Case study

Some people have an Eastern outlook on life, others a Western perspective. What is yours?

1. Respond to each of the following items with “1” if it never relates to you, “2” if it rarely does, “3” if if sometimes does? “4” if it often does? And “5” if it usually does.

_____ 1. People should strive to return to nature.

_____ 2. I believe in a personal soul that will continue after death.

_____ 3. I hate to kill anything, even insects.

_____ 4. I get little pleasure from material things.

_____ 5. We should accept our role in life as it is given to us by our parents.

_____ 6. Meditation is the highest form of enlightenment.

_____ 7. The use of artificial organs is going too far.

_____ 8. I feel real kindship with most plants and animals.

_____ 9. We should try to harmonize with nature rather than try to conquer it.

_____ 10. A meaningful life depends more upon learning to cooperate than to complete.

2. To score, add the points for the ten item. Total score: 10 to 50. Scores of 40to 50 suggest an Eastern outlook on life or worldview, below that, the Western view.

3. Make comments: What worldview is more typical in Kazakhstani diverse society (eastern, Western, or a mixture of both)? Why?

Chapter 2. The concepts of culture and communication

Many people have a culturally identifiable name and, perhaps, a physical appearance that conveys, or at least suggests, their cultural identity. For example, imagine a brown-skinned, dark-haired person named Augusto Torres. He identifies himself as Latino. But many individuals are not so easily identified culturally. Two million people in the United States are culturally mixed and may identify with one or two or with multiple cultures. A person named Susan Lopez might be expected to be Latina, judging only from her last name. “Lopez” actually comes from her adoptive parents, who raised her in the Latino tradition in the Southwest. But Susan’s biological father was a European American, and her mother is a Native American. Her physical appearance reflects her biological parentage. However, Susan is culturally Latina, preferring to speak Spanish, enjoying traditional food and music, and displaying other aspects of Latino culture. Here we see that blood ancestry does not dictate an individual’s cultural identification.

Many individuals have names that do not fit exactly with their self-perceived cultural identity. For example, consider three communication scholars named Fernando Moret, Miguel Gandert, and Jorge Reina Schement. Can you guess the culture with which each individual identifies? Do you think that their first name or their surname best predicts their cultural identification? In intercultural marriages, if the wife takes her husband’s surname, her cultural identity may no longer be conveyed by her married name.

When individuals change their religious or ethnic identity, they often change their name to reflect their new identification. For instance, when the world heavyweight boxer Cassius Clay became a Black Muslim, he changed his name to Mohammed Ali. Likewise, basketball player Kareem Abul-Jabbar was Lew Alcindor before he joined the Muslim faith. Some European immigrants had their names changed by U.S. immigration officials when they were processed through Ellis Island in New York. For example, “Stein” became “Stone”, “Schwarz” was often changed to “Black”. In many cases, the name change was to an Anglo-Saxon name that was easier to understand in the United States.

GENDER IDENTITY

We often begin life with gendered identities. When newborns arrive, they may be greeted with clothes in either blue or pink. To establish a gender identity for a baby, visitors may ask if it’s a boy or a girl. But gender is not the same as biological sex. This distinction is important in understanding how our views on biological sex influence gender identities. We communicate our gender identity, and popular culture tells us what it means to be a man or a woman. For example, some activities are considered more masculine or more feminine. Similarly, the programs that people watch on television – soap operas, football games, and so on – affect how they socialize with others and come to understand what it means to be a man or a woman. Our expression of gender identity not only communicates who we think we are but also constructs a sense of who we want to be. We learn what masculinity and femininity mean in our culture, and we negotiate how we communicate our gender identity to others. As an example, think about the recent controversy over whether certain actresses are too thin. The female models appearing in magazine advertisements and TV commercials are very thin – leading young girls to feel ashamed of anybody fat. It was not always so. In the mid-1700s, a robust woman was considered attractive. And in many societies today, in the Middle East and in Africa, full-figured women are much more desirable than thin women. This shows how the idea of gender identity is both dynamic and closely connected to culture.

There are implications for intercultural communication as well. Gender means different things in different cultures. For example, single women cannot travel freely in many Muslim countries. And gender identity for many Muslim women means that the sphere of activity and power is primarily in the home and not in public.

AGE IDENTITY

As we age, we tap into cultural notions of how someone our age should act, look, and behave, that is we establish an age identity. And even as we communicate how we feel about our age to others, we receive messages from the media telling us how we should feel. Thus, as we grow older, we sometimes feel that we are either too old or too young for a certain “look”. These feelings stem from an understanding of what age means and how we identify with that age. Some people feel old at 30; others feel young at 40. Our notions of age and youth are all based on cultural conventions and they change as we grow older. When we are quite young, a college student seems old. But when we are in college, we do not feel so old. Different generations often have different philosophies, values, and ways of speaking.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY

The issue of race seems to be pervasive in the United States. It is the topic of many public discussions, from television talk shows to talk radio. Yet many people feel uncomfortable discussing racial issues. Most scientists now agree that there are more physical similarities than differences among so-called races and have abandoned a strict biological basis for classifying racial groups. Instead, taking a more social scientific approach to understanding race, they recognize that racial categories like White and Black are constructed in social and historical contexts. Several arguments have been advanced to refute the physiological basis for classifying racial groups. Racial categories vary widely throughout the world. In general, distinctions between White and Black, for example, are fairly rigid in the United States, and many people become uneasy when they are unable to categorize individuals. By contrast, Brazil recognizes a wide variety of intermediate racial categories in addition to White and Black. This indicates a cultural, rather than a biological, basis for racial classification. Racial identities, then, are based to some extent on physical characteristics, but they are also constructed in fluid social contexts. The important thing to remember is that the way people construct these identities and think about race influences how they communicate with others.

One’s ethnic identity reflects a set of ideas about one’s own ethnic group membership. It typically includes several dimensions: self-identification, knowledge about the ethnic culture (traditions, customs, values, behaviors), and feelings about belonging to a particular ethnic group. Ethnic identity often involves a common sense of origin and history, which may link members of ethnic groups to distant cultures in Asia, Europe, Latin America, or other locations. Ethnic identity thus means having a sense of belonging to a particular group and knowing something about the shared experiences of group members. For some Americans, ethnicity is a specific and relevant concept. These people define themselves in part in relation to their roots outside the United States – as “hyphenated Americans” (Mexican-American, Japanese-American) – or to some region prior to its being part of the United States (Navajo, Hopi, Cherokee).

PHYSICAL ABILITY IDENTITY

We all have a physical ability identity because we all have varying degrees of physical capabilities. We are all handicapped in one way or another – by our height, weight, sex, or age – and we all need to work to overcome these conditions. And our physical ability, like our age, changes over a lifetime. For example, some people experiences a temporary disability, such as breaking a bone or experiencing limited mobility after surgery. Others are born with disabilities, or experience incremental disability, or have a sudden-onset disability. The number of people with physical disabilities is growing. In fact, people with disabilities see themselves as a cultural group and share many perceptions and communication patterns. Part of this identity involves changing how they see themselves and how others see them. For people who become disabled, there are predictable stages in coming to grips with this new identity. The first stage involves a focus on rehabilitation and physical changes. The second stage involves adjusting to the disability and the effects that it has on relationships; some friendships will not survive the disability. The final stage is when the individual begins to integrate disabled into his or her own definition of self.

RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Religious identity is an important dimension of many people’s identities, as well as a common source of intercultural conflict. Often, religious identity gets confused with racial/ethnic identity, which means it can be problematic to view religious identity simply in terms of belonging to a particular religion. For example, when someone says, “I am Jewish”, does this mean that this person practices Judaism or views Jewishness as an ethnic identity? When someone says, “That person has a Jewish last name”, does this confer a Jewish religious identity? Historically, Jews have been viewed as a racial group, an ethnic group, and a religious group. Drawing distinct lines between various identities – racial, ethnic, religious, class, national, regional – can lead to stereotyping. For example, Italians and Irish are often assumed to be Catholic. Intercultural communication among religious groups also can be problematic. Religious differences have been at the root of conflicts from the Middle East, to Northern Ireland, to India/Pakistan, to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The traditional belief is that everyone should be free to practice whatever religion they want to, but conflict can result from the imposition of one religion’s beliefs on others who may not share those beliefs. Religion traditionally is considered a private issue, and there is a stated separation of church and state. However, in some countries, religion and the state are inseparable, and religion is publicly practiced. Some religions communicate and mark their religious differences through their dress. Other religions do not mark their members through their clothes; for example, you may not know if someone is Buddhist, Catholic, Lutheran. Because these religious identities are less obvious, everyday interactions may not invoke them.

MULTICULTURAL IDENTITY

Today, a growing number of people do not have clear racial, ethnic, or national identities. These are people who live “on the borders” between various cultural groups. While they may feel torn between different cultural traditions, they also may develop a multicultural identity – an identity that transcends one particular culture – and feel equally at home in several cultures. Sometimes, this multicultural identity develops as a result of being born or raised in a multiracial home. The United States, for example, has an estimated 2 million multiracial people – that is, people whose ancestry includes two or more races – and this number is increasing. The development of racial identity for multiracial children seems to be different from either majority or minority development. These children learn early on that they are different from other people and that they don’t fit into a neat racial category – an awareness-of-differentness stage. The second stage involves a struggle for acceptance, in which these children experiment with and explore both cultures. They may feel as if they live on the cultural fringe, struggling with two sets of cultural realities and sometimes being asked to choose one racial identity over the other. In the final stage, self-acceptance and assertion, these children find a more secure sense of self. This exposure to more than one culture’s norms and values often leads to a flexible and adaptable sense of identity – a multicultural identity.

CULTURAL CLASH

A cultural clash is defined as the conflict that occurs between two or more cultures when they disagree about a certain value. A cultural clash may involve strongly held values, such as those concerning religion. Cultural clashes occur frequently in cities, such as Miami, that are composed of a large number of ethnic groups. For example, Suni Muslims immigrated from the Middle East and Pakistan in the 1950s. These people have maintained their culture over the several decades of living in North Miami, resisting assimilation into the dominant general culture. This cultural maintenance of the Suni Muslims, however, frequently leads to the intergenerational cultural clash between youth and their parents. This conflict may center on the degree of individual freedom allowed young women. For instance, a fourteen-year-old asked her parents for permission to go to a shopping mall with her friends. They refused because of the Suni Muslim value that unmarried women should not be seen in public unless chaperoned by parents or older brothers. The adolescent daughter insisted on going to the mall, so her parents chained her to her bed.

As the degree of intercultural difference becomes wider in human communication situations, information exchange is likely to be less effective. Meanings are less likely to be shared as the result of communication exchange. The message intended by the source participant has less probability of being interpreted predictably by the receiver if the two are culturally unalike. The basis for understanding one another narrows as cultural differences increase. For example, marriage advertisements in India might describe a prospective bride as “homely”, meaning she is expert in domestic matters, a good cook, and a charming hostess. To someone from the United States, the word “homely” describes an unattractive person.

When each participant in a communication exchange represents a different culture, the likelihood of effective communication is lessened. Communication between unalike individuals does not have to be ineffective. For instance, if the participants can empathize with each other (that is, put themselves in the shoes of the other person), then they may be able to overcome the ineffective communication. Further, the individuals can try to learn about people of different cultures.

Assignment 5

Choose the correct word form for each sentence. Make verb tense changes, make nouns singular or plural, and use active or passive voice as applicable.

1. actual, actually

a. "______________," said the student, "I prefer having a job to being a student."

b. The patient did not want to discuss the______________problem with the doctor; instead he talked around the problem.

2. definitely, definite

a. The young man said that he would_______________come to the party.

b. Are your plans_______________yet?

3. genuine, genuinely, genuineness

a. The gift was a_____________expression of his appreciation.

b. I sensed a lack of_______________in the car salesman.

c. The artist was______________trying to be creative.

4. unconsciously, unconscious, unconsciousness

a. After being hit by the car, the child was______________for three days.

b. He_______________turned off the alarm clock when he woke up in the morning.

c. He was in a state of______________that lasted for three weeks.

COLLECTIVISTIC VERSUS INDIVIDUALISTIC CULTURES

We define a collectivistic culture as one in which the collectivity’s goals are valued over those of the individual. In contrast, an individualistic culture is one in which the individual’s goals are valued over those of the collectivity. Individualism-collectivism is perhaps the most important dimension of cultural differences in behavior across the cultures of the world. Japanese culture is an example of a collectivistic culture. Harmony is very important to the Japanese. The collectivistic nature of Japanese culture is evident when observing a typical business office in Tokyo. More than a dozen employees are packed into an office that in the United States might house two or three individuals. The Japanese workers sit at small desks, facing each other, clustered in the middle of the room. Their boss sits among them. Individual privacy is completely lacking; instead, much informal conversation occurs among the office workers as they help each other with various work-related tasks.

The nature of the self is different in an individualistic versus a collectivistic culture. Culture shapes one’s self, and thus one’s communication, perceptions, and other behavior. In an individualistic culture, the individual perceives himself/herself as independent. In a collectivistic culture, the individual mainly thinks of himself/herself as connected to others. To be independent in one’s thinking or actions would be considered selfish, rude, in poor taste. An individual who is not a good team player is punished for breaking the norm on collectivism. Interaction between individuals with these different perceptions of self can easily result in misinterpreting the other’s behavior.

Obviously, not everyone in a collectivistic culture is equally collectivistic in thinking and behavior, nor are all of the individuals in an individualistic culture equally individualistic. For example, certain Japanese are task oriented rather than relationship oriented; they are very direct in their speaking style, telling it like it is. There is individual variation within both collectivistic and individualistic cultures, even though the average degree to which individuals are collectivistic-oriented is much greater in a collectivistic society like Japan than in an individualistic culture like the United States.

Assignment 6

1. For each number put I for the statement that defines an Individualist. Put C for a statement that defines a Collectivist.

_____ 1a. It takes a long time to make a new friend.

_____ 1b. Friends can be made relatively quickly.

_____ 2a. I expect people to judge me by my achievements.

_____ 2b. I expect people to judge me by groups I belong to.

_____ 3a. Before making a decision, it is best to make sure everyone agrees with it.

_____ 3b. Before making a decision, you should get at least half of the people to agree with it.

_____ 4a. I am embarrassed by individual recognition.

_____ 4b. If I do a good job, I feel that I have earned individual recognition.

_____ 5a. Making sure people don`t lose face is more important than always being completely honest.

_____ 5b. Being honest with people is always best in the end.

_____ 6a. If my brother did wrong, I would admit it to other people.

_____ 6b. If my brother did wrong, I would defend him to other people.

____ 7a. Confrontation is sometimes necessary to clear the air.

____ 7b. Confrontation almost always causes more problems than it solves.

____ 8a. In the end, you can always rely on other people.

____ 8b. In the end, you can only rely on yourself.

2. Do you consider yourself to be an individualist or collectivist value oriented? Explain why by using the choices above.

Assignment 7

First choose the correct word for the definitions. Then fill in the blanks in the sentences following the definitions. Note: You may have to change the grammatical form of the word used in the sentence.

modes

disagreement

praise

interpret

dominates

reflects

disapproval

explicitly

unique

1. one of a kind, having no equal_________________

Hand-made jewelry is expensive because each piece is ____________ .

2. refusal to approve, rejection________________

My father gave me a_________________look when he saw my examination scores.

3. to explain the meaning of_________________

His _________________ of the book was very different from the author's.

4. styles, manners, forms________________

Each writer has her own_________________of expression.

5. expression of approval________________

The child smiled after he was________________by his father.

6. shows_________________

Her poor response in class________________her lack of knowledge on the subject.

7. in a clearly stated or distinctly expressed manner__________________

The instructions on the package were so_________________that it was impossible to make a mistake.

8. difference of opinion_________________

Parents and children often_________________about what is right and wrong.

9. rules or controls_________________

The executive president _________________ the meeting by not allowing the others to speak.