INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

• Happens when individuals interact, negotiate, and

create meanings while bringing in their varied cultural
backgrounds.
• Pertains to communication among people from
different nationalities.
• Communication that is influenced by different
ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations.
• Sending and receiving of messages across languages
and cultures.
THE DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF
INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY
STAGE 1: DENIAL

• The individual does not recognize cultural differences.

Ex. “All cities are the same, they all have tall buildings,
fast food chains, and coffee shops.”
STAGE 2: DEFENSE

• The individual starts to recognize cultural differences and is

intimidated by them, resulting in either a superior view on
own culture or an unjustified high regard for the new one.

• Ex. “This culture does not view life the way we do; our
culture is certainly better.”

“Their ways are better than my own; I wish I were one of

them.”
STAGE 3: MINIMIZATION

• Although individuals see cultural differences, they bank

more on the universality of ideas rather than on cultural
differences.

Ex. “Once we see through the cultural differences, we

really are just the same!”
STAGE 4: ACCEPTANCE

• The individual begins to appreciate important cultural

differences in behaviors and eventually in values.

Ex. “These people and I have different values and

experiences, and I think we can learn from one another.”
STAGE 5: ADAPTATION

• The individual is very open to world views when accepting

new perspectives.

Ex. “To address our issue, I have to adjust my approach to

consider both my own and my counterpart’s background.”
STAGE 6: INTEGRATION

• Individual start to go beyond their own cultures and see

themselves and their actions based on multifarious
cultural viewpoints.

Ex. “I can look at things from the perspective of various

cultures.”
1. Recognize communication behaviors which differ
from your own.
2. Take into account what can influence these
types of behaviors
3. try to analyze how linguistic and cultural
communities differ in terms of communication
behavior and influencing factors.
CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPETENT
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATORS
1. Flexibility and the ability to tolerate high levels of uncertainty.
2. Reflectiveness or mindfulness
3. Open-mindedness
4. Sensitivity
5. Adaptability
6. Ability to engage in divergent thinking (or thinking creatively)
and systems-level thinking (or thinking how each one in a system
or organization influences each other)
1. Avoid stereotypes (Generalization about a certain
group)
2. Challenge gender norms; avoid using “he” and
“man” to refer to a general group of people.
3. Do not talk down on younger people and elderly.
4. Be sensitive to the religious practices of others.
5. Be polite at all times; do not belittle people you
perceive to be on a lower social class than you.
 EIGHT BASIC BEHAVIORS FOR
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
 DISPLAY RESPECT

• Respect simply means seeing the value of other

cultures regardless of their difference from your
own culture.
• Showing respect demonstrates awareness of
different cultural rules and knowledge of
acceptable norms or standards of behavior.
 ORIENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE

• The orientation of communicators’ knowledge is

not always the same. When this orientation varies,
it may result in misunderstanding.
 EMPATHY

• You empathize when you put yourself in another

person’s shoes and try to feel how he/she feels.

• Empathy aids in building trust and establishing

connections with people from other cultures.
 INTERACTION MANAGEMENT

• Managing interaction refers to knowing how and

when to talk appropriately and effectively.
 TASK ROLE BEHAVIOR

• It is essential since it lessens any group conflict

that may possibly arise.
 RELATION ROLE BEHAVIOR

• Aims to take part in establishing and preserving a

personal relationship that promotes trust,
harmony, and support among participants of
intercultural communication.
 TOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY

• TOLERANCE refers to openness to differences while

AMBIGUITY means confusion.
 EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION AND INTERACTION
POSTURE

• A part of culture’s feature is how different people

express their emotions. To ensure intercultural
competence, you should recognize the unique
social behavior that develops in any culture.
BARRIERS TO INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
ETHNOCENTRISM

• The tendency for people to believe that their own cultural

norms are the right way of doing things. They mistakenly
assume that the specific patterns of behavior desired in
their won cultures are universally valued.
STEREOTYPES

• Mental pictures that one group forms from the main

characteristics of another group.
• They usually involve generalized ideas of people in a
certain group.
INTERPRETATION OF TIME

• CHRONEMICS is defined as the study of how cultures perceive

time and its use. The difference in the perception of time may
affect how people view each other; therefore, it also
influences how they interact.
PERSONAL SPACE REQUIREMENTS

• PROXEMICS is the study of cultural space

requirements. Space operates as a language just as
time does.
• In all cultures, the distance between people
functions in communication as “persona space” or
“personal territotry”
BODY LANGUAGE

• Is not universal, but is learned from one’s culture.

TRANSLATION LIMITATIONS

• Words in one language do not always have equivalent

meanings in other languages, and the concepts the
words describe are often different as well.