TOPIC 8 CULTURAL SHOCK & LANGUAGE



TOPIC 8 CULTURAL SHOCK & LANGUAGE

Objectives:

• understand the nature of cultural shock and its relationship to success in overseas assignments.

• Be able to identify the typical stages of cultural shock

• Learn ways to alleviate cultural shock including careful selection of persons for overseas assignments and pre-departure training.

• Understand the role of culture stress, social alienation, social class and poverty-wealth extremes, financial matters, and relationships in dealing with cultural shock.

• Understand how the extent to which persons in the host culture reveal their private selves may contribute to cultural shock.

• Understand how language affects intercultural business communication.

• Understand how language construction, thought, perceptions, and culture are linked.

• Understand the limits of using a second language, be aware that language differences exist even when people speak the same language.

• Understand the importance of accurate translation and interpretation to intercultural communication.

• Understand how to use parables and proverbs as insights into the culture.

Cultural shock is the trauma you experience when you move into a culture different from your home culture. Cultural shock is basically a communication problem that involves the frustrations accompanying a lack of understanding of the verbal and nonverbal communication of the host culture, its customs, and its value systems. Frustrations may include lack of food, unacceptable standards of cleanliness, different bathroom facilities, and fear for personal safety.

Five strategies used for coping with the new culture during short visits:

1. Un-acceptance of the host culture: the traveler simply behaves as he or she would in the home culture. No effort is made to learn the language or the customs of the host culture.

2. A second strategy is known as substitution. The traveler learns the appropriate response or behaviors in the host culture and substitutes these responses or behaviors for the ones he or she would ordinarily use in the home culture.

3. A third strategy is known as addition. The person adds the behavior of the host culture when in the presence of the nationals but maintains the home culture behavior when with others of the same culture.

4. A fourth strategy is known as synthesis. This strategy integrates or combines elements of the two cultures such as combining the dress of the United States and the Philippines.

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5. the final strategy is referred to as re-synthesis, the integration of ideas not found in either culture. An example of this strategy would be a U.S. traveler in China who chooses to eat neither American nor Chinese food but prefers Italian food.

Stages of Culture Shock

1. Excitement and fascination with the new culture which can last only a few days or several months.

2. The crisis or disenchantment period, the “honeymoon” is over; your excitement has turned to disappointment as you encounter more and more differences between your own culture and the new culture.

3. The adjustment phase, you begin to accept the new culture.

4. the acceptance or adaptation phase, you feel at home in the new culture, become involved in activities of the culture, cultivate friendships among the nationals, and feel comfortable in social situations with people from the host culture.

5. Reentry shock which can be almost as traumatic as the initial adjustment to a new culture, particularly after an extended stay abroad. Reentry shock is experienced upon returning to the home country and may follow the stages identified earlier: initial euphoria, crisis or disenchantment, adjustment, and acceptance o adaptation.

Aspect of Cultural Shock

Aspects of cultural shock include:

• cultural stress

• social alienation

• social class and poverty-wealth extremes

• financial matters

• relationships and family consideration.

In addition, differences between the extent to which persons in the host and home cultures reveal their private selves may cause acculturation problems particularly in communication.

Language

Successful communication with someone from another culture involves understanding a common language. Without this shared language, communication problems may occur when a third party, the translator or interpreter, attempts to convey both the verbal and nonverbal intent of your message.

Sociolinguistics – the effects of social and cultural differences upon a language. Accent, phrasing, and word usage are associated with class differences in a society.

Language topics:

• Parables and Proverbs

• Conversation Taboos

• The Nature of Language

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• Translation Problems

• Interpreter Use

• Host Language

• Thought

• Language and Culture Interaction

Example of Intercultural Miscommunication

An American magazine editor was hosting a group of Chinese when one of them said, “Please explain what is a turkey.”

The editor launched into a lengthy explanation of the ungainly American bird that has become the centerpiece at American Thanksgiving tables. Then, of course, he had to explain about the American holiday, Thanksgiving.

The Chinese waited patiently and then replied, “Well, I still do not understand what is meant when you Americans say “Come on, you turkey, let’s get moving.”

High-Context Language

• Nonverbal; cultural aspects are important

• Language transmits little of the explicit message

• Example: Japanese language

• Restricted code - speech coding system of high-context languages; spoken statement reflects the social relationship

Low-Context Language

• Message is explicit

• May be given in more than one way to assure understanding

• Very direct and verbal

• Example: U.S. (high-context language viewed as a waste of time)

• Elaborated code - speech coding system of low-context languages; verbal elaboration is necessary due to few shared assumptions

Language Diversity Problems

• Diversity of dialects and accents within a language (the U.S. has over 140 languages and dialects; in 14 percent of homes a native language other than English is spoken)

• Word meanings, pronunciations, and accents even among people who speak the same language

• Foreigners who speak their native language on the job or in the presence of members of the home country

Vocabulary Equivalence

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• All words in one language may not have an exact translation in the other language. Word pairs in English (far and wide, good and bad) do not carry the same relationship when translated to other languages.

• Homonyms (words that sound alike but have different meanings)

• Problems may occur when voice tone and pitch can change the meaning (Chinese).

International Blunders

Signs in shop windows: “We sell dresses for street walking.” (French shop)

“Order your summer suit. Because if big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.”

(Tailor in Jordon)

Tokyo hotel posted this sign: “You are respectfully requested to take advantage of the chambermaids.”

When Pope John Paul II visited Miami several years ago, a local businessman thought he would profit by printing messages on T-shirts declaring in Spanish, “I saw the Pope.” He earned more laughs than money; the shirts were printed with “La Papa” rather than “El Papa” and, therefore, proclaimed that the wearer had seen “the potato.”

A toy bear, made in Taiwan, “sang” Christmas carols in English. One song, though, didn’t quite come out correctly: It was “Oh Little Town of Birmingham.” (It helps to know the story.)

How Languages Differ

• Syntactic Rules – arrangement of words in a sentence. Subject, verb, object can be combined in six possible ways. English follows mainly a subject-verb-object order (as do French and Spanish). Japanese and Korean have the preferred order of subject-object-verb. Hebrew and Welsh follow verb-subject-object. The object does not come first in any language.

• Meanings - Denotative (Japanese Spider Crab), Connotative (Alaskan King Crab), and Figurative (kicking the bucket)

Language and Culture Interaction

• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - The main idea is that language functions as a way of shaping a person’s experience, not just a device for reporting that experience. Both structural and semantic aspects of a language are involved.

• Linguistic determinism is the assumption that a person’s view of reality stems mainly from his or her language. Ex: The absence of the word snow in Inuit, the language of the Eskimo people. The language does, however, have numerous words for types of snow, while other languages do not have the equivalent of flaky snow or crusty snow.

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EXERCISES:

1. Explain what is meant by the term cultural shock. Identify and discuss the stages of cultural shock. How can multinational firms alleviate cultural shock?

2. Identify and describe the approaches to intercultural training offered by multinational firms.

3. What types of financial adjustments may be associated with cultural shock?

4. Explain how language differentiates us as groups? Teenagers and other groups develop jargon and slang. Give examples of slang or jargon used by people with whom you associate.

5. If thinking is universal, how does culture and language affect the way different groups of humans think?

Case1 : Larry was sent to Japan to represent his company and wanted to make a good impression on his Japanese hosts. He immediately asked them to call him by his first name and told several humorous stories intended to bread the ice. He brought along gifts containing his company’s logo and asked about the state of the Japanese economy. Larry got the impression that things were not going well and that he may have behaved inappropriately. What advice would you give him?

Case2: you are in a meeting in a subsidiary of a German company in the United States. The meeting has two German citizens who are living in the United States and three U.S. Citizens all of whom are employees. You have been discussing packaging of a new product, and suddenly the two Germans begin speaking in German Rather than English. You wait for a couple of minutes, become irritated, and leave. Explain what is happening in this situation concerning the use of Language.

Readings:

1. Chaney L.H., and Martin J.S., Intercultural Business Communication 2nd Ed., 国际商务沟通 (English Version. 第2版）, Higher Education Press, 高等教育出版社, 2002. (ISBN: 7-04-011680-4): Chapter 4 and Chapter 5

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