Unit 5
Culture and Verbal Communication
Some Ideas Related to verbal communication and culture
1. Different orientations to communication patterns East Asian orientation
1. process orientation — communication is perceived as a process of infinite interpretation
2. differentiated linguistic codes — different linguistics codes are used depending upon persons involved and situations
3. indirect communication emphasis — the use of indirect communication is prevalent and accepted as normative
4. receiver centered — meaning is in the interpretation, Emphasis is on listening, sensitivity, and removal of preconception. North American orientation
1. communication is perceived as the transference of messages
2. Less differentiated linguistic codes — linguistic codes are not as extensively differentiated as East Asia
3. Direct communication emphasis — direct communication is norm despite the extensive use of indirect communication
4. sender centered — meaning is in the message created by the sender. Emphasis is on how to formulate the best message, how to improve source credibility and delivery skills
2. Direct and Indirect Verbal Interaction Styles
The tone of voice, the speaker’s intention, and the verbal content reflect our way of speaking, our verbal style, which in turn reflects our cultural and personal values and sentiments.
Verbal style frames “how” a message should be interpreted. The direct-indirect verbal interaction dimension can be thought of as straddling a continuum. Individuals in all cultures use the gradations of all these verbal styles, depending on role identities, interaction goals, and situations. However, in individualistic cultures, people tend to encounter more situations that emphasize the preferential use of direct talk, person-oriented verbal interaction, verbal self-enhancement, and talkativeness. In contrast, in collectivistic cultures, people tend to encounter more situations that emphasize the preferential use of indirect talk, status-oriented verbal interaction, verbal self-effacement, and silence.
The direct and indirect styles differ in the extent to which communicators reveal their intentions through their tone of voice and the straightforwardness of their content message. In the direct verbal style, statements clearly reveal the speaker’s intentions and are enunciated in a forthright tone of voice. In the indirect verbal style, on the other hand, verbal statements tend to camouflage the speaker’s actual intentions and are carried out with more nuanced tone of voice. For example, the overall . American verbal style often calls for clear and direct communication. Phrases such as “say what you mean,” “don’t beat around the bush,” and “get to the point” are some examples. The direct verbal style of the larger . culture is reflective of its low-context communication character.
3. Person-Oriented and Status-Oriented Verbal Styles
The person-oriented verbal style is individual-centered verbal mode that emphasizes the importance of informality and role suspension. The status-oriented verbal style is a role-centered verbal mode that emphasizes formality and large power distance. The former emphasizes the importance of symmetrical interaction, whereas the latter stresses asymmetrical interaction.
The person-oriented verbal style emphasizes the importance of respecting
unique, personal identities in the interaction. The status-oriented verbal style emphasizes the importance of honoring prescribed power-based membership identities. Those who engage in status-oriented verbal interaction use specific vocabularies and paralinguistic features to accentuate the status distance of the role relationships ., in parent-child interaction, superior-subordinate relations, and male-female interaction in many Latin American cultures). While low-context cultures tend to emphasize the use of the person-oriented verbal style, high-context cultures tend to value the status-oriented verbal mode.
4. Self-Enhancement and Self-Effacement Verbal Styles
The self-enhancement verbal style emphasizes the importance of boasting about one’s accomplishments and abilities. The self-effacement verbal style, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of humbling oneself via verbal restraints, hesitations, modest talk, and the use of self-deprecation concerning one’s effort or performance.
For example, in many Asian cultures, self-effacement talk is expected to signal modesty or humility. In Japan, when one offers something to another person such as a gift or a meal that one has prepared, verbal self-deprecation is expected. There are set expressions for verbal humility such as “It’s not very tasty” and “It’s nothing special.” The hostess who apologizes to her guests that “There is nothing special to offer you” has probably sent the better part of two days planning and preparing the meal. Of course the guest should protest such a disclaimer and reemphasize her or his gratitude. Self-effacement is a necessary part of Japanese politeness rituals. In the . culture, individuals are encouraged to sell and boast about themselves, for example, in performance review or job interview sessions, or else no one would notice their accomplishments. However, the notion of merchandizing oneself does not set well with the Japanese. In Japan, one does not like to stand out or be singled
out, even by others; it is far worse to promote oneself.
In many Asian cultures, individuals believe that if their performance is good, their behavior will be noticed, for example, by their supervisors during promotion review situations. However, from the Western cultural standpoint, if my performance is good, I should document or boast about it so that my supervisor will be sure to take notice. This difference is probably due to the observer-sensitive value of the Asian, high-context communication pattern, as opposed to the sender-responsible value of the Western, low-context interaction pattern. We should note that the pattern of verbal self-effacement cannot be generalized to many Arab or African cultures. In Egypt, for example, a popular saying is “Make your harvest look big, lest your enemies rejoice”. Effusive verbal self-enhancement is critical to the enhancement of one’s face or honor in some large power distance Arab cultures.
Reading I
Understanding the Culture of Conversation
Comprehension questions
1. What made the author feel learning to converse in Mexico City was easier for him/her in one way, more difficult in another
It's easier because Mexicans service the relationship and they care about everyone in the conversation. But their conversation doesn‘t move in a straight line, drifting around both in the topic and in the way they use words.
2. Why did the Mexican customer slide into the topic of the full eclipse of the sun For the Mexican, the conversation starts with one topic, but if another interesting topic seeps in he or she will ride it around for a while. Sticking to the first topic is less important than having an interesting conversation.
3. What did the American businessman feel about the Mexican?s way of
conversation
For the American, a conversation should have a topic, and he wants to take a straight line through it from beginning to end. So he felt very impatient about the Mexican‘s way of conversation.
4. What “conversational ideal” was represented by the example of a championship skier who was interviewed on TV
The Swedish conversational ideal is to response in a concise manner without elaborating specific details, especially those for self-promotion. .
5. What problems are likely to occur if an American talks with a Swede
The American may feel totally lost in the conversation since he or she would not get as much information from the Swede as he or she has expected.
6. What are the differences between Anglos and Athabaskans in conversation There are a lot differences between them. For instance, at the beginning of a conversation, Anglos almost always speak first. Athabaskans think it is important to know what the social relationship is before they talk with someone. There is another difference in how long one should talk. Athabaskans tend to have longer turns when they talk with each other, but Anglos expect shorter turns.
7. Is it enough just to learn to speak in grammatically correct manners when one learns a foreign language What else does he or she also need to know It is far from enough just to learn to speak in grammatically correct manners when one learns a foreign language. One also has to know about the culture of using the language in social life, things like who talks first, who talks next, who opens and closes conversations and how they do it, in order to be able to use the language in culturally appropriate manners.
8. In what ways are Chinese similar to or different from the Americans, Mexicans and Swedes
《新编跨文化交际英语教程》复习资料U5
