Communicating across the cultures

1. Communicating across
Cultures – The language
that we can share
Joshva Raja
Queens Foundation
2006 November
Laughing Jesus

2. To send and receive
Transmission
view
To share and participate
Ritual View
To speak
To see
To hear
To taste
To smell
To touch
Communio –
communicare – to
share common

3. Words can mean many things!
When Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the
Chinese market, to their horror they
discovered that their slogan "finger lickin'
good" came out as "eat your fingers off"
An American T-shirt maker in Miami
printed shirts for the Spanish market which
promoted the Pope's visit Instead of "I
Saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I
Saw the Potato" (la papa)

4. My Audience – Am I Making Sense?
YouthChildren
Adults
Women
Outsider

5. Making sense to all beings?

6. Encoding
Decoding
EncodingDecoding
Message
Message
Interpreter Interpreter
Negotiation
Rejection
Acceptance
Stuart Hall

7. Pick pocket?!!

8. Do we recognize Different Cultural Groups among
our audience? It follows their interest…
High
Low or popular
Mass
folk
Sub

9. Pictures and Words?

10. Edward T Hall
Monochronic and Polychronic cultures
High context culture and low context
culture
Proxemics
The Silent Language, Beyond Culture, The
Dance of Life, and Hidden Differences

11. Many continents and diverse
cultural groups
Shaking head in
different directions
Saying Hallo means
different things to
different cultures -
Venezuela
Same word means
differently in different
places – Bhoodha
Aradhana

12. People’s Cultural Context
Student Teacher
Cultural Context of the people local and national
Global Context
High Cultural Context and
Low Cultural Context

13. MONOCHRONIC PEOPLE POLYCHRONIC PEOPLE
do one thing at a time do many things at once
concentrate on the job
are highly distractable and subject to
interruptions
take time commitments (deadlines,
schedules) seriously
consider an objective to be achieved, if
possible
are low-context and need information
are high-context and already have
information
are committed to the job
are committed to people and human
relationships
adhere religiously to plans change plans often and easily
are concerned about not disturbing
others; follow rules of privacy and
consideration
are more concerned with those who are
closely related (family, friends, close
business associates) than with
privacy
show great respect for private
property; seldom borrow or lend
borrow and lend things often and easily
emphasize promptness base promptness on the relationship
are accustomed to short-term
relationships
have strong tendency to build lifetime
relationships

15. Accept the differences
Different Communications Styles
Different Attitudes Toward Conflict
Different Approaches to Completing Tasks
Different Decision-Making Styles
Different Attitudes Toward Disclosure
Different Approaches to Knowing

16. Learn Offence! Offence! Offence
Surname calling for an elderly person in India is
an offence
Patting at the back in the North Eastern Culture
is an invitation to fight
Smiling in Japan during a good occasion is an
offence. And a display of frankness so common
to Americans perpetuates the Japanese
impression that the American people exhibit a
lack of discipline.
Giving the "thumbs up" signal in Australia is
impolite.

17. Try to Minimise
Stereotypical words, images…
Ethnocentric value judgements…
Categorising others as a monolithic groups
Qualifiers such as ‘The articulate Indian
American student’…

18. An Interaction across culture
A less-than-sensitive American once
asked an Indonesian about the Balinese
funeral custom of placing fresh fruit on a
grave. "When does your aunt climb out of
her grave to eat the banana?" he asked
with a smirk. "At the same time your uncle
comes up to smell the flowers," was the
matter-of-fact reply.

19. Teaching Cross Culturally needs to
recognise the fact that
Others too have views
Others too have Attitudes
Others have their own Values
Others have their own beliefs
Others have their own ways of looking at
things
Others have their own ways of learning
Others have their ways of understanding…

20. Are They empty Bottles

21. Teaching Cross culturally does not
mean Filling their Bottles?

22. Methods of teaching across
Cultures
Banking and Dialogic (Paulo Freire)
Crossing boundaries (Martin Buber – I
thou relationship not I-it relationship)
Respect and critique (Role of Organic
Intellectual - Gramsci)
Recognising and Bringing out meanings
within (Kierkegaard)

23. Cross Cultural skills
Willingness (Viruppu-
Tamil Words)
Contact (Thodarbu)
Relationship (Uravu)
Understanding (Purivu)
Courage (Thunivu)
Humbleness(Panivu)
Kindness (Kanivu)
De Nobili a Hinduized
Missionary

24. Cross Cultural teaching skills
Listen to the other
See the context
Touch the hands
Observe the acts
Smell the fragrance
Feel the environment
Think of good things
Taste the food
Imagine the mind of the other

25. Cross Cultural starting points
Misunderstanding leads to Understanding
Confusion leads to Fusion of cultures
Unity is not uniformity
Oneness is not sameness
Chaos is starting point of creation

26. Making some differences?
Buried for Treatment
in Japan for
treatment
In Australia for fun

27. Offerings are made to a mediator who is buried up to the
neck in sand. He suppresses the sensations of the flesh
while attempting to free his mind through meditation.

28. Because these people broke their
cultural barriers they could
transform the world!
Egyptian Nurses in Exodus
Peter and Paul in the first Christian
Council in Jerusalem
Francis of Assisi
Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela
Mother Theresa

29. Directions in Cross Cultural
teaching
Huntington Thesis 1992 – Clash of Civilizations -
Grouping of cultures
Edward Said – Clash of Ignorance between
cultural groups
Others not Monolithic groups – rather
heterogeneous groups.
Each cultural group have a common origin is
questionable!
Are we progressing towards a better world?

30. Resources
Basic Readings from Paulo Freire, Soren
Kierkegaard, Stuart Hall, Edward T Hall.
Joshva Raja, Relevant and Effective
Theological Education in the Twenty-First
Century India. WCC, Ministerial
Formation, 2002, January issue
http://www.maec.org/cross/5.html