Importance of intercultural communication From the US Census for 2000 Nearly 18% of people in the US speak a language other than English at home. Racial minorities own nearly 15% of US companies. Slightly more than 11% of people counted by the US census were born in another country.
20
Embed
Importance of intercultural communication From the US Census for 2000 Nearly 18% of people in the US speak a language other than English at home. Racial.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Importance of intercultural communicationFrom the US Census for 2000 Nearly 18% of people in the US speak a language
other than English at home. Racial minorities own nearly 15% of US companies. Slightly more than 11% of people counted by the US
census were born in another country.
Global trade
From a report about global trade (Lustig & Koester, 1993)
One-third of US corporate profits are earned in international trade.
The 23 largest US banks do almost half of their business overseas.
This suggests…
You are going to face a multicultural and multiracial workforce.
You need to learn to communicate successfully with people who have different cultural background from you in the workplace.
You need to learn to recognize and positively respond to culture-specific attitudes, actions, tools and artifacts (such as documents, oral presentations, and visuals).
Think about a workday
Workdays in U.S. culture: 8 am-5 pm, M-F Sunday is a workday in Israel People in Mexico don’t work from 1 to 3 pm
M-F
Categories of cultural patterns Values and beliefs Business customs Legal systems Language use
Vocabulary and sentence length Numbers, dates and magnitude
Rhetorical patterns: Document development & structure
Are numbers a universal language? Dates
Country Date Format U.S. March 1, 2004 (3/1/04) France 1 mars 2004 Germany (official format)
1. Marz 2004
Sweden 04-01-03 Italy (official format) 1.3.04 Japan 04/1/3 Possible solutions Spell out the names of the months. Let readers know what system of date presentation
you are using.
Are numbers a universal language? Time
Country Time Representation U.S. 8:35 p.m. France 20:35 Germany 20.35 Quebec, Canada 20 h 35 Possible solutions Use multiple formats. (“We will meet at 1:00
p.m./13:00.”)
Are numbers a universal language? Magnitude
U.S. German Swedish One thousand
1,000 1.000 1 000
One million 1,000,000 1.000.000 1 000 000 One billion 1,000,000,000 1.000.000.000 1 000 000 000 1, 500 = one thousand five hundred or one and one half?
French: 1,500 = one point five 1.500 = fifteen hundred Possible solutions Clearly state what system of magnitude representation you
are using with examples at the beginning of your document.
Context & communication
Low-context culture stresses the importance of explicit verbal messages to convey personal thoughts, opinions, & feelings
High-context culture stresses the importance of multi-layered contexts (e.g., historical context, social norms, roles, situational & relational contexts) that frame the interaction encounter
Low-context culture High-context culture
Individualistic values Group-oriented values
Linear logic Spiral logic
Direct style Indirect style
Sender-oriented style (the sender assumes the responsibility of communicating clearly)
Interpreter-oriented style
Self-enhancement style Self-effacement style
Verbal-based understanding
Context-based understanding
Context Square
context Information implicitly stated
Information explicitly stated
information
meaning
China
Japan
Saudi Arabia
Mexico
Italy
France
U.S
Germany
Switzerland
High-context cultures
Low-context cultures
Russia
Visual Exercise
Map three screenshots to the context square How different are three screenshots? Can you explain why?
Lotus American Page
www.lotus.com
Lotus German Page
www.lotus.de
Lotus Chinese Page
Context and Writing
Writing is a way of organizing and presenting ideas. Cultural markings are embedded in your writing.
Different cultures take different approaches to present information. High-context culture: meaning is often implied in
communication, conveyed through the context. Low-context culture: meaning is best expressed through
explicit verbal messages.
Rhetorical patterns across cultures Rhetorical "patterns" vary from culture to