Cross-cultural communicationWhat is culture?The word ”culture” has many meanings. For example, we some times say that people who know about art, music, and literature are cultured. However, the word culture has a different meaning for anthropologist (people who study humankind). To an anthropologist the word culture means all the ways in which a group of people act, dress, think, and feel. People have to learn the cultural ways of their community: they are not something that the people in the group are born with.Cultural Behavior vs Instinctive Behavior:Instinctive behavior, on the other hand, is a pattern of behavior that an animal is born with. Spiders’ spinning their webs is an example of instinctive behavior. The mother spider does not teach her babies how to spin webs. (In fact, she is not even there when they are born.) They know how to do it when they are born. This is what we mean by instinctive behavior.Cultures Are AcquiredAs humans, we learn some of the ways of our culture by being taught by our teachers or parents. We learn more of the ways of our culture by growing up in it. We see how other people in our culture do things, and we do them the same way. We even learn how to think and feel in this way. All human beings have certain basic needs, such as eating, drinking, keeping warm and dry, and so on. However, the way in which they take care of their needs depends on the culture in which they grow up. All cultures have ways of eating, dressing, finding shelter, marring, and dealing with death. The foods that we think are good to eat, the kind of clothes we wear, and how many people we can marry at one time are all parts of our culture.Cultural ShocksOur own culture seems very natural to us. We feel in our hearts that the way that we do things is the only right way to do them. Other people’s culture often makes us laugh or feel disgusted or shocked. We may laugh at clothing that seems ridiculous to us. Many people think that eating octopus or a juicy red piece of roast beef is disgusting. The idea that a man can have more than one wife or that brothers and sisters can marry each other may shock people with other cultures.Examples of Different Cultures Regarding BeautyIdeas of what is beautiful differ from one culture to another. The Flathead Indian of North America used to bind the heads of babies between boards so they would have long sloping foreheads. In the Flathead culture, long sloping foreheads were beautiful. Other cultures might think that they are strange-looking and unattractive. Many people cut scars into their bodies or tattoo themselves so that others in their culture will think they are beautiful. Objects are inserted in holes in the nose, lips, and ears in a number of different cultures in many twentieth-century societies, rouge, lipstick, eye shadow, perfume, and hair spray are all used to increase attractiveness.Examples of Different Cultures Regarding DeathWhen people die, different cultures dispose of their bodies in different ways. Sometimes bodies are buried. Sometimes bodies are buried in the ground. In many cultures in the past, people were buried with food, weapons, jewelry, and other things that might be useful in the next life. For example, the ancient Egyptians buried people with little human figures made from clay. This clay figures were supposed to work the death person in the other world. A religious group called the parses exposed their dead on platforms for birds to eat. Some people practice a second burial. After the bodies have been in the earth for several years, the bones are dug up and reburied, sometimes in a small container.These are just a few of the many different customs that are found in different culture. Most of time, the different ways that are the customs of different cultures are neither right nor wrong. It is simply that different people do the same things in different ways.Why Learn Cross-Cultural Communication?The world is moving closer to being more global. People from diverse cultures are coming into contact with one another. We face the challenge of communicating effectively with people who have culturally based values, which emphasize their communication preferences. Advances in cross-cultural communication research are very important not only to help people of different cultures feel comfortable with each other but also to avoid misunderstandings that may result in negative stereotypes or premature judgments of “the other” speaker regardless of nationality or culture.Wang JingdongUnit One Language and Culture in CommunicationMain Content1. 1.distinguish types of communication2. 2.understand the basics of communication3. 3.design a model for cross-cultural communication4. 4.understand a variety of meanings in communication5. 5.be aware of different definitions of a social situation6. 6.be aware of situational schema7.7.be aware of non-verbal signals in communication8.8.reflect on conditions of effective speaker and listener in communicationWords and Phrases:Hiccups or breaks down, commonplace, no avail, all but the last, jot down, two-way contact, encode, unilaterally, tentative, interlocutorsTeaching ProceduresActivity 1 Basics of CommunicationTask1 Discovering the Scope of CommunicationTask2 Analysing the Basics of Communication: Essential Elements and types1. 1.There are at least 2 or more people2. 2.There must be some contact between communicators3. 3.There must be a language shared by communicators4. 4.An exchange of information has taken placeActivity 2 Models of CommunicationTask1 Analysing communication— Model 1Source of information ——encoder ——code ——channel; medium; noise ——decoder ——retrieval of informationTask2 Designing a Model of Human communication —Model 21. 1.mono-cultural language communication2. 2.Unilaterally cross-cultural language communicationTask 3 Designing a Model for Cross-cultural Communication— Model 31. 1.Bilaterally cross-cultural language communicationTask 4 Why Models?Activity 3Task 1 Diagnosing Problems in Cross-cultural Communication1. 1.Utterance meaning2. 2.Speaker’s meaning3. 3.Hearer’s meaningTask 2 Listening to a Public Lecture on Meanings in CommunicationActivity 4 Communication in Social SitucationsTask 1 Being Aware of Mutual Monitoring Process in a Social SituationTask 2 Being Aware of Different Definitions of a Social Situation1. munity definition2. 2.Participant definitionTask 3 Recognising Goals in a social situationTask 4 Being Aware of Situational SchemaTask 5 Being Aware of Different ValuesTask 6 Being Aware of Non-Verbal Signals That Accompany Verbal CommunicationActivity 5 Effective Cross-Cultural CommunicationTask 1 Reflecting on what we have been doingTask 2 A cross-cultural speaker: managing your cross-cultural talkTask 3 A cross-cultural HearerTask 4 ReviewInternational Business and Cross-cultural CommunicationThe increase in international business and in foreign investment has created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of success in negotiation in an international arena as have their foreign counterparts.Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching an agreement. It involves persuasion and compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within the culture of the negotiation.In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived as wealthy and impersonal. It often appears to the foreign negotiator that the American represents a large multi-million-dollar corporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further. The American negotiator’s role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor of information and cash.In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while undermining the negotiator’s position. Two traits in particular that cause cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part of the American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often insist on realizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing to invest time in it for long-term benefits. In order to solidify the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator.The world is moving closer to being more global. People from diverse cultures are coming into contact with one another. We face the challenge of communicating effectively with people who have culturally based values, which emphasize their communication preferences. Advances in cross-cultural communication research are very important not only to help people of different cultures feel comfortable with each other but also to avoid misunderstandings that may result in negative stereotypes or premature judgments of “the other” speaker regardless of nationality or culture.In this assignment, a U.S. firm is hosting a team from Japan. The Japanese team consists of 5 men and their objective is to discuss the possibility of a joint venture between the two companies. Like I mentioned before, cross-cultural communication research is absolutely essential in this type of situation. The American and Japanese have different styles of doing business that could harm the transaction.Cross-cultural communication in translationCulture-bound English idioms and Chinese IdiomsIdioms are a particular part of a language; they are usually highly specialized in meaning and closelytied to distinctive cultural features and cultural attitudes. It is believed that idioms are the most culturally loaded element in any language’s vo cabulary. With relation to forms, they give an expression to the special features of the language. There exists vast differences between English and Chinese culture and this difference can be so formidable that the lexicographers may even think that it is impossible to give equivalents to certain culture-bound idioms.Some English idioms and Chinese idioms share the same, or partially similar metaphors, and vice versa:add fuel to the flames/fire火上加油blood is thicker than water血浓于水draw water with a sieve竹篮打水一场空go through fire and water赴汤蹈火like father, like son有其父，必有其子like a cat on a hot tin roof像热锅上的蚂蚁cross that bridge when you come to it船到桥头自然直kill two birds with one stone一箭双雕give him an inch and he'll take a mile.得寸进尺love me, love my dog爱屋及乌Note: （中国人很爱狗，但西方人更甚一筹。