Intercultural Communication Training

An Introduction

Richard W. Brislin, Tomoko Yoshida

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 1994
• ISBN:
  9781506320557
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This unique handbook provides an organizational framework for planning and establishing intercultural communication training programs. Drawing from intercultural communication and cross-cultural training, this guide emphasizes those aspects of training that explicitly involve face-to-face communication. The approaches covered apply to any situation where good personal relations and effective communication need to be established with people from different cultural backgrounds.

1

An Introduction to Programs, Goals, and Needs Assessment for Training

The Great Wait

Fakir was a graduate student from India enrolled at one of the large universities in the American midwest. He arrived at his school in early August of last year and checked in with the international students’ office to make sure his student visa was in order. He was told that there would be an orientation program for international students from August 5 to 12 during which participants would learn about, and even obtain some firsthand experience in, skills that would help in their adjustment to the United States and to graduate school. Fakir turned down the opportunity to participate, saying to himself that “I’m an adult who worked hard for my first degree in India. What major problems could there be working toward another degree?” He also wanted to visit his cousin at a school in a neighboring state prior to the start of classes on August 15.

Over the course of his first year in graduate school, Fakir was one of the better students in terms of his written work and the grades he received. Professors even pointed to him as one of the department’s sharpest students. There was one aspect of his studies, however, that was causing problems. He did not seem able to set up a committee of faculty members who would guide him on his master’s degree thesis work. Other students, mostly Americans, had set up their committees, and this was distressing to Fakir because he knew that he was receiving better grades than some of them. Fakir happened to visit the international students office (visa again!) and happened to find one of the advisers, a woman named Shirley, in a rare moment of relative calm. Shirley said, “Your visa situation looks fine. Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” Fakir took this opportunity to tell about his problem in his department. Shirley replied, “It’s a fairly common complaint that I hear. Some people explain it this way. Many students from South Asia expect a professor to call them in and to tell them what thesis topics to consider. These students come from cultures in which students are expected to be highly deferential to a professor’s wishes. The American professors, on the other hand, expect graduate students to come in and to propose a set of ideas that might be investigated. The American professors come from a culture in which individual initiative from a graduate student is appreciated. It’s sometimes called ‘the great wait.’ The international graduate student is waiting for the professors to call him or her into their offices. The American professors are waiting for the student to make an appointment and to propose ideas. My recommendation is to write down what ideas you might want to study and to then make an appointment with a professor who may be interested in those or similar ideas.”

Fakir responded emotionally, “This all makes sense. Why didn’t someone tell me earlier?” Shirley bit her tongue and did not point out that Fakir had turned down an invitation to attend a cross-cultural training program a year earlier.

Intercultural Communication and Cross-Cultural Training

Intercultural communication training refers to formal efforts designed to prepare people for more effective interpersonal relations when they interact with individuals from cultures other than their own (Carbaugh, 1990; Paige, 1992). These efforts are most frequently encountered as part of cross-cultural training programs, or formal, well-planned, budgeted, and staffed programs designed to prepare for the wide variety of issues people face when adjusting to another culture (Bhawuk, 1990; Brislin, 1989; Brislin & Pedersen, 1976; Landis & Brislin, 1983). The terms are often used interchangeably. One reason is that it is hard to think of cross-cultural adjustment issues that do not involve communication among people. Even if adjustment issues such as housing, climate, and transportation are covered, there will be communication issues involving interactions with landlords, merchants, and ticket agents as people deal with the issues in other cultures. The other reason for the frequent inter-changeability of terms is that attitudes and skills directly related to intercultural communication are strongly related to people’s overall adjustment to, and satisfaction with, their work in other cultures (Gudykunst & Hammer, 1984; Hammer, 1989). In this book, we will be drawing from the published literature on both intercultural communication and cross-cultural training, and we will be emphasizing those aspects of training that explicitly involve face-to-face communication among people. The guidelines for establishing good training are applicable to a wide variety of programs for people working in a country other than the one in which they hold citizenship (e.g., the graduate student from India studying in the United States). They are also applicable to programs that prepare people from one cultural background to interact with members of another when all live in the same country (e.g., African Americans interacting with Anglos in the workplace).

Various Target Audiences for Intercultural Communication Training

The field of intercultural communication training has developed extensively since World War II. Reasons include the continuing increases in the already large numbers of students who seek out educational opportunities in countries other than their own; increased air travel; the development of a global marketplace; increasing sensitivities to gender and ethnic differences in the workplace; the movement of immigrants and refugees; the development of programs aimed at person-to-person contact (Peace Corps, Youth Exchange Programs); and others. Examples of programs for a variety of target audiences, all using the same basic approaches that will be reviewed in Chapters 2 through 5 of this book, allow examination of the range of intercultural experiences that people have today and will continue to have into the 21st century. The list of programs emphasizes work done since about 1982, given the existence of books that reviewed programs carried out prior to that year (Brislin & Pedersen, 1976; Landis & Brislin, 1983). Programs have been established for these and other audiences:

1. International students who work toward degrees in countries other than their own (Mabe, 1989; Miller, 1989);
2. Adolescents who spend a significant amount of time living with a family in another culture (Cushner, 1989);
3. The Peace Corps, consisting of volunteers who are assigned to work on various community projects in other countries (Barnes, 1985);
4. Health care workers, including counselors, physicians, and nurses who deal with a multicultural clientele (Berry, Kessler, Fodor, & Wato, 1983; Day, 1990; Heath, Neimeyer, & Pedersen, 1988; Kristal, Pennock, Foote, & Trygstad, 1983; Lefley, 1984);
5. Social workers working with clients from cultural backgrounds other than their own (Jones, 1983; Montalvo, Lasater, & Valdez, 1982);
6. Refugees, especially from Southeast Asia, seeking help in their adjustment to cultural differences in education, medical care, housing, and social services (Center for Applied Linguistics, 1982; Redick & Wood, 1982; Williams, 1985);
7. Technical assistant advisers, usually from highly industrialized nations, assigned to project development in less industrialized countries (Bussom, Elsaid, Schermerhorn, & Wilson, 1984);
8. Overseas businesspeople and international traders seeking joint agreements and sales of products and services (Aranda, 1986; Bogorya, 1985; Inman, 1985; Rippert-Davila, 1985);
9. Elementary school children having difficulties interacting with age peers from other cultures (Bergsgaard & Larsonn, 1984; Esquivel & Keitel, 1990);
10. School counselors, and other school personnel, in multicultural communities (Carey, Reinart, & Fontes, 1990; Gonzalez, 1985; Laughlin, 1984; Webb, 1990);
11. Job seekers in the United States who have limited English language proficiency (Buchanan, 1990);
12. Native Americans seeking job counseling in their search for employment outside reservations (McShane, 1987; Runion & Gregory, 1984);
13. White Australians living in rural areas and interacting frequently with Aboriginal Australians (Davidson, Hansford, & Moriarty, 1983);
14. Tourists seeking out intercultural understanding as part of their vacations (Fisher & Price, 1991);
15. Personnel officers in large organizations seeking programs for managers who deal with subordinates of the other gender (Berryman-Fink & Fink, 1985);
16. Diplomats, or others representing their governments, assigned to other countries (Marquardt & Hempstead, 1983).

There are several commonalties in this wide-ranging list of audiences for programs, and these commonalities form the basis of any book like the present one that provides an introduction to intercultural communication training. The commonalities include (a) the necessity of establishing good interpersonal relations with people, and (b) communicating effectively in the presence of cultural differences that can interfere with good relations. At times, the reasons for communication difficulties are totally invisible to people since they are part of their socialization as to what is “correct and proper” in their own culture. Recall the incident that introduced this chapter: Fakir was socialized to wait for a call from his professors. Shirley pointed out another culture’s norm is that people should show initiative and should approach people in authority with their suggestions. People rarely have the opportunity to examine their socialization and to ask “why” certain behaviors are considered correct in their culture. This can be done in good training programs. Other commonalities are that people want to accomplish goals in their dealings with people from other cultures (e.g., degrees for international students, sales for international traders), and they want to experience as little stress as possible while doing so. These commonalities lead to a discussion of four goals commonly found in intercultural communication training programs.

The Goals of Training Programs

When examined carefully, most good training programs incorporate at least four goals that are all related to people’s adjustment and effectiveness (Bhawuk, 1990; Brislin, 1989; Hammer, 1989). In the examples used to clarify points, we will most often refer to overseas assignments, although very similar examples could be put forth that deal with intercultural communication within any one large country.

ENJOYMENT AND BENEFIT

The first goal is that people should be exposed to training materials and exercises that will increase the enjoyment they experience and the benefits they receive. Enjoyment refers to a sense of happiness and excitement such that people look forward to getting up in the morning and going to work. Rather than simply tolerating an unpleasant interruption in their lives, people should feel enthusiastic about their intercultural interactions and the stimulation they can bring. At times, a sense of active enjoyment is very difficult and the goals of training should then focus on benefits. For example, married international students from Asia often leave their families behind and travel to North America or Europe for 4 or more years of study. The experience is admittedly difficult given the absence of their families and the 80- to 90-hour workweeks they choose to set for themselves so that they can return home as soon as possible. In cases like this, training can focus on benefits such as the quality of graduate instruction and guidance in developing effective work relationships with professors and fellow graduate students. Because good intercultural relationships (whether work oriented, interpersonal, or both) are central to adjustment (Gudykunst & Hammer, 1984; Hammer, 1989), suggestions for developing these relationships are central to training. One way to measure program success is to ask people, after they have actually begun their assignments, if they have developed intercultural relationships. Questions can deal with how much voluntary free time is spent with people from the host culture, and how many hosts can be called upon in times of need.

THE ATTITUDES OF HOSTS TOWARD SOJOURNERS

An aspect of the first goal, then, is that sojourners should report good relations with hosts. The second goal reminds us that sojourner self-reports are not enough: feelings about positive relations must be reciprocated by hosts. If attention is given to the combination of goals (1) and (2), then there is the possibility of identifying a type of person with whom most readers are probably familiar. This is the type of person who reports that he or she has many friends and who can list their names. If the people on the list are interviewed, they say that the person is obnoxious, difficult to get along with, and thoroughly conceited to think that the list represents the names of friends.

Research in intercultural communication has demonstrated the importance of positive interpersonal relations. Hawes and Kealey (1981) carried out research on the experiences of technical assistance advisers from Canada working in a number of less industrialized nations. In addition to interviewing the advisers, they also asked questions of the hosts with whom the advisers were working closely (sometimes called “counterparts”). Hawes and Kealey found that, after the advisers returned home to Canada, some were remembered more positively than others. The advisers who were remembered favorably had established good interpersonal relationships with counterparts so that they could transfer the technological skills they knew. The transfer of skills is especially important since these can be some of the “products left behind” by visiting sojourners. For example, assume the technical assistance advisers were sent to build sanitation facilities. The advisers who were remembered as the most successful transferred their engineering skills so that counterparts could both maintain existing facilities and build others. A fact that must be constantly kept in mind is that most sojourners return to their home countries. In addition to leaving behind the visible products of their efforts, such as roads, buildings, and written policies, they can also leave behind the less visible skills that allow these products to be created. The development of positive interpersonal relationships allows skills transfer to take place.

PEOPLE’S OWN GOALS

Any discussion of skill transfer made possible by good interpersonal relationships leads to considerations of a third goal of training. Good training programs provide information that will help people achieve their goals. Very few sojourners live in other cultures without very explicit goals. Even those who seem simply to be taking time out from their careers and experiencing life elsewhere have the goal of encountering and dealing with cultural differences, finding stimulation, having the opportunity to rethink their lives in their own culture, and so forth. Goals are more obvious for other types of sojourners. International students want to obtain their degrees within a reasonable amount of time. Overseas businesspeople want to establish joint trade agreements. Technical assistance advisers want to complete development projects and, if they are sensitive to the issues raised above, want to transfer their skills. Health care workers want to deliver the best medical care possible. Social workers want their clients to benefit from social services for a certain amount of time, but they also want their clients to develop the skills necessary to become independent of tax-supported social services.

Given their knowledge of trainee goals, program developers can choose training methods to communicate information and skills relevant to goal accomplishment. International students working in the United States can be introduced to skills that might be infrequently used in their own country, such as showing initiative in the selection of research topics, speaking up in seminars, occasionally disagreeing with professors, preparing term papers and theses in an acceptable style, and so forth. Overseas businesspeople from North America working in Asia can be introduced to cultural differences in the appropriateness of “getting down to business” in contrast to spending time in engaging in small talk so that interpersonal trust can be established. Let’s continue with this example to see the range of information and skills that can be introduced. In role-playing exercises (to be discussed more fully in Chapters 5 and 6 of this book), trainees can play the parts of overseas businesspeople and hosts, sometimes engagi...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. An Introduction to Programs, Goals, and Needs Assessment for Training
• 2. Awareness and Knowledge as Content Areas for Intercultural Communication Training
• 3. Emotional Challenges
• 4. Acquiring Intercultural Communication Skills
• 5. Putting the Elements Together: Designing and Administering an Effective Intercultural Training Program
• 6. The Evaluation of Training Programs
• 7. Issues Affecting the Future of Intercultural Training
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• About the Authors