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Lesson#10
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COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
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COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
The debate which always rant and rave whenever there is a talk
about communication is the
mystery of cultures which vary from place to place and through
times and which cause perhaps the
strongest hurdles in understanding of what has been said (by
people of one culture) and what has been
understood (by people of an other culture).
Before we start to examine as what factors are responsible to
generate this debate, it seems only logical that
we understand what culture is.
Though no definition of culture exists on which all will agree,
the one which is close to everyone’s belief is
the way people live, or say the living style of people of a
particular area is denoted as their culture. This
includes their living habits, eating and cooking style, dressing
up, language they speak in, social values and
traditions they observe along with the religion they follow.
Well, for a student of communication – who
believes that a slight change on part of the sender or receiver
may effect a huge change in the meaning of a
message – the definition of culture and its little explanation
offers only an embarrassing situation for there is
plenty in the name of change that can vary (or destroy) the
meaning and hence the process of
communication may face hurdles.
Enculturation
The process of passing on culture from one generation to the
next is referred to as enculturation.
Most people are encultured – they receive their cultural values
from their parents including language,
religion, dressing up eating and living habits etc. The impact
of enculturation is very strong. You generally
carry this culture with you wherever you travel or even settle
for some time. For instance a Pakistani settling
in UK will continue to practice its eating, living habit along
with other cultural values. In the field of
communication he or she would remain on the look out to find
another Pakistani with whom he/she could
talk in Urdu or they sit together and dine the way they have
been doing back home. The two would enjoy
the enculturation to the utmost by communicating to each other
matters pertaining to their life style.
Acculturation
The most difficult part in the process of communication and
cultural conflicts is the process of
acculturation. In this process one tends to learn the rules and
norms of a culture different from one’s native
culture. Easy said than done. It may take years even to those
who command some expertise on
communication techniques for it is very difficult to break the
shell of your own culture only to adopt
another. But people do tend to do so if they have to live longer
in another land. For instance if a Pakistani is
settling in America, he will have to acculturate himself by
learning the living style of that part of the world –
at least in areas where it could be adopted. It does not mean to
scrap your religion but it certainly means
living by the rules and practices of that part of the world if
you want to stay there for generations. If one
resists acculturation, one is bound to face embarrassment in
every day communication for every message
from him / her will be understood differently (wrongly) by
fellow people there and vice versa.
The communication problems arising out of cultural conflicts
will simply make life miserable. And not to be
seen as a cross country phenomenon, the cultural differences may
exist among different shades of culture
within one society. For instance all the Muslims around the
world make one community but vary drastically
in their life style. There being dressing up, traditions at the
time of child-birth, weddings and other major
events in life are very contrasting. Within a country these
traditions may vary. A Sindhi life style is different
from Baluchi’s and Punjabi traditions on scores of matters are
different from what are observed by
Pashtoons. The existence of sub-cultures also leads to
communication snags and problems may arise only
due to these factors when people from sub-cultures undertake a
joint business.
Cultural Shock
This phenomenon in communication is very common around the
world. It occurs when people
from one culture have to live in another culture where normal
life values are radically diverse. One may not
like to send his daughter to join dancing, or swimming classes
at school in Pakistan, it is a must in certain
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countries. You may have separate colleges, universities or even
medical colleges for boys and girls in
Pakistan and some other Islamic countries. But there is no such
concept in the west. A family going to the
west will have to face the cultural shock – which is complete
breakdown of communication, as long as they
live there without conceding to the concept of acculturation.
Principles of Intercultural Communication
Prepare yourself
The best to overcome communication gaps in multicultural society
is to prepare yourself in advance
about the new culture you may face. These days videos,
newspapers and magazines are widely available
which tell about the social norms of a society. By learning a
good deal on these values, the process of
communication is eased out to a great extent.
Overcoming fears of unseen
Scholars believe that even learned people have a sense of fear
when they tend to communicate to
the people of a different culture. At ordinary people level this
fear exists even more. That is one reason you
would not find foreign tourists mixing up with local people
frequently. Not that they feel superior, but the
fear that any miscommunication by way of words and gestures
should not infuriate a local and put the
visitor in an embarrassing situation. The solution here is again
in making a fair assessment of what you want
to communicate juxtapose to the social values of the people to
whom you want to communicate. Once
getting a positive feedback on your message would dispel the
earlier fear and equip you with confidence for
more communication.
Know different meanings due to change in culture
One most important aspect of improving communication in a new
culture is the consideration of
meanings of different phrases, gestures and body language in the
new culture. Some body gestures which
stand for certain meaning to you due to enculturation may be
entirely different in the other culture. A study
of some basic differences in meanings of words and actions
between the two cultures is obviously going to
ease the communication gap hence making the process of
communication gainful for all involve in the
interaction.
Knowing some hard and fast values
As mentioned earlier, certain societies are strongly under
influence of their centuries old traditions.
For instance Muslims do not like eat with left hand or even
shake left hand. Others may not find any
problem in using the left hand.
In Indonesian culture direct eye contact is a case of disrespect
especially when talking to older people. For
Americans avoiding eye contact means disinterest. Think if a
young Indonesian is talking to an American
and the two do not know cultural values of each other, where the
communication end up!
There are some times few small things but which have strong
implications in the sense of communication.
In America if some one says ‘come over and pay us a visit’, it
amounts to only a friendly gesture and not a
formal invitation. In some other cultures the same set of words
make the listener (receiver) take the words
seriously and a formal invitation. Think of a situation when an
American family says this to a family from a
different culture.
World moving towards acculturation
But with the advancements in electronic media, internet chatting
and enhanced movement of
people due to increased traveling facilities, the level of
understanding of each other’s culture is going up and
so is the communication. It appears that the communication
hurdles raging for the last many centuries
would be reduced as people see more of each other’s living style
on the high number of TV channels now
available in most parts of the world. |
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