The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research - Houston
page 4
To submit an articles of Intercultural Interest, please contact Andrea Brooks.
Understanding cultural differences is fascinating and challenging. Some
differences are easy to comprehend. For example, the stress on individualism in
the United States compared to the group and family orientation reflected in
Asian countries. However, some differences are not that straight forward.
Many years ago, Edward Hall, a well-known American anthropologist, introduced
the concept of low-context and high-context cultures. Since then, a lot has
been written on this rather confusing cultural dimension. During our
Intercultural Understanding programs, I have noticed that participants
normally have a rather difficult time grasping this multifaceted concept.
In a low-context culture, people primarily rely on spoken words and written communication for gathering information and clues to behavior. On the other hand, in a high-context culture, nonverbal signals, family status, age differences, social setting and other such factors carry a lot more meaning. The context in which the communication takes place may alter the actual meaning of the message. It might have become obvious by now that mainstream U.S. culture is a low-context culture; whereas Asian cultures, in general, are high-context cultures. This single cultural difference, if not well understood, can cause many unnecessary cross-cultural communication problems.
In his book, Good Neighbor, John C. Condon tells the story of an American asking for directions in Mexico city. The local Mexican did not know the directions himself but he spent several minutes explaining to the American how to get there. In a low-context culture, such as the mainstream American, it is expected to clearly state if one does not know the directions. But in the high-context Mexican culture priorities are a little different. Keeping the harmony of the relationship is more important than flatly saying, "No I don't know myself how to get there. You should ask someone else." Whenever I share this story with my audience, there is always someone who says that this happened to him/her in Mexico or in South America. The person who experienced such response thought that locals were trying to give a hard time to tourists.
A few months ago, I was speaking at College Station. One American member of the audience shared his story. He was stationed in Japan a few decades ago. He and his Japanese friend were going from one city to another and they got lost. They stopped the car and his Japanese friend went to ask for directions. He spent about 10-15 minutes talking to a man at the side of the street. Finally he came back and said that the person did not know how to get there. The American asked the obvious question, "Then what were you talking about all that time?" The Japanese replied, "First I asked him how he was doing. Then I asked him about his family and he inquired about mine. We chatted for a while and then he asked me if we were lost and was I looking for directions. I told him yes. Then he mentioned that one time his uncle went that way but he personally has not made that journey and was not sure how to get there."
When my mother came from Pakistan to visit us the first time. I showed her the kitchen and said, "Mom, this is where we keep the fruit. You are welcome to it any time." Later, I noticed that she was not touching any fruit. Then I recognized that in Pakistan, asking just one time is not enough. You have to offer several times and be sure to repeat yourself. Only then do you really mean it in Pakistani context. In a low-context culture, saying something one time should be enough. That's why, when I spoke to the Asian international graduate students of Rice University at their orientation, I told them, "If you get invited to an American home and the host announces, let's eat, just jump in. Don't wait for them to ask you second and third time. You may go hungry and all the food might be gone."
One time, I was asked to speak in Austin. The woman responsible for programming sent me a map explaining how to get there. The map was drawn by hand. It contained highways and little streets. There was a line at the bottom of the map, "map not drawn to scale." By looking at the map, it was rather obvious that there was not a chance that the map was drawn according to scale. But an American has to write it down.
Low-context cultures stress clarity, and favor a straight and to-the-point communication style. The strong tendency is to avoid any ambiguity and uncertainty. Linear, logical and rational ways of communication are strongly preferred. Emotions and feelings are downplayed, where objectivity is over subscribed. In addition to mainstream Americans, Germans and Scandinavian cultures are also low-context cultures.
Recently, during a question/answer session after a program, a participant shared his story. He said, "a few years ago, our company was bought by a Japanese corporation. Last year, Japanese executives visited our U.S. office. We gave them a presentation asking for funds to drill in some new areas. The executives listened to the presentation and said "Yes." But funds were never given."
An American family in Houston invited a South American international student for dinner. The student said "yes" but he did not come to the dinner.
We just can't count on the words alone. Intercultural understanding demands that we go beyond the words. Did that student ask, "Where do you live?" "What time should I come?" The low-context cultural rules can't be applied to a high-context society. Japanese and Chinese are not the only ones who have difficulty with saying "no." Asian Indians may avoid the word "no" as well. Instead of saying "no", an Asian Indian may reply, "maybe."
There is an excellent example of this contextual cultural difference in the movie, The Joy Luck Club, in the scene where the Chinese daughter’s American boyfriend is having a dinner with her family. In that scene, the Chinese woman's mother insults her most prized dish while serving it. "This dish doesn't have any taste; it is too bad to eat." The boyfriend’s appropriate reply might have been to taste the dish and praise it by saying that it was the best dish he ever had. Instead he shakes a lot of salt on the dish after tasting it and says, "Oh, all it needs is a little salt."
Here in the U.S., European Americans reflect a low-context culture. However many of the co-cultures tend to be high-context. It goes without saying that each individual would be different based on his or her level of acculturation to the mainstream American culture. Thomas Kochman in his book, Black and White Styles in Conflict, (page 99) explains an aspect of African American’s high context culture this way:
Thus a woman who wanted to know how the man she was dating earned his money might signify by saying that she certainly enjoyed all of those expensive places he was taking her to and that she hoped his "oil well" would keep on "pumping that oil."
OK so now we are enlightened and understand another cultural difference. So what? You may wonder how you can put this in practice. If all we can go by is words, how do we know what is behind those words? Of course we can't stereotype every non-European American we come in contact with as having a high-context cultural outlook. Such an observation is understandable. The cultural maze is not that straight forward. Here I hope the reader would consider the following:
1. Beyond individual differences and cultural similarities, cultural differences do exist.
2. Mainstream American culture is a low-context culture while the majority of other co-cultures and countries have high-context cultures.
3. Basic communication rules which may bring success in a monocultural context may not be sufficient for a successful intercultural interaction.
4. Successful intercultural communication requires an understanding of other cultural values and norms.
Good Neighbors Communicating with the Mexicans. John C.
Condon. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1985.
Communication Between Cultures. Larry Samovar and Richard Porter.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991.
The Silent Language, Edward T. Hall. New York: Doubleday, 1973. Also by
E. T. Hall-- The Hidden Dimension (1966), Beyond Culture (1976),
and The Dance of Life (1983).
Black and White Styles in Conflict. Thomas Kochman. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press, 1981.
By Syed and Joyce Zafar
"Syed Zafar, president of Cultural Diversity Group, pursues his passion of
promoting intercultural understanding through keynotes, workshops and a
newsletter. Syed, born and raised in Pakistan, lived in Saudia Arabia before
coming to the US. He has an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and a decade
of corporate work."
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