Chapter 02: Lesson 04

BARRIERS TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Our communication would likely suffer, as our violation of norms would be a form of noise limiting
the effectiveness of our communication.

LaRay M. Barna (1997) has developed a list of six inter-cultural communication: anxiety, assuming
similarity instead of difference, ethnocentrism, stereotypes and prejudice, nonverbal misinterpretations,
and language. His categories of barriers will be used when discussing problems that can arise in
intercultural encounters.

Anxiety

When you are anxious because of not knowing what you are expected to do, it is only natural to focus
on that feeling and not be totally present in the communication transaction.

Sugawara (1993) surveyed 168 Japanese employees of Japanese companies working in the United
States and 135 of their U.S. coworkers. Only 8% of the U.S. coworkers felt impatient with the Japanese
coworkers’ English. While 19% of the Japanese employees felt their spoken English was poor or very
poor and 20% reported feeling nervous when speaking English with U.S. coworkers, 30% of the Japanese
employees felt the U.S. coworkers were impatient with their accent, and almost 60% believed that
language was the problem in communicating with the U.S. coworkers. For some, anxiety overspeaking
English properly contributed to avoiding interactions with the U.S. coworkers and limiting interactions
both on and off the job to other Japanese only.

Assuming Similarity Instead Of Difference

When you assume similarity between cultures you can be caught unaware of important differences.
When you have no information about a new culture, it might make sense to assume there are no
differences, to behave as you would in your home culture. But each culture is different and unique to
some degree.

Boucher (1974), for example, has shown how cultures differ as to whom it is appropriate to display
emotions. If you assume that display of emotions is similar to your culture, you might see people in
some circumstances as lacking emotion and others in other circumstances as displaying emotions
inappropriately.

The inverse can be a barrier as well. Assuming difference instead of similarity can lead to your not
recognizing important things that cultures share in common. It’s better to assume nothing. It’s better to
ask, “What are the customs?” rather than assuming they’re the same—or different—everywhere.
Ethnocentrism

The third barrier to effective intercultural communication is ethnocentrism, or negatively judging

Another name for ethnocentrism is the anthropological concept of cultural relativism. It does not
mean that everything is equal. It does mean that we must try to understand other people’s behavior in
the context of their culture before we judge it. It also means that we recognize the arbitrary nature of
our own cultural behaviors and be willing to reexamine them by learning about behaviors in other
cultures (Cohen, 1998).

A less extreme form of ethnocentrism can be labeled cultural nearsightedness, or taking one’s own
culture for granted and neglecting other cultures.

Stereotypes and Prejudice

Stereotypes and prejudice are a destructive stumbling block to intercultural communication the term
stereotype is the broader term commonly used to refer to negative or positive judgments made about
individuals based on ang observable or believed group membership whereas, prejudice refers to the
irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

The word stereotyping was first used by journalist Walter Lippmann in 1992 to describe judgments
made about others on the basis of their ethnic group membership. Today, the term is more broadly
used to refer to judgements made on the basis of any group membership. Psychologists, have
attempted to explain stereotyping as mistakes our brains make in the perception of other people that
are similar to those mistakes our brains make in the perception of visual illusions. (Nisbett, 1980 as
stated in Jandt, 2010). When information is ambiguous, the brain often reaches the wrong conclusion.

"Who stereotypes and who is the target of stereotyping?"

Negative Effects on Communication

Stereotype are harmful because they impede communication in at least four ways:

 They cause us to assume that a widely held belief is true when it may not be. Research
conducted by Gordon Allport (1954) showed, for example, that a prevalent stereotype of
Americans as dishonest was proved false when a credit-reporting association gave the group
credit ratings as good as thise given others.
  Continued use of the stereotype reinforces the belief. Stereotype of women as ornaments or of
people of color as stupid or shameless or of gay men as promiscous reinforces belief that places
individual women , African , Asians and gay men at risk. Popular television may reinforce thoese
stereotypes. Sheeren( 1984)

 Stereotypes also impede communication when they cause us to assume that a widely held belief
is true of any one individual. For example , if a group is stereotyped as dishonest , that does not
mean that any one individual in the group is dishonest.

 The stereotype can become a “ self- fulfilling prophecy” for the person stereotyped. Research by
psychologists Steele and Aronson (1995) has shown that a negative stereotype creates a threat
that can distract the individual stereotyped and lower performance.

Prejudice

Whereas stereotypes can be positive or negative, prejudice refers to the irrational dislike, suspicion,
or hatred of a particular group , race , religion or sexual orientation (Rothnerg, 1992). Psychologist have
identified the highly prejudiced individual are having an authontarian personality. ( Adorno et al., 1950).
Highly prejudiced people are unlikely to change their attitudes even when presented with new and
conflicting information.

Characteristics of Intercultural Competence

Beyond knowing the specific rules of an individual culture, there are also attitudes and skills called
“cultural-general” that help communicators build relationship with people from other backgrounds.
(Samavor & Porter, 2004) as mentioned in Alder & Rodman (2009):

Motivation

The desire to communicate successfully with strangers is an important start. For example, people high
in willingness to communicate with people from other culture’s report a greater number of friends from
different background than those who are less wiling to reach out. the proper motivation is important in
all communication, but particularly so in intercultural interactions because they can be quite
challenging.

Tolerance for Ambiguity

Communicating with people from different backgrounds can be confusing. A tolerance for ambiguity
makes it possible to accept, and even embrace , the often equivocal and sometimes downright
incomprehensive messages that characterize intercultural communication.
Open-Mindedness

It’s one thing to tolerate ambiguity , it’s another to become open-minded about culture differences .
There is a natural tendency to view others communication choices as “wrong” when they don’t match
our culture upbringing .At the same time , competence requires an attitudes that recognizes that people
who bahave differently are most likely following rules that have governed their whole lives .

Knowledge and Skill

The rules and customs that work with one group might be quite different from those that succeed
with another . For example , when travellig in Latin America, you are likely to find that meetings there
usually don’t begin or end at their scheduled time, and that it takes the participants quite a white to “
get down to business.” Rather than viewing your hosts as irresponsible and unproductive , you’ll want
to recognize that the meaning of time is not the same in all cultures, likewise, the gestures others make,
the distance they stand from you, and the eye contact they maintain have ambigous meanings that
you’ll need to learn and follow.

One ways to boost your understanding of cultural differences is via mindfullness-awareness of your
own behavior and that of others. Communicators who lack this quality blunder through intercultural
encounters mindlessly, oblivious of how their own behavior may confuse or offend to others and how
behavior that they consider weird may be simple different. Communication theorist Charles Berger
outlines three strategies for moving forward to a more mindful, competent style of intercultural
communication :

 Passive observation involves noticing what behaviors embrace of a different culture use and
applying these insights to communicate in ways that are most effective.

 Active strategies include reading, watching films, and asking experts and members of the other
culture hoe to behave , as well as taking academic courses related to intercultural
communication and diversity.

 Self-disclosure involves volunteering personal information to people from the other culture with
whom you want to communicate . One type of self-disclosure is to confess your cultural
ignorance. “This is very new to me. What’s the right thing to do in this situation?” This approach
is the riskiest of the three described here, since some culture may not value candor and self-
disclosure as much as others. Nevertheless, most people are pleased when strangers attempt to
learn the practices of their culture, and they are usually more than willing to offer information
and assistance.