UNIT 1 WHAT IS INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION?

Objectives As a result of learning and participating in related class discussions and activities, you should be able to: 1) Explain the meaning of ICEBERG as the most popular metaphor of Culture; 2) Define and use examples to illustrate the three levels of culture; 3) Define and use examples to illustrate the four stages of developing intercultural communication flexibility; and 4) Develop an initial appreciation for connecting intercultural communication knowledge with everyday intercultural communication practice;

Detailed Outline I. Culture: a learned meaning system Culture: a learned meaning system that consists of patterns of traditions, beliefs, values, norms, meanings, and symbols that are passed on from one generation to the next and are shared to varying degrees by interacting members of a community. A. Surface-level culture: popular culture 1. Culture is like an iceberg: Deeper layers are hidden (e.g., traditions, beliefs, and values). 2. Popular culture is the most surface level and refers to cultural artifacts or systems that have mass appeal and that infiltrate our daily life. 3. U.S. popular culture tends to dominate the global market and includes sources such as U.S. films, televisions shows, pop music, and icons such as Disneyland, McDonalds, Coca Cola, and Nike. 4. Key to understanding surface-level culture is to realize that individuals on a global level form images of another culture based on surface-level encounters and fleeting images on television or in sensational news coverage.

B. Intermediate-level culture: symbols, meanings, and norms 1. Symbol: a sign, artifact, word(s), gesture, or nonverbal behavior that stands for or reflects something meaningful; language is a symbol system. 2. Meanings or interpretations that we attach to a symbol can cue both objective and subjective reactions. 3. Cultural norms refer to collective expectations of what constitutes proper or improper behavior in a given interaction scene. 3.1. The setting can include cultural context or physical context. 3.2. The interaction goal refers to the objective of the meeting. 3.3. The relationship expectation feature refers to how much role formality/informality or task/social tone you want to forge in the interaction. 3.4. Cultural competence skills refer to the cultural knowledge you have internalized and the operational skills you are able to apply in the communication scene. C. Deep-level culture: Traditions, beliefs, and values 1. Normative culture refers to a patterned way of living by a group of interacting individuals who share a common set of history, traditions, beliefs, and values, and an interdependent fate. 2. Subjective culture refers to the individual level, whereby members of a culture can attach different degrees of importance to cultural beliefs and values. 3. Culturally shared traditions can include myths, legends, ceremonies, and rituals passed on from one generation to the next via an oral or written medium; they reinforce ingroup solidarity, communal memory, cultural stability, and continuity functions. 4. Culturally shared beliefs refer to fundamental assumptions or worldviews that people hold dearly to their hearts without question; these beliefs can revolve around questions as to human origins, concepts of time, space, reality, the existence of a supernatural being and so on. 5. Cultural values refer to priorities that guide good or bad behavior, desirable or undesirable practices, and fair or unfair actions. a. Instrumental values are process values that serve as guidelines or preferable modes of conduct in the pursuit of certain valued existential outcomes. (e.g., behaving politely, acting with self-discipline, thinking logically, and acting responsibly). b. Terminal values refers to end goals or preferable end states (e.g., a meaningful life, an adventurous life, a sense of accomplishment, and a life with social recognition).

II. Mastering intercultural communication flexibility A. A staircase model: four stages of flexible intercultural communication 1. Unconscious incompetence is an ignorance stage in which an individual is unaware of the communication blunders he has committed in interacting with a cultural stranger. 2. Conscious incompetence: Individual is aware of her incompetence in communicating with members of the new culture but does not do anything to change her behavior in the new cultural situation. 3. Conscious competence: individual is aware of his intercultural communication nonfluency and is committed to integrate the new knowledge, attitude, and skills into competent practice. 4. Unconscious competence occurs when an individual is spontaneously practicing her intercultural knowledge and skills to the extent that the intercultural interaction process flows smoothly and from an out-of-conscious awareness rhythm. B. Communicating flexibly: A flexible communicator practices the following: 1. Convergent thinking: focuses on synthesis and analytical problemsolving to reach a clearly-defined outcome 2. Divergent thinking: emphasizes a fluid thinking pattern--the ability to switch from one perspective to another, connecting unrelated ideas in a meaningful fashion--and the ability to bring a new idea to completion 3. Mindful cultural scanning involves a. being open to new intercultural concepts and ideas. b. being receptive to the fact that multiple lenses exist in framing an intercultural incident. c. being committed to or receptive to the multiple lenses when applying divergent cultural viewpoints in analyzing a miscommunication situation.