WilliamHartPhD's Notes: InterculturalCom

Showing posts with label InterculturalCom. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

InterculturalCom: Culture Shock: The W-Curve (W13-P3) Fa16

The cultural adjustment is not finished once an individual leaves a new cultural environment. Depending on the degree to which the new cultural environment has effected the individual, the individual may have to readjust to their home environment. The overall process is not just the U-shaped curve seen in a previous post, but more a W-shaped curve showing the return and adjustment at home.

Ever traveled into a new culture, spent some time there, and then returned home and had to readjust? Can you ever go home again? Can you step in the same river twice?

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InterculturalCom: Culture Shock: What is Culture Shock? (W14-P2) Fa16

When an individual enters a new cultural environment they may "suffer" to some degree culture shock.

Is it helpful to think of culture shock as a "disease" or to see it in a more positive light as a growth phase?

Have you experienced culture shock?

This is a clip that I edited and posted on YouTube. I use this clip in my Intercultural Communication course to introduce students to culture shock.

What is culture shock?
What are the "symptoms" of culture shock?
How do you lessen culture shock? What is active and passive coping?

The instructional video that this clip comes from appears to be no longer available for purchase. If you can find a copy available in a library, I'd recommend it. Berry's comments are especially insightful. The video was titled "World Within Reach."

InterculturalCom: Culture Shock: Process of Cultural Adjustment (W14-P1) Fa16

As an individual moves into a new cultural environment (a new country, a new city, a new school, etc.), depending on the degree of cultural difference, the individual generally goes through certain stages.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence: Intercultural Training - Part 2 (W13-Activity) Fa16

Some well-known intercultural training activities include "The Parable" and "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes".

"The Parable"

The study of intercultural communication has a rich and interesting history. That's one of the reasons that I study it. There is a long history of government organizations training people to be better intercultural communicators (e.g., diplomats). Out of this training comes some helpful and long-lasting intercultural training exercises. "The Parable" is one of those exercises. Below is the parable as it appeared in a 1973 Unesco document (pdf). Read the story and then rank in order that characters that you most approve of. The person that you approve of at the top and the bottom would be the person that you least approve of.

If you are curious, see also Dr. Ting-Toomey's version of The Parable.

Dr. Hart's classroom instructions:

Write down on a piece of paper, in rank order, the characters whose behaviors you most approve.
Break into groups of 4 to discuss your results. Create a rank list for the group.
What have you learned as a result of this activity?
Can anyone point to something in your past that shaped the values you used in this activity? Who/what programmed you?
Value: “A principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable” (TheFreeDictionary.com).

If you are curious: More related activities from CSU Fullerton faculty (pdf).

"Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes"

Another famous intercultural training activity was created by Jane Elliot. What are the steps in Jane Elliot's Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes Experiment?

This is a clip that I edited and posted on YouTube. I use this clip in my Intercultural Communication course to introduce students to methods of using intercultural training to reduce prejudice.

How effective do you think this method is?
Any ethical concerns?

Additional intercultural training activities may be covered in future posts.

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InterculturalCom: Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence: Intercultural Training - Part 1 (W13-Activity) Fa16

Research on the best methods of teaching and training in intercultural communication has a long history beginning with the work of anthropologist around the time of World War II. By the 1970s anthropologist lost interest in intercultural interactions and communication scholars carried on the study of intercultural communication. Two of these communication scholars (Gudykunst and Hammer) are among the top prolific authors and most cited authors in the field of intercultural communication (Hammer was my advisor at American University). In one of the articles written by Gudykunst and Hammer they outlined the overall goals of intercultural education or intercultural training (ICT).

"...most ICT involves some form of change in three areas: cognition, affect, and behavior. Cognitively, ICT generally is aimed at helping trainees understand how their culture, stereotypes, and attitudes influence their interactions with members of other cultures. Cognitive ICT goals, therefore, focus on knowledge and/or awareness. Affectively, ICT generally is aimed at helping trainees effectively manage their emotional reactions (e.g., anxiety) when interacting with members of other cultures. Behaviorally, ICT generally is designed to help trainees develop the skills they need to interact effectively with members of other cultures" (Gudykunst, Guzley and Hammer, 1996, p. 65).

In this course we will work on these three goals: cognition, affect and behavior.

Let's explore some types of intercultural training and well-known intercultural training activities.

First, film may be used in intercultural training. A fictional film which shows intercultural interaction may teach a viewer some facts about another culture and, depending on how well the viewer identifies with the characters in the film, it may also have an emotional or affective effect.

This is a clip that I edited and posted on YouTube. I use this clip in my Intercultural Communication course to introduce students to the difficulties of intercultural communication.

In the clip Jackie's fiancé has just arrived in the U.S.

Is there intercultural miscommunication? What is the problem exactly? Whose fault is it? Is it right to blame somebody?

Some additional types of intercultural training and well-known intercultural training activities will be explored in future posts.

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence: Principled Negotiation (W13-P4) Fa16

What is principled negotiation and what does it have to do with intercultural conflict?

William Ury: The walk from "no" to "yes"

What does principled negotiation have to do with intercultural conflict?

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence: Intercultural Conflict (W13-P3) Fa16

Intercultural Competency: Managing Intercultural Conflict

Culture can enter conflict in a variety of places as shown in the diagram below.

Now, let's shift gears and look at conflict in a different way, by using a film clip.

This is a clip that I edited and posted on YouTube. I use this clip in my Intercultural Communication course to introduce students to the concept of intercultural competence, especially in conflict situations.

The film clip wasn't about intercultural conflict, but how could you use Nash's idea to resolve intercultural conflict?

The film is based on a true story.
Background: JOHN NASH, Princeton math prof., played key role in game theory,
Game theory had important impacts on scholarly thinking in economics, international relations, biology, etc.
So, important, Nash won 1994 Nobel Prize

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence: Bennett's Model (W13-P2) Fa16

According to the Bennett model, as people gain more intercultural sensitivity, they move through a variety of stages starting with Denial and possibility ending in Integration.

In each stage, people express a certain mindset or way of thinking about cultural differences. The mindset of each stage is expressed in the quotes below. In the first stage what is being denied? In the Defense stage what are defensive about? In the third stage what is being minimized? Continue this line of questions with the remaining stages.

Not that the first three stages are labeled Ethnocentric. How does this relate to our previous definition of ethnocentrism?

Last question and perhaps most important question, what stage are you in? Does that depend? On what?

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence (W13-P1) [VID] Fa16

In order to work toward an understanding of intercultural sensitivity, let's start with a clip from South Park which shows Cartman travelling internationally to Costa Rica.

Is Cartman interculturally insensitive? How?
What's it mean to be interculturally sensitive?
Can you think of another fictional characters that show this same type of intercultural insensitivity?
Is there a certain perspective/attitude?
Is there a particular set of skills?
How interculturally sensitive are you?
Can a person be too interculturally sensitive?
Relationship to politically correct (PC)?

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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

InterculturalCom: Effective Intercultural Com: Stereotypes and Ethnocentrism (W12-P4) Fa16

If you were looking for clip art for "Native Americans" and all that you found were images like the top two images above, would this be an example of stereotyping? How? Use the definition. How does the bottom image break the stereotype? What exactly is the stereotype?

How do you tear down this brick?

Ask me about "Zhong Guo."

Watch the following images.

What was your reaction to the images? What does your reaction have to do with ethnocentrism? Anything?

How do you "tear down" this brick?

InterculturalCom: Effective Intercultural Com: Discrimination, Prejudice and Racism (W12-P3) Fa16

How do you tear down this brick?

How do you tear down this brick?

Note that there are two definitions of racism given here.

Notice any connection between racism and prejudice as previously defined?

Also, what is the differences among racism, prejudice and discrimination? They are related terms, but they are not the same thing.

InterculturalCom: Effective Intercultural Com: Intercultural Communication Model (W12-P2) Fa16

Recall the Intercultural Communication Model?

There is a brick wall between us and effective intercultural communication.
What are the names of the bricks in this wall? What specifically stops us from getting to effective intercultural communication?

---

Before moving on to anxiety and uncertainty (Brick #3), I should point out that we've already covered Bricks 1 and 2.

What are they? What are thing we've already covered that lead to difficulty in intercultural situations?

They are difference in language (Brick #1) and differences in nonverbal communication (Brick #2).

Before moving to the next bricks, one last question: How do you tear down this part of the wall, how do you fix differences in language and nonverbal communication?

And now, anxiety and uncertainty.

How does uncertainty lead to anxiety? Got an example?

How do you "tear down" these brick? Which one would you fix first and once you fixed it would you have the second problem?

How do you "tear down" this brick? How do you fix this possible problem?

InterculturalCom: Effective Intercultural Communication (W12-P1) Fa16

In the past I called this lecture unit "Dealing with Difference."
However, now I've switched to calling it "Effective Intercultural Communication."

See any reason why I changed it? Does "Dealing with Difference" imply anything? A negative connotation?

Whatever you call it, in intercultural situations, how do we deal with or become more effective?

One place to start is to have a clear sense of exactly what is causing an intercultural misunderstanding. Is it a language thing? Is it prejudice? What exactly is causing the intercultural ineffectiveness? If we understand where exactly the problem is, then we can move on to hopefully fixing the problem.

---

However, before we look specifically at intercultural communication, let's address some basic skills that should be in all types of interpersonal communication.

Even before developing effective intercultural communication skills, we need to learn and practice the basic interpersonal skills below. These are fundamental.

Some Basic Interpersonal Skills Helpful in ICC

Core Skills

Positiveness: Expression of positive attitudes toward self and others.
Other-Orientation: Attentiveness, interest, and concern for others.
Empathy: Feeling as the other feels.

Meta Skills

Mindfulness: Being consciously aware of the above skills and carefully monitoring them.
Metacommunication: Being aware of what is happening in the communication. Being able to think and talk about the talk.

Now, with some basic interpersonal skills out of the way, let's return to intercultural communication. To get a better understanding of intercultural communication effectiveness, it would be helpful to have a model that helps us spot where the potential problems that may arise in intercultural encounters.

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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Romance: Activity: WWYD? (W11-P4) Fa16

The ABC series What Would You Do? provides us with a critical incident to analyze for intercultural/interracial romances.

What would you do? Why?
Other thoughts about this ABC clip?

And now this WWYD? critical incident:

WWYD?

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Romance: Activity: Loving v. Virginia (W11-P3) Fa16

The famous case via ABC news report

A variety of films and documentaries have been done on the Loving vs. Virginia case, like this HBO documentary.

Here is a trailer to the more recent film.

How do the state laws like the ones in Virginia fit into the previous discussion of internal and external barrier?

If you are curious:

Loving vs. Virginia (the case, the recent HBO documentary)
The legacy of the interracial-marriage case looms large on the 46th anniversary of the landmark decision (July 2013, The Root)

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Romance: Jungle Fever and Barriers to Interracial Marriage (W11-P2) Fa16

As the number of interracial marriages has increased so too has the approval of interracial marriages. In the late 1950s less than 10% of the U.S. population approved of interracial marriages. By 2007, the approval rating was almost 80%.

See more recent figures from Gallup | Image credit: Yerevanci

So, still with a significant portion of the U.S. population disapproving interracial marriages, couples in such marriages face some unnecessary challenges. Besides the normal challenges of any relationship, an interracial or intercultural relationship faces two additional barriers to a healthy relationship: internal barriers and external barriers.

The internal barriers are those of any intercultural interaction.

How does intercultural communication work? What is the process?
Two people from different cultures interact, but there are barriers to effective intercultural communication. Some of the barriers include: difference in language, difference in nonverbals, difference in values, ethnocentrism and prejudice.

In addition to the above an interracial couple may also face some external barriers.

If you get a chance to watch or re-watch Jungle Fever, see if you spot the internal and external barriers.

You may also want to see the intercultural relationship in The Joy Luck Club.

Can you think of more recent films that show the internal and external barriers that interracial and intercultural couples face?

------- FROM TWITTER:

@WilliamHartPhD Start with Loving v VA! And this NYT article is a good intro to discuss interracial stigma. http://t.co/qnALplk6sq
— Kevin Noble Maillard (@noblemaillard) October 14, 2013

InterculturalCom: Intercultural Romance: Jungle Fever and Interracial Marriage (W11-P1) Fa16

Note: Click on images to see large size.

The above painting is "Othello and Desdemona" by Chasserieu from the early 1800s. It is inspired by William Shakespeare's play Othello from approximate 1603. In the painting are Othello, the Moor and Desdemona, his Venetian wife.

The title "Jungle Fever" comes from a 1991 Spike Lee film. More on the Jungle Fever film later.

Let's turn now to the topic of interracial marriages in the United States. Over the past few decades there has been strong growth in the number of interracial marriages from less than 1% in 1970 to approximately 10% in 2010. In the U.S today more than 1 in 10 marriages are interracial marriages.

Info source

When you look at the number of unmarried couples the percentage of interracial couples is even higher.

Info source | Photo credit: J

Info source | Photo credit: Salihan Laugesen

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

InterculturalCom: Cultural Identity and The Debut: Minority Identity Development (W9-P2) Fa16

The stages of minority identify development are illustrated well in the film, The Debut.

The stages are as below.

Note: Click on images to see a larger version.

Source: Intercultural Communication in Contexts by Martin and Nakayama

InterculturalCom: Cultural Identity and The Debut (W9-P1) Fa16

The concepts of cultural identity and cultural identity development are illustrated well in the film, The Debut.

Besides helping us to understand cultural identity, the film also allows us to learn about some Filipino culture.

Here are some Filipino cultural literacy to learn from the film.

Tagalog: a key language of the Philippines
Barkada: peer group
Oo: yes
Singkil: "the stick dance"

Collectivism/Individualism Through Dance
See this video I posted on YouTube. How does it relate to the film?

The above clip is from I'm Normal, You're Weird! Understanding Other Cultures. This was an excellent teaching resource. I wish that it was released in some form on DVD.

The film also shows some Filipino values:

Family/Group (Authority)
Food
Education/Success

Lastly the film gives a sense of the Filipino "Time Orientation," how time is used.

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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

InterculturalCom: Language & Culture: Linguistic Discrimination (W7-P4) [VID] Fa16

What is linguistic discrimination?

Let's start with some examples. What is happening in these examples?

"HUD Fair Housing Public Service Announcement"

"Linguistic Discrimination in School: African American English"
Note: The audio is a little out of sync on this YouTube video, but the content is informative.

So, what is linguistic discrimination?

Linguistic discrimination (also called linguicism and languagism) is "the unfair treatment of an individual based solely on their use of language" (Wikipedia).

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