Intercultural Communications

Test 1
Chapters 1-4

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
COMM 1502
Alexandra MacMurdo
May 14, 2013

Chapter 1 1. Why is it important to think beyond ourselves as individuals in intercultural interactions? It is important to think beyond ourselves as individuals in intercultural interactions because the world is a melting pot filled with many people of different cultures living amongst other cultures. This makes intercultural communication inevitable to everyone. Additionally, having an intercultural interaction tends to make one aware of his or her own ethnocentrism. Intercultural encounters require one to go beyond his or her self due to the fact that this world is not about one individually. The ability to challenge one’s ethnocentrism, by becoming self aware, plays an important role in successful intercultural interactions.

2. The term “nativistic” refers to a person or group being so patriotic that they are anti-immigrant. Give a modern example of this and discuss its implications on society.

A legislative act was passed and is being enforced in the state of Arizona that at the time of passage was a severe anti-illegal immigration tactic. It has been the center of debate since, internationally and nationally because of its controversy and nativistic attributes. The Arizona Act made it a state misdemeanor crime any immigrant to reside in Arizona without the required documents to prove U.S. citizenship. Additionally, Arizona law enforcement officers are to determine an individual’s residence status via a "lawful stop, detention or arrest" when there is reasonable suspicion of a person being an illegal immigrant. Its implications on society hinders the situation in both ways. On one hand, the illegal immigrants gave birth to children in the united states and are citizens because of their birth right. If they deport these children’s parents out of the country, it will not be fair to the children because they are citizens of the U.S. In addition. these illegal immigrants accept hard labor work for little pay, that many U.S. born citizens refuse to take. On the other hand, being an illegal immigrant hinders the illegal immigrant’s health and social status because they are not entitled to health care and other benefits of U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, some end up using emergency rooms in hospitals for minor health issues that can end up costing the government and hospitals great financial loss.

Chapter 2 1. There are 3 approaches to studying intercultural communication. Compare and contrast all three.

The three approaches to studying intercultural communication are The Social Science Approach, The Interpretive Approach, and The Critical Approach. The Social Science Approach is based on psychology and sociology, uses culture as a variable, and uses quantitative methods. The Interpretive Approach is based on linguistic and rhetoric, and also uses qualitative methods. Additionally The Interpretive Approach uses Patterns of communication. Lastly, The Critical Approach studies the context in which communication occurs, such as background and environment. Additionally, The Critical Approach believes in objective rather than subjective and distinguishes that all intercultural interactions are characterized by power. However, it does not center on face to face intercultural interaction so the results are less realistic. Compared to The Critical Approach, The Social Scientific Approach believes that human behavior is predictable and the researcher's objective is to describe and calculate human behavior. However, it does not consider context nor is it very culturally sensitive. Whereas, The Interpretive Approach has an in depth understanding of communication patterns in particular context. Nonetheless, this approach has limitations such as a small number of interpretive studies of inter cultural communication.

2. “Thus, the struggle over the image of each nation is, in part, fought out in the press.” What does this mean? Discuss.

This statement can be defined as press influence and press manipulation. This means that each nation’s image is displayed to other nations by the media and how that nation is perceived by other nations is in the hands of how the media chooses to portray it. For example, the book describes, the French watching in horror
As members an underclass area of New Orleans were seen looting stores and defying the police during Hurricane Katrina. However, people from the same community that were helping others in need were not shown. Thus, other nations perceived that area of New Orleans as the media wanted them to perceive them.

Chapter 3

1. The book points out that any definition of culture is too restrictive. Think about your ideas of “culture” before you took this class. Think about your ideas now. How have they changed? What does culture mean to you?

Culture, to me, seemed foreign before I took this class. I always saw the word culture and automatically thought of my mother or father since they were not born in the U.S. I felt as though culture is so distant from where I am, not realizing that culture is everywhere. Its within our own towns. Its so close and is everywhere we look. Culture to me now is in every bite of food I take, every song I listen to, and every accent I hear, whether it’s a northern accent in the U.S. or a French accent from France or even in a Haitian’s dialect of French. Culture means everything to me now, I can’t seem to look anywhere without culture being part of what I am looking at.

2. What is the relationship between communication and power? How does the relationship between communication and culture affect the power dynamic?

The relationship between communication and power is that power is worldwide in communication interactions, but it is not always obvious. Communication is often thought to be between two equals but there are levels of group associated power. One is primary dimensions which are determined by gender, age, sexual orientation, physical abilities, race, and ethnicity. The second is socioeconomic status, geographical location, educational background, and marital status. These are changeable. The relationship between communication and culture is that culture influences communication, and vice versa. This affects many aspects of the power dynamic. Power is complex and can be changed from one group to another based on culture. For example, a professor is usually perceived as the power holder over the student or a boss over his or her workers but in the U.S. a student might disobey a professor or walk out of the professor’s lecture with full right, thus, removing power from the professor. Nonetheless, in the Middle East, the professor has full power over the student. The same rules apply for a boss. Power can be removed from the boss or management by those who were thought to have no power therefore taking the control.

Chapter 4

1. What is “absent history?” How does it make you feel that your history teachings have been biased? What effect does this have on individuals’ and society’s worldviews?

Absent history is defined as being any part of history that was not recorded or that is lost. Not everything that occurred in the past is available. This makes it frustrating to know that all the history I learned was not the whole story and that there may be much more to a lot of the things I learned. It is also disheartening to know that many history lessons are biased because of that. History can be told in any way whoever omitted information wanted it to be told which is like lying to me. Absent history effects individuals’ and society’s worldview immensely because we may look at the world differently if some absent history was actually there. For example, in my history class in high school, the Vietnam war was very glossed over. I have talked to many Vietnam vets and heard many stories that were not told in history classes. One can’t help but to wonder why. I assume that Vietnam history lessons teach a very different lesson than we teach. The fact that both parties in the war recount it differently and many aspects of it are missing in both cultures it very unclear to the whole world and also alters others’ perception of the U.S. as well as Vietnam. This is just one example of absent history. However, missing information in history changes one’s perception of the world in many ways because as stated earlier, omitting information is like lying, so one can’t help but to wonder what the world is really like and the people in it. If the absent history was somehow recovered, I believe the world would be a completely different place. For the better or worse, one just cannot say without that information.

2. The theme of this chapter can be summed up by Queen Elizabeth II’s statement in her May 2001 speech during her first visit to Ireland. “…being able to bow to the past but not be bound by it.” Explain and discuss.

In her statement, I believe the Queen meant that we bow by acknowledgement of the past but not be bound by it because we have the opportunity to change the future. What happened in history is done and cannot be changed but what happens in the future, whether it be past rivaling countries or they way one culture is perceived by another, we can change it. In history, African Americans were looked down upon and treated poorly society saw them as second class citizens, but we are not bound by that because now, in the future, they are equal, maybe not to some cultures but to society as a whole. This chapter was all about history, so I believe the queen’s statement is about acknowledging our history and knowing it can’t be changed, but realizing we have the freedom to not be held down by it. We have the choice to change the future.

Cumulative Question
A person’s worldview is their underlying assumption about the nature of reality and human behavior. What is your worldview?

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My culture plays an important and dominant role in how I perceieve the world. Since I was raised by parents from Lebanon and Brazil, but born in the united states, I have various cultures to learn from. Such cultures have shaped and constructed my insight of the world. My worldview, is how I examine every aspect of life spiritually, emotionally, and morally. From the time I can remember my mother taught me about Christianity since that was the religion she was born into. I was taught that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam should all be respected and any other belief or religion was not the correct one. My father was less spiritual than my mother. He believed in God and as long as I did too, that was the only religious requirement he had of me. However, growing up in the United States, I encountered a lot of different religions and began to respect all sorts of religions. I believed in God and Christ but I started to consider that other religions had the right to believe what they accepted as true and that I had no right to tell them that they were wrong because it was a belief. What is religion other than a belief anyway? Growing up, I always had a soft spot for babies, ederly, homeless, and animals. I was always emotionally affected by homeless people and abandoned animals. My father never was a big animal lover but my mother was. We always had dogs and cats. As I grew into adulthood, I saved many abandoned animals such as, cats that were abused, dogs that were starved, and any other animal that was helpless. I also would give food to the needy and donate toys and clothes to kids that had families who abandoned them. The world was starting to look bleak to me. When I was a teenager and started to date, I thought the world was my oyster. At 17, I dated an Indian guy who was 11 years older than me. He wanted to have sex but because of my morals and upbringing, it was considered wrong to have sex before marriage and my father didn’t even want me dating until I was in college. So I was not allowed to go out much and the man I was seeing started to grow tired of it. This happened with some other relationships afterwards as well and it made me very untrusting of men. Eventually, I told my parents it was my body, my morals, and my decision to do what I pleased and I told them that one day I would find love that did not judge me because of my morals. My mother did not believe in love and told me that marriage is a partnership, and it had nothing to do with love. I vowed I would never get married until I found love, despite the pleas of my mother. I am very independent and there is a lot of things my morals won’t allow, but one day I will find someone who can accept my culture and my morals.

In conclusion, my worldview has changed many times over the years. For awhile I did not like anything about this world. I thought other cultures were weird, I hated men, and I started to hate people in general as well because of how they treated me, defenseless animals, or how many would spit on a homeless man. I thought that the world was a disgusting place and all people were bad. Over time, and as I grew older and developed my own opinions and thoughts, I started to see the world a little better because, despite the bad things people do, there are still other who do good. My worldview is brighter now that I have experience and interactions with many different cultures.