English in Intercultural Context

English in intercultural context

What is the purpose of intercultural communication?

Modulo uno - 26/09

Intercultural communication helps analyze and make sense of other cultures and within our own to make sense of representation and human beings.

Cases may be very different, we can approach the issues in the same way to make sense of differences > analyzing them and understanding them is of vital importance to cooperation and communication.

To communicate with people we need to make sense of differences.

There may be something we truly believe in: we need to ask ourselves > what was the situation years ago or what is it now in other places?

A rule that we believe in, here and now, is not valid in other places or places in time; in the same way that a rule that used to be held in the past may change today or may change depending on the place.

Ex. in the 1980s in America, science supported the common idea that AIDS was a lung problem and could only affect gay men.

A value that we cherish here and now is not necessarily held as true in other parts of the world or in different timelines.

Ex. children to school: public school is a consequence of political and societal change, is not a superior principle that makes us better than other cultures in which children are not necessarily sent to school.

What we believe true is the result of a cultural and linguistic construction.

One of the main purposes of intercultural communication is to make sense of differences: within different cultures or within the same group.

In everyday life it is frequent to have differences and people have a hard time making sense of them. Knowing how to do that can be a powerful tool to create a strong network. (We need tools to make sense of them.)

Ideologies may push us to violence and intolerance.

General remarks

An understanding of the differences between people from different cultures, but also from the same culture, is of vital importance for harmonious social relationships.

Our experience tells us that:

• A rule which is passionately held to be correct today was equally and firmly frowned on at some other time or in some other place (e.g. children’s work in factories vs. primary education).
• A rule which was passionately held to be correct at some time or in some other places, is equally and firmly frowned on here and now (e.g. the Yulin dog meat festival).

Communication or miscommunication?

Communication between members of the same culture can be challenging and can often be hampered by misunderstanding, confusion, and a lack of shared meaning.

These miscommunications can take place despite the fact that members of the same culture often share beliefs and worldviews.

Miscommunication can be prevalent despite the appearance that people are communicating successfully, because they share a language.

Most of the time we think we are successfully communicating with people but we are not; most of the time people do not understand each other.

Each one of us articulates and creates meaning and sends them through different channels: it is very easy to misunderstand and decode what is said in the wrong way.

People are creative, there are so many ways to get things wrong (totally, partially or minimally).

Humans make mistakes, and communication distorts itself all the time.

• It is hard to understand each other even between members of the same culture. Even if we belong to the same community there will be changes and misunderstandings that can come in every level of societal culture.

Ex. good proposal for the new year, misunderstanding with myself.

Ex. someone looks at you in a bad way for apparently no reason.

Confusion > it has to do with the environment, chaos can jump in and create misunderstandings, humans are naturally messy.

Lack of shared meanings > there must be some common ground with people we communicate with.

Ex. someone is being mean but you take it as a compliment.

• Even if two people share so many commonalities and ideas, miscommunication still happens, we cannot hope for a conflict to go away but we can learn strategies to avoid them.
• Even people that share the same language are not safe from miscommunication - hence conflicts and diversions - communication failure stems from (three different axes / spectrum where people differ from others):

1. Individualism vs. collectivism
2. Masculinity vs. femininity
3. Power distance

Individualism versus collectivism

1 - Two different ways of organizing society (what society should be).

Individualistic > central view of the individuals, the building brick of society is the single individual.

The principle of action / movement / change / transformation is linked to the single person. Me-my.

Each and every man for himself.

Collectivistic > the building brick of society is a group of people that belong to the same purposes or organization (ex. African, Asian and former communist communities).

“It takes a whole village to raise a single child”. Our capitalistic society encourages parents to buy things and not to be with others.

In collectivistic societies people perform a specific solid function in collaboration with others.

Masculinity versus femininity

2 - Sex > biological configuration of human beings, there are conventionally two. Sex is the way we were born, our set of genitalia.

Gender > social construct of sex.

Ex. pink clothes to girls - in the 19th century, boys used to be assigned to pink = red = blood = strength and girls used to be assigned to blue = Virgin Mary’s veil.

The gender orientation of people creates miscommunication. The gender construction of people.

Power distance

3 - Power distance among distance.

In today’s society people occupy different positions in different occupations. People do not occupy the same position in the same situation.

Ex. doctor with personal questions (power situation): doctor is higher than the position we occupy.

In society there are people who have power, totally or partially, and people who do not have power at all.

Communication failure may stem from issues of:

• Individualism versus collectivism (individual orientation vs. group orientation).
• Masculinity versus femininity (gender orientation).
• Power distance (relationships between those with and without power).

When individuals from different cultures engage in communication, the opportunity for miscommunication multiplies (e.g. communication in international settings, cooperation, cultural mediation between Italian and Chinese interlocutors).

The list of variables that can come into play grows exponentially as the communication situation changes from a shared cultural perspective to two or more cultures represented by the people talking together (e.g. communication in international settings, cooperation, cultural mediation between Italian, African and Asian interlocutors).

Miscommunication is related to the degree of difficulty in communication between people.

Cultural stereotypes are causes of misunderstandings.

Video 1

Legal forces > the two Brits have a hard time making sense of why Italy has so many police forces, everyone with a gun. (Results of the 1920s.) In Britain police forces do not carry weapons. They only have the British view.

Italian legal system (parody): very complicated system for someone with a totally different idea of forces.

Body language > they do not recognise those practices that only make sense to us.

Language > typical incompetence of Italians for speaking other languages. The stereotypes seek to explain cultural differences.

Video 2

Lack of capacity to distinguish short and long vowels. The person telling the joke is probably usually the target of Italian jokes // racism.

The power is reversed, the marginalized is making fun of the dominant one. (African man from a Francophone-speaking country.)

It is more difficult to accept this type of sarcasm to us because of the power relationships.

Me vs. we.

Video 3

Contrast between two different families with two different cultures, individualism vs. collectivism.

The clash between these cultures may not always and only cause comedy but also tragedies or trauma (Romeo and Juliet).

In the video we can see a number of cultural positions and stereotypes >

• People’s names: in America newborn people have a new name and that is not what happens in collectivistic cultures in which babies may have the name of their parent or relative.
• Another stereotype is linked to body language, the usage of gestures and movements across cultures. Americans are fundamentally stiff and close, Mediterranean people are associated with generous body gestures (hug). The Americans were scared, as they were being assaulted. In individualistic society it is very common to have a very stiff use of body language, on the contrary.
• The American family are not so used to drinking alcohol (even if alcohol abuse is linked with loneliness and very common in American society). White American guys are portrayed as people that are not used to strong beverages.
• Greek culture is associated with large consumptions of food. The representation of food is also linked to foodporn, the show of huge amounts of food ready for shameless consumption (showing people large amounts of food that you are going to eat is characterized as foodporn). Collectivistic culture is associated with big meals, and individualistic culture is represented as eating less. It is a prejudice, not true.
• Bad taste and bad manners > showing something that you made is forcing them to say that it is beautiful - medical history. Collectivistic culture is represented as a threatening culture, in which people have no filters and share too much.

The film is a parody of prejudice, and yet the stereotypes are there to be seen.

Noisy and messy and threatening = collectivistic.

Opposition between genders

3/10

Opposition between masculinity and femininity.

What about the differences in perception and behavior by and for men and women?

Are there details in the distinctions between masculinity and femininity?

Are masculine traits and feminine traits interpreted differently by different cultures?

The gendered representation of culture produces miscommunication, our culture and society tends to be shaped by a central opposition.

Men vs. women.

Humankind is biologically divided between males and females, they have different roles in the reproduction of the species, and yet we tend to over-apply this opposition to any aspects of our life, including culture.

We have some shared features in genders, but society still tends to categorize. All the time differences are forced towards gender stereotypes.

Our culture has taught us to think that we are either men or women. When we look at a person we are not looking at a human being but looking at a male or a female.

This categorization disappears when we know people better. Our culture does not invite us to look at the essence of a person but invites us to look at their gender.

Gender is a very strong device of social categorisation.

We need a set of coordinates through which to read reality.

In order to create our identities we choose to fit into groups that are already there.

Our culture prompts us to see people as either men or women, we are not invited to look at people as human beings.

Harry Styles, our culture and exposure to those things has taught us to see beyond the pink fur and still see him as a male. 40 years ago people would not have been so sure that he was a man. (Interpretative problems.)

The opposition between masculinity and femininity changes all the time and we change our perception with it. This is a product of our culture to which we obey but is not natural, is a social construct.

There are differences in the way we perceive men and women, we tend to read people differently depending on if they are men or women, we tend to look at women in a different way from the way we look at men.

The set of expectations linked with the word nurse: women = caring, to make people heal, associated with being a mother.

Girl with a “male job” is not supposed to know what she’s talking about.

We do have differences linked to stereotypes.

Carnival costumes > the women’s ones are always sexy, the female costumes are supposed to be a sexy parody of the “real” man job.

Uniforms in sports, there is a clear distinction between men and women.

When we look at people, are there very specific parts of body that we look at: faces, the way they are dressed. These body parts are the ones that we culturally associate with gender.

Yes, there are details that we concentrate our attention on when we evaluate and gender people.

Most of the time we scan people in search for clues that we put together to categorize and gender them.

When people do not fit our categorization of gender we may think that they are gay or not normal.

There are details that are culturally associated with men and women.

Louis XIV, lots of things that we nowadays associate with women, were back then associated with aristocracy. You cannot possibly do anything, this was not feminine at all, this was deeply masculine.

Something has obviously changed.

Now you can recognize a powerful man for a tie, a blazer or the formal modern way he’s dressed > the tokens of material power have changed, stockings and jewelry are now associated with women, all the symbols of power present in the French revolutions are translated to the women, the king today does not wear those things but his wife will. High heels today are for women, because they used to be for men but after the French Revolution the iconography of power translated them from men to women and stuck with them.

Powerful women today do not wear high heels and those things, because they must conform to the idea of men to be powerful.

Giorgia Meloni usually wears Armani. Powerful women are gentle men. Are a milder version of what powerful men look like.

The original show off has migrated to the women of powerful men, not powerful women. (Hollywood personalities and actresses or prostitutes.)

Today we can see high heels, stockings or jewelry in women if they are actresses, Hollywood personalities or prostitutes, both versions are only for men, either as their wives or their whores.

We will not see a powerful woman in high heels but she will adapt and conform to the idea of powerful men even in her wardrobe.

They will always be seen as a more gentle and mild version of a man.

King Charles III with a kilt > traditional Scottish garment, that represents strength and the beauty of the male body in battle.

To a Western set of eyes it looks like a skirt. It takes a European eye to categorize that as “for women”.

(Ex. some typical African clothes usually worn by men.)

Sports uniforms

In sports uniforms: the male body has the right to be covered. The female one has not. Women are very much more judged on physical appearance than men are; men’s athletes are seen as strong and their body is appreciated for its physical abilities, women in sport are not judged by their strength or their capabilities but by their body shape.

Women are represented as in two separate trails and they do not look or interact with each other. Two separated entities.

Women are women’s worst enemies. Women are rivals and selfish between one another.

Men are members of the same team but they are watching one another, they touch physically, they are building a social relationship.

9/10

Cindy Lauper, 1983 - “Girls want to have fun”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A

Celebration of liberated bodies in the face of modern society that gives lots of instruction to girls about what to do with their body.

It was all about girls wanting to have fun, we have to make the most of what we have got, we don't have society’s favor. The most of what we have got is having fun.

Saturated and material with the typical things of 1980s, everything is very conspicuous.

The video is a celebration of bohemian femininity, liberated bodies and minds. Out of the structures of how they should behave and act.

Madonna, 1983 - “Like a Virgin”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s__rX_WL100

Representation of what it means to be a girl. 1980s anthem.

Some points look stupid but they are not. The scene is set in New York, where Madonna’s career started, then New York turns into Venice. We immediately get behind a sort of transformation.

“You make me feel like a virgin touched for the very first time - you make me feel shiny and new, like I've nothing to hide” supposition that she is not clean and new, not a virgin. That is only you who can do that. “I've made it through the wilderness and now you make me feel shiny and new”.

We can see the male transforming into a lion, a symbol of venire but also a symbol of aggression; she wants to be subjugated to him.

She presents herself as willingly subjugated, she is happy to him for making sense of her.

It conceptualizes society in a way that is degrading to be a girl in it. Why does she present herself as dirty and second-hand only made pure by his touch? Why is she denigrating herself?

He is presented as a lion and she is presented as a bride.

Madonna wearing 1980s clothes in New York turns herself into an ideological vision of femininity, choosing to present herself as subjugated to masculinity. (Dirty little girl made pure by his touch.) Why should you reinforce the machismo in Western culture? Not necessary.

Madonna’s vision is what goes with the brain of the predominant culture. The white dress is there to be saved by her lion.

White dress = symbol of the sexual domination on women. > Q. Tarantino Madonna speech in Reservoir Dogs.

Bronski Beat, 1984 - “Smalltown boy”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88sARuFu-tc

In a society that sees man as lions, some males represent the counterpart, masculinity was not just about being lions in a jungle world but also being marginalized, gloomy and oppressed.

What happened to gay people in small towns in the 1980s?

This video has quite a strong sense of narrativity. It’s a downbeat, a very depressing vision of marginalized masculinity. Everything is very foggy, except for the swimming pool (in which he sees the guy he is interested in, only to be brutally rejected). Everything is brown in a small-town scale, everything is about not wanting to be hurt and crippled.

“Gloomy”.

Oppressing and boring environment. He thinks he sees something different in his guy in the swimming pool, but he beats him up, brought by the policemen back to his family that is embarrassed by him. He is a victim of the environment and a victim of this gang who beats him up. In the end what he wants to do is to run away. A