CC BY
102
Natalya Gulivets
УДк 81'27:316.47
overcoming challenges in communication across nations
Abstract: The paper deals with main cross-cultural communication principles as well as describes barriers that may unfavorably affect communication acts across cultures. The study identifies possible extra-lingual constraints as ethnocentrism, cultural diversity, assuming similarity with one's own culture, stereotyping, and perception, and sets the main goal as to understand the key methods of avoiding communication barriers.
Key words: culture, cross-cultural communication, communication barriers.
Гуливец н.
преодоление трудностей межкультурной коммуникации
Аннотация: в статье рассматриваются основные принципы межкультурной коммуникации, а также коммуникативные барьеры, возникновение которых негативно влияет на общение между представителями разных культур. такими барьерами являются этноцентризм, культурное многообразие, предполагаемое сходство с родной культурой, стереотипы и восприятие. главная цель работы заключается в определении ключевых способов преодоления коммуникативных барьеров.
Ключевые слова: культура, межкультурная коммуникация, коммуникативные барьеры.
^Nowadays the big topics like "Globalization" or "Internalization of markets" or "New technologies for communication" are of no surprise for anyone since boundaries between states or big distances between them do not play a crucial role any more. People are free to communicate or start businesses with partners from any corner of the world. It leads to a growing importance of developing cross-cultural communication principles as well as understanding the barriers that may potentially arise in communication acts across cultures.
These processes cover various branches of modern life - business, politics, cultural affairs, social work, and many others. Evidently, problems and barriers to communication may be first of all associated with language itself, however, the research area of the highlighted topic goes far beyond solely linguistic aspects.
In his speech "Central banks and the public: the importance of communication", Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, says, "Communication is a constituent part of the institutional design for monetarypolicy and needs to be styled according to the principles and constraints that shape those institutions. There are recognizable differences in the ways central banks communicate to their publics. These differences are not accidental: they can be traced to the economic, political, and institutional factors that face individual central banks'" (Trichet 2008). Mr. Trichet's speech proves that communication is not only words but also other factors (economic, political, institutional, etc.) that intensify and clarify the meaning changing from society to society, from culture to culture. However, if these rules are not followed, problems and misunderstandings may arise.
Thus, the main goal of the proposed paper is to understand possible sources of constraints in communicating across cultures and identify the key methods of avoiding communication barriers.
To understand the meaning of the word "communication" it is possible to turn to one of the definitions which regards communication
as "a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding in which participants not only exchange information but also create and share meaning" (Business Dictionary Online 2014).
We may expect that there are various definitions of culture whereas some of them are: "Culture is man-maid, confirmed by others, conventionalized ... It provides people with a meaningful context in which to meet, to think about themselves, and face the other world" (Trompenaars 2000: 3), or, "A shared system of meanings. It dictates what we pay attention to, how we act, and what we value" (Trompenaars 1993: 13).
The phrase "cross-cultural
communication" first of all describes the ability to successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a culture different from one's own. Besides, it implies interaction with persons of different ethnic, race, gender, religion, age, and class background; it is a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating cultural differences through language or non-verbal gestures (Kutz 2013: 3).
According to Hurn and Tomalin (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 4), in the language versus culture debate, it is clear that sharing a language implies sharing a culture. Without knowing the language well, one misses a lot of the subtleties of a culture, for example, humor. As Hall and Hall state, "The essence of effective cross-cultural communication has more to do with releasing the right responses than sending the right message" (Hall and Hall 1990: 4).
Hurn and Tomalin (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 7-8) write about 'noise' or interference that occurs in the transmission of the message encoded by the sender and decoded by the receiver. The result of this 'noise' can be distortion or misunderstanding in receiving the message.
We can identify the possible extra-lingual interferences that make misunderstandings liable to occur in international conversations as ethnocentrism, cultural diversity, assuming similarity with one's own culture, stereotyping, and perception (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 9-11).
Ethnocentrism. The concept of ethnocentrism is viewed as a preference for all aspects of one's own culture relative to other cultures (Brabant et al. 2007: 66). Ethnocentric individuals perceive their own cultural or ethnic group as superior to most other groups. Their speech may convey indifference or lack of concern for the other person or his / her culture; may be disparaging, derisive, or belittling; may be aimed at avoiding or limiting future interaction with the person (Lukens 1978). As an example of ethnocentric attitudes, we can view Americans who evaluate other countries by how closely they resemble the United States - not only in their social institutions but also with regard to dress, eating conventions, and other details (Maude 2011).
Milton Bennett (Bennett 1998) explains the concepts of ethnocentrism and ethnorelativism thus providing an understanding of how people develop in their awareness of cultural differences. Summarizing his views, ethnocentrism is understood as a tendency to judge other cultures according to the beliefs, values, and traditions of one's own group. Ethnorelativism is the opposite and involves judging other cultures by the values of the people you are dealing with. According to Bennett, the cross-cultural learning should progress from ethnocentrism to some form of adaptation or integration.
Cultural diversity. Different cultures have different rules for behavior and etiquette. Being aware of a culture's rules of behavior will help ensure better communication (Silverthorne 2005: 219). Cultural pluralism implies that various ethnocultural groups coexist under a single government within a multilingual framework. For example, in the United Kingdom, people tend to look upon their society as essentially pluralistic where all are considered equal in law and where tolerance is encouraged and all cultures deserve respect (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 195).
Assuming similarity with one's own culture. Geert Hofstede in his "Cultural Consequences" distinguishes three levels of human programming - individual, collective,
and universal programming of the mind (Hofstede 2001). The first - individual - level reflects the individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors changing from person to person. People belonging to the same society / culture share their collective approach and thus form the collective level of human programming. The universal level is the least unique though the basic level of programming: from nation to nation people share the same concepts of wisdom, honesty, peace, etc.
At first glance, it may seem that the British and American worldviews have a lot in common and this assumption is mainly based on the fact that the two nations share the same language. However, these similarities mostly belong to the universal level and a closer look at their life styles and arrangements proves that there are numerous ways in which the two cultures differ.
stereotyping. Very often we judge the thoughts and behaviors of people from other countries by stereotypes or "categorical assumptions of which all members of a given group have a particular trait" (Rohn 2009: 38). All stereotypes contain value judgments and should not be confused with scientific and validated statements about how cultures may vary between countries (Hofstede 2001: 14). They are usually harmless if used only as a general rule, but can be hurtful or dangerous if taken to be the whole truth about another group of people (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 13-14). Stereotypes may take a long time to remove depending on the speed and intensity of the assumptions, perceptions, and predictions about other people on very thin information and evidence (ibid.: 289).
Stereotypes are automatically activated and hence have an obvious effect on cross-cultural communication. They can, however, be undermined by a longer-term effort to assess their reliability. This can be done by consciously questioning whether the various members and components of a particular stereotyped group actually "fit" the group stereotype (Maude 2011: 134-135).
Perception. Perception of the world
mainly depends on the culture people belong to. Their perceptual sets (sensory expectations that people have created through the experience of the environment they grew up in or live in) and their language are two culturally defined characteristics that play a crucial role in how people perceive the world (Rohn 2009: 62). Since perceptual sets common in people of a particular culture are not necessarily developed in individuals from other countries, they determine culture-related differences in their sensations and, thereby, their perception of the world (Shiraev and Levy 2004: 100-102).
Being the core of cross-cultural communication, perception of the outworld tends to be realized in the following sequence: observation - attempts to communicate -difficulties in understanding - interpretation of the situation according to personal limited knowledge, values, or experience - becoming judgmental. When people encounter a new unfamiliar world, they are faced with ambiguity and hence - insecurity. As a result, the natural tendency is to fall back on their own norms and values and perceive the other person as alien and even hostile. This process leads to the formation of stereotypes which are frequently negative (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 13-14).
Communication issues cannot be assumed to be consistent across cultures, and there are several important aspects such as sensitivity to the existence of cross-cultural barriers, respecting other cultures, customs, and habits, or following rules of behavior that help overcome the barriers to effective communication (Silverthorne 2005: 218-220).
When a message travels across cultures, we should be aware that it can face certain barriers and often become distorted. To avoid these barriers, we should:
- be aware of the distinct possibility of distortion or misinterpretation;
- understand how a message may be misinterpreted;
- modify our behavior to account for this in order to be prepared to correct any misinterpretation and, if necessary, remedy the situation;
- be aware of values that are inherent in the host culture;
- become familiar with the significant unique characteristics of the culture;
- take considerable interest in what people in the culture do;
- ask the individuals to indicate cultural and technical pitfalls, expectations, and potential problems we might experience (Hurn and Tomalin 2013: 8; Lippitt and Hoopes 1978: 28).
Jean-Claude Trichet finishes his speech with the words that can summarize the main strategic goal of communicating across cultures, "Communication is an ongoing challenge and effective communication will always be characterized by a high degree of flexibility and adaptability in order to respond swiftly to a rapidly changing [economic] environment (Trichet 2008). To continue his idea, it is appropriate to acknowledge that sensitivity to cultural differences and existence of cross-cultural barriers is the first step to effective cross-cultural communication either at the work place or in everyday life.
Cultural differences tend to potentially create communication problems so people involved into the process should be aware of the potential of these problems in order to avoid misunderstandings. The key to effective cross-cultural communication is to understand one's communication partners well enough to make cultural adjustments. Cultural norms of the social infrastructure should be favored and valued.
The whole idea of communication is based on transfer of information from a sender to a receiver and is complete only when the recipient understands what the sender had to say. Thus, it is obvious that communication cannot take place in the presence of any kind of barriers that hinder healthy interaction between the communicators. Cultural barriers hamper effective communication at both personal and professional levels. Removing these barriers would certainly encourage healthy and effective communication.
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