COMMUNICATION IN MULTICULTURAL

SETTINGS

Appropriate Cultural Terms and

Culture
- Culture is typically described as the totality of
learned behaviors of a people that emerges from
their interpersonal interactions.
- Culture includes the ideals, values, and
assumptions about life that are widely shared and
that guide specific behaviors.
• Objective culture
• Visible: artifacts, food, clothing
• Subjective culture
• Invisible: values, attitudes, norms
Examples: Filipino ideals, values, assumptions,
superstitions

Culture
•Provides us with our identity, beliefs, values, and
behavior.
•Is learned as a part of the natural process of
growing up in a family and community and from
participating in societal institutions.
•Is the conscious and unconscious content that a
group learns, shares, and transmits from generation
to generation that organizes life and helps interpret
existence.
•It is a filter through which people process their
experiences and events of their lives.
•It influences people’s values, actions, and
expectations of themselves.
•It impacts people’s perceptions and expectations of
others.

Cultural Differences
- Cultural differences are the various beliefs,
behaviors, languages, practices and expressions
considered unique to members of a specific
ethnicity, race or national origin. •Forms of diversity that may not be visible are
Differences between cultures occur on many sexual orientation, gender, age identification, and
levels including: socioeconomic status
•Communication
•Sense of time Diversity in the Workplace
•Family practices Globalization and Mitigation
•Beliefs about the cause of illness - 21st Century workplace is oftentimes a microcosm
•Healing beliefs of a global community where people from various
•Food practices ethnicities and cultural background converge.
•Language
•Sanctions (penalties/rewards) Communication Barriers
•Norms (appropriate/inappropriate behavior) •Language
•Values (collective conceptions of what is desirable) •Communication styles
•Non-verbal codes
•Values
•Attitudes
Diversity •Gender/racial bias
•In a cultural context, it means the differences
among groups of people. Japan
• Physical differences, abilities and disabilities, and • Ippan-shoku (non-career job)
language differences are visible forms of diversity •Small share of executive positions and managerial
jobs - Space generally defines relationships.
- In South America, Middle East and Southern
LGBT in Middle East Europe, people stand close to each other and touch
• In the 19th and early 20th centuries, men who had frequently as they converse.
been persecuted for their sexuality - As most Asian countries and non-contact cultures
• In some Muslim countries, whole towns have like US and UK, people maintain more space and
become the butt of jokes about the supposed often less touch when they are engaged in
homosexuality of their inhabitants. conversation.
•The penalty in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia Developing Cultural Competence
and Syria is imprisonment – up to 10 years in the Paul Pedersen’s Developmental Model
case of Bahrain. • Awareness – consciousness of one’s own attitudes
and biases as well as the sociopolitical issues that
Discrimination - the unfair or prejudicial treatment confront culturally different youngsters.
of people and groups based on characteristics such • Knowledge – accumulation of factual information
as race, gender, age, or sexual orientation about different cultural groups.
• Skills – integration of awareness competencies to
Communicative Competence positively impact children from culturally distinct
- This refers to both the tacit knowledge of a groups.
language and the ability to use it effectively. • Attitude – belief that differences are valuable and
However, the ability to use appropriate language change is necessary and positive.
and tone in various discourse does suffice; thus,
understanding dominant cultural values and LEARN Guidelines
understanding how one’s cultural values affect the • Listen
his/her perception and of others. • Explain
• Acknowledge
Intercultural Communication • Recommend ( mutal
The barrier to its goal is ETHNOCENTRISM. • Negotiate acceptance)
This is the tendency or disposition to judge other
people’s culture with disfavor and to consider one’s The Obvious
own as being superior. •Acknowledge and respect diversity
•Be more knowledgeable about cultural dimensions
Culturally Sensitive Workplace of language
Understand CULTURAL TABOOS, practices •Become more self-aware
prescribed by particular society as being improper •Recognize one’s biases and prejudices
or unacceptable. •Be flexible, patient and humble
•Advocate equity in the workplace
Cultural Taboos
•Giving clocks and umbrellas as gifts to Chinese
- Clock sounds like “attending funeral” so it’s
considered bad luck.
- Umbrella sounds like “breaking up” •Touching the
head in Thailand
- Head is regarded as the most important part
•Thumbs up in Australia, Greece, or the Middle
East
- “Up yours” or “Sit on this”
•In certain Commonwealth countries, including the
United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand,
and South Africa, an outward-facing V sign is an
obscene gesture equivalent to giving someone the
middle finger.

Politeness is an axiom.
- For Westerners, slurping soup is against table
etiquette but for the Japanese, it is a must-do to
show appreciation for the meal served.
- Giving flowers to female hosts is a gesture of
gratitude but in France, this is avoided as it suggests
romantic overtures.

Personal Space