Barriers to Intercultural Communication

1 This chapter begins a series of chapters focused on recognizing and avoidingbreakdowns in Intercultural Communication . In this chapter, you ll readabout ethnographic and cultural approaches and then examine anxiety, assum-ing similarity instead of difference, and ethnocentrism as Barriers to effectiveintercultural AND CULTURAL APPROACHESRead the following court transcript (Liberman, 1981) and assess how success-ful you think the Communication was:Magistrate: Can you read and write?Defendant: to InterculturalCommunicationEthnographic and cultural approaches to understanding interculturalcommunicationHow Barriers impede Intercultural communicationExamples of Barriers found in a case study of China and the United States71 CHAPTER 4 WWhhaatt YYoouu CCaann LLeeaarrnn FFrroomm TThhiiss 6/21/03 5:54 PM Page 71 Magistrate: Can you sign your name? : Did you say you cannot read? : Can you read or not?! : [Reads statement.] Do you recall making that statement? : Is there anything else you want to add to the statement?

2 Defendant:[No answer.]Magistrate: Did you want to say anything else!? : Is there anything in the statement you want to change? : [Reads a second statement.] Do you recall making that statement? : Do you wish to add to the statement? : Do you want to alter the statement in any way?Defendant:[Slight nod.]Magistrate: What do you want to alter?Defendant:[No answer.]Magistrate: Do you want to change the statement? 6/21/03 5:54 PM Page 72Of course it is doubtful that the defendant understands the proceedings. Basedon this exchange we could also raise doubts about the defendant s statement. Now if I told you the defendant was an Aboriginal in Australia, could yousay more about the interaction? How you attempt to answer that questionillustrates two major approaches to Intercultural Communication . If you exam-ined the transcript in detail to locate the problems the defendant and the mag-istrate had in their exchange, your approach was ethnographic. If you askedfor information about Aboriginals and the Australian legal system, yourapproach was the direct observation, reporting, and evaluation of thecustomary behavior of a culture.

3 Ideally, ethnography requires an extendedperiod of residence and study in a community. The ethnographer knows thelanguage of the group, participates in some of the group s activities, and usesa variety of observational and recording techniques. In a sense, the accounts of15th-century explorers of the unfamiliar cultural practices they encounteredwere primitive ethnography tries to avoid questionnaires and formal interviews inartificial settings; observation in natural settings is preferred. The objective isan analysis of cultural patterns to develop a grammar or theory of the rules forappropriate cultural ethnographic approach to understanding the dialogue between themagistrate and the defendant would use the perspective of the parties them-selves to analyze the problems that each faces in the attempt to , it appears that the Aboriginal defendant is engaged in a strategy ofgiving the answers Yes, No, or Hm that will best placate the magistrate(Liberman, 1990a).

4 A cultural approach attempts to develop an ideal personification of theculture, and then that ideal is used to explain the actions of individuals in theculture. For example, using the cultural approach, it would be important toknow that the Aboriginalpeople began arriving on the Australian continentfrom Southeast Asia 40,000 years before North and South America wereinhabited and that it wasn t until 1788 that 11 ships arrived carrying a cargoof human prisoners to begin a new British colony by taking control of the (1990b) describes the unique form of public discourse that evolvedamong the isolated Aboriginal people of central Australia: Consensus mustbe preserved through such strategies as unassertiveness, avoidance of directargumentation, deferral of topics that would produce disharmony, and serialsummaries so that the people think together and speak with one voice. If anydissension is sensed, there are no attempts to force a decision, and the discus-sion is abandoned.

5 Western European discourse style is direct, confrontational,73 Barriers to Intercultural 6/21/03 5:54 PM Page 73and individualistic. Thus, it can be said that the Aboriginal defendant in theexample finds it difficult to communicate a defense by opposing what has beensaid and rather frequently concurs with any statement made to him (Liberman,1990b).The ethnographic and cultural approaches are complementary and togethercan help our understanding of breakdowns in Intercultural Chapter 1, you saw that every culture and subgroup provides its memberswith rules specifying appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Were you toapproach Intercultural Communication from the perspective of attemptingto learn the norms of all cultures and subgroups, it certainly would be animpossible task. There is no way that you could learn all the rules governingappropriate and inappropriate behavior for every culture and subgroup withwhich you came into contact.

6 You d always be doing something wrong; you dalways be offending someone. Your Communication would likely suffer, asyour violation of norms would be a form of noise limiting the effectiveness ofyour fact, you wouldn t even know if you were expected to conform to theother s norms or if you were expected to behave according to your ownculture s norms while respecting the other culture s better approach is to examine on a general level the Barriers to inter-cultural Communication . LaRay M. Barna (1997) has developed a list of sixsuch Barriers : anxiety, assuming similarity instead of difference, ethnocentrism,stereotypes and prejudice, nonverbal misinterpretations, and language. Hiscategories of Barriers will be used when discussing problems that can arisein Intercultural encounters. The first three are discussed in this and prejudice are discussed separately in Chapter 5. Nonverbalmisinterpretations and language are discussed separately in later these common mistakes into account can help you improve your inter-cultural Communication first barrier is highanxiety.

7 When you are anxious because of not knowingwhat you are expected to do, it is only natural to focus on that feeling and notbe totally present in the Communication example, you may have experienced anxiety on your very first day on anew college campus or in a new job. You may be so conscious of being new and out of place and focus so much of your attention on that feeling that youmake common mistakes and appear awkward to 6/21/03 5:54 PM Page 74 Sugawara (1993) surveyed 168 Japanese employees of Japanese companiesworking in the United States and 135 of their coworkers. Only 8% ofthe coworkers felt impatient with the Japanese coworkers 19% of the Japanese employees felt their spoken English was poor orvery poor and 20% reported feeling nervous when speaking English with , 30% of the Japanese employees felt the coworkers wereimpatient with their accent, and almost 60% believed that language was theproblem in communicating with the coworkers. For some, anxiety overspeaking English properly contributed to avoiding interactions with coworkers and limiting interactions both on and off the job to otherJapanese SIMILARITY INSTEAD OF DIFFERENCEThe second barrier is assuming similarity instead of difference.

8 In 1997,a Danish woman left her 14-month-old baby girl in a stroller outside aManhattan restaurant while she was inside. Other diners at the restaurantbecame concerned and called New York City Police. The woman was chargedwith endangering a child and was jailed for two nights. Her child was placedin foster care. The woman and the Danish consulate explained that leavingchildren unattended outside caf s is common in Denmark. Pictures werewired to the police showing numerous strollers parked outside caf s whileparents were eating inside. The Danish woman had assumed that Copenhagenis similar to New York, that what is commonly done in Copenhagen is alsocommonly done in New you assume similarity between cultures you can be caught unawareof important differences. When you have no information about a new culture,it might make sense to assume there are no differences, to behave as you wouldin your home culture. But each culture isdifferent and unique to some (1974), for example, has shown how cultures differ as to whom itis appropriate to display emotions.

9 If you assume that display of emotionsis similar to your culture, you might see people in some circumstances aslacking emotion and others in other circumstances as displaying inverse can be a barrier as well. Assuming difference instead ofsimilarity can lead to your not recognizing important things that culturesshare in common. It s better to assume nothing. It s better to ask, Whatare the customs? rather than assuming they re the same or different to Intercultural 6/21/03 5:54 PM Page 75 ETHNOCENTRISMD efinitionThe third barrier to effective Intercultural Communication is ethnocentrism,or negatively judging aspects of another culture by the standards of one s ownculture. To be ethnocentric is to believe in the superiority of one s own in a culture is consistent to that culture and makes sense if youunderstood that example, assume that global warming is a fact and, as a result, assumethat summers in the United States average 43 C (109 F).

10 It would be logicalto make adjustments: Rather than air condition buildings all day, you mightclose schools and businesses in the afternoons to conserve energy. Such adjust-ments would make sense. Why then do some people attribute sensible middaysiestas in hot climates to laziness?After reading the comments by Benjamin Franklin (see Box ), who doyou think was being ethnocentric?76 Chapter 4 Box FRANKLIN SREMARKS ON AMERICAN INDIANSS avages we call them, because their Manners differ from ours, whichwe think the Perfection of Civility; they think the same of , if we could examine the Manners of different Nations withImpartiality, we should find no People so rude, as to be without anyRules of Politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some Remains Indian Men, when young, are Hunters and Warriors; when old,Counsellors; for all their Government is by Counsel of the Sages; there isno Force, there are no Prisons, no Officers to compel Obedience, orinflict Punishment.