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.