An Introduction to Intercultural Communication. Fred E. Jandt
123,486,615; 17,000,000; 61.4%; 8.4%
Indonesia; 171,260,000; 130,000,000; 63.5%; 48.2%
China; 854,000,000; 1,800,000; 60.1%; 0.1%
Mexico; 88,000,000; 79,000,000; 66.5%; 59.7%
Brazil; 149,057,635; 139,000,000; 70.7%; 65.9%
Russia; 116,353,942; 13,100,000; 80.9%; 9.1%
Japan; 118,626,672; 71,000,000; 93.5%; 55.9%
United States; 292,892,868; 240,000,000; 89.0%; 72.9%
Back to Figure
The table below shows the percentage distribution of the language of internet content as seen in the pie chart:
Language of internet content; Percentage
English; 58.5%
Russian; 8.1%
German; 3.4%
Spanish; 4.4%
French; 3.0%
Japanese; 2.6%
Portuguese; 2.3%
Italian; 1.2%
Persian; 2.6%
Chinese; 1.4%
Polish; 1.0%
Dutch, Flemish; 0.7%
Turkish; 2.6%
Czech; 0.5%
All others; 8.2%
Back to Figure
This horizontal bar graph shows the number of active users in millions, across various social networks,
The x axis shows the number of active users in millions, and the values on this axis range from 0 to 2,500, in intervals of 500-million users. The y axis shows the following social networks from bottom to top: Kuaishou, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, Sina Weibo, QZone, QQ, Douyin/Tik Tok, Instagram, Weixin/WeChat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook.
The number of active users for each, as seen in this graph are tabulated below:
Social Network; Number of active users (in millions)
Kuaishou; 316
Pinterest; 322
Twitter; 340
Snapchat; 382
Reddit; 430
Sina Weibo; 498
QZone; 517
QQ; 731
Douyin/Tik Tok; 800
Instagram; 1,000
Weixin/WeChat; 1,151
Facebook Messenger; 1,300
WhatsApp; 1,600
YouTube; 2,000
Facebook; 2,449
Chapter 2 Intercultural Communication Competence
© iStockphoto.com/itchySan
Chapter Outline
Intercultural Communication Competence
Intercultural Communication Ethics
Multiple Cultural IdentitiesThird CultureMulticulturalismPostethnic Cultures
Barriers to Intercultural CommunicationAnxietyAssuming Similarity Instead of DifferenceEthnocentrismStereotypes and PrejudiceStereotypesNegative Effects on Communication
Case Study: Asian-AmericansPrejudiceRacism
Case Study: India
Case Study: The Roma
Case Study: Koreans in Japan
Case Study: White PrivilegeHate Speech
Summary
Discussion Questions
Key Terms
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
Give examples of intercultural communication competence skills appropriate to more than one culture
List the barriers to effective and appropriate intercultural communication
Give an example of ethnocentrism that demonstrates it as a barrier to intercultural communication
Distinguish between stereotypes, prejudice, and racism and show how each is a barrier to intercultural communication
Discuss ethical guidelines for intercultural communication
In Chapter 1, you read that every culture provides its members with rules specifying appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Were you to approach intercultural communication from the perspective of attempting to learn the norms of all cultures, it certainly would be an impossible task. There is no way that you could learn all the rules governing appropriate and inappropriate behavior for every culture with which you came into contact. You would always be doing something wrong; you would always be offending someone. In fact, you wouldn’t even know if you were expected to conform to the other culture’s norms or if you were expected to behave according to your own culture’s norms while respecting those of the other. Your communication likely would suffer, as your violation of norms would be a form of noise limiting the effectiveness of your communication.
This chapter begins, then, with a consideration of intercultural communication competence—that is, the knowledge, motivation, and communication skill of interacting across cultures in ways that are both effective and appropriate (Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009). One might ask if having multiple cultural identities facilitates intercultural communication competence. To answer this, you’ll read about third culture, multiculturalism, and postethnic cultures.
Then you’ll read about anxiety, assuming similarity instead of difference, ethnocentrism, and stereotypes and prejudice as barriers to effective and appropriate intercultural communication. The chapter concludes with a consideration of ethics in intercultural communication.
Intercultural Communication Competence
Communicating effectively in intercultural settings is known as intercultural communication effectiveness or intercultural communication competence. For the purposes of this textbook, let’s agree to define Intercultural communication effectiveness as the degree of the source’s success in accomplishing the goals set out for the interaction. (Review the Western model of communication in Chapter 1.) It would seem that one way to define intercultural communication competence places emphasis on the two behaviors of encoding and decoding (Monge, Bachman, Dillard, & Eisenberg, 1982). Encoding includes expressing ability, and decoding includes listening ability.
The term Intercultural communication competence has a broader meaning. For the purposes of this textbook, let’s agree to define this term as the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with people of other cultures (Spitzberg, 2000). This concept adds to effectiveness consideration for appropriateness—that is, that relationship maintenance is valued. Intercultural communication competence requires understanding others’ perceptions and values. Intercultural communication competence consists of affective, cognitive, and behavioral attributes (Bennett, 2009). Chen and Starosta’s (1996) model of intercultural