Understanding Intercultural Communication: Key Concepts
Understanding Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication is defined as a symbolic exchange process whereby individuals from two or more cultural communities negotiate shared meanings in interaction.
Even within one culture, misunderstandings can occur. The relationship between culture and communication is very important, but interpersonal relations within a single culture can also lead to intercultural misunderstandings.
The intercultural communication process occurs when significant differences create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about how to communicate effectively.
The term ‘intercultural,’ used to describe the endpoints of the continuum, denotes the presence of at least two people who are culturally different from each other based on important attributes such as norms, behavior, preferred communication styles, and social roles.
In other words, what is commonly acceptable in one culture may be considered strange or inappropriate in another. It’s not surprising that contradictory meanings and values are often assigned to the same expression or behavior in different cultures. Here are some examples of contradictory remarks:
“She’s so cold and uncommunicative. She never shows any emotion.”
“Why does he talk like that? I wish he would get straight to the point instead of beating around the bush.”
The differences in people’s behaviors are deeply rooted in their cultural values. An effective way to discover cross-cultural differences is to consider proverbs that reflect specific values important to different cultures.
Intercultural communication is more than just sending and receiving messages with people from cultures different from our own. We must understand our ultimate goal: understanding, being understood, persuading, and influencing.
The subject of intercultural communication is broad and complex. This is due to the complexity of ‘culture’ and cultural differences, which can create barriers in interpersonal communication. Addressing this complexity in detail would require significant time and study.
Areas of Confusion in Intercultural Studies
There are several areas of confusion, such as the distinctions between intra- vs. intercultural, interethnic, cross-cultural vs. intercultural, and international studies.
Interethnic and Interracial Communication
Just as ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ are terms commonly used to refer to cultures, ‘interethnic’ and ‘interracial’ are sometimes used as substitutes for ‘intercultural communication.’ These terms usually express communication differences between members of racial and ethnic groups within the same nation. For example: interethnic – Indigenous American, Italian American, Armenian American; interracial – African American, European American, Japanese American.
Cross-Cultural Communication
Cross-cultural communication involves comparison or contrast. For example, food might be essential for a Brazilian birthday party, while dancing is essential for a Mexican one.
Intercultural communication is based on interaction (verbal and non-verbal).
The term ‘cross-cultural communication’ typically refers to the study of a particular idea, concept, or behavior across multiple cultures for comparison. It compares one culture to another on aspects of interest. For example, someone studying marriage rituals in many cultures would be considered a cross-cultural researcher.
Cross-cultural studies are comparative in nature and might compare English strategies for starting conversations with German ones. Intercultural studies examine interactions between people from different cultural backgrounds, such as conversations between English and German students. Whereas intercultural communication involves interactions among people from different cultures, cross-cultural communication involves a comparison of interactions among people from the same culture to those from another culture.
International Communication
International communication refers to interaction among people from different nations. It is communication between nations and governments rather than individuals.
Communication among people from different countries is likely to be intercultural, but this is not always the case.