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Zafeiriades,2014 1
Communicating
Across Cultures
intercultural understanding
and communication through
English
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When teaching
You will have daily encounters with
cultural differences .
How are your communication skills?
What takes place during any encounter
across your students cultures?
Are you comfortable in all settings?
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What is the secret to successful
intercultural communication?

in your cross cultural encounters:
What went well?
What caused any confusion?

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The Concept of Culture
Big C .objective culture is made by
humans..art, theater, legal systems,
economics, cooking, fashion
Little c .subjective culture is language,
behavior, patterns of thinking and values
Little c is like the iceberg; much is hidden
and only a little bit is on the surface
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What happens when people from
different cultures meet?
Contrasting nonverbal signaling
For example: greeting rituals
-Kiss? Bow? Shake hands?
Contrasting values and beliefs
Attitudes, ethnocentrism and stereotypes
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Non Verbal Communication
Culture is in our muscles
Space bubbles
Tone of voice
Touching and contact
Gestures


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Beliefs and Assumptions
Culture is a learned way to see the world
common to your group
We take our ways for granted as true and
are often out of our awareness
What is obvious to you may not be
obvious to others
People often perceive the same things
differently
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Perceptual Worlds
How do you perceive nature?
How do you perceive gender roles?
How do you perceive time?
How do you perceive friendship?
What do all these perceptions tell you
about the lenses you use to see the
world?
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Perceptions: what do you see?


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What do you see?
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These are fun pictures, but culture can
create a lens to shape your perceptions of
what you see
We live in a world of perceptions
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Understanding Ethnocentrism
Humans create cultures that determine
right ways to do things
The right way to do things in one culture
might be different in a different culture
There is no problem if one never leaves
his or her own culture; everyone knows
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Intercultural Encounters
Problems only come up when one
encounters someone who is not from their
own culture and there is no longer a shared
assumption about the right way.

Intercultural communication is needed to judge
others from a different point of view and not hold
people from different cultures to the same
expectation
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Assumptions that are Often in Contrast
between Cultures
Individualism contrasted with collectivism?
Direct communication contrasted with
more indirect style
Change contrasted with tradition?
Materialism contrasted with spiritualism?
Informality contrasted with formality?
The concepts of face and harmony
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More Cultural Contrasts
Cultures that are doing or being?
Proud contrasted with humble?
Egalitarianism or social hierarchy?

There are many more..

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Contrasting Communication Styles
Linear or circular
Direct or indirect
Attached or detached
Procedural or personal

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How Does This Play Out Every Day?
Most people are unaware of their culture; Do we
really understand can fish see water?
why we react to others and how others react to
us?
We evaluate others based on our own
perceptions of what is right
These can engage our emotions
When we tolerate ambiguity, we have less
certitude on right and wrong

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Stumbling Blocks to
Communication Across Cultures
Assuming similarities
Not anticipating differences
Misinterpreting non verbal signals
Stereotyping
Judging and evaluating
Stress


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Intercultural Competencies
Tolerance for ambiguity
Being flexible
Display empathy
Active listening
Turn taking
Withholding judgments

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Open Discussion.


Is there a secret to successful
intercultural communication?
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part of the secret to successful
intercultural communication is
to avoid advice that closes the mind! Even if it
may sound intuitively right, as much intercultural
communication advice literature does, because
it is built on widely circulating stereotypes and
reinforces them.
.the importance of appreciating diversity

there is no golden bullet simply because
intercultural communication per se does not
exist.
( Dr.Ingrid Piller, Professor of Applied Linguistics at
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia )