Text 6 predictions of communication problems*

(Upper-intermediate)

I. Pre-reading task

Before you read look up the meaning of the following words.

tolerance(n) to adapt to

ambiguity (n) predict (n)/ predictability (n)

gregarious (adj) to find oneself adrift

cross-cultural encounter (n)

In what way can we predict communication problems with people from foreign countries?

II. Read the text and check whether your predictions were right.

Is there a way to predict the likelihood of culture shock? In the foreword of Culture Shock: Psychological Reactions to Unfamiliar Environments, Walter J. Lonner suggested that at least six categories of variables might predict how seriously an individual person would be affected by culture shock [Walter J. Lonner and Stephen Bockner, Culture Shock: Psychological Reactions to Unfamiliar Environments, London, 1986, pp. 19-20].

1. Control Issues

First, individuals who travel across cultural lines, whether or not they leave their own country, may encounter certain control issues. That is, how much control does the individual have to decide whether to engage people from the other culture.

2. Intrapersonal Factors

Second, W.Lonner speculated that there must also be certain intrapersonal factors, such as a person's age, language skills, tolerance for ambiguity, and prior cross-cultural experiences that contribute to the amount of stress felt in a cross-cultural encounter. For example, students sometimes travel abroad as part of their educational experiences. A person with only one term of study in the French language, who had never before left home, and who is fairly shy, will probably experience more stress on a study tour than will the gregarious French major who spent last summer with French-speaking relatives in Quebec.

3. Biological Factors

Third, biological factors, such as overall physical conditioning and special dietary needs, can create stress problems. Imagine the strain that must result if a traveler cannot keep up with the group. Imagine the discomfort if a traveler cannot tolerate the local food or has to carry along special foods for dietary reasons.

4. Interpersonal Factors

Fourth, interpersonal factors, such as the extent of one's support group, can influence the stress a person experiences when moving across cultural lines. For example, suppose a student, Bill, decides to spend the summer traveling in Europe. The knowledge that he can call home for financial help if he needs it must be comforting to him as he sets off across Europe on his own.

Similarly, international students can find themselves adrift in the environment on an American campus. Some years ago, a professor's family shared their home with a young woman from Japan who had traveled to the United States to study English. Both the host family and the young woman experienced tension involving common events such as food preparation and eating habits and toilet and hygiene habits.

The trouble became apparent when the young woman began to withdraw from the American family. Rather than join the family at meals, for example, she excused herself on the grounds that she had to study. Then, later, she would prepare her own meal. Rather than study in her room, she went to the home of Japanese friends to study and to escape the culture shock that she was experiencing. She went on a buying spree, using a credit card that her father had provided, to purchase many new clothes and artwork for the walls of her room. Then, the long distance telephone bills began to arrive; she had been calling home late at night. Before the end of the academic year, the young woman was experiencing such stress that she returned home.

The Japanese woman was suffering from culture shock. She was under stress from her effort to adapt psychologically to her new environment. She was also aware that the host family was experiencing some of that stress in attempting to adapt to her presence. In addition, she obviously sensed the loss of friends, status, and possessions. Her telephone calls, her withdrawal from the American family, her rejection of the American cultural group, and her embracing of the Asian students on campus provide an indication. She appeared to be confused about her role in the family. The family tried to make her a welcome guest by including her in the family circle, although she had difficulty with such familial intimacy.

For example, the Japanese student experimented with how she could be most comfortable when addressing the one man in the family. He invited her to use his first name, but she could not. "It would be too familiar," she said. The titles, Dr. and Mr., both of which she used for a while, seemed too formal. She tried to join the adult children, who called him "dad," but that didn't seem to fit. Japanese women develop a relationship with their mother's eldest brother, and they depend on that person for adult male under-standing. She could not use the designation, "uncle," because "that is so special for me." Finally, she settled on the French mon pere, which translates, "my father." It was a compromise in her mind and a shortening of "my American father." She reasoned that she could not use English or Japanese for this designation because "it wouldn't be right," but the French provided her with enough distance to be comfortable.