Observation

• Observation is a process by which we make what we sense into a meaningful experience by selecting, categorizing and interpreting internal and external stimuli to form our view of world. (Chen & Starosta 2005)

• Stages of observation: – Description – Interpretation - Evaluation

Description

• Does not interpret neither evaluate the situation, only describes based on facts and measurable quantities

• For instance: – The room is about 6 x 8 meters, and there are

twenty chairs and tables in one side and one table little bit bigger than the others on the other side having a chair behind it. The room is about 2,5 meters high. At one wall there are three windows about 1 x 2 meters with curtains. There are nothing on the walls.

Interpretation• Interprets what one sees and experiences via one’s own frame of

reference and through earlier experiences: What do I think about this; how do I feel?

• For instance: – Small and poky class with big windows. Curtains are the only thing

that bring at least some color to the room, all the walls are empty and boring white. Nothing inspiring in the whole room.

OR:– Cosy training room for small groups. Trainer gets with ease contact

with the participants because they are so close. Also the participants can talk to each other without shouting and thus one can easily make interactive training. There are also a lot of white, clean space to hang on posters or results of group work.

• Natural train of thought comes directly to this (or next) phase!

Evaluation

• Estimates what the interpretation I made reveals about the matter/event; about the people participating in it, their purposes or characteristics; etc.

• For instance: – Apparently the idea is not to disturb the interest of

participants with anything; that one simply has to concentrate only on what the trainer explains. If one has to be here for many days, one will be bored to death!

OR:– Quite a brave desicion from the trainer - participants do not

know each other at all, here one has to be quite close to each other and I guess one also has to talk something… Hopefully there will be supportable people sitting beside!

Characteristics of Observation Process

• Selective observations – What do I notice?– Result of cultural learning– Principle of convenience

• Selective interpretations– How I am used to structure and

interpret the messages? – Protection of ones’ own worldview

What is culture?Culture is

communication.

(Edward T. Hall, 1973)

Culture is collective programming of the

mind that distinguishes the members of one group from the

members of another.

(Geert Hofstede, 1991)

”Culture is everything that

makes us different in a new country.

(Aino Raunio)

• Traditional answers:

Law theories

• Phenomena can be known through empirical means (= is observable, measurable and quantifiable)

• There are regularities that can be discovered and often traverse time, culture and situation (i.e = laws)

• Include notion of causality: cause and effect - relationships

• Objective of research is to discover regularities that have maximum generalizability

• Examples: – Uncertainty reduction theory (Charler Berger & Richard

Calabrese, 1975)– Anxiety/uncertainty management theory (Gudykunst, 1993)– Face-negotiating theory (Ting-Toomey, 1988)

Influece of law-theories

• Influece of law-theories can be seen in first researches of "intercultural communication": – Search for laws connected with national cultures (eg.

Hofstede, Hall, Trompenaars)– Bases often on dichotomies– Aims to predict the events as an objective

• Pragmatic frame directs the research (i.e. Functionalist approach: Any feature in the system being analysed must serve some purpose)

• Essentialistic concept of culture: ”Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another.“ (G.H)

12

Hermeneutic perspective:emphasis on understanding

• Interest in how the common understanding is formed over cultural boarders.

• Hermeneutics as a practical way of doing: – How one understands what

happened/happens both in the past and the present

• Hermeneutics as a method: – How do you get to know what happened, how

it was experienced and how the information from the event was formed • The message hidden in meanings is

revealed both in seeing and listening and how they are interpreted

13

Hermeneutic reflection

• The expression of the experience: the role of the language in interpretation – how the possible different understandings are formed to mutual understanding– The effects of preconceptions, expectations and

objectives on understanding – Bound on situation and context

• Hermeneutical spiral: preconceptions are compared and proportioned to earlier knowledge: internalized, disclosure– Accumulation of the knowledge, learning

• H. G. Gadamer (1900-2002): horizon of understanding moves from the present to the past

Learning is possible!

Dynamic concept of culture

• ”Culture is something that one can share, where you can invite people to come with, to participate. Then the community will be emphasized.” (Henrik Syse, 2001)

• ”To the modern company the important concepts are: organisational learning, networking, knowledge sharing. Then, culture cannot be stable, homogeneous, with inner conformity. Culture is waiting to be found in these processes. (Nigel Holden, 2001)

…And we see only what we are used to see...

Language

Food

Clothing

Manners...

Communication style

Values

Attitudes

Beliefs...

Cultural Onion

Products and artifacts: architecture, language, food, art, markets etc

Norms and values

Assumptions about existence = basic assumptions

Explicit

Implicit

(Trompenaars 1997)

We can easily see in our own culture and in the other cultures Norms, values,

the feeling of right and wrong, feeling how I should behave or how I desire to behave etc.

Basic Assumptions

• Nature: geographical location, weather etc. (culture comes from the word cultivate)– How one has survived?

• History– What kind of strategies people have needed in

order to survive?• Religion

– Teaching: How is human being? What is good, bad, worth of achieving?

• Society– What kind of structures it offers?

(Kluckhorn & Strodtberg)

During the few days of my staying here, I found out there are a lot

of interesting and impressive ways of people doing things. And the most impressive one is self-

serving weighing vegetable. The first time I went to a supermarket in Finland, I found out there is no supermarket employee weighing vegetable for customers like in China. Finally, I figured out that we need to weigh them by ourselves. And I also noticed that when you go by tram, no one is going to ask you

to buy the ticket. Maybe it is the same among the other western countries, but this is not going to happen in China because of different

cultural background.

Chinese student

”The biggest challenge of intercultural encounters is not the knowledge of foreign culture, but the knowledge of ones’ own culture and the awareness how it affects in ones’ own thinking and behaviour.”

Nancy Adler

Intercultural Competence:

The ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts.

M. Bennett

Intercultural competence is:

• Knowledge (cognitive competence)The mindset

• Skills (social competence)The Skillset

• Will (affective competence)The Heartset

(muk. Profile of the Interculturally Effective Person, 2000)

”Savoir apprendre / faire”

• Metacognitive strategies that direct ones’ own learning– One is able to find new knowledge in

new surroundings (What is knowledge? How do you learn?)

– One is able to handle and involve that new knowledge, attitudes and skills in ones’ current communication

Byram, 2007; Sercu, 2004

”Savoir s’engager”

• Participative competence– Ability to act in social networks in a

foreign language: give own contribution in a constructive way, support the others in sharing knowledge and recognize it

– Ability to adapt ones’ own knowledge as appropriate for groups’ situation and purposes

– Ability to see intercultural differences as a resource which make possible to learn

Byram, 2007; Holden, 2002; Friedman & Antal, 2005

Interactive translation

• Ability to negotiate the meanings– Ability to examine and verbalize silent

knowledge and silent suppositions (e.g. ability to interpret, explain and identify with the different experiences)

– Ability to analize interaction in a meta-level

– Ability to define together a meaning– Openness to test different ways of

thinking and of action Byram, 2007; Holden, 2002; Friedman & Antal, 2005