An Introduction to Intercultural Communication. Fred E. Jandt
to explain that Thais use rhetorical reflection to build rhetorical sensitivity. In Thai culture, the development of the relationship contributes to intercultural communication competence.
Intercultural Communication Ethics
As a branch of philosophy, ethics addresses the question of how we ought to lead our lives or what is right or wrong. The question to consider is whether there is an ethical standard that can be applied to all cultures or whether each culture has its own ethical standards of what is right and wrong.
Kenneth E. Andersen (1991) makes clear that ethical theories tend to reflect the culture in which they were produced and, therefore, present challenges in intercultural communication. Western ethics tend to focus on the individual and individual freedoms and responsibilities (Fuse, Land, & Lambiase, 2010). Other ethics focus more on community. As described in Chapter 1, Confucianism supports a just, orderly society with rituals for relationships that create a harmonious society. Interpersonal relationships and the concept of face are central to Confucianism. Confucian ethics revolve around the concept of li, or the social norms, rituals, and proprieties that characterize an orderly society. A recent study demonstrated that Confucian ethics guide people’s lives today. Zhong (2008) found that U.S. students display a strong sense of individualism, while Chinese students tend toward collectivism. Confucianism is an example of ethics that privilege the community and society, as opposed to Western ethics that focus on individuals and rights.
What, though, guides the interactions of people from cultures with diverse ethical perspectives?
Closely related to intercultural communication competence is ethics. We saw that the understandings of communication and of intercultural communication competence are specific to culture. Are there ethics that transcend all cultures, or are all ethics, too, specific to culture?
Focus on Culture 2.1 is an example of how identity can raise ethical questions.
Focus on Culture 2.1 Identity Ethics
In 2012, Elizabeth Warren (originally from Oklahoma of working-class upbringing) was elected the first woman to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. During her career as a Harvard Law School professor, she had listed herself as Native American in law school directories. Challenged to provide proof of her ancestry by her Republican opponent, Warren said her family lore was that she had an Indian ancestor.
President Donald Trump often mocked Warren’s claims of Cherokee heritage, referring to her as “Pocahontas.” She later did DNA testing to prove her ancestry. The results suggested she did have a distant American Indian ancestor in her lineage dating back 6 to 10 generations.
It was later revealed by the Washington Post that she had claimed American Indian as her race on a registration card for the State Bar of Texas. In response, Senator Warren apologized for claiming American Indian identity privately to the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and later publicly.
The secretary of state of the Cherokee Nation wrote in an opinion column in the Tulsa World that culture and kinship create tribal membership—not blood. “It offends us when some of our national leaders seek to ascribe inappropriately membership or citizenship to themselves” (Hoskin, 2019).
Are there global values to guide intercultural interactions? Kale (1997) argues that peace is the fundamental human value. The use of peace applies not only to relationships among countries but to “the right of all people to live at peace with themselves and their surroundings” (p. 450). From this fundamental value, he developed four ethical principles to guide intercultural interactions:
1 Ethical communicators address people of other cultures with the same respect that they would like to receive themselves. Intercultural communicators should not demean or belittle the cultural identity of others through verbal or nonverbal communication.
2 Ethical communicators seek to describe the world as they perceive it as accurately as possible. What is perceived to be the truth may vary from one culture to another; truth is socially constructed. This principle means that ethical communicators do not deliberately mislead or deceive.
3 Ethical communicators encourage people of other cultures to express themselves in their uniqueness. This principle respects the right of expression regardless of how popular or unpopular a person’s ideas may be.
4 Ethical communicators strive for identification with people of other cultures. Intercultural communicators should emphasize the commonalities of cultural beliefs and values rather than their differences.
Developing ethical principles to guide intercultural interactions is a difficult task. Even though Kale’s principles may be more acceptable in some cultures than in others, they are certainly a beginning step.
Focus on Theory 2.1 Is the Academic Discipline of InterculturalCommunication Intercultural?
Is the intercultural communication field of study truly intercultural? Is there an ethical issue applying a Western perspective to other cultures? As discussed in this chapter, the discipline originated in the United States and has been developed in U.S. universities. Even scholars from the non-Western cultures have “failed to utilize the experiences of their own cultures … to demonstrate that they, too, have been able to see through the same eyes as those European and U.S. American scholars who have pioneered in this field” (Asante, Miike, & Yin, 2014, p. 4). Yoshitaka Miike (2003a) has raised the question about whether “the topics we pursue, the theories we build, the methods we employ, and the materials we read adequately reflect and respond to the diversity of our communicative experiences in a globalizing world” (pp. 243–244).
One major criticism of Eurocentric intercultural communication research has been that the discipline has facilitated the commercial interests of the dominant North American and European cultures with consumers in other cultures (see, for example, Chapter 13 in this text). Western theories of communication often begin with the expression of unique individuality and a means of demonstrating independence. From an Asiacentric perspective, then, communication is a process in which we remind ourselves of the interdependence and interrelatedness of the universe (Miike, 2007).
In a dialogue with Miike, Molefi Kete Asante asserted, “The future of intercultural communication must reside in the courage of scholars to engage indigenous knowledge from all areas of the world.… We must learn to embrace new paradigms and their expert concepts that grow from the wisdom and teachings of diverse peoples” (Asante & Miike, 2013, p. 12).
Multiple Cultural Identities
How does having multiple cultural identities affect intercultural communication competence? In the following sections, we address how being competent in the communication skills of more than one culture affects intercultural communication competence. We’ll look at third culture, multiculturalism, and postethnic cultures.
Third Culture
John Useem, John Donahue, and Ruth Useem (1963) introduced the concept of binational third culture. Casmir and Asuncion-Lande (1989) refined the concept Third culture to refer to a new culture that two or more individuals from different cultures can share that is not merely the fusion of the separate cultures but a new coherent whole. One example is international marriage (also referred to as transnational marriage).
Five percent of marriages in Japan in 2008–2009 included a foreign spouse (with four times as many foreign wives as husbands). In South Korea, over 10% of marriages included a foreigner in 2010. In Taiwan, 13% of wives were foreigners in 2009. (Chinese citizens are not considered foreigners in Taiwan.) In France, the percentage of international marriage rose from about 10% in 1996 to 16% in 2009. In Germany, the rise was from roughly 11% in 1990 to 14% in 2010. Approximately one in five marriages in Sweden, Belgium, and Austria is with a foreign partner (“International Marriage,” 2011).