Analysis of the Necessity and Significance of Learning nterculturalCommunication

王俊梅

Abstract Intercultural communication can be simply defined as communication between people of different cultures.As various aspects of culture determin and guid communication behavior，it is impossible to successfully communicate with people of different cultures without understanding how they think.By saying “language is the archives of history”，Ralph Waldo Emerson is telling us that we will never seperate our language from our culture.Culture is everything and everywhere and the need for learning intercultural communication is by no means insignificant.This essay mainly disccusses the significance and necessity of understanding different culture values in intercultural communication，and shows by some misunderstanding cases how misunderstanding between different people from different cultures happens.

Key words：Intercultural communications； Culture； misunderstanding； behavior

摘要：跨文化交際可以简单地定义为不同文化间人们的交流。文化的不同方面决定了交流行为的方式，同时也指导人们如何交流，因此，倘若不能理解其他文化中人们的思维，那么与其之间的交流便可能会失败。拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生说：“语言是历史的档案”，就是在告诉我们，人永远无法把语言和文化分割开来。文化无处不在，因此学习跨文化交际至关重要。本文主要讨论了在跨文化交际中，理解不同文化的价值观是重要且必要的，同时通过一些误解的示例展示了不同文化间人们交往时误会是如何产生的。

关键词：跨文化交际；文化；误解；行为

Today，it is increasingly important for people to learn some intercultural communication skills，otherwise，misunderstanding may occur.The case below shows how communication misunderstanding takes place between people from high-context culture and low-context culture.A senior American employee（A）asks his bosss opinion about his work，who is an Asia American（B）.In the course of the communication，they both use their communication ways which is influenced by the two different cultures to present their ideas.B uses his high-context communication ways to talk to A，a person growing up from a low-context culture.The result is that they fail to make themselves correctly understood by each other.Now lets see how the communication goes and happens.

When A asks Bs opinion，he expects getting a direct and clear-cut response.While its not Bs style to express disagreement directly but express it too implicitly to make himself understood correctly.B expects A could accurately infer his implicit meaning that what he says is just a comfort but not a compliment，and he is just preserving their “face” and avoiding making A embarrassed.However，after the response，A feels quite confused and thus keeps asking but still not getting anywhere.Thus，A doesnt get what he needs，and meanwhile B doesnt send the message successfully.endprint

In this case，each person misunderstands the other because neither is familiar with others culturally conversational styles.A belongs to the low-context culture，in which interaction emphasizes direct talk and people expect messages to be detailed，explicit and definite to convey personal thoughts，opinions and feelings.To the opposite，B is deeply influenced by the high-context culture，which stresses indirect talk，self-effacement mode.People expect messages to be implicit and indirect，and conveying primarily through the context or the social situation.And this culture values indirectness and consider it rude to say “youre wrong” or “I disagree with you” directly.But the two is ignorant of the difference of the two cultural values.

Unless people from different cultures are aware of these subtle differences，miscommunication between communicators from the high-context and the low-context culture cannot be avoided.Therefore，people need to modify their communication style and understand the opposite cultures value.For example，after realizing Bs maintaining-face culture to keep harmony，A is supposed to ask B “I think I didnt do this part correctly.Do you have some advice to make an improvement？” Meanwhile，if B also knows something about As “spell it out” culture and responses directly and clearly，he says “I think youve made all a mistake，and you should improve it from the scratch.”

As the above shows，you must be aware of the necessity and significance of being not ignorant of different culture values in intercultural communication.Today，we need not only express ourselves but express successfully.By viewing one thing in different perspectives and knowing other culture values well，we know whats the difference and how to avoid communication misunderstanding，and we also know how to solve it when there comes the problem.endprint