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2. Match the definitions below with the words from the box.

objective (n) flippancy (n) reluctant (adj) assumption (n) self-deprecation (n) be renowned for alleviate (v)

  1. Unwilling to do smth…

  2. Trying to make your own abilities seem unimportant…

  3. To make smth less painful and difficult…

  4. Smth that you think is true although you have no proof…

  5. An aim that you are trying to achieve…

  6. Known and admired by a lot of people for some special skills…

  7. Not being serious about smth…

3. Translate the sentences into English.

  1. Иногда бывает трудно преодолеть культурный барьер при общении с незнакомцем.

  2. Человеку свойственны такие качества, как слабость, легкомыслие и самоуничижение.

  3. Стереотипы являются препятствием на пути прогресса.

  4. Японцы демонстрируют необычную преданность своему начальству.

  5. Принять решение также трудно, как и осуществить его.

  6. Стереотипизация – это предвзятое мнение о каком-то народе.

  7. Неиссякаемый оптимизм американцев совершенно незнаком британцам.

1.2 Communicating interculturally

As communications technology advances and international transportation shrinks the world, intercultural communication opportunities are likely to increase. Opportunities for misunderstandings can also increase. For example, one business executive considered his counterparts in Athens, Greece, to be rude. They asked "personal" questions (i.e., questions about the business executive's religious beliefs, his political views, and how much money he earned on his job) just a few weeks after his arrival. The Greeks, of course, did not consider themselves rude. They were just being friendly. To them, such questions signaled their acceptance of the American.

Such stories are commonplace. They point to a growing challenge for all of us because our intercultural communication effectiveness is usually inadequate. In fact, the gap between our intercultural communication skills and the need for those skills is increasing.

This chapter examines the most common cross-cultural communication problems. It suggests certain skills to improve cross-cultural communication effectiveness.

TEXT 1

Importance of intercultural communication*

(Upper-intermediate)

I. Pre-reading task

Look up the meaning of the following words and expressions.

business executive (n) to establish citizenship

counterpart (n) ethnocentrism (n)

prejudice (n) human mobility

to be commonplace a “global village”

to merge a host country

Before reading try to predict the major factors of intercultural communication in the modern world (the words in bold type can help you).

II. Read the text and find information on the following points.

  1. Reasons for increasing intercultural communication skills.

  2. Ethnocentrism.

  3. Fourteen separate types of cross-cultural contact.

  4. The essence of “a global village”.

  5. Importance of economic and political contacts.

  6. Immigration and migration patterns in the USA.

Contacts across cultural and national boundaries will increase. People are more mobile than ever. They travel from country to country and from continent to continent for both business and pleasure.

Richard W. Brislin has identified fourteen separate types of cross-cultural contact that Americans are most likely to encounter [Richard W. Brislin, Cross-Cultural Encounters: Face-to-Face Interaction, New York, 1981, pp. 8-10]. Not all of them require travel to other lands. Notice how increasing mobility plays a part in such contacts. Have you already experienced one or more of these fourteen types?

  1. Overseas study at the college level.

Students from the United States commonly travel to other countries as part of their study. Students from other nations commonly study in U.S. colleges and universities. The data's conclusion is clear: students from all over the world are interacting with each other in increasing numbers.

  1. A business assignment in a country other than one's own, usually as a representative of an international business.

With each passing year, international business travel increases. For instance, a man whose career has taken him to the executive suite in Del Monte Tropical Fruit Company travels somewhere each month overseas. During the most recent twelve-month period, he has traveled extensively in Japan, Kenya, The Philippines, Costa Rica, Guatemala, England, and Monte Carlo. This travel is not uncommon. As American and foreign businesses continue to expand and merge, such travel will increase.

  1. Diplomats and embassy staff who represent one country while stationed in another.

  2. Language interpreters who work in permanent international organizations or in short-term multinational conferences.

  3. Technical assistance personnel assigned overseas.

  4. Participants in organized programs emphasizing contact with people of another nation or culture.

  5. Military personnel assigned as advisers to governments or defense units of other countries.

  6. Emigrants moving from one country to another, who then establish citizenship in the host country.

  7. Researchers who work on cultures other than their own.

  8. International and interregional tourists.

  9. Members of a certain ethnic group who interact with members of another.

  10. People who participate in "arranged interethnic contact," such as legally desegregated schools.

  11. Members of ethnic groups who are required to move from one area of a country to another.

  12. Students who, as part of their education, live and work with members of an ethnic group other than their own.

Thus, it seems clear that more and more contact is being made with other cultures and that this trend will increase in the coming years. Each of us will have to learn to improve our ways of communicating in cross-cultural events. Now, we truly are members of a global village.

In general, U.S. citizens - especially members of the ethnic majority - tend to have a chauvinistic attitude about communication across cultural lines. That is, Americans unconsciously assume and project that their own culture is correct. In doing so, they create unnecessary problems for themselves. This chauvinistic attitude and its resulting problem is called ethnocentrism. The term means the attitude that one's own race, nation, or culture is superior to all others.

In addition to human mobility, the United States and most other countries are also so intimately linked economically and politically that cross-cultural contact seems inevitable. The patterns of this economic and political contact are changing. In the past, economic ties of the USA were primarily to Europe. Now, it is increasingly involved with other countries, such as China, Japan, and Korea. The reality of economic and cross-cultural interdependence is apparent every time you read a national news magazine or turn on the evening news.

Communication across national and cultural boundaries has become more rapid and less expensive than ever before. In part, this rapid communication has been thrust upon us by major advances in technology. TV news and entertainment programs bring foreign cultures into our living rooms every day, and international telephone and computer hookups are common in business. Calling home is commonplace when traveling overseas.

People of different cultures are heard every day through communications media, and we form impressions and stereotypes on the basis of these sources.

Television news industry is having an enormous impact around the world. With the aid of technology, it will be possible to tune in English language programming throughout western Europe. The American film and television industry has become the largest importer and exporter of high and low culture programming. Dubbed versions of Dallas and Dynasty, for example, have faithful fans in Paris and Tokyo. The reverse is also true. Television programs produced in Mexico, Brazil, and Spain are finding increasing Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States.

Finally, the mobility of peoples from all over the world has greatly influenced immigration and migration patterns in the United States. The West Coast, for example, is experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of people from Pacific rim nations. All over America, people are moving from rural to urban centers, and from region to region.

Northern and southern borders of America are practically wide open. The Canadian province of British Columbia, for example, is admitting some 10,000 new people from around the world every month, many of whom migrate, again, into the United States. The flow of people from Latin America across our southern border has reached an all-time high. All this movement increases the likelihood of needing effective intercultural communication skills.

The United States is still a melting-pot nation. Many U.S. cities - especially those that are seaports - contain international populations. These people eat different foods, speak different languages, and make different assumptions about the world.

Therefore, there is a good deal of reason to study intercultural communication behaviour. Ignoring the likelihood of communicating across cultural boundaries will create problems. However, understanding that increased contact with people from other nations and other cultures is inevitable will give you an opportunity to develop intercultural communication skills.

You can become more effective in intercultural events if you choose to develop them, but you must make an active choice. [6, 406-415]

III. Comprehension check

Answer the questions.

  1. Why intercultural communication skills are so important today?

  2. How do you understand the phrase “the mobile world”?

  3. Have you ever experienced one of the fourteen types of intercultural contact?

Which of them are more popular with the people in your country?

  1. What is the role of Mass Media in intercultural communication?

  2. What is your view on ethnocentrism? Have you ever experienced a biased attitude from foreigners?