Appropriateness of Verbal Messages

A popular advice columnist once asked her readers whether it was proper to ask farmers or ranchers how many acres of land they owned. The responses varied widely: a few farmers and ranchers said they didn't mind; some considered it a question that allowed them to distinguish a person with a large lawn and a horse from a professional; others believed it was too personal a question, similar to "How much money do you make?" Obviously, how landowners answer such a question would depend on how they regarded it and whether they took offense. The advice columnist, incidentally, raised the question because she lived in an urban apartment and had no idea whether a landowner would find the question offensive.

When two cultures vary widely, such differences in the way a question is evaluated are likely to affect the interaction. The person asking the question may think it innocuous and necessary; the person responding may be offended and possibly avoid telling the truth:

An American businessman would be most unlikely to question another businessman's words if he were technically qualified and said that his plant could produce 1,000 gross of widgets a month. We are "taught" that it is none of our business to inquire too deeply into the details of his production system. This would be prying and might be considered an attempt to steal his operational plans.

Yet this cultural pattern has trapped many an American into believing that when a Japanese manufacturer answered a direct question with the reply that he could produce 1,000 gross of widgets, he meant what he said....

What the American did not know was that in Japanese culture one avoids the direct question unless the questioner is absolutely certain that the answer will not embarrass the Japanese businessman in any way whatsoever. In Japan for one to admit being unable to perform a given operation or measure up to a given standard means a bitter loss of face. Given a foreigner so stupid, ignorant, or insensitive to ask an embarrassing question, the Japanese is likely to choose what appears to him the lesser of two evils. (Hall and Whyte, in Mortensen, 1979)

Nonverbal Messages

Kurt Vonnegut, in his novel Jailbird, describes a woman attempting to interview a refugee of undetermined national origin. She tried a number of languages, looking for one they might have in common, and as she changed from one language to another, she changed her gestures as well.

Nonverbal communication systems vary from culture to culture just as verbal systems do, but we often overlook the symbolic nature of nonverbal systems. Many American travelers abroad have been embarrassed when they discovered that the two-fingered gesture they use to mean "Give me two" is assigned a different, obscene meaning in many countries. They have also been mistaken when they assumed that a nod always means yes. In some countries, a nod means "no"; in others a nod, or yes, simply indicates that a person understood the question. In this country, the gesture for "okay" is made by forming a circle with the thumb and forefinger while the other fingers are held up. But in France this gesture means "you're worthless," and in Greece it's a vulgar sexual invitation (Ekman et al., 1984).

Confusion in nonverbal indicators may be much more complex. In Chapter 5 we considered some of the different ways that cultures regard such nonverbal factors as the use of time and space. As we discussed then, we rely orixrionverbal cues to give us information about the meaning we are to assign to a verbal message. Because we often interpret these nonverbal cues unconsciously, the message received is often very different from the one the speaker intended.

As we noted in Chapter 5, vocal cues such as volume are used differently in different cultures. In the Arab countries, men are expected to speak loudly to indicate strength and sinceriry at a volume that Americans consider "aggressive, objectionable, and obnoxious." A Saudi Arab may also lower his voice to indicate respect to a superior. In an exchange between an American and an Arab, the confusion of signals is likely to be disastrous. If the Arab speaks softly to indicate respect, the American is likely to raise his voice, because in bis culture, one asks another person to speak more loudly by raising one's own voice. The Arab, thinking the American is suggesting that he is not being respectful enough, will lower his voice even more. The American responds by raising his voice again, and the cycle continues until the American is shouting and the Arab is no longer audible. "They are not likely to part with much respect for one another" (Hall and Whyte, in Mortensen, 1979, pp. 408-409).

The expression of emotion is also regulated by culture. For example, a gesture that Americans often misunderstand is the Japanese smile, cultivated for use as a social duty in order to appear happy and refrain from burdening friends with one's unhappiness. There are several cross-cultural studies of attitudes toward the display of emotion. For example, one study of people in England, Italy, Japan, and Hong Kong (Argyle et al., 1986) found that the Italians and the English allow more expressions of distress and anger than the Japanese. In fact, another study found that Japanese children are slower than North American children to identify anger— probably because "Japanese are socialized from an early age to avoid the expres­sion of emotions like anger" (Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey, 1988a, p. 386.) More­over, it seems that in some cultures the display of emotions is limited to emotions that are "positive" and do not disturb group harmony (p. 396).

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 400