Honorio Gonzalez

EDU 533
Intercultural Competence
Chapter 2 Notes
Define culture (describe each major component in the definition (p. 25)
The definitions of culture are numerous and the book defines it as one that allows us to
investigate how culture contributes to human symbolic processes (p. 25). A concern in the
book is with the link between culture and communication (p. 25). Therefore, culture is a
learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms, and social practices,
which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people (p. 25). Therefore, the
link between culture and communication is important to its definition because it show
what culture in a sense is. Furthermore, culture is learned because it is not a genetic trait
that people are born with. Culture is learned from the people you interact with as you
socialized and it is also taught by the explanations people receive for the natural and
human events around them (p. 25).
Culture is a set of shared interpretations because they establish the very important link
between communication and culture (p. 25). Cultures exit in the minds of people, not just
in external thoughts or tangible objects or behaviors (p. 25-26). Therefore, a culture can
form only if symbolic ideas are shared with a relatively large group of people (p. 26).
This is because with out a group of people to share those ideas, a culture can form and
take shape in the group.
Culture also involves beliefs, values, norms and social practices because the shared
symbol system that form the basis of culture represent ideas about beliefs, values, norms,
and social practices (p. 26). Beliefs refer to the basic understanding of a group of people
about what the world is like or what is true or false while values refer to what a group of
people define as good and bad or what it regards as important (p. 26). Furthermore,
norms refer to rules for appropriate behavior, which provide that expectations people
have of one another and of themselves while social practices are the predictable behavior
that members of a culture typically follow (p. 27).
Culture also affects behavior because the social practices that characterize a culture give
people guidelines about what things means, what is important, and what should or should
not be done; therefore, culture establishes predictability in human interactions (p. 27).
Therefore, with a set of guidelines a culture will be able to set the standards of
acceptability for that specific culture. Additionally, culture involves large groups of
people because we differentiated between smaller groups of individuals, who may engage
in interpersonal communication, and larger groups of people more traditionally associated
with cultures (p. 27). Furthermore, culture is used often used to refer to other types of
large groups of people and larger, societal levels of organization (p. 28). Therefore, a
culture has to reach a specific size before it is traditionally identified as a culture.
Explain why cultures differ and why those differences continue to exist.
Cultures look, think, and communicate as they do for very practical purposes: to have a
common frame of reference that provides a widely shared understanding of the world and
of their identities within it; to organize and coordinate their actions, activities, and social
relationships; and to accommodate and adapt to the pressures and forces that influence
culture as a whole (p. 31). Cultural differences are created and sustained by a complex set
of forces that are deeply embedded within the cultures members (p. 32). The six forces

that help to generate cultural differences include a cultures history, ecology, technology,
biology, institutional networks, and interpersonal communication patterns (p. 32). These
forces all in turn continue to generate cultural differences, which given time can be
overcome. Furthermore, history is the unique experiences that have become a part of a
cultures collective wisdom which constitute it (p. 32).
Ecology is the external environment in which the culture lives in and includes physical
forces such as the overall climate, the changing weather patterns, the prevailing land and
water formations, and the availability or unavailability of certain foods or raw materials
(p. 34). Technology are the inventions that are culture has created or borrowed which
include such items as tools, microchips, hydraulic techniques, navigational aids, paper
clips, barbed wire, stirrups, and weapons (p. 35). Furthermore, changes in available tech
neology can radically alter the balance of forces that maintain a culture. This in turn leads
to a radical change in the balance of power in a culture that can in turn cause it to rise or
fall. Biology is the inherited characteristics that cultural members share as the result of
having people with a common ancestry having similar genetic compositions (p. 37).
Therefore, although it is undeniable that genetic variations amongst humans exist, it is
equally clear that biology cannot explain all or even most of the differences among
cultures (p. 37).
Institutional networks are the formal organizations in societies that structure activities for
large numbers, which include government, education, religion, work, professional
associations, and even social organizations (p. 39). Additionally, religion is an important
network that binds people to one another and helps maintain cultural bonds (p. 39).
Interpersonal Communications patterns are the face-to-face verbal and nonverbal coding
system that cultures develop to convey meanings and messages (p. 40). Therefore,
understanding cultural differences in interpersonal communication patterns is crucial in
becoming culturally competent (p. 41). Knowing this would help prepare someone for
cultural competence at an even faster rate.
Define intercultural communication. (Note p. 46 and p. 52 and other references)
Intercultural communication is a symbolic, interpretative, transactional, contextual
process in which people from different cultures create shared meaning (p. 43).
Furthermore, previous definitions have described the central terms communication and
culture (p. 49). Combining the meaning of these terms with the ideas suggested in the
book about the degrees of difference that can occur among people from dissimilar
cultures produce a new definition of intercultural communication (p. 49). Intercultural
communication occurs when large and important cultural differences create dissimilar
interpretations and expectations about how to communicate completely (p, 49). These
would lead to situations where intercultural communication can change depending on the
people and the situations that they may find themselves in.
Answer questions in the examples on p. 47 and ff.
Is Jorge correct that Mexican and Chilean cultures are sufficiently different to make his
communication with Chileans intercultural?
Yes, because it is those differences that can lead the intercultural communication process
to either good or bad relationships in that culture.
How important is it to know how to speak a language in intercultural communication?

Again, it is very important because knowledge of a certain language is needed in order to

operate in that certain culture and maintain good intercultural communication experience
instead of a bad intercultural communication experience.
Explain the continuum of interculturalness
It is identifying the degree of interculturalness in an each interaction, and thereby creating
a scale for it (p. 48). Furthermore, there are learned differences among groups of people
that are associated with their culture, such as cultural patterns, verbal and nonverbal
codes, relationship rules and roles and social perceptions (p. 49). Therefore, people are
from different cultures whenever the degree of difference between them is sufficiently
large and important that it creates dissimilar interpretations and expectations about what
are regarded as competent communication behaviors (p. 49). This can also be applied to
and sees as the definition for what an interculturalness scale is.
Application
This can be applied to how I must learn Japanese once I get to Japan. Knowing the
language would help me improve my intercultural communication between my host
culture and me. This way I can have a good experience living and working over there. It
would also show where I would measure on an interculturalness scale after living in
Japan for a while. Furthermore, it would help me understand the culture and its
differences better in order for me to expand my understanding of it. This is how
intercultural communication would help me on my journey to not only Japan but also the
rest of Asia.
Biblical Links
Trust on the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:5-6. I would
put my trust in the Lord once I begin my journey to Japan. By doing this, I am allowing
for him to show me the way the he wants me to go and follow. This would also bless my
journey since it would one guided by God. Similarly, I would also not be able to trust in
my own preconceptions of culture that I might have had in the past. This would allow for
the intercultural communication to flourish since, as I would not follow my former
preconceptions of a country. This is how this verse could be applied to my journey to
Japan and myself.