Effects on the Individual

Although intercultural communication increasingly affects the world we live in, most scholars agree that the obstacles to intercultural communication and understanding will probably always mean that little of that communication will occur at a personal level. Travel is easier and more feasible economically than it was for our parents and grandparents, for example, but few people travel extensively enough to have much personal acquaintance with people of other cultures.

Cherry postulates that most intercultural communication is necessarily insti­tutional. We receive international news daily, but the information is about institutions and groups: the British Parliament, the Libyan government, Japanese business, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We receive little information about the individuals who make up these groups, and less direct information from them. Mass communication is in itself institutional. Individuals from different cultures rarely deal with one another as individuals but rather as representatives of nations, business, political groups, or other institutions.

For anyone who reads books and newspapers, who watches television, and who is concerned with international events, the world has grown larger. We are no longer limited to being members of our own small communities; we are citizens of the world as well.

Although it is often assumed that international understanding increases as a result of cultural and educational exchanges over an extended period of time, scholars believe that this hoped-for goal must be demonstrated empirically (Carlson and Widaman, 1988, p. 2). One investigation compared 450 students from the University of California who spent their junior year studying at a European university (Sweden, Spain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom were the countries involved) with students who remained on campus during the junior year. At the end of the school year, the study-abroad group had higher levels of cross-cultural interest, international political concern, and cultural cosmopolitanism. And when compared with students who remained at home, students who studied aboard also reported significantly more positive and more critical attitudes toward their own country (p. 14)—a finding consistent with earlier research. So relatively long-term study abroad may contribute to more favorable attitudes and increased international understanding, but there is still much to be learned about how such attitudes develop.

Social and Political Effects

Paul Bohannon (1972), illustrating the differences between the two roles we play in the world today, says that we have come to live in a two-story culture.

There is a large-scale world, with its common culture. It is primarily economic and political, mediated by dollars and votes, by consumer products and televised national political conventions. There is, at the same time, a small-scale world of family and community, mediated by sympathy and trust in face-to-face relationships. To different degrees, we all live in both. (p. 44)

In the large-scale world Bohannon describes, an increasing number of institutions are involved in intercultural communication.

Companies that deal in many commodities frequently have offices, factories, and distributors in several countries or all over the world. As a result, the economies of the world's nations are increasingly intertwined, and the goods available in nations that trade freely are drawn from the world at large. Thirty years ago, foreign-made automobiles were rarely seen on streets in the United States; today, they are common. A Japanese electronics firm opening a plant in the United States means jobs for Americans, just as American companies have built plants and oil wells and so created jobs in other countries. Even the industries that provide the means for intercultural communication depend on it: international flights would not be possible except for elaborate international communication systems about flight schedules, weather conditions, and flight regulations.

Not all the implications of an international economy are positive. During the Iranian hostage crisis, for instance, American banks warned that the threatened withdrawal of billions of Iranian dollars could seriously weaken the U.S. economy. The widespread distribution of goods is not necessarily in the best interests of the people to whom they are sold; in 1981, the United Nations condemned the marketing of infant formula in Third World nations. The United States manufacturer, it was claimed, caused the starvation of thousands of infants because it distributed the product without proper information about its use; further, the product was not appropriate for use in areas of great poverty.

The United Nations may be one of the most famous international organizations. If you've ever listened to or read about political debates there, you may have wondered whether it really does promote world peace. But the United Nations is far more than a forum for political debate. Like many other international agencies, it deals actively with "the mechanics of living," such as the needs for food, health care, and education in many countries. Other international organizations provide such services as literacy training, education in such areas as modern agricultural -methods and help in organizing the local craft production into profitable cottage industries that market their goods beyond the immediate community. These services help to increase productivity and raise -standards of living.

Cultural Effects

National columnist Ellen Goodman once told of an evening's experiences talking to callers on a late-night radio show. The host, she said, pointed out something remarkable about the voices of the callers: although they were calling from all over the country, they all sounded pretty much the same. "I didn't hear a dozen people with full-blown regional accents in three hours." A similar homogenization occurs in other aspects of our culture, she reflected:

There is a national style in everything from the architecture of the big cities to the merchandise of the big stores.... There are greater differences between the steak house and the health-food restaurant in one city block than between the mushi pork in Cleveland and San Francisco.... Even the souvenir shops offer the same national souvenirs of our local visits. (1981)

From the earliest times, cultures have been affected by contact with one another. Traders and the Mongol invasions once brought gunpowder, macaroni, and other Asian goods from Asia to Europe; later, immigrants brought these and other goods and customs to the United States. The Norman invasion of England in the eleventh century permanently affected the English language, not only from contact with the French language but because French became the language of the aristocracy and English the language of the peasants. European explorers brought horses to Native Americans, Native Americans taught early settlers how to grow corn and tobacco, and those settlers and their descendants drove the Native Americans westward. These are only a few examples of how trade, war, conquest, and migration have affected cultures throughout history.

As intercultural communication becomes more common and widespread, the effects of cultural contact are more pronounced and rapid. These are evident in the increased availability of goods that once would have been available, if at all, only to the very rich: tea from India, coffee from Brazil, woolen cloth from Britain, wine from France and Italy. It is also apparent in such things as the spread of Western technology, health care methods, and Hilton Hotels in the "underdeveloped" nations, and the spread of Japanese industry and business methods in the United States. Goodman notes that it is even apparent within the United States, for example, in the availability of Appalachian crafts in big-city department stores. Most people would not question the value of some aspects of cultural ex­change, such as the introduction of sanitation methods that curb epidemics or agricultural methods that save thousands from starvation. But many, including a number of scholars of culture, question the value of other aspects of cultural exchange. Harms (1973), for example, cites recently discovered "Stone Age" com­munities that have been isolated for hundreds of years. These communities have existed for centuries without even a word for war; how will they be affected by contact with the outside world? The possibilities raise ethical questions. "As out­siders," Harms asks, "should we promote community sanctuaries jo preserve these cultures?"{p. 28)

Intercultural exchange leads to cultural homogenization,the tendency for cultures in contact with one another to become increasingly similar to one another. Cultural homogenization implies that some aspects of one culture will dominate and eliminate the corresponding aspects of the other. The "standard American" voices we hear on television, for instance, are responsible for a standard American dialect and the disparagement of nonstandard dialects spoken by people who live in specific regions of the country. As a result of mass communication and travel, Goodman notes, "We dress alike, we eat alike, and I guess we are destined to sound alike" (1981).

The prevalence of the Western influence in international mass communication has led a number of nationalist groups to protest its effect. "Governments are insisting that broadcasters sharply decrease the proportion of programs which are purchased abroad. Peru, Nigeria, and Algeria are examples" (Katz, 1977, p. 114).

Ironically, even the attempt to preserve national cultures can be dangerous to regional cultures. In response to a 1970 Iranian attempt " 'to assist in safeguarding, developing, and propagating Iranian culture,'" Katz asks "which tradition should be chosen? There are Zoroastrian and Islamic elements in Iranian culture, Indian and Spanish elements in Peruvian culture, French and Arab elements in Algerian culture—which should be emphasized?" (Katz, 1977, p. 115). Another scholar, Alan Lomax, notes that "state-supported national musics"—in Italy, for example, have generally obliterated the more varied regional song traditions (1977, p. 130).

Yet with enough understanding of regional as well as national cultures, it is possible to preserve individual differences of many kinds and allow members of various subcultures or groups to coexist and flourish. Now, more than ever, we need to develop and refine the communication skills that make this possible.

SUMMARY

In this chapter, we discussed intercultural communication, which has become increasingly prevalent in the last few decades. We defined "culture" as the way of life developed and shared by a people and passed down from generation to generation. Because cultures vary along a range, the differences between two cultures may be slight or very dramatic. Even when two cultural groups are very similar, however, the differences between them are likely to become more evident in intercultural communication.

Intercultural communication has increased rapidly because of technological advances that have made long-distance communication more feasible and more available to the general public. Despite the advances in the means of sending and receiving messages, however, there are still many obstacles to intercultural communication. Differences in cultural factors such as language, nonverbal communication systems, relational roles and norms. Because we are not aware of the aspects of our own cultures in ourselves, the barriers to intercultural communication are complex and formidable. Ethnocentrism, mass effect, and stereotyping are all factors that limit our ability to deal with people beyond our own communities.

Intercultural communication affects each of us as individuals because it expands the world we live in. We live in a two-story culture, but we do not communicate at both levels in the same way. Communication at the second level is mostly institutional. At this level, international organizations have far-reaching social, political, and cultural effects.

REVIEW QUESTIOS

1. Explain the difference between culture shock and reverse culture shock.

2. How do cultural groups differ from other groups that have shared characteristics?

3- Why is it important for effective intercultural communication to understand that culture is learned, rather than innate?

4. Why do cultures vary along a range, rather than being clearly distinct from one another?

5. What are the two major reasons that intercultural communication has increased in the last decades?

6. State three communication principles with significant implications for inter­cultural communication.

7. Identify at least three aspects of culture.

8. Explain at least three ways in which language is an obstacle to intercultural communication.

9. Describe at least three aspects of nonverbal communication that vary from culture to culture.

10. How can cultural roles and norms affect communication between cultures?

11. What are two variables that influence how members of a culture view conflict. Give an example of each.

12. Explain how differences in beliefs and values can prove to be obstacles in intercultural communication.

13. What is ethnocentrism? Why does it interfere with intercultural communication? Give an example.

14. What is meant by the concept "mass effect"? Give an example.

15. How are inaccurate stereotypes created?

16. What are at least two reasons why stereotypes are inaccurate?

17. What is meant by the concept of a "two-story culture"?

18. Identify two social and political effects of intercultural communication.

19. What is meant by "cultural homogenization"?

EXERCISES

1. Make a list of some of the cultural groups in your own region or state, including the group (or groups) that founded your community. To what extent have these groups been in contact with one another? To what extent have they remained distinct from one another? List some ways in which these cultural groups have affected your own culture, such as your traditions, religious beliefs, and language.

2. Find three current articles about a cultural group, such as a group in Japan or Saudi Arabia, that has recently come into extended business or diplomatic contact with the United States. List at least five ways in which that culture, or that of the United States, has been affected by this contact.

3. List at least eight cultures, both inside and outside the United States, with which you communicate in some way (through personal contact, your work or business communication, or mass media). With which of these groups is your cmommunication personal? With which is it institutional? In at least one case in which your contact with the other culture is primarily institutional, describe some ways in which your understanding of the people in that group is limited by your communication with them.

4. Think of a group of people that you feel have specific, shared, cultural characteristics, for example, Californians, southerners, New Yorkers, blacks, whites, Amish, Japanese, Russians, Chinese. Describe the people as a group, and list the characteristics that you think distinguish that group from others. To what extent is your description a stereotype? What is the source of your information about the group? Can you think of some reasons why your stereotype might be inaccurate? Can you think of some ways in which it might affect your communication with individual members of that group?

5. Listen to a national newscaster report the news on television. Do you think that such newscasters' use of language has affected the way you speak? Do you think their use of language affects what you consider to be good English? Why?

SUGGESTED READINGS

Baldwin, James."Stranger in the Village." In James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket. New York: St. Martins, 1985.

This is a moving essay on the experience of a black American who comes to live in an isolated European village.

Barnlund, Dean C.Communicative Styles of Japanese and Americans: Images and Real­ities. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1989.

A comparative study that is thorough and clear-sighted. The author examines many stereotypical notions about the Japanese and the Americans.

Cushman, Donald P., and Dudley D. Cahn, Jr.Communication in Interpersonal Re­lationships. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1985.

An excellent book for the advanced student. There are good summaries of intercultural material in Chapter 8, "Cultural Communication and Interpersonal Relationships," and Chapter 9, "Cross-cultural Communication and Interpersonal Relationships."

Foner, Nancy,ed. Neiv Immigrants in New York. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.

This collection of essays by scholars from several disciplines examines the influence of New York City on its new immigrants as well as their influence on city life.

Gudykunst, William B., and Stella Ting-Toomey.Culture and Interpersonal Commu­nication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988. The authors examine the theoretical influence of culture on interpersonal communication and synthesize a broad range of cross-cultural studies. A very valuable resource for many kinds of research.

Hall, Edward T.Beyond Culture. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

The author of this book, an anthropologist, is an important researcher in cultural aspects and differences and in their effects on intercultural communication in business and diplomacy.

Hall, Edward T.The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday, Anchor, 1973.

This is one of the earliest books on nonverbal communication and its relationship to culture. The author describes a number of aspects of culture, such as the use of time and space, and discusses their implications for intercultural communication.

Samovar, Larry A., and Richard E. Porter,eds. Intercultural Communication: A Reader.

5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1988.

An outstanding collection of readings. Coverage is comprehensive and timely.

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