Assignment

Name: Rabail Fatima

Roll. No: l1f16bssy0008
Course: Cross cultural Psychology
Submitted to: Mam Zasheer

Date: 24 june 2020

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION:
Intercultural communication refers to the communication between people
from two different cultures. It is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional,
contextual process, in which people from different cultures create shared
meanings.
Historic Overview of Intercultural Communication:
For the proper name of the field "Intercultural Communication" credit is often
given to American anthropologist Edward T. Hall, who used it for the first time in
his book The Silent Language in 1959. The book is sometimes called "the field's
founding document" (Hart 1998).
Prior to publishing the book, Hall was a staff member at the Foreign Service
Institute, USA (1951-1955), where he, together with his colleagues, worked out
what can be called the first original paradigm for Intercultural Communication:

Main elements of Hall's paradigm for Intercultural Communication (Hart 1998)

were:

 systematic empirical study and the classification of nonverbal

communication (defined as communication that does not involve the exchange
of words)
 emphasis, especially in nonverbal communication, on the out-of-conscious
level of information-exchange
 focus on intercultural communication, not as earlier on macrolevel
monocultural studies
 a non-judgmental view toward and acceptance of cultural differences
 participatory training methods in Intercultural Communication.

KEYPOINTS
 Some knowledge of the cultures, organisations and institutions, history and
general way of living of different communities and nations.

 Recognition that these aspects affect behavioural norms. For example, there is
considerable ‘history’ between the Greeks and Turks, and therefore it may be
considered potentially a problem to serve Turkish food to a Greek person.
 An understanding of how culture can affect communication and language. For
example, people from Nordic countries are often said to speak more directly than
native English speakers who tend to use more ‘polite’ language. Scandinavians in
the UK have reported causing offence to English people by failing to say ‘please’
and ‘thank you’ enough.

Why intercultural understanding is important?

Intercultural understanding stimulates students' interest in the lives of others. It
cultivates values and dispositions such as curiosity, care, empathy, reciprocity,
respect and responsibility, open-mindedness and critical awareness, and supports
new and positive intercultural behaviours.

What can we learn from intercultural

communication?
Studying Intercultural Communication is important to help students develop skills
and knowledge about cultural awareness and sensitivity to others and to questions
of diversity in the workplace.

Why is intercultural communication important to

know?
Intercultural communication offers the ability to deal across cultures, which is
increasingly important, as the world gets smaller. Getting smaller doesn’t mean the
world is becoming identical, it means having more and more contact with people
who are culturally different. Being able to deal with this cultural difference
peacefully, never mind creatively and innovatively, is becoming a survival issue to
thrive in a global world as a global leader.