• Identify the misunderstanding.• Try to understand the possible reasons/causes of the misunderstanding.• Share your expertise with your colleagues to prevent the same problem happening again.
2. Be open-minded• An open-minded person is willing to dispassionately receive the ideas and opinions of others.• Open-minded people are aware of their own culture values and recognize that other people’s values are different.
• Sala (originally from Fiji): When I came here to Australia years ago, people at work would feel my hair. It made me uncomfortable. We don’t go around touching people on the head in my Fijian culture. We also avoid reaching near their head for something.• Later on, when they found out, they stopped touching my hair. They were curious about how my hair feels as it’s very curly.• Mary (originally from Ireland): In the Fijian culture touching hair is NOT done. I’m guilty of having done this on many occasions, because I have been friends with Fijians at work. I would run my fingers through their hair and say ‘How I love your hair!’ or something like that. Never for a minute did I think that I was making my friends uncomfortable.
3. Be altruistic, not egocentric• Altruism is a display of genuine and unselfish concern for the welfare of others => other- centered• Egocentricity is a selfish interest in one’s own needs to the exclusion of everything else => self-centered
Acquire Knowledge About Other Cultures Presenter: Minh Sang
Acquire Knowledge About Other CulturesThe more we know about other cultures, the more likely we are tobe competent intercultural communicators (Neuliep, 2006).There are several ways to learn about other cultures :1. Observe.2. Formally study.3. Immerse yourself in the culture.
1.ObservePeople can simply watch as members of another culture interactwitheach other.Notice how their values, rituals, and communication styles aresimilar to and different from your own and other cultures withwhich you are familiar.“passive observation “ Watching the communication behaviorsused by members of a particular culture.
2. Formally studyYou can learn about other cultures by reading accounts by theirmembers and ethnographic research studies, by taking courses, andby interviewing members of the culture about theirvalues, rituals, and so on.
3. Immerse yourself in the cultureYou can learn a great deal about another culture by activelyparticipating in it.When you live or work with people whose cultural assumptionsare different from yours, you not only acquire obvious culturalinformation, but you also learn nuances that escape passiveobservers and are generally not accessible through formal studyalone.
Acquiring Cultural Knowledge The Assignment Presenter : Hữu Lộc
Choose a culture youre not familiar with but arecurious about. Prepare a 3- to 5-minute speechto deliver in class by gathering materials from(a) reviewing an encyclopedia entry(b) researching two or three academic sourcesabout the culture(c) interviewing someone from that countryeither face-to-face or online
Use what you learn from the encyclopedia and theacademic sources to shape the questions you ask inthe interview, in your speech discuss what youlearned from each source, answering the followingquestions:1. What did you know about the culture before youbegan your research?2. What did you learn from the encyclopedia articlethat changed or deepened your knowledge?3. How was your understanding enriched from theadditional academic sources you read?4. What did you learn from your interviewee. andhow did the interview compare to your othersources?
Using Diverse Resources• When we are researching any topic, we can be tempted to limit our quest to only one type of information source. But as you will learn in this assignment what you know about a subject is often the result of where you look. That is why it is important to consult a variety of information sources.• Whether online or in print encyclopedias ore good jumping off points to acquire information and can provide a wonderful overview of the subject. Specialized sources like books and articles by experts provide additional details and can confirm or disconfirm information in the encyclopedia.
Finally, personal interviews with experts addanother dimension or level of specificity. Forexample, in this assignment when you interviewthe person from the other culture, you can askfor specific examples of his or her experiencesand whether what you have read is accurate.Good speeches depend on accurateinformation, so learning to use diverse sources isimportant to your success.
How1. Practice listening2. Practice intercultural empathy3. Develop flexibility
Practice listening• Language and nonverbal communication vary across cultures => focus closely on the other and listen attentively.• There are cultural differences in how people engage in listening and the value that cultures place on listening.
E.g Japan,Country/ US Finland, Far EastCulture Sweden concrete facts much more L moreListening and valued reserved information than speakingWhile do not ask as often ask Qs -Listening many Qs
Practice intercultural empathyIntercultural empathy: imaginatively placing yourself in theother person’s cultural world to attempt to experience what he/she is experiencing. (Ting-Toomey, 1999)
By paying close attention to others + focusing on emotions displayed improve empathy skills “Don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in his shoes”
Develop flexibilityFlexibility: the ability to adjust your communication to fit the other person and the situation.
Develop flexibility• With flexibility: use a wide variety of communication skills and modify your behavior within and across situations.• Beiing flexible means analyzing a situation + making good decisions and modifying your communication when things are not going well.
• Culture encompasses: – Values – Attitudes – Beliefs – Orientations – Underlying assumptions prevalent among people in a society.
• Culture shock: the psychological discomfort when people attempt to adjust to a new cultural situation
Interculturalcommunicationtakes place whenpeople’s distinctculturalassumptions alterthe communicationevent
• A shared system of meaning exists within the dominant culture, but meanings can vary within co-cultures based on race, ethnicity, sex and gender, religion, sexual orientation, social class, and age
• Cultural norms and values vary in systematic ways, we can understand depend on examining: individualism- collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity–femininity
• Barriers to intercultural communication – Anxiety – Assumptions about differences and similarities – Ethnocentrism – Stereotypes and prejudice – Incompatible communication codes – Incompatible norms and values
• To develop intercultural communication competence: – Ambiguity – Be open-minded – Be altruistic
• We can acquire knowledge of other cultures through : – Observing – Formal study – Cultural immersion
• Useful skills for intercultural communication competence: – Listening, – Intercultural empathy – Flexibility.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION! • Group 5: 1. Dinh Quoc Minh Dang 2. Nguyen Dinh Minh Sang 3. Vo Huu Loc 4. Tran Thi Ngan Giang 5. Nguyen Ngoc Cam