CAPS blog #4

Cultural Adaptation Today

First off I want to define exactly what cultural adaptation is and exactly what it means.  It is defined as the long-term process of adjusting to and finally feeling comfortable in a new environment (Martin & Nakayama, 2009).  This term is usually related to immigrant type families who move to a new country where their own culture is a minority.  They then are immersed within that culture typically for a long period of time before they feel totally comfortable being a part of it.  Sometimes there are factors like the type of the host environment, whether it is welcoming or hostile, or the contextual/environmental influences that take place in the adaptation process.  There are three communication approaches to this concept that include examples of social science, interpretive, and critical.  The social science approach focuses on some of the personal experiences of the individual, the interpretive approach centers on their detailed experience of the process, and the critical approach takes a look at history and society in the process of the adaptation (Martin & Nakayama, 2009).

Cultural adaptation is directly related to an intercultural communication example because we all have dealt with others from different cultures that are trying to adapt to our specific culture here in the United States.  A good example of this is many of the international students we have here on campus and the trials and tribulations they go through to adapt to our culture especially if it is their first time being here in the United States.  If a student is here attending college for four years this probably isn’t enough time to fully adapt to the style of American culture with the difference of our customs compared to theirs in their home country.  Sometimes this adaptation process could take upwards of ten years or longer to fully take full affect for the individual.

            In the future I am going to be more aware of this concept and how it pertains to my day-to-day activities.  If I am dealing with someone who is going through some type of cultural adaptation I am definitely going to be more aware of the situation and help him or her out in any way that I can.  If I am in a situation to give someone directions to a place they are trying to get I am definitely going to keep this concept in mind and help them out the best I can knowing that they might be dealing with cultural adaptation.

 Reference Page

Martin, Judith N. & Nakayama, Thomas K. (2009).  Intercultural Communication In        

Contexts: Fifth Edition. McGraw Hill Companies. pp. 320

• This video from youtube is very interesting, it follows a South Korean student and the things she has to deal with studying abroad in England.  This is very similar to the examples I talked about in my CAPS post about cultural adaptation being dealt with by international students studying here in the United States.
•  The following link I have posted gives some detailed examples of cultural adaptation and how it pertains to geography around the world.     

          http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/grade3/geograph.html

CAPS #3

Social Positions

            Martin and Nakayama define social positions as “the places from which people speak that are socially constructed and embedded with assumptions about culture and identity” (Martin and Nakayama, 2010).  This can mean that social positions are both conscious and unconscious.  The assumptions accompanying social position include ascribed and avowed identities of class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.  Social position can also be indicated by the use and interpretation of labels that define a power and status differential (Martin and Nakayama, 2010).

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When social position is dependent on gender identity, Peter Kunsmann explains that the power conflict is resolved through the use of interruption and by posing questions (Linguistik online 5, 1/100).  Kunsmann states that men hold the power in a conversation and relationship by interrupting the communication they are participating in with a woman.  Women reclaim the power by posing questions and directing the communication event in a direction they choose.  In a study of demographic data provided by U.S. Census reports from 2000 and 2010, Pamela Bennett suggests that a social position based on race and ethnicity exists and is growing among Americans of mutli-racial identities (Lunday, 2011).  Bennett bases this suggestion on census data that multi-racial cultural groups are perceived at a racial level below white Americans, but above black Americans.  It is likely that this racial stratification will lead to class and ethnic social positions.

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Understanding a little more about the social positions of race and gender in America will help me to communicate more effectively with others because I am now aware of the power struggles underlying the social positions.  It is important to acknowledge these power struggles in order to minimize misunderstanding and miscommunication.  Being aware should help to diminish the power differentials that lead to unequal social positions.

References:

Kunsmann, Peter. “Gender, Status and Power in Discourse Behavior of Men and Women”. Linquistik. 5, 1/100. ISSN 1615-3014. Accessed Feb. 23, 2012. www.linguistik-online.de

Lunday, Amy. “Study: Multiracial groups and social position, segregation in America”. The Johns Hopkins University Gazette. Dec. 19, 2011. Accessed Feb. 23, 2012. gazette.jhu.edu/2011/12/19/

Martin, Judith N. and Nakayama, Thomas K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts.  5^th Edition. McGraw-Hill.

The Power of Labels

The Power Effects of Labels

We use labels every day to refer to other people and to ourselves; this is how we communicate. Labels function as signifiers, which are “the culturally constructed arbitrary words or symbols we use to refer to something else” (Martin & Nakayama, 2009, p. 285). Some labels we accept and use ourselves, while others may make us feel trapped or misrepresented. For example, I may be labeled as a female, both by myself and by others, and I would accept this as one of my social identities. But if someone called me weak because of this, I would feel misrepresented.

People with power can potentially create a much greater impact, being able to label whole groups of people and to influence others with their discourse. The Westboro Baptist Church has raised a lot of publicity for its anti-gay and anti-Semitic discourse and nonverbal communication through picketing and protests. The members of the WBC have picketed at the funerals of dead homosexual soldiers who had died in the war, using the label of homosexual to gain power over families, which has added to their grief and pain. The WBC has gained much publicity, which can mean power, through the media and has even been sued, taken all the way up to the Supreme Court (Anti-Defamation League, 2009).

Upon reading this chapter, I learned about the real power of labels, which was something that I never really thought about. It has taught me that one of the important things that must be remembered in intercultural communication is to think about the affect that certain labels may have on the person with whom you are speaking. I will try to remember the dynamic nature of labels and that each individual’s identity is made up of hundreds of labels, which means that he or she should not be treated under the assumption of just one label.

References:

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama T. K. (2009). Intercultural communication in contexts (5^th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Anti-Defamation League. (n.d.). Westboro Baptist Church. Retrieved from: http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/WBC/default.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=WBC

CAPs Blog #3

Multilingual

When someone can speak two languages they are considered to be bilingual. But when someone can speak more than two languages they are considered to be multilingual. This means someone can speak three, four, or even more languages. Although someone is able to speak more than one language, they usually prefer to speak one over the other or as their main language.

Depending on the situation, context, and topic, they may use a different language to communicate. When being multilingual, one must use language negotiation. They must chose, explicitly or implicitly, which language to use in a situation. This may be decided on relations one may have with the individual being spoken to. For example, an Asian who lives in the U.S. may speak their native language Mandarin but is also able to speak English very well. When speaking with family members, they may use their native language Mandarin, but when speaking with another American they would speak English.

Learning another language may be very difficult but it can also be rewarding. Studies show that teaching children a second or third language at a young age can increase their cognitive growth. It also prepares them for situations when older. They may travel around the world and be able to speak to different people of other cultures.

I am personally not bilingual or multilingual but one day I hope to know at least one other language. I would really like to learn sign language although I don't think they consider that to be a second language yet. (Although I think it should be because it is a language you have to learn and know to communicate it.) Being bilingual or multilingual would be beneficial to me considering I plan to go on a few deployments in my years in the Air Force. I would be able to communicate with other people of different cultures around the world. Since I am older, I think it will be more difficult to learn a second language but am willing to try!

References

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009) Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed.). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill

Caps Blog #3-- Nolan DeBord

Chronemics

By Nolan DeBord

            Chronemics as defined in our text is the concept of time and the rules that govern its use. (Intercultural communication in contexts)  Many cultures see time very differently than others.  It is not so much the physical concept of time but rather the idea or concept itself.  Out text has broken down this concept into two different orientations.  Those orientations are monochromic and polychromic time orientation.  Monochronic is the idea that time is set along a continual linear model where we take intervals of this time to set aside for certain things.  This is where the Mono is used in the definition of monochronic.  Mono meaning one, and in this case that is distinguished as one thing happening at a time.  The second concept is polychromic.  polychronic is a holistic model.  In a holistic model more than one thing is being considered in the entire system.  So in this case multiple events are contributing to the circular idea of time.

            Time in the U.S. is monochronic.  We see time as an extremely important part of our lives.  Time itself defines our schedule and when thought about can define our lives as a culture.  We stress punctuality and tending to the matter at hand.  An example that I can pull from my own life would be my schedule when attending active training in the Army.  Time literally controls every aspect of my day.  I am given a schedule and am held accountable to that schedule and being there on time.  If you’re on time you’re late, is what I was always told.  Being 15 minutes prior to everything was the only way to be sure you would not miss anything and being late can mean serious consequences in the military.  Some people join the military to gain citizenship in our country.  You could clearly see the cultural differences in regards to the concept of time during my first couple weeks of basic training.  Our book describe how the polychromic orientation of time differs from our in the U.S.  Punctuality is not stressed and the objective of that time slot is not always stressed as it is in our culture.  An example given in the text describes how the Middle East uses a more polychronic orientation of time.  With this concept punctuality is not stressed nor is the objective.  I think this difference is also seen because the U.S. is more individualistic compared to eastern nations where they focus more on their relationships.

          

  With my major being Business Administration I feel that communication is extremely important and a much need skill in the business world.  With a lot of our services being exported around the world intercultural communication can be just as important.  The concept of chronemics can be important when working for a corporation that does international business.  This knowledge can create understanding and flexibility when engaging with other cultures and essentially make a person more efficient in the business world and this is what I hope to achieve.

References

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed.). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill

Silence rules

"There are no guidebooks for reading everyday nonverbal behaviors... instead it will be more beneficial to learn the framework"(Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Of all the different nonverbal behaviors to learn about, silence seems to be the most significant. The concept varies in importance between different cultures, and in the U.S. it is not highly valued. That makes it possibly even more important for Americans to understand. Silence has been studied and has been found to be beneficial in a number of situations. Martin & Nakayama cite that it is appropriate when meeting strangers, courting, seeing friends after a long absence, while getting cursed at, and while people are grieving. In addition to being advantageous, silence can also communicate boredom,  or can even lead to a poor outcome in a business setting. Silence, of course, simply refers to the act of not speaking or in this context, the act of non actively communicating.

John Cage, an american musical composer, was interviewed about different sounds in the musical context. He mentions that, even in music, sound holds a very unique place. When viewed from the perspective of silence everything else seems just as a constant noise. Even in the musical scene. Cage says that other sounds are always the same (including Beethoven or Mozart) and silence is always different. He goes on to say that the silence that is most often heard is traffic. This is an interesting point of view that doesn't completely reflect the typical american view of silence. Until recent studies, Americans have associated silence with negative, unhealthy relationships, or disempowerment. Newer studies have suggested that silence can help improve health and sanity.

When looked at from the intercultural communication point of view, silence means different things in different cultures. In an lecture, Cage is quoted to have said that the "introduction or interruption of silence might give definition to either a predetermine structure or too an originally developing one" (Cage, 1973). On the surface it is just the absence of noise, or as Cage inferred it is the prominence of background sounds. Unfortunately not many conclusions can be drawn from studying silence that can't be drawn from studying other nonverbal forms of communication: that it means different things to different people and in different cultures. I think that I will try to experiment with being silent, and try to pay attention to how it is perceived by other people as well as my initial reactions. Even though this cannot make me more culturally aware of how other people view silence, it can possibly help me see different ways of looking at being silence, and help me develop my own silence identity.

References

Cage, J. (1973). Silence. In Lectures and WritingsMiddletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.


Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.

CAPs #3- Weiting Yue

High-Context Communication

According to Martin & Nakayama (2009), high-context communication is “a style of communication in which much of the information in contained in the contexts and nonverbal cues rather than expressed explicitly in words”. This style of communication emphasizes understanding messages without direct verbal communication (Martin & Nakayama, 2009).

I read an article which analyses the differences between high-context and low- context culture when those marketers create advertisement or website to appeal different regions consumers. The article presents a set of preliminary results describing the tendencies by which communication through websites is adapted to various cultures (Würtz, 2005). The article mainly emphasizes that when customizing a website to appeal to a different culture it is not enough merely to translate the text because of the high and low context cultures. They also need to be applied overall communication strategy to the audience. The study in the article identifies whether and how variables that characterize High- and Low-Context cultures are reflected on websites. Würtz also attempts to draw parallels between “face-to-face communication and communication on the web by looking at communication rules and patterns in High-Context cultures and comparing and contrasting them to the communication style of websites in Low-Context cultures”.

Personally I was born in a classical high-context country- China. It is very different in many ways that people talk or behave in daily life. We usually use lots of high-context information in a business world. Chinese think business world have its own potential roles and everyone need to keep it. For example, we have our own rule to sit in a round table in a room when businessmen have dinner together. The people who invite others and pay the bill will sit in the center of table and the position is on the opposite of the door if they are dinning in a private room. The major guests will sit on the left and right side of the inviter. Also, the people sit on the opposite of the inviter is with him/her and he/she will in charge of drink with guests. Businessmen usually do not talk business when they begin to eat and the major deal will be done around the time in the middle or in the end of the dinner.

References:

Maritn, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Fifth ed., pp. 185-187). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Würtz, E. (2005). A cross-cultural analysis of websites from high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), article 13.

CAPS #3 - Michael Filipowski

Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication, they allow us to be able to relate to one's emotional state, they allow us to understand concepts and more so they allow us to see deception and lying in one's words. There are six basic universal facial expressions, they include: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. There are 52 muscles in your face that allow you to not only make these six universal expressions, but thousands upon thousands of different expressions. This does not just include expressions that we can see, there are micro-expressions that occur in splits of a second that also allow one to read one's face but if you don't know what you're looking for you will miss it. These micro-expressions allow for one to hide they're feelings or deception much easier, allow for a misconception of the language of communication.

As I read an article called "People From Different Cultures Read Facial Expressions Differently" there was main thing that it talked about, miscommunication between cultures. This introduces "true complexities" to the idea that facial expressions are all universal. In the article it discusses how East Asians, when looking at facial expressions, look more at the eyes of the person they are communicating with while on the other hand Western people look more at the whole picture of the face as their guide. This allows for miscommunication between cultures because East Asians would read expressions such as fear for surprise and disgust as an anger emotion. Even though as described above as facial expressions between cultures are universal, they do not imply a miscommunication through cultural differences. 

All of my life I have had to deal with moving around 15 times within the last 20 years. Through that time I've had a lot of promises from old friends to keep in touch, meeting new people, etc. What I learned though is through the various cultures how to see from different perspectives through facial expressions and nonverbal communication. Facial expressions will interact with my future intercultural experiences because one day I hope to become an FBI Profiler. This form of nonverbal communication will help me to identity someone's habits, lies and lifestyle through the power of my eyes. 

References: 

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill. 

Swallow, D. (08/1). Retrieved from http://www.deborahswallow.com/2009/08/14/people-from-different-cultures-read-facial-expressions-differently/

CAPS #3 Heidi Krueger

Bilingual

 

Bilingual is the ability to speak two languages fluently or at least competently.(Martin & Nakayama 2010)  Not often do bilinguals speak both languages at the same degree.  Most cases, people prefer one over the other.  I am going to discuss a few benefits of being bilingual.



Bilingual Benefits can be from anything social to professional life. Bilingual Benefits include: job opportunities, educational offers, communicating, self-esteem, access and exposure to different cultures and so much more.  Being bilingual gives you the opporunity to know and learn another culture which is a great example of intercultural communication.  The bilinguals are able to switch between different languages and talk to different people in various languages. It increases a sense of self-esteem. Being bilingual creates a powerful link in different people from different countries. (Jirage, 2010)

U.S. Schools Try New Bilingual Education Video


 Bilingual Education is a very touchy subject throughout the United States and World.


I have learned so much about bilingualism.  I never knew that it was such a touchy subject in school throughout the United States.  I googled images for bilingual and after looking at some, they were jokes/comics about bilingual education in California and Illinois. Not only did I learn about the bilingual education but I learned of all the benefits and how it can increase self-esteem. 

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.
Reshma Jirage (2010)  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/benefits-of-being-bilingual.html