
not knowing how other cultures operate. With this,
expect that we might offend someone.
Let us try to see how the barriers affect our
intercultural communication.
 Barriers:
1. Anxiety. When you are highly anxious because of
not knowing what you are expected to do, it is only
natural to focus on that feeling and not be totally
present in the communication transaction.

2. Assuming Similarities instead of Differences. We

assume that what we do is fine with other cultures as
we think we have the same views of how the world
works. The safest way is to not assume anything. If
you can, ask people questions, “Do you mind if..”
“What are your customs on..”
Barriers:
3. Ethnocentrism. Negatively judge aspects of other culture by the
standards of one’ own culture. To be ethnocentric is to believe in
the superiority of one’s culture.
● Anthropological concept of cultural relativism: In here, we
recognize the subjective nature of our own cultural behaviors and
are willing to re-examine them by learning about behaviors in
other cultures (Cohen, 1998).
● Cultural nearsightedness: taking one’s own culture and
neglecting other cultures.
● Eurocentric ethnocentrism: recognizing only Western holidays or
basing curriculum only on Western history, music, and art.
Calling Asia “the East” may sound like its identity is dependent
on Europe.
 An example of cultural nearsightedness.

This is America.

This is also
America.
4. Stereotypes and Prejudice.
Prejudice refers to irrational dislike, suspicion, or hatred of a particular
group, race, religion, or sexual orientation (Rothenerg, 1992). Persons in
group are not viewed for their individual merit but of ther membership.
These people tend to generalize and think bipolar terms (Adorno, et al.,
1950).

Highly prejudiced people are unlikely to change their attitudes even when
presented with new and conflicting info.
Reference:
Agustin, R. et al. (2018). Communication in Multicultural Contexts. M
Muntinlupa City: Panday-Lahi Publishing House,
Inc.