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MONOGRAFICO INGLESE
Why do we need to talk about Intercultural Communication?
- Globalization : has spread all over the world
- English : senza l’inglese la globalizzazione non ci sarebbe stata
- Media : communicate to each other, to interchange information
- Business
- Internationalization
Globalization may be described as:
- “The tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen…” to spread their business around the world. 2. “The creation of international strategies by organizations for overseas expansion and operation on a worldwide level…”
The definition I liked most is the following: “…Globalization is the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies…” -> cultural differences che ci sono tra gli interlocutori.
When we talk about ‘Globalization’ and some of the media through which it is expressed and felt, the first 3 things that come into my mind are:
- English
- Internet
- Popular culture Movement of people, goods and ideas; flow of information
Is this the English Culture you are aiming at?? The language is one (anche se sappiamo che ci sono tanti tipi di inglese).
- The aim of our education is a global communicative English. -> prima veniva considerata una lingua “utile” solo per chi aveva intenzione di andare a vivere in Inghilterra. - The aim of our education is a language that may be conceived as a LF (lingua franca) or as a language useful for international communication…
Shacking hands: kind of agreement, found an agreement on something. -> but in other culture as the Japanese that is considered a mistake.
SONG: SAME LOVE
Religion (plays a very important role), gender issue, stereotypes, change, difference, progress, skin colour, discrimination.
Text: Pre-K= cultural concept -> kindergarten
Little league= American culture, link with baseball
Right-wing conservatives: conservatori di dx
Thirty-five hundred years ago= three thousand five hundred (3500)
Faggots= ricchione
--
Culture is the whole view of the universe from which people assess the meaning of life and their appropriate response to it blended platform
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
We are going to try to give a definition of the concept of ‘CULTURE’ and do some exercises. We are going to try to give a definition of the concept of ‘ COMMUNICATION’ and do some exercises. We are going to study the way bad intercultural communication may affect a business context; We are going to study the linguistic implications of different intercultural communication strategies (-> being aware that there is something different from you; you have to be able to deal to coop; problem: those elements that are invisible and you should try to understand them, the backstage of culture like as people react to humour);
What is ‘CULTURE’ to you? And WHY is it so important?
As seen (pag.1 dispensa):
- Cultural misunderstanding can be destructive to a company;
- Mistakes can be unconscious and unintentional (people do not make mistake on purpose but they are not aware that they are making a mistake)
The failure of companies that go international usually occurs because someone didn’t understand the WHY of culture:
- Why people think as they do - Why people value what they do
BEHAVIOUR ≠ ATTITUDES behaviour is something that you can see and touch physically instead, attitudes (=atteggiamento, modo di fare) are something that cannot be touched.
BEHAVIOUR ≠ BELIEFS: beliefs are invisible instead the behaviour is visible VALUES: conditioned by your cultural background
ALCUNE DEFINIZIONI DI CULTURA: “The sum total of all the beliefs, values and norms shared by a group of people”; “the way you have been conditioned (by our culture as in italian culture the role of parents) in a society to think, feel, interpret and react”; “the collective programming of the human mind (cit Hofstede)”; “a large pool of experience composed of learning programmes for action and passed on from generation to generation (culture is been transmitted, it is not something that we are born with, we acquired it)”.
DEFINIZIONE DI CULTURA DATA DA UNA TIPA: I've read this that I liked: A fish only discovers its need for water when it is no longer in it. Our own culture is like water to a fish. It sustains us. We live and breathe through it. MY DEFINITION: ‘culture’ is the set of beliefs, values and norms that exist in a society. These concepts are transmitted by people so, in this way, we acquire them and we are conditioned by them and they depend on our rooted origins.
THE ICEBERG: CULTURE HAS BEEN APTLY COMPARED TO AN ICEBERG. JUST AS AN ICEBERG HAS A VISIBLE
SECTION ABOVE THE WATERLINE, AND A LARGER, INVISIBLE SECTION BELOW THE WATER LINE, SO CULTURE
HAS SOME ASPECTS THAT ARE OBSERVABLE AND OTHERS THAT CAN ONLY BE SUSPECTED, IMAGINED, OR
INTUITED. ALSO LIKE AN ICEBERG, THAT PART OF CULTURE THAT IS VISIBLE (OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR) IS ONLY
A SMALL PART OF A MUCH BIGGER WHOLE.
ESERCIZIO (V=visible; I=invisible):
- Facial expressions= it’s hard to understand what people want us to see (V)
- Religious beliefs (I)
- Religious rituals (V)
- Importance of time= it creates a lot of problems (I)
- Paintings (V)
- Values (I)
- Literature (V)
- Childraising beliefs (I)
- Concept of leadership= it depends on people (V)
- Gestures (V)
- Holiday customs (V)
- Concept of fairness= what is fair for me it is not obviously fair for you (I)
- Nature of friendship (I)
- Notions of modesty=tenere un basso profilo (V)
- Foods (V)
- Eating habits (V)
- Understanding of the natural world= depends on people
- Concept of self= very personal
- Work ethic= personal
- Concept of beauty= personal
- Music (V)
- Styles of dress (V)
- General world view (I)
- Concept of personal space= very cultural, for us being closer is not a problem
- Rules of social etiquette= depends on the culture
Important: accepting and adapting to other cultures
However, the visible and the hidden are related to each other, the values and beliefs you cannot see affect behaviour. To understand where behaviour comes from – to understand why people behave the way they do – means learning about values and beliefs. The behaviour of people from another culture may seem strange to you, but it probably makes sense to them, and vice versa. What for us is normal has just to do with our culture (because we are influenced by it) and what a given person believes in or holds dear (=ha più a cuore). So, we don’t have to think that everyone believes in the same things. Exercise:
- Directness= disagreeing openly with someone at a meeting
- Centrality of family= taking off from work to attend the funeral of an aunt
- External control= accepting, without question, that something cannot be changed
- Saving face= use of understatement (=not being direct, saying without say, you do not expose yourself and in this way, you do not take the responsibilities of what you truly think)
- Respect for age= not laying off an older worker whose performance is weak (for Italian people is true but for American’s people being young is better)
- Informality= asking people to call you by your first name (not giving importance to titles)
- Deference to authority= asking the headmaster’s opinion of something you are the expert on (in Italy is something important)
- Indirectness= at a meeting, agreeing with a suggestion you think is wrong
- Self-reliance= not helping the person next to you on an exam, counting in yourself (communitarian as Italy, authoritarian as America)
- Egalitarianism= inviting the teaboy to eat lunch with you in your office.
In other words:
- Backstage culture underlies (sta alla base di) what others see. Backstage behaving reasons are usually unconscious. Actors are not aware that they are behaving in a culturally driven way. Usually people think that their own backstage culture is normal (we have the tendency to think….in reality, it is not normal but usual).
Backstage cultural aspects in business, among many others, include:
- The ways people make decisions;
- Respond to deadlines (Italian simply ignore deadlines)
- Accomplish tasks
- Rank events by importance (in some culture the importance of having lunch is in a “second level”
- Conceptualize knowledge
In you can/are able to explain backstage behaviours then, you will understand the WHY of culture; in particular: the ‘why’ is the essence of a people’s culture; People are not curious to ask WHY, people are ignorant.
Everything you know about a culture brings you back to answers to the question of why:
- Why people believe what they do - Why people act as they do - Why people give importance to things as they do Therefore: - If you understand why people value some things, you may well make good guesses about why they value other things; - If you understand why they behave a certain way, you can interpret other behaviours with some accuracy (=precisione, avvicinarsi all’essere precisi ma è impossibile esserlo).
Once you’ve understood what people think is important and how people behave, YOU CAN DO BUSINESS WITH THEM!
Every culture distinguishes itself from others by the specific solutions it chooses to certain problems which reveal themselves as dilemmas. It is convenient to look at these problems under three headings: Those which arise from our relationships with other people; Those which come from the passage of time; and those which relate to environment. These are Fons Trompenaar’s seven fundamental dimensions of culture that will help you understand how we all behave:
- RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE: there are 5 orientations covering the ways in which human beings deal with each other:
- Universalism vs particularism: Universalist people are those people who are determined to follow the rules, laws, norms of their society; particularist people are those to depend on circumstances.
- Individualism vs communitarianism: for American culture and northern European countries what counts is individualism, the rules count more than people; communitarian (Italians, much more southern Italian) the group of people is more important.
- Neutral vs emotional: Do we have to show our emotions and feelings? For some culture they are a sign of weakness and they put you in a position of disadvantage (idea of Asian culture), also in north American and north-west Europe business relationships are typically instrumental and all about achieving objectives because they think that emotion can confuse the issues and without them you can work and operate more efficiently. Instead Italian people or people of southern countries tend
- Learned : culture is not something we are born with; rather it is ‘learn’ -> it is something we develop. Much of what is learned about one’s own culture is stored in mental categories that are recalled only when they are challenged by something different (we are not aware that we have a mental software, of the role of our culture in our life). If culture is learned, then it is learnable. -> the process is ongoing, it is something that doesn’t happen in a particular moment of our life but it is something that change our whole life because is a process that continues. If you want to understand other cultures, you can and you can also get inside them and act according to what is expected in them.
- Shared view of a group of people : a culture is shared by a society in which you are living. Members of the society agree (=not putting into a discussion) the meanings of things and about the why. -> some cultural habits are shared, are common. The group is made by: Older family members Teachers Spiritual leaders Peers= colleagues Representatives of legal, political and educational institutions All these people from the same social group interpret life experiences in ways that validate THEIR OWN culture’s view. Therefore, since they have little doubt about that validity, they all share the view that their interpretation is and must be correct. They agree about what the important things are. They agree about the things that, according to them, truly merit respect.
Now we are going to see what culture does. First of all, a Culture ranks what is important in the sense that what is extremely important for one culture may be completely meaningless to another. In other, cultures teach (respect the teacher) values and priorities, but what are values?? Values guide us in determining:
- Attitudes - Behaviours - Judgements -> prejudice: is even worst, it is judging before knowing something about a situation - Comparisons of self and others - Rationalizations and justifications: according to our culture something is acceptable and other things not; for example, people that arrive always late start to think that being late is acceptable, we have rationalized and then give a justification to that - How to influence others Values underlie attitudes Values shape behaviours
To understand how to do business with members of another culture, it is indispensable to understand what values they have and what motivates them. A strategy for learning about another culture involves asking certain questions in 5 general areas:
- How do people in this culture think and know?
- What do they consider achievement? (in particular in business is important)
- How do they see the individual self in relation to the rest of the culture?
- How is their society organized?
- What is the relationship of members of this culture to time and spiritual issues?
Once you have given an answer to the previous questions, or at least you have tried to, you will be able to predict how people will respond to specific situation and to communicate effectively with that culture.
CULTURE FURNISHES (=arredare) ATTITUDES:
- An attitude is learned
- An attitude is a general evaluation of something
- An attitude is a tendency to respond to same way to the same object, situation or idea
- An attitude is a feeling about things based on values that range from very positive to very negative
- Attitudes can change, even if it can be very difficult
- Attitudes are base on beliefs as well as values.
BELIEFS: are convictions or certainties that are based on subjective and often personal ideas rather than on proof or fact. -> something that condition our way of behaving BELIEF SYSTEMS, or religions, are powerful sources of values and attitudes in cultures. CULTURE DICTATES BEHAVIOUR Behaviour comes directly from attitudes about how significant something is, how it is valued. Values drive actions; business is a composite of actions, so cultural priorities motivate business behaviour.
An example in business is given in interactions where cultural differences make themselves known first by behaviour, which is related to attitudes and springs from priorities (value) in the culture. -> priorities what should be done and what not.
PAG. 21 – JAPANESE VS AMERICAN
quale attitudine ci sarebbe in Italia?
Postumi da sbronza violenti
Prendersi cura di sé stesso
YOU CAN BECOME WHATEVER YOU WANT DEPENDING ON YOUR WILL SELF-DETERMINATION IS VERY IMPORTANT ONLY WHAT YOU ACHIEVED AND WORKED ON IS YOUR OWN FAULT
RESPONCES TO OTHER CULTURES
When members of different cultures find themselves face to face, a number of responses are possible:
- One response is to clash and struggle for the dominance of one set of values over another: this is ‘hostility’ -> when people are hostile are not able to sharing and finding a position of agreement
- Another response to the coexistence of two or more cultures is for adaptations to take place -> adapting is different from adopting
DIVERSITY AT HOME, DIVERSITY ABROAD Today being markets, labour an money ‘global’, successful business people who are looking for markets, suppliers, associated, partners, subsidiaries, or joint-venture companies in foreign countries MUST BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE INTERCULTURALLY, both at home and abroad.
In intercultural communication handbooks lists of dos and taboos are popular, but their helpfulness is very limited, because they only generally apply to onstage behaviour. To be effective in a foreign setting, you need to know at least something about:
- A culture’s priorities: is what motivates people
- Its members’ attitudes
- How they think people should behave
PAG 22 THE THIRTEEN CULTURAL CATEGORIES – AMERICAN AND HOST COUNTRY VIEWS COMPARED ->
lavoro fatto da degli esperti tra cui Edward Steward, Milton Bennett, Gary Althen e da alcuni autori.
1. ATTITUDE TOWARDS AGE: - Emphasize physical beauty and youth x americans: the younger you are, the better you are; x Italians: the older you are, more respect will be. - Fire older people to hire younger people for less money - Judge a worker’s worth based on production, not seniority American view: the American emphasis on concrete achievements and “doing” means that age is not highly valued, for the older you are the less you can accomplish. Age is also suspect because new is usually better in American culture, and the elderly are generally out of touch with what’s new. 2. CONCEPT OF FATE AND DESTINY: - You can be whatever you want to be - Where there’s a will there’s a way - The American dream is rags-to-riches (=dalla povertà alla ricchezza) American view: the concept of self-determination negates much of the influence of fate and destiny. Parents tell their children they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up. There are few givens in life, and people have little sense of external limits. Lack of success is their own fault. 3. VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE: - Courts consider a person innocent until he/she is proven guilty - People should be given the benefit of the doubt - If left alone, people will do the right thing - We need to discover how a vicious killer “went wrong” American view: people are considered basically and inherently (=innato) good. If someone does an evil deed (=azione malevola), we look for the explanation, for the reason why the person turned bad. People can and should be trusted: and we are fairly open to strangers, and willing to accept them. -
in America e UK for example people tend to trust you like police will stop you only if you did something wrong. 4. ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHANGE: - New is better
- A better way can always be found; things can always be improved upon -> change in order to get things right better
- Just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t make it right 5. ATTITUDE TOWARDS TAKING RISKS:
- A low level of personal savings is typical
- You can always start over
- Nothing ventured, nothing gained (=chi non risica non rosica)
- A high level of personal bankruptcies is common American view: there will always be enough opportunity to go around, so taking risks, involves no real danger. For the truly ambitious, failure is only temporary. Experimentation, trial and error are important ways to learn or to improve your product or service. 6. CONCEPT OF SUFFERING AND MISFORTUNE:
- People rush to cheer up a friend who’s depressed
- If you’re unhappy, take a pill or see a psychiatrist
- Be happy American view: because we are ultimately in control of our lives and destiny, we have no excuse for unhappiness nor misfortune. If you are suffering or unhappy, then just do whatever it takes to be happy again. If you’re depressed, it’s because you have chosen to be. -> x noi italiani la depressione è considerate qualcosa di diverso, la prendiamo seriamente e pensiamo che non sempre possiamo controllare cosa ci succede 7. CONCEPT OF FACE:
- It’s important to tell it like it is, be straight with people
- Confrontation is sometimes necessary to clear the air
- Honesty is the best policy American view: in individualist cultures, no premium is put on saving face because people can take care of themselves. What other people think is not so crucial to survival or success. We can say what we think without worrying about hurting people’s feelings, and we likewise appreciate directness. for Italians saving face is important but there are other countries such as America in which people tell you things directly. 8. SOURCE OF SELF ESTEEM/SELF WORTH:
- People judge you by how much money you make
- First question at a party is, “What do you do?”
- Material possessions are a measure of success American view: in an individualist culture, you are what you’ve achieved; that is, you create your own worth rather than receiving it by virtue of birth, position, seniority, or longevity. Your self esteem comes from what you have done to earn self-esteem. 9. CONCEPT OF EQUALITY:
- People try to treat everyone the same
- While jogging, the President stops at McDonald’s for morning coffee
- Putting on airs is frowned upon (=molto criticato) American view: in a strong reaction to the repressive class structure in Europe, Americans created a culture virtually built around egalitarianism: the notion that no one is superior to anyone else because of birth, power, fame, or wealth. We are not all the same, but we are all of equal value. 10. ATTITUDE TOWARDS FORMALITY:
- Telling someone to help themselves to what’s in the refrigerator is common
- Using first names with people you’ve just met is fine
- Using titles like “Dr” for someone with a Ph.D. is presumptuous
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU CAN BE SOLVED THANKS TO DOCTORS AND MEDICINS
FILE FILM:
"Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. ...You got a dream, you gotta protect it... If you want something, go get it. Period." What is the American Dream? The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary (=stanco) and mistrustful (=diffidente) of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain (=raggiungere) to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 - The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America: When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel (=forzare, costringere) them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed (=dotati) by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…. Quando nel corso degli umani eventi si rende necessario ad un popolo sciogliere i vincoli politici che lo avevano legato ad un altro ed assumere tra le altre potenze della terra quel posto distinto ed eguale cui ha diritto per Legge naturale e divina, un giusto rispetto per le opinioni dell'umanità richiede che esso renda note le cause che lo costringono a tale secessione. Noi riteniamo che le seguenti verità siano di per se stesse evidenti, che tutti gli uomini sono stati creati uguali, che essi sono dotati dal loro Creatore di alcuni Diritti inalienabili, che fra questi sono la Vita, la Libertà e il perseguimento della Felicità.
The American view summarized in categories: Fate and destiny: you can be whatever you want to be, if you want it, you’ll find a way Change: new is better things can always be improved perfection has to be in pursuit Taking risks: you can always start over if you don’t risk, you don’t gain failure can only be temporary if you are really ambitious Suffering and misfortune: we control our lives, therefore no excuse is allowed if you are unhappy, that’s your fault Saving face: be straight with people and tell it like it is honesty is the best policy what others think is not so important Self esteem and self worth (=valore):
you are what you achieved you create your own worth Equality: treat everyone the same no putting on airs we are not all the same, but we are of equal value Formality: titles are not necessary be casual and informal in social and professional interactions Realism: the individual is in control it can’t get any worse be optimistic and positive Doing: doing is better than being and better than talking be practical what is practical is favoured over what is beautiful The natural world: nature is like a machine, therefore can be studied, known, predicted, manipulated and, last, controlled nature doesn’t have to be feared
FILM:
Fate and destiny: for Americans is something that do not exist because is something that depends on what you have planed and designed for your future all depend on your will e gli sforzi che fai per raggiungere quello che vuoi Taking risks: Mother abandoning his husband but particularly his son: hard to imagine for a communitarian culture -> but American is an individualistic culture so is something more shared and acceptable Taking risks: Telling the true after being fired Taking risks: Accepting the internship anche se per i mesi successive non avrebbe preso lo stipendio Saving face: best policy -> quando lui viene arrestato e ha the job interview the following morning e va all’intervista sporco e vestito male ma dice la verità I was arrested for not having paid my car find (?) -> for americans saving face is not important at all Being straight to people: quando il dottore gli dice “è non necessario e costoso e non lo comprerò mai” Self esteem and self worth I have 2 question for you: what do you do and where do you do it -> non è un problema showing what you have – whatever they have is the result that they worked hard, do not be afraid of showing Concept of Equality sleeping buildings: everyone is treated the same Some sentences typically related to what Americans consider important and something that must be remembered: “20 applied, 1 get the job”, “Be safe , score a hundred” -> if you want be safe you have to score the top, there are no excuses for not reaching your goals, if you do not reach it is your own fault Cubo di rubik: Being very self-confident-> you know what your possibilities are. “if you ask me a question and I don’t know the answer you may be sure that I will find the answer” -> it is a quality that is particularly appreciated being self confident. ->in italy o altre culture sembri presuntuoso
The persuit of happiness concept in the Declaration of independence America seen as land of possibilities
- ATTITUDE TOWARDS TAKING RISKS: there will always be enough opportunity to go around, so taking risks involves no real danger. For the truly ambitious, failure is only temporary. Experimentation, trial and error are important ways to learn or to improve your product or service -> sometimes can include lose job so for some culture is not seen well, inconceivable
- VIEW OF THE NATURAL WORLD: the natural world is a kind of mechanism or machine that can be studied and known and whose workings can be predicted, manipulated, and ultimately controlled. It is not to be feared.
pls do not insist me to come
the concept of normality doesn’t exist
