THE NATURE OF INTERCULTURAL

COMMUNICATION
•
• BELIEFS: BELIEF IS AN IDEA THAT PEOPLE ASSUME TO BE
TRUE ABOUT THE WORLD – A SET OF LEARNED
INTERPRETATION THAT FORMS THE BASIS FOR CULTURAL
MEMBERS TO DECIDE WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT LOGICAL
AND CORRECT (LUSTIG & KOESTER 2006)

• VALUES: ARE ABSTRACT EVALUATIONS THAT CERTAIN KIND

OF BEHAVIORS, ACTIONS OR SYSTEMS ARE GOOD, RIGHT,
MORAL BEAUTIFUL OR ETHICAL – AND THEREFORE, THAT
THESE ITEM ARE DESIRABLE. (PERRY & PERRY 2006)
• AN EXAMPLE GIVEN BY ROBIN WILLIAMS (1970) IN
AMERICAN SOCIETY: EQUAL OPPORTUNITY,
ACHIEVEMENT AND SUCCESS, ACTIVITY AND HARD
WORK, EFFICIENCY AND PRACTICALITY, OPTIMISM,
SOCIABILITY, HONESTY AND ROMANTIC LOVE
• NORMS ARE RULES OR STANDARD PRESCRIBING HOW ONE
OUGHT TO ACT, THINK OR EVEN ON GIVEN OCCASIONS,
COVER A WIDE RANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES (PERRY &
PERRY 2006)
• THEY DICTATE CONDUCT IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL
SITUATION AS WELL AS IN SIGNIFICANT AND LESS
SIGNIFICANT ONES.

• EXAMPLE – WHEN, HOW, AND WITH WHOM TO SHAKE HAND

TO WHEN IT IS PERMISSIBLE AND WHEN IT IS FORBIDDEN TO
KILL ANOTHER PERSON.
• SOCIAL PRACTICES ARE THE PREDICTABLE
BEHAVIOR PATTERN THAT MEMBERS OF A CULTURE
TYPICALLY FOLLOW (LUSTIG & KOESTER 2006)

• SOCIAL PRACTICES ARE THE OUTWARD

MANIFESTATIONS OF BELIEFS, VALUES AND NORMS

• EXAMPLE IN U.S – GIFTS BROUGHT BY DINNER

GUEST ARE USUALLY OPEN IN THE PRESENCE OF
THE GUEST
• SIX FORCE THAT GENERATE CULTURAL DIFFERENCE:
- HISTORY
- ECOLOGY
- TECHNOLOGY
- BIOLOGY
- INSTITUTIONAL NETWORK
- INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS
• THE STABLE SHARED BELIEFS, VALUES, NORMS
AND SOCIAL PRACTICES - SIMILAR BEHAVIOR –
SIMILAR SITUATION – CULTURAL PATTERN

• CULTURAL PATTERN PROVIDE THE BASIC SET OF

STANDARDS THAT GUIDE THOUGHT AND ACTION

• THESE CULTURE PATTERNS AFFECTS

PERCEPTION COMPETENCE

• PRIMARILY INSIDE PEOPLE, IN THEIR MIND

• Larger societies often contain important
subgroups with differing culture patterns
• Groups exist on the basis of the member’s
race, ethnicity or country o origin, religion
and numerous other distinguishing feature
• These subgroups are likely to subject to
inconsistencies, strains and conflicts that
speed up social change and often are
intensified by it (Hunt & Colander 2008)
• Subculture is other term that are sometimes
used in talking about a group of people
• There are important distinction, however,
between these term and the group of people
to which they might refer
• Subculture refers to a group that has
distinctive feature that set it apart from the
culture of the larger society but still retain
the general values of mainstream society
(Perry & Perry 2006)
• Subculture is also a term sometimes used to
refer to racial and ethnic minority groups
that share both a common nation-state with
other culture and some aspect of large
culture
• For example in U.S- African Americans,
Arab Americans, Asian Americans, Native
Americans, Latinos etc
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

ETHNOCENTRISM:
• DEFINITION: THE NOTION THAT THE BELIEFS, VALUES,
NORMS AND PRACTICES OF ONE’S OWN CULTURE ARE
SUPERIOR TO THOSE OF OTHERS

• ETHNOCENTRISM IS A LEARNED BELIEF IN CULTURE

SUPERIORITY

• USING THE CATEGORIES OF THEIR OWN CULTURE

EXPERIENCES WHEN JUDGING THE EXPERIENCES OF
PEOPLE FROM OTHER CULTURES
• ETHNOCENTRISM TEND TO HIGHLIGHT AND
EXAGGERATE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

STEREOTYPING
• STEREOTYPES ARE A FORM OF GENERALIZATION
ABOUT SOME GROUP OF PEOPLE

• STEREOTYPE OCCURS– TAKE A CATEGORY OF

PEOPLE AND MAKE ASSERTION ABOUT THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF ALL PEOPLE WHO BELONG
TO THAT CATEGORY
PREJUDICE
• PREJUDICE REFERS TO NEGATIVE ATTITUDES
TOWARD OTHER PEOPLE THAT ARE BASED ON
FAULTY AND INFLEXIBLE STEREOTYPE

• THERE IS STRONG LINK BETWEEN PREJUDICE

AND STEREOTYPE

• PREJUDICED THINKING IS DEPENDENT ON

STEREOTYPE AND IS A FAIRLY NORMAL
PHENOMENON
DISCRIMINATION
• DISCRIMINATION REFERS TO THE BEHAVIORAL
MANIFESTATION OF PREJUDICE – PREJUDICE
REFER TO PEOPLE ATTITUDE AND MENTAL
REPRESENTATION

• DISCRIMINATION CAN BE THOUGHT OF AS

PREJUDICE ‘IN ACTION’

• DISCRIMINATION OCCURS IN MANY FORM –

SEGREGATION, APARTHEID, BIAS ETC
RACISM
• A TENDENCY TO CATEGORIZE PEOPLE WHO ARE
CULTURALLY DIFFERENT IN TERM OF THEIR
PHYSICAL, SUCH AS SKIN COLOR, HAIR COLOR
AND TEXTURE, FACIAL STRUCTURE, AND EYE
SHAPE

• RACISM CAN OCCUR AT THREE DISTINCT LEVELS:

-INDIVIDUAL
-INSTITUTIONAL
-CULTURAL
 END OF QUESTION PAPER
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