Which is not a barrier of intercultural communication?
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© Article translated from the book “Negoziazione interculturale, comunicazione oltre le barriere culturali” (Intercultural Negotiation: Communication Beyond Cultural Barriers) copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani Intercultural Negotiation Training and Coaching, published with the author’s permission. The Book’s rights are on sale and are available for any Publisher wishing to consider it for publication in English and other languages except for Italian and Arab whose rights are already sold and published. If you are interested in publishing the book in English, or any other language, or seek Intercultural Negotiation Training, Coaching, Mentoring and Consulting, please feel free to contact the author from the webstite www.danieletrevisani.com
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Even within the same culture, communication isn't always easy. Spouses get divorced, friends fall out and workers change jobs -- often because of misunderstandings. Add cultural differences to the mix, and the sources of potential problems multiply. Whether you're a student, businessperson or traveler, knowing the barriers to intercultural communication is the first step to overcoming problems. Language DifferencesLanguage differences are an obvious barrier to intercultural communication. If you speak only English and a shopkeeper speaks only Japanese, you won't be able to communicate verbally. Even if you've studied the language or an interpreter is available, dialects, different accents and slang can cause problems. In addition, words don't necessarily translate from one language to another in a clean one-to-one correspondence. The same English word may have different meanings to people from different cultures. Body LanguagePeople sometimes take offense because of differences in body language across cultures. For example, a businessperson from Latin America might stand closer to a client than someone from North America would. This may make the North American feel crowded and want to back away. People from southern Europe typically use more eye contact than Britons and Americans, which may make the English-speakers uncomfortable. Because the French typically smile less than Americans, sometimes Americans think they aren't friendly. Level of ContextMost English-speaking cultures are low-context, meaning they put a message into explicit words. In these cultures, saying "no" when you mean "no" is just considered straightforward or honest. High-context cultures, such as Japan, expect the listener to pick up more meaning from the general situation. For example, Asians sometimes say "yes" or "maybe" when they actually mean "no," according to the Diversity Council. Asians often consider an outright refusal blunt rather than honest. Value of TimeNot all cultures think about time in the North American linear fashion. In the U.S., punctuality is important, but Latin and Middle Eastern cultures put a higher value on relationships. For example, you'd finish your conversation with someone even if it makes you late to a meeting. A culture's view of time also influences how it sees deadlines. For example, North Americans consider making a deadline crucial -- whether on the job or in college. People from Asia or South America are more likely to view deadlines as less important than results over the long haul. Negative Stereotypes and PrejudicesStereotypes and prejudices about people from other cultures can cause communication problems and give offense. Ethnocentrism, or a belief that your own culture is better than that of others, can lead to acting superior toward other groups and not treating them well. For example, a teacher in an American college may think that students from a certain culture lack strong English skills or are incapable of good work. This prejudice can lead the teacher to treat the students unfairly. Feelings and EmotionsIndividuals from the United Kingdom and Japan typically keep a tight control of their emotions, while Italians and French are more comfortable showing their feelings. Loud talking might embarrass an Englishman, for example, but an Italian may just be expressing excitement. Differences in culture and communication styles can even cause fear. As a result of this anxiety, people from different cultures may pull back and avoid trying to communicate at all, reports Kathy McKeiver, Coordinator of International Student Academic Advising at Northern Arizona University and chair of the Global Engagement Commission of the National Academic Advising Association. \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)
Learning Objectives
"How You See Me" series on YouTube features "real" people discussing their cultural identifies.(https://youtu.be/Fls_W4PMJgA?list=PLfjTXaT9NowjmBcbR7gJVFECprsobMZiX) Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): How You See Me. (Nick Ross) Barriers to Intercultural CommunicationMost of us can appreciate the important of intercultural communication, yet several stumbling blocks may get in the way of a positive intercultural communication experience. Some of the most common ones are anxiety, AnxietyIt is not unusual to experience some level of discomfort in communicating with individuals from other cultures or co-cultures. It may be that we feel as though we will do or say the wrong thing. This can make the interaction awkward or can lead us to avoid opportunities for intercultural communication. Although not as detrimental as ethnocentrism or stereotypes, anxiety can prevent us from making intercultural connections that will enrich our lives. Assumption of SimilaritiesAlthough you know differently, many people mistakenly assume that simply being human makes everyone alike. However, as we've discussed, values, beliefs, and attitudes can vary vastly from culture to culture. Those who assume a person from another cultural background is just like them will often misread or misinterpret and perhaps even be offended by any intercultural encounter. In intercultural communication, assume differences in communication style will exist that you may be unaware of. It is important to avoid interpreting another individual's behavior through your own cultural lens. EthnocentrismWhere did you start reading on this page? The top left corner. Why not the bottom right corner, or the top right one? In English, we read left to right, from the top of the page to the bottom. But not everyone reads the same. If you read and write Arabic or Hebrew, you will proceed from right to left. Neither is right or wrong, simply different. Americans tend to say that people from England drive on the “wrong” side of the road, rather than on the “other” side. You may find it hard to drive on the other side of the road while visiting England, but for people in the United Kingdom, it is normal and natural. A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy; a shared sense of community pride, for example, connects people in a society. But ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other cultures and could cause misunderstanding and conflict. Ethnocentrism assumes our culture or co-culture is superior to or more important than others and evaluates all other cultures against it. To dismantle ethnocentrism, we must recognize that our views of the world, what we consider right and wrong, normal or weird, are largely influenced by our cultural standpoint and that our cultural standpoint is not everyone's cultural standpoint. This ethnocentric bias has received some challenge recently in United States’ schools as teachers make efforts to create a multicultural classroom by incorporating books, short stories, and traditions from non-dominant groups. Ethnocentrism shows up in large and small ways. A "small" way might be in disdain for other cultures' or co-cultures' food preferences. Some individuals express disgust at other cultures’ eating meat from a dog or guinea pig, for example, while they don’t question their own habit of eating cows or pigs. A "large" and one of the most horrific examples of ethnocentrism in history can be seen is in the Nazi’s elevation of the Aryan race in World War II and the corresponding killing of Jews, Gypsies, gays and lesbians, and other non-Aryan groups. StereotypesStereotypes are oversimplified ideas about groups of people. Stereotypes can be based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation — almost any characteristic. They may be positive, such as all Asian students are good at math, but are most often negative, such as all overweight people are lazy. Stereotyping is a generalization that doesn't take individual differences into account. Stereotypes are frequently expressed on TV, in movies, chat rooms and blogs, and in conversations with friends and family. Further research has found that stereotypes are often used outside of our awareness, making it very difficult to correct them. And when we are distracted or under time pressure, these tendencies become even more powerful (Stangor & Duan, 1991). Still, it’s crucial to try to recognize our own stereotypic thinking. Treating individuals according to rigid stereotypic beliefs is detrimental to all aspects of the communication process and can lead to prejudice and discrimination. PrejudicePrejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group, such as gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, religion, sexual orientation, profession, and many more (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). An example of prejudice is having a negative attitude toward people who are not born in the United States and disliking them because of their status as "foreigners." Because it is often difficult to recognize our own prejudices, several tests have been created to help us recognize our own "implicit" or hidden biases. The most well-known implicit measure of prejudice—the Implicit Association Test (IAT)—is frequently used to assess stereotypes and prejudice (Nosek, Greenwald, & Banaji, 2007). In the IAT, participants are asked to classify stimuli that they view on a computer screen into one of two categories by pressing one of two computer keys, one with their left hand and one with their right hand. Furthermore, the categories are arranged such that the responses to be answered with the left and right buttons either “fit with” (match) the stereotype or do not “fit with” (mismatch) the stereotype. ParseError: "(" expected (click for details) Callstack:
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When our prejudices and stereotypes are unchallenged, they can lead to action in the forms of discrimination and even violence. Racial discrimination is discrimination against an individual based solely on membership in a specific racial group. There have been a number of shocking highly publicized instances in which African-Americans were killed by vigilantes or law enforcement, one of the more disturbing being the case of George Floyd. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over 8 minutes; almost 3 of those minutes were after Floyd was unconscious. (Dovidio et al., 2010). And in late 2020, "the United Nations issued a report that detailed "an alarming level" of racially motivated violence and other hate incidents against Asian Americans." According to a Pew Research Report, "32% of Asian adults say they have feared someone might threaten or physically attack them...with the majority of Asian adults (81%) saying violence against them is increasing. (Pew Research Center, Ap. 11, 2021) Mexican Americans and other Latinx groups are also targets, both of citizens and police. (Dovidio et al., 2010) Discussions about stereotypes, prejudice, racism, and discrimination are unsettling to some. However, we must recognize these attributes in ourselves and others before we can take steps to challenge and change their existence. Key Terms
Exercises For Discussion
Activities: Experiencing Intercultural Barriers Through Media
References Ruiz, Neil, Khadidijah Edwards, and Mark Lopez. Pew Research Center, 21 April 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...hem-is-rising/ Chung, L. (2019). Crossing boundaries: Cross-cultural communication. In K. D. Keith (Ed.), Cross-cultural psychology: Contemporary themes and perspectives (pp. 400-420). Wiley. Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books/Doubleday. Intercultural Conflict Management. Butte College, 10 Sept. 2020, https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/58206.
This page titled 2.3: Barriers to Intercultural Communication is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lisa Coleman, Thomas King, & William Turner. Which of the following is not barriers of intercultural communication?All these are barriers to communication, but the least effective barrier is the cultural barrier and does not create the barrier directly.
What are the 4 barriers to intercultural communication?There are certain barriers that come across intercultural communication. Barriers such as prejudice, anxiety, ethnocentrism, language, and assumption of similarity are most significant ones to consider.
What are the 6 barriers to intercultural communication?Six key barriers for cross-cultural communications. 1- Ethnocentrism. We all have a natural tendency to look at other cultures through our own lenses. ... . 2- Stereotyping. ... . 3- Psychological barriers. ... . 4- Language barriers. ... . 5- Geographical distance. ... . 6- Conflicting values.. What is not considered intercultural communication?Intercultural communication refers only to communication that happens between or among individuals from different nations. Communication that exists between or among individuals from different ethnic, religious, and regional backgrounds and sexual orientations is not considered as intercultural.
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