LANGUAGE & CULTURE
WHAT IS
LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE
& THOUGHT
TRANSLATION VS INTERPRETATION
FUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGES
A language is a set of symbols that a cultural group has agreed to use to create meaning.
The symbols and their meaning are often arbitrary.
based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.
ℹ Language is a set of symbols
ℹ The meanings of a particular language are agreed and shared by/within a cultural group
ℹ The meanings are arbitrary – but can be denotative (literal) or connotative (beyond the literal meaning)
Connotative meaning:
i.e., "Cat out of the bag"
"Black cat" = witchcraft
"A cat lady"
Social interaction
Social cohesion
Expressions of identity
ℹ same species to integrate and unite
ℹ transference of cultures
Language shapes the thought processes of its users.
People who speak different languages perceive and think about the world differently.
✍ Interpreters are important 🗣
– to overcome language barriers
(i.e.: Language barriers in healthcare)
🗣 Interpreting is not equivalent to translating ✍
– real-time and often not as accurate and requires cultural understanding.
👥 Consecutive: The speaker pauses after every few sentences and allows the interpreter to translate.
👥 Simultaneous: An interpreter translates as soon as the speaker stops speaking
🗣 Cultural considerations in interpreting: 🗣
💡 No equivalent terms/ words
💡 Different meanings and use
💡 Indirect and direct styles
💡 Localisation and colloquialisms
BARRIERS TO
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
“Intercultural communication involves interaction between people whose cultural perceptions and symbols are distinct enough to alter the communication event.”
Samovar, Porter and McDaniel (2010: 12)
“Intercultural communication occurs when large and important cultural differences create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about how to communicate competently.”
Lustig and Koester (2013: 49)
ℹ Language differences
Example: flea market, workplace environment, etc
ℹ Varying quirks and mannerisms
Other challenges to intercultural communication
ℹ Seeking similarities - leads to exclusion
ℹ Anxiety - also stems from inferiority complex
ℹ Withdrawal - the refusal to engage with people of varying culture
ℹ Stereotyping
ℹ Prejudice
ℹ Racism
ℹ Ethics consideration
🎗 STEREOTYPING 🎗
💡 A non-scientific cognitive structure containing the perceiver’s knowledge, beliefs and expectancies about some human social groups.
💡 Positive stereotypes and negative stereotypes– overgeneralisation
💡 Acquired through socialisation – family, schools and the media
💡 Filtered information
💡 General assumption applies to all
💡 Oversimplified, exaggerated and overgeneralised information
💡 Resistant to change
🎗 PREJUDICE 🎗
💡 A deeply held positive or negative feelings associated with a particular group
💡 Ingroup vs Outgroup/Us vs Them
💡 Provides a sense of superiority and power.
💡 Four more common functions of prejudice are:
(i) Ego defensive: in denial of one’s prejudice
(ii) Utilitarian: believing that prejudicial beliefs result in a positive outcome
(iii) Value expressive: maintain prejudice in the belief that it represents higher moral values
(iv) Knowledge: Simplistic understanding of the world.
🎁 Positive Stereotypes: 🎁
💡 Africans or African-Americans have more athleticism
💡 Canadians are polite
🎁 Negative Stereotypes: 🎁
💡 Women Who Marry Older Men Are Gold Diggers
💡 Police Officers Are Racists
🎁 Utilitarian example: 🎁
💡 Suggesting the removal of Hispanics because they are tainting the workforce quality
🎁 Value Expressive example: 🎁
💡 1521 Excommunication of Martin Luther
🎁 Knowledge example: 🎁
💡 Ignorant generalization/stereotyping
🚶 5 Scales of Expressions of Prejudice: 🚶
ℹ Antilocution – negative verbal remarks about a person or a group
ℹ Avoidance – Physically withdraw or avoid contact
ℹ Discrimination – Exclusion all members of a group from access of opportunity etc
ℹ Physical Attacks – Physical aggression against a person or a group or their property
ℹ Extermination – Physical violence with the intent of total elimination.
🎗 3 LEVELS OF RACISM: 🎗
💡 Individual – beliefs of one’s superiority over another race
💡 Institutional – exclusion from equal participation because of one’s race
💡 Cultural – denies the existence of the culture of a particular group
📚 DEFINITION: 📚
“Racism is the belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race that denies the basic quality of humankind and correlates ability with physical composition. Thus it assumes that success or failure in any societal endeavour will depend upon genetic endowment rather than environment and access to opportunity”
🎗 Ethics in Communication: 🎗
💡 Relativism
• Ethical systems vary among cultures and are equally valid
• Values and morality are culturally bound
• There is no single true morality
💡 Universalism
• Universal ethical precepts that apply to all cultures
• Single acceptable moral principles