Intercultural Communication: Cultural Collage

• Intercultural communication is important for healthy communities, commerce, reduced conflict, and personal growth.
• Communication foundations involve understanding process, dynamics, symbols, and context.

Cultural Collage Activity

• The cultural collage activity involves sharing collages in groups of 3 or 4.
• When analyzing someone else's collage, consider the key elements of their cultural identity.
• Interpretation is impacted by your own cultural lens.
• Look for common themes, symbols, or colors across the collages.
• Similarities and differences may reveal shared cultural values versus unique cultural experiences.
• Consider what you learn about your classmates' cultural identities that you didn't expect or hadn't considered before.

Defining Culture

• Culture is defined as accumulated patterns of values, beliefs, and behaviors.
• These are shared by an identifiable group of people with a common history and verbal & nonverbal symbol systems.
• Specific elements of culture include values, beliefs, behaviors, a common history, and use of verbal & nonverbal systems.
• Microcultures are also a part of culture.

Uncertainty & Apprehension

• Uncertainty can lead to apprehension.
• Communication apprehension is the fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with others.

Self Assessment

• Questions to consider for self-assessment include
• How you feel about your results on the PRICA scale.
• Whether the results were expected or surprising.
• Intercultural contexts in which you feel most apprehensive, and why.
• How your level of intercultural communication apprehension affects your ability to engage in intercultural interactions.
• Strategies that can be employed to reduce intercultural communication apprehension.
• How learning more about other cultures might help reduce your communication apprehension.

Assumptions About Intercultural Communication (IC)

• During intercultural communication, the message sent is usually not the message received.
• Intercultural communication is primarily a nonverbal act between people.
• Intercultural communication necessarily involves a clash of communication styles.
• Initial intercultural communication is a group phenomenon experienced by individuals.
• Intercultural communication is a cycle of stress, adaptation, and growth.

Goal

• The end goal of intercultural communication is competence.

Semester Overview

• The course may cover various contextual factors including cultural, microcultural, environmental, perceptual, and sociorelational contexts.