22: Some Helpful Ideas
The author suggests that the degree to which a person will tolerate and enjoy being in a foreign nation is largely a matter of "intercultural competence," a set of attitudes and skills that make them better able to cope and adapt. This is the reason that two individuals who come to America from the same country, and are similar in class, religion, and other factors often have very different experience.
(EN: All of this seems quite vague, and glancing ahead, I'm getting the sense this chapter will be cover a variety of topics that didn't fit neatly into previous chapters. That's not a bad thing, if it's known in advance.)
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
As a basic definition, intercultural competence is suggested to be "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavior skills that support affective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts." The author goes on to explain this pompous phrase, but it comes down to this: thinking and acting so as to decrease conflict with people of different cultures.
In terms of thinking, some key topics to meditate upon are:
- Self-awareness: knowing your own values and assumptions and recognizing them as products of a culture
- Prejudice: knowing what assumptions you have about the cultures of others, and accepting you have them.
- Knowledge: how much do you know about the culture you plan to visit, and is that information reliable
- Observation: What past experiences do you have, both first-person and the trusted accounts of others, about a culture
A list of skills is also provided:
- Relationship: Being able to approach others, initiate and sustain interaction, and "deepen" a relationship.
- Behavioral: Being able to apply concepts that are mentally grasped to actions taken
- Empathy: Being able to "read" the reaction of another person and attempt to understand their perspective
- Research: Being adept at finding information
And finally, a list of characteristics:
- Curiosity - A desire to learn and understand more about the world around you, aside of what is strictly necessary for immediate needs
- Cognitive Flexibility - The ability to "reframe" situations - to make a genuine attempt to understand a different point of view.
- Motivation - A genuine desire to succeed in intercultural situations and a resilience against difficulties encountered
- Objectivity - The ability to avoid making judgments and instead try to learn about the motivation for others' behavior
There a re likely other topics, skills, and characteristics that will help a person to be more successful in intercultural relationships, but this is a fairly good start, and quite a lot for some to work upon.
EXPECTATIONS
Expectations are of considerable importance in intercultural interaction. A person's expectations may be positive or negative, and the degree to which they bear out in reality impacts the level of satisfaction they take from intercultural interaction. An expectation met is satisfactory, one that is not met is either a disappointment or a valued lesson - sometimes both.
Going into a situation with awareness of your expectations is important. Reflecting on it afterward and assessing the validity of expectations is where real learning and personal growth occur.
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
Researchers have attempted to determine the traits associated with successful intercultural experiences, and have identified four in particular:
- Patience - A person who remains calm when things do not go as expected, and is willing to take time and try different approaches
- Curiosity - A person who is genuinely interested in their environment and are stimulated by observation
- Humor - The ability to "laugh off" embarrassment and frustration that occurs in awkward or difficult situations
- Acceptance - A person who can simply accept a situation rather than attempt to rationalize everything to a minute level of detail
The author dwells a while on the last topic, suggesting that it is critical; in intercultural relationships to be able simply to take things as they come, even if you do not completely understand, or even when you find the situation disagreeable. This will happen quite often in intercultural interactions.
CONSIDERING SITUATIONS
It's noted that lone of the mistakes people make in intercultural situations is coming to a conclusion about an action without considering the situation. An example given is drawing a conclusion about a person who is brusque or dismissive - when their reaction may be emotional carry-over from other situations that recently occurred rather than the situation at hand. The example is an employee who just got chewed out by their boss and has to serve a customer.
The better we know a person, the more likely we are to be aware of their situation, immediately and in general, and the better we can assess when behavior is normal or unusual, and in the latter case estimate it may be situational, even if we don't know what the specific details are.
In general, consider that any behavior is viewed in a very narrow context, and there may be factors in the broader context that influence their behavior - do not assume, based on a single encounter, that a given behavior is typical of the person or of the culture.
SHOCK AND ADJUSTMENT
There is the general pattern that occurs when a person is immersed in a foreign culture. There is a period of bewilderment and slow learning by observation, then a period of overconfidence, and then moment of "culture shock" when they feel overwhelmed and hopeless, and a slower period of adjustment afterward until they gain a level of comfort in the environment.
(EN: I have seen this pattern described elsewhere, and wonder if it's not based on Western psychology - and as such how applicable it would be to visitors from different cultures. However, it can also be seen to occur in any change in physical location, a change in situation such as a new job, or even a dramatic life event such as the birth of a child.)
The period of slow learning may begin long before a visit, as American culture is widespread, and most people have been hearing about American life for most of their own lives and have strong preconceptions about what to expect. Shortly before a visit, a traveler might be more active in seeking out information about his destination. As such, "culture shock" may come soon after the beginning of their visit.
The notion of "culture shock" is further examined in three elements by one researcher (Bennett). It may take the form of culture surprise, typically a pleasant discovery or realization. Culture stress is said to occur when a person finds it difficult to accomplish things they expect to be simple or routine. Culture shock, proper, entails a sense of disorientation - feeling lost and overwhelmed.
The shock can be highly unpleasant or embarrassing for some people, and they may be reluctant to speak about or even admit their experience, but it is an almost universal phenomenon. For some, the shock may be too much to bear, and they may seek to withdraw from interactions with others, or even to prematurely return to their own country. For most people, the culture shock passes with time - it should be expected, and can better be tolerated with the understanding that the situation and the person's sentiments will generally improve afterward.
In general, a person becomes better adjusted after the shock has passed, but for some individuals, negative feelings return: disappointment, frustration, depression, and anger. There are often feelings of hostility or disrespect directed at the natives, or depression and self-doubt. These may or may not pass, depending on the length of one's stay and underlying personality.
In general, the period of adjustment is one in which a foreigner gains competence, and gains confidence, as they learn to handle more situations with greater ease. This provides a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, and acceptance of one's "place" in the new situation - and, in time, the novelty wears off and the visitor may no longer be conscious at most times of being in a foreign environment.
DESCRIBE, INTERPET, AND EVALUATE
This process is suggested for a way that visitors can cope with and come to between relate to another culture. (EN: And yes, it's meant to be an acronym, a somewhat dated teaching method.)
"Description" refers to reflecting on what you actually see: the facts and events that took place, as objectively as possible, and stripped for now of suppositions about the intentions of the people involved.
"Interpretation" refers to applying reasoning to the events. It's at this point that you may speculate about intentions and causal relationships that explain the reasons things happened.
"Evaluation" is assessing the interpretative step. Does it seem likely that your interpretation was correct, given the culture of the actors? What other intentions or motivations may have been involved? Which of the possible interpretations is most likely to be correct?
Ultimately, the "correct" answer may be unknown and the wrong interpretation may be accepted, but it is less likely if this is made a deliberate process rather than jumping to conclusions without much consideration - which tends only to re-enforce prejudices and stereotypes.