Chapter 1 An Introduction to Intercultural Communication

This course is about:
• • • • • • • Classifications of culture: Mainstream culture 主流文化 Sub-culture 亚文化 Christian / Confucian culture Western culture / Eastern culture Intellectual culture: 知识文化： Communicative culture: 交际文化：lover/爱人; 狗急跳墙，狗眼看人低， Every dog has its day. He’s a lost dog.
By Sarah Zhao – SCAU Fall, 2013
Intercultural Communication
• • • • 赵勇 Sarah @sarahzhaoyong (weibo.com) 307122371@qq.com
Intercultural Communication
Grading Policy
What is culture ?
• Culture is like an iceberg, only some of it is visible.
WhaБайду номын сангаас is culture ?
• Culture is our software. • It is the basic operating system that makes us human. • We’re programmed by our home culture.
Behavior What people do
What is culture ?
feelings and attitudes about how things are and how they should be.
What is culture ?
• • • • • • • Classifications of culture: Mainstream culture 主流文化 Sub-culture 亚文化 Christian / Confucian culture Western culture / Eastern culture knowledge culture: 知识文化： Communication culture: 交际文化：lover/爱人; 狗急跳墙，狗眼看人低， Every dog has its day. He’s a lost dog.
What is culture ?
• Definition of culture: • Culture refers to the total way of living of particular groups of people. • It includes everything that a group of people think, say, do, and make. • Culture is a whole collection of our living patterns and behaviors.
Intercultural Communication
• Key to the Case study (Handout page 3) • Culture is like the water a fish swims in. • The case shows us that when Xiao Li and Catherine come from different cultures and when they communicate with each other, both of them are in an unfamiliar water. Therefore, mistakes and misunderstandings can happen.
Computer software
What is culture ?
• Culture is like the water a fish swims in. • It is so much a part of who we are and what the world is like for us that we do not notice it.
• Final exam: 50% • Attendance: 5% • Group work: 25 % （4次） • Homework：20 % （3次） （参阅学校文件）
Intercultural Communication
Course materials: • Handout. （￥2.0） • Recommended textbooks: )
What is culture ?
• Please come to the blackboard and write whatever you think that is/belongs to culture. • Music, architectures, the arts • Philosophy, history, literature • Beliefs, customs, values, worldview • Everything that is human-made • Traditional Chinese medicine • Chinese kungfu, Peking Opera, Chinese cuisines
Intercultural Communication
• Key to the Case study (Handout page 3) • Culture is like an iceberg. • The Chinese interpreter Xiao Li can speak English, which is the visible part of the foreign culture, however, she is not aware of the invisible part of the foreign culture, that is, people’s attitude towards age. • In the Western culture, you should not imply that somebody (especially a woman) is old.
What is culture ?
• Culture is like an iceberg, only some of it is visible.
Behavior What people do
feelings and attitudes about how things are and how they should be.
a. 《跨文化交际视听说》 – 高等教育出版社 b. Doing Culture – Cross-cultural Communication in Action -- by Linell Davis (US) (《中西文化之鉴》—外语教学与研究出版社) c. 《跨文化交际实用教程》by 胡超 —外语教 学与研究出版社
Intercultural Communication
• Pair work: Please discuss the following questions with your neighbor. • What is intercultural communication? • Can you give any examples? • What do you expect to learn from this course? • or • Why do you choose this course?
Intercultural Communication
• Key to the Case study (Handout page 3) • Culture is our software. • The case shows us that sometimes different cultures are incompatible just like some softwares are.
Intercultural Communication
• More examples of intercultural communication: • Reading a novel which is written by a foreigner. • Watching a movie/TV program that is made by foreigners. • Question: • Do you think your communication with your parents/classmates/teacher … is intercultural communication? • What is culture?
• Case study: • In China: • Xiao Li (an interpreter): you must be very tired. You’re old … • Catherine (an elderly American lady): Oh, I’m NOT old, and I’m NOT tired.
Intercultural Communication
• Key to the Case study (Handout page 3) • Culture is like an iceberg.
Visible: Language: English
Invisible: Attitude towards age
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication
• Intercultural communication （IC） • ≈ cross-cultural communication • Intercultural communication occurs whenever there is communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. • what happened on the Silk Road, • Marco Polo’s stay in China, • Zheng He’s seven voyages to the Western Seas… • As a discipline, IC started in the 1960s in the US.
What is culture ?
• Please read the Handout “What is culture?” and try to find out the similarities between culture and iceberg, software, water, grammar. • Culture is like an iceberg. • Culture is our software. • Culture is like the water a fish swims in. • Culture is the grammar of our behavior.
Intercultural Communication
• • • • • • Warm-up activity: Let’s enjoy a video clip and then answer: What movie is this video clip from? What went wrong in the video clip? Why did that happen? Is the communication intercultural? WHY?
What is culture?
• Culture is the grammar of our behavior. • Culture is what people need to know in order to behave appropriately in any society.
Case study: