Chapter 5 Culture Shock in Intercultural Communication

Goals:

1. to identify the 5 stages of culture shock 2. to identify the definitions of HC and LC

“Culture Shock”, first identified in 1958 by anthropologist Kalvero Oberg, is a long term psychological stress that all human beings experience when they move to a completely new cultural environment.

Culture shock usually sets in the first few weeks of moving to a new environment, though sometimes can take longer to surface.

Culture shock, like a disease, has causes, symptoms and cures.

1. Culture Shock

◆ refers to the traumatic [trɔ:'mætik] experience that an individual may encounter when entering a different culture.

◆ expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate.

◆ the physical and emotional discomfort one suffers when coming to live in another country or a place different from the place of origin

◆ troublesome feelings such as depression, loneliness, confusion, inadequacy, hostility, frustration, and tension, caused by the loss of familiar cues from the home culture

2. Symptoms of culture shock

a. physical symptoms

over-concerned about cleanliness of food, bedding, and dishes, extreme stress on health and safety; fear of physical contact with anyone in the new country; great concern over minor pains and skin eruptions (出疹 ); craving “home cooking”; use of alcohol and drugs; and a decline in work quality.

b.psychological symptoms

insomnia [in'sɔmniə] , fatigue, isolation and loneliness, disorientation, frustration, criticism of new country, depression, nervousness, self-doubt, irritability, anger, and emotional and intellectual withdrawal.

3. Causes of culture shock

•Cultural stress •Social alienation •Social class and poverty-wealth

extremes •Financial matters •Relationships and family considerations

a. Cultural Stress

Entering an unfamiliar culture is stressful; in fact, transitions of any type are both psychologically and physically stressful. Problems with housing, climate, services, or communication in another language bring additional stress.

b. Social Alienation

An aspect of culture shock that can have adverse effects upon the newcomers to a culture is social alienation and the feelings of loneliness that are associated with being isolated from friends and the home culture.

c. Social class and poverty-wealth

extremes

Class distinctions do exist in many countries,but are so complicated and subtle that visitors from other countries often miss the nuances [nju:'ɑ:ns] (细微差别 ) and even the existence of a class structure.

d. Financial matters

Adapting to a new culture and reentering the home culture involve financial adjustments, such as cost and availability of housing, banking practices, use of credit cards and checks, and costs of schooling.

e. Relationships and family

considerations Problems related with relationships such

as failure of the spouse and other family members to adapt to the new culture are a major factor in the early return of expatriates.

4. Stages of culture shock

The honeymoon stage The hostility stage The recovery stage The adjustment stage The biculturality stage

The first stage of initial contact, sometimes called the “honeymoon” stage or initial euphoria [ju:'fɔ:riə] (幸福愉快感 ), is where everything is new and exciting.

-- eager to please people around, cooperation, interest in listening to people

a. the “honeymoon” stage

E.g. A European-based joint venture company h

as just hired Mr. Wang. With his fine university record, English proficiency and good work record, he successfully competed with many other applicants to win the entry-level position. The company has just built a state-of-the-art (顶尖水准的 ) factory in the outskirts of his hometown, which means that he can go ahead with his plans to marry without delay.

b. the hostility stage—the crisis or disenchantment ( 失望 ) stage

The second stage is characterized by frustration, anger, anxiety and sometimes depression.-- tired of listening to and speaking another language, difficult to work with, try everyone’s patience

E.g. A Westerner in China who suspects he is

being cheated by a vendor may simply toss his bag of fruit back and walk away, or he might start yelling and accusing in whatever language he is able to manage.

c. the recovery stage (the reintegration stage)

The third stage is characterized by gaining some understanding of the new culture.

--a new feeling of pleasure and sense of humor, a certain psychological balance, a feeling of direction

E.g. The same Westerner

who 6 month earlier walked away from the street vendor in anger, now confidently enters a Chinese hotel ready to bargain for a reduction in the foreigners’ room mate.

d. the adjustment stage

In the fourth stage, people realize the new culture has good and bad things to offer. This integration is accompanied by a more solid feeling of belonging. (double or triple integration)

--feel good/at ease, successfully adjusted to the new culture

E.g. Wu Lian, studying in America now, has

learned which of her classmates are worth spending time with and how to ask them the right questions to learn what she needs to know. She has made new friends.

By this time she is able to accept both the similarities and the differences between his home culture and the new culture. She becomes more sensitive to local people and as a result, her relationship with them is becoming warmer and more personal. Life is becoming more comfortable.

e. the biculturality stage (the full adjustment stage)

Biculturality: the healthy and even ideal stage of adaptation in which one’s original cultural world view remains intact as alternative cultural frames are acquired.

In the final stage people become able to cope comfortably in both home and new cultures. However, full adjustment can take years.

At this stage the person has grown as a human being and has been replaced by a new one that functions at a higher level of human sensitivity and self-awareness.

5. Reverse culture shock

may occur upon returning to the home country if a person has adjusted exceptionally well to the host culture.

return/reentry culture shock returnees

▼There are usually two elements that characterize re-entry:

An idealized view of home The expectation of total familiarity (that n

othing at home has changed while you have been away)

▼ A problem arises when reality doesn't meet these expectations. Home may feel so foreign.

Reverse culture shock is usually described in four stages: Disengagement Initial euphoria Irritability and hostility Readjustment and adaptation

6. Stages of reverse culture shock

Stage 1 begins before you leave your host country.

You begin thinking about re-entry and making your preparations for your return home. You also begin to realize that it's time to say good-bye to your friends abroad and to the place you've come to call home. The hustle and bustle of finals, good-bye parties, and packing can intensify your feelings of sadness and frustration. You already miss the friends you've made, and you are reluctant to leave. Or, you may make your last few days fly by so fast that you don't have time to reflect on your emotions and experiences.

Stage 2 usually begins shortly before departure, and it is

characterized by feelings of excitement and anticipation - even euphoria - about returning home. This is very similar to the initial feelings of fascination and excitement you may have when you first entered your host country. You may be very happy to see your family and friends again, and they are also happy to see you. The length of this stage varies, and often ends with the realization that most people are not as interested in your experiences abroad as you had hoped. They will politely listen to your stories for a while, but you may find that soon they are ready to move on to the next topic of conversation.

Stage 3 You may experience feelings of frustration, anger, alienation, loneliness, disorientation, and helplessness and

not understand exactly why. You might quickly become irritated or critical of others and of home culture. Depression, feeling like a stranger at home, and the longing to go back abroad are also not uncommon reactions. You may also feel less independent than you were while abroad.

Stage 4 a gradual readjustment to life at home. Things will

start to seem a little more normal again, and you will probably fall back into some old routines, but things won't be exactly the same as how you left them. You have most likely developed new attitudes, beliefs, habits, as well as personal and professional goals, and you will see things differently now. The important thing is to try to incorporate the positive aspects of your international experience while abroad with the positive aspects of your life at home.

A. Defense mechanisms against culture shock

repression

regression

isolation

rejection These methods are not helpful because they

prevent us from making necessary adjustment to the new culture.

7. Strategies for managing culture shock

B. Alleviating culture shock

learning throughout your stay

get involved

aster simple tasks

try to understand

learn to live with ambiguity

be empathetic (移情 )

be flexible and resourceful (机智的 )

be humorous

In his book Beyond Cultures (published in 1976

by Anchor Press/Doubleday, in New York ), Hall distinguishes among cultures on the basis of the role of context in communication and classify culture patterns into high-context culture and low-context culture.

8. High-context Culture & Low-context Culture

Context According to Hall, context refers to the stimul

i, environment, ambience ['æmbiəns] ( 周围环境 ) surrounding an event.

Hall arranged low-and high-context countries on a continuum as follows:

German North American French Spanish Greek Chinese

German-Swiss Scandinavian English Italian Mexican Arab Japanese

LC cultures HC cultures

高——日本人→中国人→韩国人→非裔美国人→美国土著人→阿拉伯人→希腊人→拉丁美洲人→意大利人→英国人→法国人→美国人→斯堪的纳维亚人→瑞士人→德国人——低

8-1 What is HCHall states:

“High context transactions feature pre-programmed information that is in the receiver and in the setting, with only minimal information in the transmitted message.

Low context transactions are the reverse. Most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context.”

Low context culture

refers to groups of cultures that value individual orientation and overt communication codes and maintains a heterogeneous normative structure with low cultural demand characteristics.

High context culture

refers to groups of cultures that value group identity orientation and covert communication codes and maintains a homogeneous normative structure with high cultural demand characteristics.

In high-context cultures most of the information is in the physical context or is internalized in the people who are a part of the interaction. Very little information is actually coded in the verbal message.

In low-context cultures, most of the information is contained in the verbal message, and very little is embedded in the context or within the participants

8-2 Some Features of HC & LC High-context

establish social trust first

value personal relations and goodwill

agreement by relations and goodwill

negotiations slow Low-context

get down to business first

value expertise and performance

agreement by specific, legalistic context

negotiations as efficient as possible

Low Context High Context

8-3 Comparing low-to high-context cultures

Tends to prefer direct verbal interaction

Tends to understand meaning at one level

Tends to prefer indirect verbal interaction

Tends to understand meaning at many

socio-cultural levels

Is generally less proficient in reading nonverbal cues

Is generally more proficient in reading nonverbal cues

Value individualism Value group membership

Relies more on logic Relies more on context and feeling

Employ linear logic Employ spiral logic

Says no directly Talks around point; avoid saying no

Communicates in highly structured (context) messages, provides details, stresses literal meanings, gives authority to written information

Communicates in simple, ambiguous, non-contexted messages; understands visual messages readily

Illustrations① Context and Chinese Language

by Edward Hall,1976 China, the possessor of a great and complex cultur

e, is on the high-context end of the scale. One notices this particularly in the written language of China, which is 35 hundred years old and has changed very little in the past 3 thousand years. The need for context is experienced when looking up words in a Chinese dictionary. To use a Chinese dictionary, the reader must know the significance of 214 radicals (偏旁 , 部首 ) ( there are no counterparts for radicals in the Indo-European languages).

For example, to find the word for star one must know that it appears under the sun radical. To be literate in Chinese, one has to be conversant (精通 ) with Chinese history. Another interesting sidelight (花絮新闻 ; 趣闻 ) on the Chinese orthography is that it is also an art form. To my knowledge, no low-context communication system has ever been an art form. Good art is always high-context; bad art, low-context.

② Cultural differences at the airport You will notice an interesting

phenomenon at the arrival gates of international airports. Usually there is a group of family members or a host waiting to meet the Chinese, Japanese, and other Asians who are getting off the airplane. Often there is no one waiting to meet the Westerners who are arriving. They just collect their baggage and then take a taxi or a bus to their destination.

Apparently the Asians think that no one arriving in an unfamiliar place should be left to find their on their own. They need people at this time. Westerners are more likely to assume that certain predictable services will be available such as hotel booking counters and transportation services and that they can find these and the city and already learned a lot about the airport, hotels, tourist site, what people he will need to contact for particular purposes once he gets there, where to get a good dinner, and more.

Westerners, as low-context communicators, look for, trust and use impersonal sources of information while communicators from more high-context cultures prefer personal sources of information.

③ A cross-cultural dialogue Foreign affair officer (FAO):

Foreign teachers ask me for lots of information before they come to China.

Foreign teacher (FT): What do you tell them? FAO: I tell them they’ll find out everything that they

need to know when they get here. FT: Oh. FAO: Yes, my office and the teaching departments

arrange everything for them. Every foreign teacher has a contact person to help them with problems of teaching and daily life.

Westerners appreciate the personal help they receive when they come to China, but they also want low-context information to help them plan, act and adjust to a new situation.

High-context communicators need the low-context messages they receive, but without human helpers they experience their new cultural situation as cold and impersonal.

8-4 Comparing U.S. and Foreign ViewsHow U.S. Persons How Foreigners View

View Themselves U.S. Persons Informal, friendly, casual Undisciplined, too personal Egalitarian Insensitive to status Direct, aggressive Blunt, rude, oppressive Efficient Opportunistic, obsessed with time Goal-/achievement-oriented Promise more than they deliver Profit-oriented Materialistic Resourceful, ingenious Deals more important than people Individualistic, progressive Self-absorbed Dynamic, identify with work Driven Enthusiastic, prefer hard sell Deceptive, fearsome Open Weak, untrustworthy