What is culture?

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En provenance du cours de The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Business English for Cross-cultural Communication

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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Business English for Cross-cultural Communication

55 notes

Cours 4 sur 5 dans Specialization Anglais des affaires pour les locuteurs non natifs

This course aims to prepare you for working in an cross-cultural Business setting. We'll learn about common cross-cultural theories and how they are relevant to everyday business practices in a globalised world. By combining all of your vocabulary, reading, speaking, and writing skills that you acquired in the previous three courses, you will learn how language plays an important role in cross-cultural communication. You will also enhance your cross-cultural understanding and will be able to use vocabulary, tone and style, and spoken and written communication skills within a cross-cultural Business context. Skills learned in this course help prepare you to deliver the professional business presentation in the Capstone project. After completing this course, you will be able to: - identify possible cross-cultural issues and misunderstandings in communication - apply strategies to overcome possible cross-cultural issues and misunderstandings in communication - produce documents with an appropriate style for business communication purposes within a cross-cultural situation - deliver a speech with an appropriate style for business communication purposes within a cross-cultural situation

À partir de la leçon

What is culture?

Welcome to Week 2! This week we will cover Module 2 where we introduce you to basic cultural theories and language skills you will use in general cross-cultural business situations. You will also be introduced to vocabulary and language skills common to business communications.

What is culture?5:13

English as a Lingua Franca8:54

Rencontrer les enseignants

Sean McMinn
Senior Instructor
Center for Language Education
Kin Tang
Instructor
Center for Language Education
Delian Gaskell
Instructor
Center for Language Education

And welcome to this lecture on culture or what is culture.

Developing cross-cultural or intercultural understanding is essential

if you want to do any type of business while abroad.

Developing intercultural communication skills is necessary to establish good

interpersonal skills or good interpersonal relations with people and

to communicate effectively when cultural differences may exist.

But before we get into intercultural communication skills,

we should probably tackle the first problem, that is, what is culture?

The word culture can mean different things for different people.

And it can also mean different things in different contexts.

For example, how would you define the Chinese culture to a North American?

How would you differ that definition for a Chinese living in New York or

a Chinese person living in Shanghai?

When we talk about culture, we're talking about many things, such as national

culture, ethnic culture, international culture, and even business culture.

How much does the geography play a role in that?

What about beliefs?

What about values within the community?

Many researchers often refer to Hofstede's work on cultural dimensional theory.

For example, when trying to understand cross-cultural communication,

in his book Culture's Consequences,

he defines culture as the collective programming of the mind

which distinguishes the members of one human group from another.

Culture in this sense includes systems of values, and

values are among the building blocks of culture.

So there's one perspective on culture.

Other scholars in communications like to refer to

Edward T Hall's Iceberg Model of culture.

Hall's Iceberg Model of culture suggests people only see a few elements or

behaviors of a particular culture.

This is what he calls the surface culture.

But he would argue that the major essence of any culture is hidden from

the general public.

So at the surface, most people just see basic behaviors and

customs, but if you dig deeper in a culture, and

these are not often revealed to outsiders, you'll get to understand the attitudes,

the beliefs, and the core values of the culture that you're looking at.

This may be a good start, but

it still doesn't explain the context of how culture exists.

Quite often, it is the context and

the relationships within that context that defines a culture.

Melanie Moll in her book The Quintessence of Intercultural Business Communications

uses this definition.

Culture is the meaningful way in which people act and

interact in other social contexts with one another.

Moll also identifies what we call cultural patterns,

the way in which people in a culture interact, socialize,

and react to one another and their surroundings.

But again, because culture is so complex, it is important that

people don't overgeneralize when identifying cultural patterns.

This is what is called stereotyping.

Having an understanding of the complexities of cultures and

the cultural pattern with them are important if you are to develop

intercultural communication skills.

It's not an easy task.

Misunderstandings, overgeneralizations, and

stereotyping can occur, which have a negative impact on any communication.

So what might be included in intercultural communication skills?

Well, you may need to understand the impact of directness or

indirectness of speech.

Turntaking norms within a culture.

Orientations to power.

Roles and relationships in face-to-face communication.

The impact of non-verbal communication,

the environment where communication takes place.

The values and beliefs within the culture and

the attitudes of the people within the culture.

But also world views generally held by that culture.

This list is not exhaustive, and there could be other elements you need to

be aware of when participating in cross-cultural communication.

We'll explore some of these theories and ideas in this module.

And we'll have a look at Hofstede's cultural dimensions and

how they can help inform people when participating in cross-cultural

communication in a business sentence.

Thank you for watching.

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