Ⅰ. Introduction
1. Questionnaires (extra hand-outs)
These two questionnaires are presented as the warming up exercises to check how the students can handle communications in daily practice. Discuss the communicative problems with students and analyze the relevant reasons. Then ask the students some questions.
2. Lead-in Questions
ⅰ. What do you usually communicate with other people?
ⅱ. Have you ever been embarrassed when talking with strangers? Why is that? ⅲ. Do you know how to communicate with foreigners?
Tell their conversation partner something concrete and significant about themselves.
Look for common interests and shared opinions for a more solid basis of relationship.
Individualize the foreigners.
ⅳ. Have you come across the cultural shock in communication? 3. Discussion
Discuss the different ways of cultural communication and found out the reasons by analyzing some cases.
4．Introduction of Intercultural Communication
a. Cross-cultural communication is also called intercultural communication. “Intercultural Communication” is communication between members of different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural Communication involves different perceptions, attitudes, and interpretations. Intercultural Communication is an interdisciplinary field which includes anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, and communication.
Anthropology (from the Greek word ἄνθρωπος, \"human\" or \"person\") consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times and with all dimensions of humanity. In principle, it is
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concerned with all institutions of all societies.
Cultural studies combines sociology, social theory, literary theory, media theory, film/video studies, cultural anthropology,philosophy and art history/criticism to study cultural phenomena in industrial societies. Cultural studies researchers often concentrate on how a particular phenomenon relates to matters of ideology, race, social class, and/or gender. Cultural studies concerns itself with the meaning and practices of everyday life. Cultural practices comprise the ways people do particular things (such as watching television, or eating out) in a given culture. Particular meanings attach to the ways people in particular cultures do things.
Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain, and behavior. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental illness. For instance, if you talk with your American teacher, intercultural communication takes place. If you interact with a Japanese student, there is intercultural communication. It takes place everywhere. Intercultural communication dates back to thousands of years ago. A long time ago, when people started intermingling with each other, when people were having trade relations with each other, there was intercultural communication. A very good example is the Silk Road. b. Reasons for us to learn cross-cultural communication:
Modern means of communication
Now jet planes fly everywhere. It used to take a month to travel from Shanghai to Los Angeles. But now, it takes only twelve hours. It is much easier for people to move from one country to another. People of different countries and races get together much oftener than before. Besides, people get in touch with each other in various ways, including the telephone, the internet, the satellite, etc. Sophisticated communication systems have also helped to increase intercultural communication. Global village
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This means multinational companies now operate in many countries in the world. They employ people of different ethnic groups and of different countries. Actually some multinational companies make a point of employing people from different countries. They don't use people from just one country because their company is a multinational company and they want to use people from different countries. People everywhere need to learn about other cultures. They need to know their neighbors. They need to know how to get along with them and how to solve problems that inevitably arise. To do this it is necessary to learn how to communicate across cultures or how to do culture. Mass migration
Millions of people now move across national boarders every year. All these contribute to the fact that intercultural communication is now a daily occurrence. Its importance is now being recognized by an increasing number of people. The United States is a “melting pot”. Many young Americans no longer accept the melting pot image, because it includes the idea that people lose their home cultural identities, traditions, and values when they become Americans. We now replace the melting pot with mosaic. A mosaic is made up of diverse materials or elements that keep their original character when they are combined to create a new design. This new image expresses the idea that part of the American way of life is respect for cultural diversity. c. Application
It can be applied in the training of business executives and technicians, particularly for those who go overseas. And they have to encounter a lot of cultural problems, so they have to be trained before they are sent overseas. Otherwise they would not be able to work effectively.
And then there is the training of new immigrants and foreign students. This is done both in the United States, and also in countries like Australia.
And then there is multicultural education because at American schools and also at some of the British schools, the pupils, the students are from different ethnic groups, and they have different cultures. So they have to be given what is called
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multicultural education. And also in foreign language teaching, intercultural communication is very important. Finally, it is useful for improving general cultural awareness.
Ⅱ. Communication 1. Types of Communication
a) human communication
Humans communicate in various ways. We speak, use body languages, intentionally or unintentionally communicate each other in either formal or informal ways. (formal&informal, oral&written, intentional&unintentional, verbal&nonverbal) b) animal communication
Researchers have discovered that animals share with humans a number of characteristics, including those associated with attraction and mating, territoriality, rivalry and play, familial ties, colony organization, division of labor, and numbers of other traits that we once assumed were uniquely “human”. (animal language) c) human-animal communication
non-word sound body language
d) human-computer communication
Information that was once conveyed verbally through stories and myths in ancient times is now transmitted through high-tech media. (artificial language)
e) machine-machine communication
artificial language: codes
2. Compare and Contrast Greetings
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Dialogue 1
Friend: Hi, George, have you met Bill? George: No, I haven’t. Hi, Bill. Bill: Hi! How ya doing? Dialogue 2
香港人到現在一見面還是會問：“食咗飯未？”意思就是吃過飯了嗎。話説在
大學宿舍的公共廁所門外，同學甲由内而出與同學乙剛想進入，二人的對話如下：
乙：“食咗飯未？”
甲：“食咗了。你呢？”（吃過了，你呢？）
乙：“重未。（意思是還沒有。）”（對話完了，乙即進入廁所。）
Deep Chinese cultural construction about “吃了吗” is rooted in Chinese concept of “food”. This way of greeting in Chinese is considered as proper, polite and friendly. However, in Western culture, this is impolite and usually seen as prying into the privacy. Their way of greeting is more general and never related to private affaires such as “Where are you going? What did you eat? etc.” Dialogue 3
甲：（看到乙提着菜篮子）买菜？（具体行为） 乙：买菜。 Dialogue 4
A：Hi, Jack. How are you feeling? B: Very well thanks. How are you? A: I’m terrific, thank you. ( see 跨文化交际 P 33)
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Ⅱ.
Instances of Communication
Situations 1. An orator delivers a speech to a large gathering. 2. You complain to your instructor about your course credits through telephone. 3. You send an e-mail message to an American friend. 4. Jane lies in bed reading a novel. 5. Two blind people exchange ideas in Braille. 6. A German businessman negotiates, through an interpreter, with his Chinese counterpart. 7. A mother talks to her 3-month-old baby. 8. A farmer gives instructions to his ploughing cow. 9. A programmer issues commands to a computer. 10. Tom talks to himself while flourishing his toy gun. 11. An archaeologist is deciphering a mysterious sign on the recently unearthed pot. 12. American scientists have sent meaningful radio signals to the universe, hoping to receive a reply someday in the future. 13. An Arabic traveler talks to you in Arabic that is Greek to you. 14. A hen clucks to her chicks. 15. My washing machine receives commands from the built-in computer. Languages 6
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