2. Building Intercultural Skills

1. What would you do if:

- a friend of yours who worked in your department gave a very poor presentation and then asked you: ”How did I do?”

- you must write a thank-you note to a friend at work who gave you an awful gift at a holiday party. How do you express your thanks?

2. Which 3 aspects do you think are most important for your culture? Do different cultures emphasize different aspects?

3. What is your intercultural IQ? To get an idea, name:

- at least 3 holidays that take place in December (besides New Year’s Eve);

- at least one of the native American tribes that inhabit most of the states now;

- at least 2 religions that prohibit the consumption of alcohol.

4. Which movies you’ve seen have been a place for the audience to experience and learn about another culture?

5. Why do you think one of the most common pieces of advice people get when learning a foreign language is that they should live in another country for a while?

Lecture 3.

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

1. Key Terms

Language	Gestures
Verbal Issues	Facial Expression
Labels	Eye Contact
Multilingualism	Artifacts
Code-Switching	Paralanguage
Speaking Style	Touch
Turn-Taking	Kinesics
Self-Disclosure	Emblems
Assimilation Strategies	Physical Appearance
Bilingual	Verbal Communication
Space	Nonverbal Communication
Symbolic Interaction	Illustrators
Cocultural Groups	Regulators
Cultural Space	Affect Displays
Migration	Gaze
Home	Proxemics
Neighborhood	Chronemics
Metacommunication	Haptics

Language influences thought, and thus influences the meanings that are conveyed by words. Becoming fluent in a foreign language is a difficult and time-consuming task, but it is essential to gaining intercultural understanding of the society in which that language is spoken. An individual’s perceptions are more important than objective reality in determining the individual’s behavior. These perceptions differ from one culture to another. One of the main propositions of intercultural communication is that culture shapes an individual’s perceptions, and thus behavior.

One of the important intellectual contributions of the Chicago School is a theoretical perspective called symbolic interaction, defined as the theory that individuals act toward objects on the basis of meanings and perceptions that are formed through communication with others. The founder of symbolic interactionism was George Herbert Mead. Mead argued that no one is born with a self (a personality), nor does it develop instinctively. Instead, an individual’s self-conception evolves through talking with others (parents, teachers) during childhood. Mead suggested that human behavior could be understood by learning how individuals give meaning to the symbolic information that they exchange with others. Through such conversations, an individual forms perceptions which then determine actions.