3.3 Intercultural encounters Flashcards
Intercultural encounters and intercultural competence
An intercultural encounter takes place when you become aware that you are interacting with a member of a different community whose ways of thinking
are quite distinct from your own. These experiences often occur when you go abroad, but they can take place in any society that has many different cultural groups, such as the UK, for example. During an intercultural encounter, you become aware that you and the other person are operating according to different sets of beliefs and values. This may mean that you are acting in ways that are unfamiliar to each other, which can provoke a sense of unease in one or both participants. But such encounters can offer significant learning
opportunities, provided that you use them to think about your own
expectations, and to explore the cultural assumptions that appear to be shaping your behaviour and that of the other person (your interlocutor).
Reflection of this kind is one of the main ways in which you can acquire what is known as ‘intercultural competence’
Intercultural competence
Refers to a person’s ability to communicate with people from other cultures in a manner that is both effective and appropriate.
Intercultural competencies
are the ‘knowledge, skills and attitudes that comprise a person’s ability to get along with, work and learn with people from diverse cultures.’ (The Higher Education Academy, 2014)
What are the flaws of ‘argument by analogy’ and ‘generalisation’
Analogies invariable break down, while generalisations often prove unsustainable in the face of further evidence. Neither is to be trusted when trying to make sense of other cultures.
Argument by analogy
an argument which involves comparing two different things in order to highlight a perceived similarity. For example, ‘Raising children is like training horses: you only succeed if you strike
the right balance between trust and discipline’.
Generalisation
an argument which involves basing general propositions
on the observation of particular details. For example, ‘Inasample of
1000 US residents, 59% had blue or green eyes and 41% had brown
eyes. Therefore, over half of the American population have blue or
green eyes’
Overgeneralisation
a generalisation, based on little evidence, that is applied more widely than it should be. For example, ‘I know two blue eyed men and they are both very poor dancers: blue-eyed men are poor
dancers’
Can cultural encounters be challenging and how can we learn from it?
They can be extremely valuable learning experiences, often highly enjoyable but also challenging in many ways. Even challenging situations can be rich in learning potential, provided
that the people involved are able to look back and draw positive lessons from them.There is a technique, known as critical incident analysis, designed by
psychologists to help people learn from situations (‘critical incidents’) where
some kind of problem has occurred. The ‘critical incident technique’ (CIT)
was developed and used between 1944 and 1954 in the United States Army
Air Forces by Colonel John C. Flanagan, Director of the Division of Aviation
Psychology, to determine effective and ineffective work practices among
aviators. The technique comprises five steps:
1 determining and reviewing the incident
2 collecting details about the incident from participants
3 identifying issues
4 determining ways to resolve issues
5 evaluating the proposed solution.
CIT is often used in business settings to investigate customer complaints, or
to identify internal problems within organisations. More recently, a team of
scholars working for the Council of Europe started to apply the technique to
help people learn from the kinds of critical incidents that occur in
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intercultural encounters.
Critical Incident
a real-life situation from which useful lessons can be learned by means of a thorough analysis of what happened. Critical incident analysis is used in a variety of fields, including intercultural studies. In intercultural training, reflecting on critical incidents leads participants to question their own behaviour, beliefs, attitudes and values.
Do all cultural encounters revolve around nationality?
not all intercultural
encounters necessarily revolve around nationality (i.e. British meets Spanish;
Spanish meets Korean) as the main source of cultural differences, other aspects of culture are important too. In the first example,
differences in musical traditions and practices were probably just as
important, if not more, than national or linguistic differences.
Does identity vary from person to person
may be described and defined
in a variety of ways and has many different aspects, such as
nationality, age, gender, religion, occupation, etc. Also, the importance given to these aspects varies from one person to another.
