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Intercultural communication and intercultural communication

What is cross-cultural communication? Cross-cultural communication refers to the communication activities between individuals, groups or organizations from different cultural backgrounds. For many readers, intercultural communication is still a strange word, but it is actually an ancient topic. The Silk Road in China's history, Xuanzang's learning from the scriptures and Zheng He's voyage to the West are all examples of cross-cultural communication. With the rapid development of transportation and communication tools and the increasingly obvious trend of world economic integration, cross-cultural communication is no longer a rare thing for us. With the rapid development and popularization of the Internet, people can have cross-cultural communication without leaving home. On the Internet, people can chat and play games with people from different cultural backgrounds at home and abroad through words, sounds and images. If communication is a way of life, then cross-cultural communication is a way of life of people in the "global village".

With the increasing cross-cultural communication activities, many practitioners of cross-cultural communication begin to pay attention to this phenomenon. Long ago, religious leaders of Buddhism and Christianity, ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Socrates, ancient Greek playwright Sophocles and British playwright Shakespeare noticed the importance of "speaking each other's language and adjusting communication skills according to the audience" (Sitham &; Cogdell, 1976, page 6). However, the first person who systematically studied cross-cultural communication activities was Edward? Hall, 1950s, Edward? Hall first put forward the concept of "cross-cultural communication" when he was working in the American Overseas Training Institute (FSI).

What is cross-cultural communication? Cross-cultural communication is founded by American anthropologist and cross-cultural research scholar Edward? Hall founded a discipline in 1950s, which was expressed as "intercultural communication or intercultural communication" in English and also translated as "intercultural communication" or "intercultural communication" in China. Cross-cultural communication, as a branch of communication, aims to study how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate, how to improve their cross-cultural communication ability and overcome cross-cultural communication obstacles. Cross-cultural communication is an interdisciplinary subject, which combines the research results of anthropology, culturology, psychology and communication. The main theories of cross-cultural communication can be found in books about cultural differences (cultural dimensions), especially Gilte? Geert Hofstede, Harry? Harry triandis, Fonz? Fonce pienaar, Salon? ShalomSchwartz and Clifford? In the works of Gilder and others. At present, the relevant theories of these scholars have been widely used in communication theory and communication scenarios, especially in the fields of commerce, management and marketing.

Second, the background of cross-cultural communication research in the United States and Edward? Hormuz people

(A) the background of intercultural communication research in the United States

It is no accident that cross-cultural communication originated in America. As we know, before the discovery of the New World, the native Americans were Indians, and then immigrants from all continents poured into the United States one after another, so the United States gradually became a big immigrant country and a multicultural society. In this multi-religious and multicultural society, whites are dominant, and immigrants from India, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe are naturally dominant. As a result, ethnic contradictions and cultural conflicts began to spread.

The Second World War left many European and American alliances in ruins. In order to meet the needs of the Cold War and compete with the Soviet Union, the United States carried out the Marshall Plan and vigorously fostered European economic development, so a large number of experts, scholars and employees were sent to Europe. At the same time, the American economy was not greatly affected by World War II. The United States became a superpower politically and economically, attracting international students and immigrants from all over the world. The U.S. government found that many workers sent abroad by the U.S. government and enterprises could not adapt to the life of the sending country because of cultural differences, and finally returned in vain. Many immigrants and international students in the United States are experiencing this "culture shock". It can be said that in the 1950s, the number of immigrants, international students and tourists in the United States increased sharply, and the number of expatriate staff continued. The formation of a multicultural society objectively needs a brand-new discipline-intercultural communication to study related intercultural conflicts.

2 Edward? Hall's life

Edward? Hall happens to be in this era, and his life experience and professional background make him a person who undertakes this mission. Edward? Hall 19 14 14 was born in Missouri, USA on May 6, and received bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctor's degree successively, engaged in postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology. 1933- 1937 worked and studied in Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwest of the United States, and wrote his autobiography1West in the 1930s. During World War II, Edward? Hall served in Europe and the Philippines, where he studied the concept of space in different cultures. In the 1950s, Edward? Hall teaches at the Foreign Service Institute, a U.S. government department, and trains foreigners in cross-cultural skills. During this period, he put forward "high context" and "low context" culture, and wrote several best-selling books on cross-cultural communication.

Edward? Important events in Hall's life and career.

Time event

19 14 was born in Webster groves, Missouri, USA.

19 18- 1932 grew up in new Mexico.

Working in Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwestern United States.

1936 obtained a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Denver.

1938 obtained a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona.

1942 received a doctorate from Columbia University.

1942- 1945 During World War II, he was sent to serve in Europe and the Philippines.

65438-0946 Engaged in postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology at Columbia University, and engaged in research in the Truck Island Management Office of the US military agency.

1946- 1948 head of anthropology department, University of Denver, engaged in race relations research in Denver.

1948- 1950 teaches with Eric fromm at Bennington College in Vermont.

Director of the fourth curriculum system of the foreign training college in Washington, D.C.

Teaching at the psychiatric institute in Washington, D.C.

1955 "Etiquette Anthropology" was published in the American Science Journal.

The book Silent Language was published from 65438 to 0959.

Teaching at the psychiatric institute in Washington, D.C.

1963- 1967 became a professor of anthropology at Illinois institute of technology (Chicago); With the support of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), research on spatial relations and inter-ethnic communication was carried out.

1966 The hidden dimension has been published.

1967- 1977 became a professor of anthropology at northwest university until his retirement.

1976 participated in the cross-cultural exchange conference hosted by International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan.

The book Beyond Culture was published in 1976.

1977 read a paper at the international communication protocol conference in Berlin.

1977 has been living in Santa Fe, New Mexico since he retired; Occasionally give speeches at the meetings of the International Association for Intercultural Education, Training and Research and at the Institute of Intercultural Communication in summer; Teaching at the University of New Mexico.

1983 The Dance of Life-Another Dimension of Time was published.

1983 "hidden differences: a study of international communication" was published.

1987 The book Hidden Differences: Doing Business with the Japanese was published.

1990 Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, Frenchmen and Americans was published.

3 Edward? Hall's cross-cultural experience and professional background

As mentioned above, intercultural communication is an interdisciplinary subject, which combines the research results of anthropology, culturology, psychology and communication. Edward? Hall initiated a brand-new academic field of cross-cultural communication, which is inseparable from his life experience and professional background.

Edward? Hall is a native white American, and his "cultural identity" is the white American culture from northern Europe. From his life experience, we can find that he has a deep connection with Indian culture, African culture and Philippine culture. These experiences made him interested and curious about various cultures, and also accumulated first-hand information for his cross-cultural research.

Edward? When Hall was four years old, his family moved to El Paso (located in Texas on the border between the United States and Mexico). The family hired a nanny from Juarez (a small town in Texas), and later they moved back to St. Louis. Here, the nanny and her two daughters can't adapt to the new living environment. At the age of five, Hall was in kindergarten with a group of Spanish children, and later lived in France for a while. It can be said that Hall has lived in a multicultural environment since childhood. "I often encountered such a thing when I was a child. I am very interested in this. "

1933- 1937 Hall worked in Navajo and Hopi Indian villages in the southwestern United States. His job is mainly to encourage local Indians to use money to build dams, so as to improve the living environment there and improve the living standards of Indians. After a period of contact with Indians, Hall developed a certain cultural sensitivity. "When I was on the reservation, I often thought about how to deal with the Waho and Hopi people. Here I find that they are completely different. It won't work to impose my way of thinking on them. " During this contact, Hall learned "one of the most important issues in the world: first-hand information on cross-cultural relations and their complexity." (Hall, 1992, p. 76)

1942- 1945. During World War II, Hall was sent to serve in Europe and the Philippines, during which he led an African-American soldier corps. He thinks his leadership work is very creative. "I am very creative at work because I work with black soldiers. I respect them very much and always put myself in their shoes. "

Hall's cross-cultural life experience made him interested in cross-cultural communication, noticed the problems in cross-cultural communication, obtained the first-hand information of cross-cultural communication, and then had a perceptual understanding of cross-cultural communication. What really guides him to do cross-cultural communication research should be his academic influence. Hall received bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees in anthropology, engaged in postdoctoral research in sociology/cultural anthropology at Columbia University, and worked in overseas training colleges. These studies and research enabled him to get in touch with scholars in related fields, and finally formed the concept of cross-cultural communication. Later, Hall divided his professional influence into four parts: (1) cultural anthropology; (2) linguistics; (3) animal behavior; (4) Freud's psychoanalytic theory. (Hall,1992; Sorrell, 1998)

Third, Edward? Hall's contribution to the study of cross-cultural communication

Shi Lamu used a metaphor to describe the establishment of communication. He said that lasswell, Lei Wen, lazarsfeld and hofstadter all came to the oasis of communication desert from their respective research fields. When they made great contributions in the field of communication, they left the oasis like nomads and continued their research in other fields. Shi Lamu is the founder of communication, because after he came to this oasis in the desert, contrary to other nomadic scholars, he stayed and established a new research field (Rogers, 1994).

Hammer uses Shi Lamu's metaphor to describe the establishment of cross-cultural communication. After World War II, scholars from anthropology, psychology, communication, sociology and international relations, such as Margaret? Meade, Ruth? Benedict Gregory. Batson left their respective research fields and briefly set foot in this unfamiliar field at that time: the cross field of interaction between culture and human beings. These people all left later, but Hall stayed in this cross-field of cultural and human interaction and settled down, calling this field "cross-cultural communication".

Hall first put forward related concepts of cross-cultural communication. In 1950s, Hall's cross-cultural life and work experience gave him the concept of "cross-culture". In the teaching process of cross-cultural skills training in overseas training colleges, he put forward the concepts of "high context culture" and "low context culture". After combing these ideas, he published Silence at 1959. This book has covered the basic issues of our understanding of culture and communication, such as "what is culture", "culture is communication", "time can talk" and "space can talk". Hall attaches great importance to the issue of nonverbal communication, and nearly 20% of the chapters in the book are devoted to this issue. This book was a great success, with 505,000 copies published between 196 1- 1969. It has also been reprinted by many books, magazines and other publications and translated into six languages. (Masao Kunihiro) It can be said that the publication of this book marks the birth of intercultural communication. Thanks to Hall's efforts, a brand-new research field-intercultural communication was born, and Hall became the founder of intercultural communication.

Since the establishment of intercultural communication, this subject has made great progress. Many communication schools (departments) in American universities have successively set up intercultural communication courses, and foreign majors such as foreign language teaching and international relations in China have also set up intercultural communication courses. 1970, there is also a cross-cultural communication branch under the International Communication Association; 1972, the first international conference on intercultural communication was held in Tokyo, Japan; 65438-0974, the International Association for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) was officially announced in Maryland, USA. International Cross-cultural Exchange Association was established. Books and magazines on cross-cultural issues have also been published one after another, such as Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter (1972), L.S. harms (1973) and Introduction to Cross-cultural Communication (John C. Condon and Fate). By the mid-1970s, many universities in the United States had offered exchange courses. Judging from a large number of cross-cultural communication works and articles, Hall still maintains great influence in this discipline, and the citation rate of his works is still the highest.

China scholars began to pay attention to the field of cross-cultural communication and the relationship between foreign language teaching and culture in 1980s. In the mid-1980s, China universities such as Beijing Foreign Studies University and Shanghai International Studies University also offered communication courses one after another, and books on cross-cultural communication (communication) and photocopied translations of foreign languages in China were also published one after another, such as Guan Shijie's Cross-cultural Communication, Hu Wenzhong's Introduction to Cross-cultural Communication, and Guo Zhenzhi's Hu Wenzhong Comparative Culture Collection. A photocopy of Cross-cultural Communication: A Kind of Reading, co-authored by Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter, has been published in China, translated by Ma Zhengqi, and named Cultural Patterns and Communication Modes. From 65438 to 0995, China also held the first cross-cultural communication seminar, established the China Cross-cultural Communication Research Association, and held the sixth meeting in May 2005. It can be said that Hall's expanding field between culture and communication has crossed the Pacific Ocean, and his influence in China is increasing day by day.