Module 4 Lesson Title: Intercultural communication

Learning Outcomes:

1. Explain the concept of intercultural communication;

2. Discuss how to develop intercultural communication skills;
3. Appreciate the significance of becoming culturally curious, confident; and competent communicator in various intercultural
communication encounters.

Activity 1: Lesson Preview

Directions: Unscramble each word based on the hints. Write down your answers and compare them with the
provided solutions (if available). Reflect on how each term relates to the lessons on communication,
globalization, and the internet.
1. INOCMTAMUOCNI
Hint: The process of exchanging information and ideas between individuals or groups.
2. GCLAOOLZNITIA
Hint: A blend of global and local processes that shape communication and culture.
3. OILOBZATLIGNAO
Hint: The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence.
4. RNMTEINET
Hint: A global network that facilitates glocal communication.
5. LENEMET
Hint: A basic component in the communication process.
6. CMLNUICAHTOA NOEDL
Hint: A visual representation used to explain communication.
7. ITNERCUULLTRACI
Hint: Communication between individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
8. SNOITAVONINN
Hint: New methods or ideas introduced in communication technology.
9. EMMNETMERORPMVI
Hint: A strategy in communication aimed at enhancing understanding and effectiveness.
10. XNEGAHC
Hint: The act of making or becoming different, often driven by communication.

Understanding Culture towards Effective Intercultural Communication

In 1964, the term "global village" was coined by a media and communication theorist, the late Marshall
McLuhan to describe a world where people instantly and easily share culture through the tools of technology. He
popularized the concept of global village in his words: "Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we
have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as faras our
planet is concerned" (McLuhan, 1964).
Indeed, the world has changed not only physically because of drastic climate change but also culturally
because of the development of electronic and now digital media which has reduced the distance of people from
one another from different parts of the globe. The world is now viewed as a global village where people and their
cultures are brought together as one community by electronic communications, particularly the Internet. Food,
music, education, religion and government among others are linked together and "compressed into one super-
culture" (Dixon, 2009). In the global village, people may be physically distant from one another yet everyone has
become a neighbor. Undoubtedly, at the heart of this phenomenon is the relationship between communication and
culture.
It is common for people to share information with others who are culturally different from them. This is
particularly true when they are interacting within a multicultural environment — be it an academic institution, a
business firm, a professional organization or a neighborhood. Undeniably, since culture influences communication,
they need to learn how to develop their competence in intercultural communication.

Course Code & Description: GE101 – Purposive Prepared by: Clindon C. Andaya, LPT
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What is Culture?

In sociology, culture consists of both material and non-material elements, and sociologists see them as
closely interconnected with each other. Cole (2019) made a clear distinction between these components.
Material culture, also called cultural products, are the things that people create and utilize which includes
among others clothing and costumes, tools and weapons, architectural and engineering buildings and
infrastructures, media and technology inventions, the arts such as pottery and sculpture, and audio-visual
compositions such as paintings, music, dance, and literature, and food. Non-material culture pertains to
elements of culture that are intangible such that they have no specific physical manifestation; however, many of
them have material representations. Examples of non-material culture are education and knowledge, values and
beliefs, language and communication, customs and practices, norms and roles, manners and etiquette, among
many others. According to Spacey (2021), the greater portion of culture is intangible such that only a slender
range of the human experience is represented as physical pieces.

Culture, in other words, consists of collective tangible (material) and intangible (nonmaterial) components
that are employed by members of a group of people or society to manage their everyday experiences in order to
achieve their goals and survive, and that are modified or enriched and transmitted from one generation to
another through a broad range of communication structure and activity.

Manifestations of Culture

The differences in culture of people are manifested in various ways and at different levels. Hofstede,
Hofstede and Minkov (1997) identified these levels as symbols, heroes, rituals and values.

Symbols are the most evident — words, gestures, pictures, clothes, acts or objects that carry a
particular meaning — which are recognized only by members of the same culture. Symbols
easily develop and disappear. A cultures symbols are easily imitated by other cultures.

Heroes are past or present, real or fictitious personas who are respected and admired in a culture. They possess
qualities that are highly valued by members of a culture. According to Deal and Kennedy (1982) the hero is a great
motivator, the person everyone will depend on when beset with problems.

Rituals are a collection of activities such as ways of greetings, paying respect to others, religious and social
ceremonies. They hold social significance although often times they are acted out for their own sake.

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 Values are the core of a culture. They consist of a cultures predilection between right and wrong, good and bad,
likes and dislikes, and natural or unnatural. They are interconnected with what is moral or ethical standards of a
culture.

Co-culture Defined

From the previous definitions, culture can be considered as the system of knowledge, beliefs, values, customs,
attitudes, and utilitarian objects that are acquired, shared and used by a specific portion of a population. When a
person closely aligns with a cultural group, he or she acquires a certain cultural identity. Culture can be dominant
in the sense that majority of a population possess and share the same knowledge, beliefs, values, customs,
attitudes, and materials. On the other hand, people can be part of a co-culture, or subculture, in which they are
members of the same parent culture but differ in some racial or ethnolinguistic characteristics from that parent
culture. A co-culture or subculture can also be described as a smaller group that adheres to differing linguistic or
behavioral norms from the larger group within a broader culture (Arent, 2009). The Philippine culture, for
example, is the parent culture of Igorot, Lumad and Yakan cultures and of cultures of other tribal groups or
indigenous peoples in the country.

Another example is 'Muslim culture' which broadly represents many diverse Muslim cultural groups: the Asian
Muslims, the Middle Eastern, the Africans, the Europeans and the American Muslims, each with their own
variations on customs and traditions (Sharon Pluralism Network, 2019).

Other examples of co-culture pertain to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and social class.
(insert philippines culture)

Strategies of Interaction within a Culture

Individuals or groups of people who migrate to a whole new environment by choice, necessity or
forcehave to contend with the new system of the hostordominant culture. They can use strategies when they
choose to interact with members of the host culture or not at all.
Accommodation. According to the famous psychologist J. M. Baldwin, the term denotes acquired
modifications in the behavior which help individuals to adjust to their new environment (Sociologyguidecom).
Acculturation. Conceived in the fields of anthropology and sociology early in the 20th century, N, I.. Cole
defines the term as a method by which an individual or group from one culture adopts the customs and principles
of another while maintaining their own unique culture (ThoughtCo.).

The four acculturation strategies are Integration, Assimilation, Separation, and Marginalization.

1. Integration. In her One World Beyond Borders blog, Marie-Astrid (2022) said that "integration refers to the
fact that the immigrant participates in the host society while maintaining his/her culture of origin. He/she can
then mix the values of his/her culture of origin with those of the culture of the host society," As an example, the
blogger mentioned
2. Assimilation. Assimilation is acculturation in its extreme form. Either voluntary or forced, assimilation
happens when two or more communities come into contact with one another due to a shared geographical
boundary or immigration, they are unable to avoid influencing each other's cultures. An ethnic minority adopts
the beliefs, languages, and customs of the dominant community, losing their own culture in the process
(Historyplex, n.d.).
Two of the agents of assimilation are language attainment and intermarriage. According to Waters and
Jiménez (2005), language attainment is the ability to lose a mother tongue and learn and use the language of
the host or dominant culture. According to the three-generation model of language assimilation, the first
generation assimilates certain languages but retains a strong preference for their mother tongue, the second
generation becomes bilingual, and the third generation only speaks the language of the host or dominant culture,
for example, English. Similarly, intermarriage — between people of different cultural groups- lowers families'
capacity to transmit a stable ethnic culture to their offspring.
3. Separation/Segregation. This strategy occurs when individuals reject the dominant or host culture in favor
of preserving their culture of origin. Inherblog, Kia Her(2012) said that in separation, individuals "choose to only

Course Code & Description: GE101 – Purposive Prepared by: Clindon C. Andaya, LPT
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 associate with their own kind because they feel more comfortable keeping it that way. They can still understand
the dominant culture and go out and work with them, but at the end of the day they choose their own kind.

[Link]/Exclusion. This strategy occurs when individuals reject both their culture of origin and the
dominant host culture where cultural exclusion is promoted. They "struggled the most to adapt to the dominant
society mainly because they chose to cut off all lines of communication" (Her, 2012).
Among the four acculturation strategies, integration is considered the most effective strategy when
interacting within a culture for some reasons. First, though immigrants add elements of the host culture to their
culture of origin, they need not abandon or deny their culture of origin, and so they continue to practice their
native culture and retain their identity. Second, the host culture is enriched from what immigrants share or
contribute out of their own culture. Integration, therefore, is beneficial to both the dominant and the dominated
cultures.

Culture Influences Communication

The formula for a successful communication with other cultures is by understanding cultural similarities and
differences. When we interact with people whose system of knowledge, values, behaviors, etc. differs from
ours, we need to compare and contrast our cultures and interaction approaches in order to avoid
misunderstandings and conflicts that communication can create.

The following concepts are a good guide in understanding and engaging in intercultural communication.

1. Ethnocentrism. American sociologist William G. Sumner coined the term Ethnocentrism in 1906. It is
the tendency of a group of people to consider their culture as superior to all other cultures. It can lead
them to give negative judgments on other cultures based on their own knowledge, values and behavioral
norms. Ethnocentrism can also steer them to a failure in intercultural communication. Although it can be
a barrier to successfully communicating interculturally to highly ethnocentric culture, it can be a challenge
to improve intercultural competence among those with low ethnocentricity level. The Nazi Germany is
probably one of the worst, most extreme, and most tragic example of ethnocentrism. Imperialism,
terrorism, and hate crimes are other examples of ethnocentric culture.
2. Cultural relativism is the acceptance that all cultures are equal in value with one another despite
their differences. It is an approach in avoiding giving judgments on other cultures as inferior to ones own
standards of right and wrong, bad and good or natural and unnatural. Because cultural relativism leads to
understanding cultural practices of a group of people in their own context, it can show the way towards
effective intercultural communication.
3. Melting pot philosophy pertains to the idea that different cultures will blend together and create
one ultimate culture. It is a metaphor for describing the assimilation of immigrants into American culture.
It The USA is often described as a melting pot of all races or all types of people who migrate to the
country. It is an environment where many cultures or people, despite their assortment, assimilate to
produce a new amalgam of culture and coexist as one strong homogenous American nation. In other
words, "melting pot" results in people abandoning their individual cultures and eventually becoming fully

Course Code & Description: GE101 – Purposive Prepared by: Clindon C. Andaya, LPT
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 assimilated into the predominant society. Because of this, this theory has been criticized for reducing
diversity, causing people to lose their original culture.
4. Pluralism refers to the acknowledgement of cultural relativism and promotion of respect for
uniqueness and forbearance of diversity of cultures. Instead of creating a new hybrid of culture like in the
melting pot

theory, all cultures are allowed to co-exist with one another. For a successful intercultural communication
to thrive in a pluralistic society, people need to understand and interact with others with different social
and educational backgrounds, values, lifestyles, religious and political beliefs, behavioral norms,
communication styles, etc.
5. Multiculturalism is a phenomenon of cultural diversity where tolerance of different cultures exists
with no one culture dominating the others. Essentially, multiculturalism recognizes the existence of
different religious, ethnic, and cultural groups within the society. According to Longley (2020), people in
a multicultural community "retain, celebrate, pass down and share their unique cultural ways of life,
traditions, behavior, languages, and art."
Multiculturalism can also be described like a "salad bowl" in which “different cultures are brought
together like ingredients in a salad, but these individual cultures retain their own flavors, instead of
merging into a single homogeneous culture" (Longley, 2020). Multiculturalism seems to be a better
environment where intercultural communication can be effective, dynamic, and prolific. As a matter of
fact, communication in multicultural settings has become commonplace today (EHLION Team, n.d.).

Definitions of Intercultural Communication

Communication that crosses cultural barriers is what is often meant by the term "intercultural
communication." Intercultural communication occurs when two or more individuals interact and communicate with
one another from diverse cultural backgrounds (EHLION Team, n.d.).

Intercultural communication is the study of interactions between members of various social groups and
cultures. It involves understanding cultural differences and similarities and developing intercultural competence,
which is the ability to communicate effectively in cross-cultural situations (interObservers, 2021).

The mutual construction of meaning across cultural boundaries is intercultural communication. Intercultural
communication, then, is the process by which members of various groups perceive and attempt to make sense of
one another (Bennett, 2018).

The creation of strong relationships and the exchange of ideas and cultural norms are the main goals of
intercultural communication. No one remains unchanged in an. intercultural society since everyone shares
knowledge and develops together (Schriefer, 2016).

Intercultural communication is called in various ways: multicultural communication, cross-cultural

communication, interracial communication, interethnic communication, and international communication.

Understanding diverse cultures is simply one aspect of intercultural communication; another is drawing
inspiration from them.

Improving Intercultural Communication

In intercultural communication, it is necessary to reduce the strangeness of strangers. Stanley

Martinez (n.d.) in his discussion of intercultural communication explained five ways to improve communicating
interculturally.
1. Pay attention to your words and actions. Become cognizant of how you are in your own thinking
patterns, assumptions, perceptions, prejudices, and biases through thoughtful communication with
others. Study your own self and the way you interact with others based on how well you know your
own gender, race, social status, physical appearance, abilities and disabilities.
2. Control your assumptions. Question a lot of your assumptions about cultures, for example, the one
right way to communicate is your way, communication breakdowns are brought about by others
because you have different mind tracks, rules on interpersonal communication in your culture are
the same with all other cultures, etc.

Course Code & Description: GE101 – Purposive Prepared by: Clindon C. Andaya, LPT
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 3. Engage in transpection. Transpection is the process of
empathizing across cultures. Through practice that involves
structured experience and self-reflection, try to see the
world exactly the way others see it. Try to learn beliefs,
feelings and perspectives of other cultures. Martinez (n.d.)
explained that transpection can help you avoid assumptions
and move you closer to tolerance, sensitivity, respect,
empathic listening, and effective communication responses.

4. Gain knowledge. Read, observe and discover about other countries customs; traditions, religions,
etc. Visit places where you can meet and talk to people from other cultures. The more you know
about a culture, the better that you control assumptions and the more you overcome
misunderstandings. Gaining knowledge about other cultures is a great way of eliminating any
personal biases and prejudices you have developed over the years.
5. Gain experience. Gaining experience in intercultural communication is not limited to reading,
observing, discovering or doing research on the net about a culture. Yougain true experience by
actually visiting a place though sometimes it is costly and tedious. However, you can also find
someone of another culture and talk to him or her and ask direct questions in a conversation
intended to help you better understand his or her culture.

Activity 2 : Independent Activity

Responding to Image. Study the picture below. Afterwards, write a reflection essay based on the
message presented in the picture. Share your output in class.

_____________________________________________________________
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Activity 3: Post-test

“We are multicultural” Photo Gallery. Take some time to interview your classmates and ask about
their cultural background. Post your photo and of three classmates that you discovered to have a cultural
background different from yours. Indicate their names, describe in one or two sentences their cultural
backgrounds and state the reason that you want to connect and build relationship with them. Enjoy friend
hunting!

Cultural Background

____________________________________________________________
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YOUR FACE ____________________________________________________________
PHOTO HERE ____________________________________________________________
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FACE PHOTO ____________________________________________________________
OF CLASSMATE ____________________________________________________________
1 ____________________________________________________________
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FACE PHOTO ____________________________________________________________
OF CLASSMATE ____________________________________________________________
2 ____________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________
FACE PHOTO ____________________________________________________________
OF CLASSMATE ____________________________________________________________
1 ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

Why do you want to connect and build relationship with your chosen classmates?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________________
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Course Code & Description: GE101 – Purposive Prepared by: Clindon C. Andaya, LPT
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 __________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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