Culture influences the meaning of symbols and communication is symbolic. Symbols do not have inherent meanings and can represent different concepts across cultures. Meaning is derived socially and contextually rather than just from words themselves. As such, ambiguity can occur since the same symbol may refer to different concepts for different people or cultures.

1. COMMUNICATION
& CULTURE

2. SYMBOLS & CULTURE
Symbols don’t cary the same meaning across cultures
Culture in
fl
uences the meaning of symbols

3. ?
Communication is symbolic
• Words have no inherent meaning
• Symbol: arbitrary signals created by humans to
represent experiences, objects, or concepts
• Referent: the object or experience to which a
symbol refers
Communication is personal
• Meaning is in the people, not in the words
REASONS FOR AMBIGUITY

4. SIGNIFIERS & REFERENTS
Thoughts / Reference
Symbol Referent
C H A I R
an open back
wooden red chair
with lattice
scrollwork and
velvet cushion
Symbol
Thoughts / Reference

5. Love
Consider the meaning of the following words:
COMMUNICATION IS PERSONAL
Meaning is in the people, not in the words
Beauty
Excellence

6. Arbitrary
yet powerful

7. GREEN
Requires your brain to respond to con
fl
icting information
Takes longer because the mind automatically determines the semantic
meaning of the word (it reads the word "green" and thinks of the color
"green"), and then must override this
fi
rst impression with the identi
fi
cation
of the color of the word -- a process that is not automatized.
60 second brain game

8. What is your
doctor’s job?

9. Which should be named? Streets or Blocks?
When should you pay your doctor?

10. JAPAN
Naming the block
or the space in
between blocks?

11. CULTURAL ICEBERG
HARMONY
Avoiding conflict is
valued.
There were apparently too many conflicts
with place names and numbers were
adopted.
View of Language
Numbers are considered
more objective than
language. Objectivity is
better than subjectivity.
HISTORY
Value history of a space.

12. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN
Greeting behaviors

13. A near-mouth kiss between former Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbatchev and East German Leader Erich Honecker

14. A cheek kiss between the Iraqi President and the U.S.
ambassador to Iraq

15. An air kiss between the Saudi King and President Bush

16. A facial touch between Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer

17. A hand kiss between Jacques Chirac and Secretary of
State Condoleeza Rice

18. Cultural Relativism:
none is superior - no need to adopt it though
VIEWS
ON
CULTURE Ethnocentrism
my culture’s form of greeting is superior
=

19. Cultural Relativism:
all cultures are different, none is superior
VIEWS
ON
CULTURE
Ethnocentrism:
use of one’s own culture & its practices as the standard
for interpreting the values, beliefs, norms of other cultures

20. CULTURE
What is
?

21. Set of human-made objective and subjective elements that in
the past have increased the probability of survival and
resulted in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological
niche, and thus became shared among those who could
communicate with each other because they had a common
language and they lived in the same time and place.
• Transmitted through communication, not genes
• Learned and shared
• Based on symbols
• Dynamic

22. Communication is a
systematic process in which
people interact with and
through symbols to create
and interpret meanings.

23. ENCULTURATION VS.
ACCULTURATION
National GeographicTV Report
How is culture passed on?

24. Acculturation, Integration, Loss of Cultural Identity?

25. Set of human-made objective and subjective elements that in
the past have increased the probability of survival and
resulted in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological
niche, and thus became shared among those who could
communicate with each other because they had a common
language and they lived in the same time and place.
• Transmitted through communication, not genes
• Learned and shared
• Based on symbols
• Dynamic

26. Class is about what members
of particular cultures have
learned and how that
“learning” might in
fl
uence
intercultural comm.

27. • Culture is learned through proverbs
• Culture is learned through folktales, legends. myths
• Culture is learned through art
Your book provides numerous examples to illustrate each
(pages 45-54). Find an example of your own and brie
fl
y
explain it. So
fi
nd an example illustrating how culture is
learned through proverbs; an example of how it's learned
through folktales/legends/myths, and one on how it's
learned through art. Make sure each of your 3 examples is
an example not listed in the book.
WHAT DID CULTURE TEACH
US ABOUTTHE FOLLOWINGTHINGS?

28. WHAT DID CULTURE TEACH
US ABOUTTHE FOLLOWINGTHINGS?
role of silence importance of attractiveness
view of aging
proclivity for activity over meditation
importance of foreign languages
view of con
fl
ict

30. Referent English German French Lux.
Pencil Bleistift Crayon Blaisteft
Shoes Schuhe Chaussures Schong
Pear Birne Poire Bier
Tree Baum Arbre Baam
Same referent, diff. symbol