Communication Systems: Components and Representation

This was an interesting lesson for me. For weeks, we have been studying only the micro aspects of intercultural communication; how to speak, how to write and so on.

However, this particular lesson gave me insight into what was the bigger picture. Intercultural communication is not just about how one person in a particular culture can converse with another person from another culture. There is a larger picture involving different macro socio-psychological values of the different cultures. I feel that understanding this portion of the module is of paramount importance as it helps me to identify behavioural differences between the cultures not just on a personal basis but on the differing cultures as a whole; identifying significant characteristics only particular to each culture investigated.

For example, power distance. Different cultures practice different power differences and we have to be aware of those values when conducting ourselves in front of people from different backgrounds. For example, Austria has a very low power distance value and hence, us Singaporeans, who have a very high power distance value, can easily make the mistake of snubbing their people of authority by saying that they should treat everyone the same way and that they aren't as powerful as they think.

A good example of this would be the Thai people recently underingoing some political problems. The Thai people have a moderate power distance of 64 as in the 1980s, however, it is safe to say that the Thais are fast changing their attitudes to government and moving in the direction of higher power distance values; seen by the throwing of their own blood in front of the government office just a few days ago. Therefore, it is important to not only know the small micro differences in the cultures but also the larger more established trends that the culture follows or changes across time.

There are other parts to the whole macro picture including uncertainty avoidance, infividualism vs collectivism and masculinity vs feminity. And these are all integral to allow the individual to fully grasp the true concept of intercultural communication.

The above example just struck me as very shocking and I feel that it is a true representation of how we can use the information learnt in this module to try to comprehend others and the world a little better.