On the significance of cross-cultural communication?

Cross-cultural communication is the communication between people with different cultural backgrounds. Close cross-cultural communication is an important feature of today's world. With the acceleration of economic globalization, cross-border and cross-cultural communication activities are becoming more and more frequent, and the cross-border communication of people with different cultural backgrounds is increasing. The emergence of a large number of multinational companies makes the trend of diversification of labor cultural background increasingly obvious. Cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more important. At the same time, cross-cultural communication, as a new discipline, has attracted more and more attention from linguistics and language teaching. Scholars have studied all aspects of cross-cultural communication and achieved many results. This is mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, the study of cultural differences. Cultural differences have not changed the universality of communication, but the involvement of cultural factors has increased the complexity and difficulty of communication. Since the anthropologist Calvero oberg popularized the word "cultural shock", cultural differences have been the focus of people's attention. This concern is carried out from two different levels: on the one hand, it is the cultural comparison between different countries, nationalities and cultural systems, such as the cultural differences between the East and the West, between China and Japan, between Japan and the United States, and so on; On the other hand, in order to effectively compare and analyze the above cultures, scholars have extracted some important dimensions from different cultures. There are four famous cultural dimensions of hofstede, six cultural dimensions of Ryan and Diest Fenno, and five cultural dimensions of Strom penas. In this model, different graphics represent different cultures; Smaller figures similar to cultural figures represent individuals influenced by culture, and the differences between them indicate that the formation of individuals is also influenced by other factors besides culture; Arrows represent the transmission of information between cultures. The consistency between information mode and personal mode means that when information leaves the culture that encodes it, it contains the intention of the coder. However, when the information reaches the culture, it will be decoded, the influence of the decoded culture becomes a part of the information meaning, and the implied meaning of the original information is modified. The more similar the cultures are, the closer the decoding result is to the implied meaning. With the help of the framework of communication event analysis proposed by D.Hymes( 1974), the influence of cultural differences on communication is further concretized. Generally speaking, cultural differences have an impact on all aspects of communicative participation structure. The communication participation structure is generally summarized into eight items, which are represented by the eight letters of the word "Shuo". Among them: s: "setting" and "scene", that is, background and occasion. P: "participants", that is, participants. In specific communication activities, the age, gender, race, occupation, social status, background characteristics and factors of the participants have an impact on communication. E: "purpose", that is, the participants' personal communication purpose, including the expected results according to conventions (that is, social and cultural conventions) and each participant's personal goals. A: "Behavior sequence" means the sequence of communication behaviors, including the content (topic) of information and the expression form of content. K: "Key" refers to tone, including tone, expression and posture. Serious, joking, exaggerated or ironic, quiet or emotional, etc. Me: "Instrumentality", that is, media and channels, mainly refers to which language or language variety (such as dialect and register) is used to transmit information, whether it is spoken or written. N: "Norms" mainly refer to various agreements that people must follow in their speech acts when communicating. Specifically, it is to communicate participants' "when to say, when not to say, when to say, to whom, when to say, where to say, how to say" and so on. G: "Genre", that is, genre, refers to the types of discourse in communication activities, such as poems, fables, myths, prayers, jokes, riddles, curses, speeches, letters, comments and announcements. Third, the study of cross-cultural communication skills. Participation structure is an unwritten rule of culture for communication. Both sides of communication may not know the participation structure of the other culture, or even the specific situation of the participation structure in their own culture. This requires both sides to have a stronger psychological tolerance for the uncertainty in communication, a more tolerant, open and flexible attitude towards "abnormal" situations, and be good at using various communication skills to deal with and solve problems. These skills include: presupposing differences, avoiding cultural centralism, tolerating ambiguity, flexibility, sense of humor and adventurous spirit. The above research provides a good guide for our cross-cultural communication. However, in practice, we will still encounter such a situation: participants in cross-cultural communication understand each other's cultural differences and respect these differences in all aspects of communication, but respecting differences not only does not make communication go smoothly, but creates another problem. For example, a professor from China visited the home of a foreign teacher. After entering the door, the foreign teacher asked the professor if he wanted something to drink. The professor was not thirsty, but he saidno. The foreign teacher asked the professor for something to drink again, and the professor refused again. The foreign teacher said, "I know the habits of China people. When you say' no', you hope the other person can bring it up again. Never mind, drink! " The professor replied, "I also know your American habits." When you say' no', it means to refuse directly. I answered in your way. " Obviously, in the above situation, the obstacle to communication is not the neglect of cultural differences. On the contrary, it can even be said that it is the emphasis on cultural differences that leads to the problems. Therefore, successful cross-cultural communication not only requires us to understand each other's cultural differences, but also requires us to understand the mechanism of cultural differences in communication. Second, the influence mechanism of cultural differences on cross-cultural communication In cross-cultural communication, according to our understanding of the other culture, there may be three situations: complete strangers; Have a certain understanding, but it is too simplified or inaccurate; More comprehensive understanding. In these three situations, cultural differences may affect communication in different ways, namely, cultural transfer, cultural stereotype and anti-cultural transfer. 1, cultural transfer, refers to cross-cultural communication, people subconsciously use their own cultural standards and values to guide their own words and deeds and thoughts, and use this as a standard to judge others' words and deeds and thoughts. The following example is a typical example of cultural transfer: an American works as a production manager in a subsidiary in Peru, and he firmly believes that American-style democratic management can improve the production enthusiasm of Peruvian workers. He invited experts from the company's headquarters to train the workshop leaders of subsidiaries and teach them how to solicit workers' opinions and adopt them from reasonable parts. However, shortly after the implementation of this democratic management method, Peruvian workers demanded to resign. The reason is that in Peru and the whole Latin American culture, people respect authority, and subordinates not only obey their superiors; We should also regard the boss as our own master and hope that the boss will be responsible for his own life. The workers think that asking their opinions means that the boss doesn't know what to do, but asks them. Since the boss is incompetent, there is no hope for the company. In order to find a new job in time, you'd better leave early. However, the production manager didn't know much about it (or out of cultural centralism), and speculated on Peruvian employees with the idea that Americans advocated individualism and strong sense of participation, which led to the failure of communication between the two sides. It is very common for people (consciously or unconsciously) to measure the psychological tendency of others with their own values. A person learns the behavior and way of thinking of this cultural group from childhood until internalization and habituation. From the perspective of one culture, it seems unreasonable to assume that another culture can choose a "better way" to act. Therefore, for all ethnic groups, they often put their own culture in a respected position and use their own standards to explain and judge everything in other cultures. Extreme words will also show a tendency to be "superior", rigidly accepting cultural similarities and rejecting cultural dissidents. The main reason of cultural migration lies in ignoring cultural differences. In this case, cultural transfer is an unconscious behavior. Cultural transfer may also be conscious, mainly because of cultural centralism. Understanding the differences between different cultures and values is a necessary prerequisite to eliminate cultural migration. Only by understanding the cultural customs, beliefs, values and their connotations of different nationalities can we truly complete the exchange of thoughts and feelings. In fact, although there are differences between advanced culture and cultural lag, any culture has its unique value, which matches its special environment. The emergence, existence and development of a cultural phenomenon are all related to the specific historical conditions of people's lives. Successful cross-cultural communication requires us to cultivate empathy ability: before transmitting information, put ourselves in the position of the receiver; When receiving information, first recognize the values, attitudes and experiences, reference points, growth and background of the sender. Put yourself in other people's situations and experiences, thus producing the ability of emotional singing. In addition to avoiding cultural centralism, presupposing differences is also an important way to avoid cultural migration. That is, before confirming their similarity, we should assume that there are differences, improve cultural sensitivity, and pay attention to adjusting our observation angle according to cultural factors at any time. The essence of presupposition difference is to keep the openness and dynamics of thinking. Some preconceived ideas are the basis of our understanding of things, but the preset differences require us to regard these existing ideas as a hypothesis, not truth, and we must carefully evaluate the feedback provided by the recipients and correct them at any time according to the actual situation. 2. Cultural stereotype, also known as stereotype, was first used by W. Lippman in Public Opinion (1922), which refers to people's simplified view of another group member. Cultural stereotype may be caused by excessive generalization, that is, it is asserted that every member of a group has the cultural characteristics of the whole group. It may also be caused by ignoring the dynamics and variability of culture. For example, many scholars believe that there are great differences between Chinese and English in compliment response. People think that China people advocate modesty and like to show their modesty by denying others' praise. Many people always habitually take "where, where" and "flattering me" as typical coping styles when referring to compliment responses in Chinese. This understanding may lead to misunderstanding in two aspects. First of all, not all China people take this kind of response, so they may not understand the "immodest" response. Secondly, although previous research shows that people in China tend to refuse compliments from others, recent research shows that people in China have changed a lot in this respect. Although I will accept it, I will try to avoid showing my praise. Because people's information processing ability is limited, in order to help people from different cultures understand each other, it is necessary to sum up cultural differences and establish some cultural stereotypes. In this sense, a certain degree of cultural stereotype is inevitable. However, these stereotypes "over-generalize" or "mark" differences, which may artificially create obstacles and hinder cross-cultural communication and understanding. This is not to say that cultural stereotypes are always wrong. Cultural stereotype usually contains many accurate cultural observations. However, cultural stereotypes can easily affect our understanding of cultural phenomena in the form of expected culture. People see what they want to see. People are not only more attracted to things that meet our expectations, but also more inclined to make explanations that meet our expectations. Cultural stereotypes may limit our understanding to one or two prominent dimensions, hinder our observation of other equally important aspects, make us unaware of the objective differences, and thus lead to the failure of cross-cultural communication. The research shows that experts in various fields are different from beginners in this field, not because they ignore the role of scripts and prototypes, but because they have formed more complex, specific and accurate scripts and prototypes through long-term contact with people and things in this field. In other words, the problem is not that you can't avoid stereotypes from the beginning, but how to realize that your existing knowledge may be incomplete or wrong. Get more comprehensive and accurate observation in communication practice. 3. Cultural differences are the main factors that cause cross-cultural communication barriers. Therefore, understanding cultural differences as comprehensively as possible is the focus of people's attention. But knowing each other's cultural characteristics may not be able to avoid obstacles. The following is a general communication flow chart. Obviously, the perfect communication is to realize the complete consistency between thought 1 and thought 2, but thought itself cannot be transmitted, and it must be mediated by symbols. In this way, only when both sides have the same understanding of the same symbol, that is, the coding rule of A = the decoding rule of B, will the situation of thought 1= thought 2 appear. Cultural differences, from the perspective of communication, are the inconsistency of coding or decoding rules for symbols. Statically speaking, in a specific communication process: if both sides know nothing about each other's culture, it will obviously be a case of "mistaking another country for hometown" and cultural migration, that is, assuming that the decoding rules of A = are consistent, thinking 1= thinking 2; However, if both parties know each other's culture well and adapt to each other on the premise that the encoding or decoding method of the other party remains unchanged, that is, sender A adjusts its encoding rule to B and receiver B also adjusts its decoding rule to A, then the problem of inconsistent encoding and decoding rules only exists in another way; Only when one party's coding or decoding method remains unchanged, the other party actively adapts to both A and B, or both parties agree to adopt the new rule C, can communication proceed smoothly. The above-mentioned dialogue between Professor China and foreign teachers belongs to the second situation. Obviously, the obstacle is not the ignorance or neglect of cultural differences between the two sides, but the fact that the two sides gave up their own position and adopted the other side's position at the same time, which made the encoding and decoding methods appear new inconsistencies. This is similar to cultural migration, but it appears in the form of reverse, so it is called anti-cultural migration. In actual communication, the above problems often appear at the same time. For example, before implementing cross-cultural management, managers usually receive corresponding cross-cultural training. After this kind of cultural training, they have a certain degree of understanding of different cultures. In their minds, establish a culture that they think is formed on the basis of training, that is, the culture of expectation. Because this understanding is usually concise, cultural stereotypes may appear in communication; Similarly, this kind of understanding cannot be comprehensive, so in the gap of difference consciousness, managers will still be influenced by the original culture intentionally or unintentionally, resulting in cultural migration; With the deepening of mutual understanding between managers and employees, out of the desire of sincere communication, they are likely to sympathize with each other, but if they can't agree on each other's participation structure, then there may be anti-cultural transfer. It should be mentioned that only understanding the mechanism of cultural differences will not contribute to cross-cultural communication. Only under the premise of understanding the three mechanisms of cultural differences can we deepen our understanding of cultural differences in the actual process; On the one hand, cross-cultural communication can be continuously promoted only by maintaining problem awareness, comprehensively using various communication skills and constantly resolving differences.