Intercultural Communication Project

Abstract: Since the first time I met my contact person， an Austrian man of twenty-one years old， I have experienced a lot and gained a lot in this meaningful intercultural communication project. Through the whole communication process， I have learnt a totally different culture and at the same time re-learned our own culture from a brand-new point of view. Based on the intercultural communication project， this paper aims to analyze how these three concepts；individualism， low context culture， and stereotype are reflected respectively by my contact person during the communication process.

Key Words: individualism; low context culture; stereotype

Concept OneIndividualism

Compared with collectivism， which emphasizes community， collaboration， shared interest， harmony， tradition， the public good and maintaining face， individualism emphasizes personal rights and responsibilities， privacy， freedom， innovation and so on. An individualist regards an individual as the single most important unit in any social groups and eulogizes freedom， independence individual achievement. To an individualist， the uniqueness of each individual is of paramount value.

My contact person，Martin came to China to study management as an exchange student in SWUFE in September 2010. He did not know any Chinese， and the sharp difference in Sichuan dialect and Standard Chinese made him more confused. It seemed that all the surroundings are against him. Even though he was in such an adverse condition， he never held back. On the contrary， Martin always tried his best to overcome the obstacles in his life independently and positively.

Concept TwoLow Context Culture

The dimension of high context culture and low context culture is put forward by the anthropologist Edward Hall. It offers us an effective way to examine cultural similarities and differences in both perception and communication. In the countries that belong to low context culture， such as German， Swiss， and North America etc， the verbal message which is often elaborate and specific， contains most of the information. In other word， people in low context culture depends more on direct verbal messages than non-verbal behaviors to convey meaning.

Judging from my own observation， I can easily conclude that the culture of Martin’s country belongs to low context culture. Whenever I asked a relatively general question， Martin would first of think it over for several seconds with knitted brows and then politely ask me to make the general question specific. I still remember that when I asked him to tell me something about the eating habit of Austrians， Martin felt so difficult to answer it， so I have to specify my question into three smaller questions: What do you usually eat as a main course? What do you like to drink? What kind of meat do you have most?

Concept ThreeStereotype

In recent years， psychologists Abbate， Boca and Bocchiaro have offered a definition of stereotype: “A stereotype is a cognitive structure containing the perceiver’s knowledge， beliefs and expectancies about some human social groups.” The reason for the pervasive nature of stereotype is that human beings have a psychological need to categorize and classify. It is convenient for us to categorize people based on the observable characteristics by stereotyping， but sometimes stereotype can be inaccurate and negative.

I want to list two stereotypes I have for the westerners which turn out to be wrong or 1 after the communication process. The first one is that all westerners like martial arts. When I asked Martin about his hobby， I find that he has no interest in martial arts and Chinese Kongfu at all. On the contrary he gets high on Chinese calligraphy and likes drinking a lot. The second stereotype I have for westerners is that all westerners like drinking coke than water. My contact person always takes a bottle of mineral water with him whenever he is and no matter what the brand of the mineral water is.

Conclusion

From the above analysis， we have gotten a deep understanding of the three concepts：individualism， low context culture and stereotype， and also found the clues that are in conformity of these three concepts from my contact person. First of all， individualism highlights uniqueness of each single individual and emphasizes personal rights and responsibilities， privacy， freedom， innovation and so on. Secondly， in the countries of low context culture， the verbal message contains most of the information and very little is embodied in the context or the participants. Thirdly， stereotypes are a means of organization our images into fixed and simple categories that we use to stand for an entire collection of people.

Bibliography：

[1]Chen Guoming Starosta William J. (2009). Foundations of Intercultural Communication. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[2]Jandt Fred E. (2006). An Introduction to Intercultural Communication. London: SAGE Publications.

[3]Samovar Larry A. Porter Richard E. Mcdaniel Edwin R. (2009). Communication Between Cultures. Beijing: Peking University Press.

Intercultural Communication Project