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Communicating with Other

Cultures
 “The essence of cross-cultural communication has
more to do with releasing responses than with sending
messages. It is more important to release the right
response than to send the right message.”

–Edward T. Hall
 Communication does not always result in understanding
especially in culturally diverse contexts.

The greater the difference between the

sender’s and the receiver’s culture, the
greater the chance for cross-cultural
miscommunication.
Situation 1:
Situation 2
In cross-cultural situations, labelling behavior as bizarre usually reflects:

Cultural Misperception

Cultural Misinterpretation

Cultural Misevaluation
Cultural Misperception

PERCEPTION is the process by which each individual selects, organizes

and evaluates stimuli from the external environment to provide meaningful
experiences for himself or herself.

Perceptual patterns
are neither innate
nor absolute.
Perception is selective.
Perceptual patterns are learned.
Perception is culturally determined.
Perception tends to remain constant.
People therefore see things that do exist,
and do not see things that do exist.
We perceive things according to what
we have been trained to see,
according to our cultural map.
 Cultural Misperception
Quickly count the number of F’s in the sentence below.

How many F’s did you see?

We selectively see those words that are important according to our

cultural conditioning ( linguistic conditioning). Once we see a
phenomenon in a particular way, we usually continue to see that way.
 Cultural Misperception
Impact of Perceptual Filters

Study the picture

and describe this
to someone who
has not seen this
picture.
This picture was shown in a
training session for
American executives.
 Cultural Misperception
The last American executive
described his perception of the picture
to the group. Among the distortions are
the following:

- described the black and white man as fighting

- the knife as being in the hands of the black man
- the white man as wearing a business suit and
the black man as wearing laborer’s overalls

The stereotypes altered the executives perceptions and changed the

meaning of the picture. The PERCEPTUAL FILTER lead to seeing things that
do not exist and missing to see things that did exist.
Cultural Misinterpretation

INTERPRETATION is the process of making sense out of perceptions.

It occurs when an individual gives meaning to observations and their
relationships.

Based on our experience, we make assumptions about

our perceptions so we do not have to rediscover
meanings each time we encounter similar situations.
Example> how doors work, how traffic rules are followed
 Cultural Misinterpretation
CATEGORIES

Categorization helps us to distinguish what is most important in the

current communicative environment and to behave accordingly.

We group perceived images into familiar categories that help to

simplify our environment and become the basis for our interpretation
 Cultural Misinterpretation
CATEGORIES

Cross-cultural miscategorization occurs when you use your home country

categories to make sense out of foreign situations.

* placing people in the wrong group

 Cultural Misinterpretation
STEREOTYPES

Stereotyping involves a form of categorization that organizes our

experience and guides our behavior toward ethnic and national groups.

They describe the NORMS for MEMBERS of a particular group.

 Cultural Misinterpretation
STEREOTYPES

Stereotypes of English and French businesspeople (Intercultural

Management Associates in Paris)
 Cultural Misinterpretation
STEREOTYPES

Stereotypes can be harmful or helpful depending on how they are used.

A stereotype is helpful when it is:
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION

Misinterpretation can be caused by inaccurate perceptions of a person or

situation that arise when what actually exists is not seen. It can be caused by
inaccurate interpretation of what is seen: using your personal meanings to
make sense of the other culture’s reality.
An encounter with an Austrian businessman:
 Cultural Misinterpretation
SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Subconscious Cultural Blinder
Since most interpretation is at subconscious level, we lack an awareness
of the assumptions we make and their cultural basis. We do not examine our
own assumptions when we are in our home culture but we need to do so when
we work outside our own culture.
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Lack of Cultural Self-Awareness
“What is known least well, and is therefore in the poorest position to be
studied, is what is closest to oneself. “
Edward T. Hall, Anthropologist

We are least aware of our own cultural

characteristics and we are quite surprised
when we learn the descriptions of us from
people of other cultures.
 Cultural Misinterpretation
SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Lack of Cultural Self-Awareness

Newsweek Survey Result (July,

1983) reporting the characteristics
most and least frequently associated
with Americans.

AMERICANS AS OTHERS SEE THEM

 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Projected Similarity

Projected Similarity refers to the assumption that people are more similar
to you than they actually are, or that a situation is more similar to yours when in
fact it is not.
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Projected Similarity

This involves
assuming, imagining
and actually
perceiving similarity
when differences
exist.
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Projected Similarity

Subconscious PAROCHIALISM I assume that there is always one way to be:

This is always at the base my way.
of projected similarity. I assume that there is always one way to see the world:
my way.

I therefore view other people in reference to me

and my way of viewing the world.
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Projected Similarity

Subconscious PAROCHIALSIM
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Projected Similarity

Subconscious PAROCHIALSIM
 Cultural Misinterpretation

SOURCES OF MISINTERPRETATION:
Projected Similarity

ROLE REVERSAL as an exercise to

develop empathy ad reducing
parochialism

Role reversal sees the person from a different culture as a whole

person rather than someone with a position and a set of skills.

This forces one to see both the similarities and differences , and not to
imagine similarities when differences actually exist.

☺ See the person as he or she really is, not as a mere reflection of

yourself.
 Cultural Misevaluation

Cultural conditioning strongly affects evaluation.

Evaluation involves judging whether a person, action or thing is bad or good.

Cross-culturally, we use our own culture as a standard of

measurement, judging that which is like our own culture as normal and
good.

Our own culture becomes a self-reference criterion: since no other

culture is identical to our own, we judge all other cultures as inferior.
 Cultural Misevaluation

The consequences of misevaluation is exemplified in the following scenario:

 Communicating with Other Cultures

Let us end this lecture with this interesting story …

Communicating with Other Cultures
Communicating with Other Cultures
Communicating with Other Cultures
Reference

Adler, N. (2003) Communicating across cultural barriers [PDF file]. Retrieved from
https://oie.duke.edu/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Communicating_
across_Cultural_Barriers.pdf