Communication Between Cultures

CHAPTER 10

Intercultural Communication in

Contexts: Applications in Business,

Education, and Healthcare

Live together like brothers and do business like strangers.

ARABIAN PROVERB

Education must, then, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of

alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.

JEROME S. BRUNER

If you are not in tune with the universe, there is sickness in the heart and mind.

NAVAJO SAYING

Culture and Context

We have stressed throughout this book that communication is context dependent.

Social interaction is not arbitrary, nor disorderly, nor randomized. It occurs in culturally

determined, patterned rituals that dictate normative ways of speaking and behaving

in each specific situation, such as in the classroom, interviews, casual conversation,

sports events, etc. Our point is that communication does not occur in a void; to some

degree, the social and physical setting, more commonly referred to as the communic-

ation context, influences communication.

Culture plays a primary role in establishing specific, shared rules that stipulate the

communicative behaviors appropriate for different social and physical contexts. When

communicating with members of your own culture, you rely on deeply internalized

cultural protocols that define acceptable behavior for each particular communication

situation. These rules, which facilitate your ability to communicate effectively, are so

ingrained that you do not have to think consciously about which rule to use when

moving from one context to another.

During intercultural communication interactions, difficulties can arise because you

and your communication partners rely on different standards. Communication rules

exhibit a great deal of cultural diversity, making the possibility of miscommunication

an ever-present consideration. To avoid these pitfalls, you need to be aware of the

potential problems that differences in culturally based protocols can bring to an inter-

cultural exchange. This chapter aims to demonstrate how cultural norms can vary

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