CULTURE & COMMUNICATION

With globalisation on the rise, intercultural communication is becoming increasingly common and important in the world today. It is not as easy as it seems; communicating with people of different cultural backgrounds requires massive amount of understanding and compromising. We cannot be assuming that people of different cultural groups totally understand and accept our words and actions. This is so as different cultural environment impact differently on the various aspects of their communication.

For instance, culture often shape the perception of members of that cultural group.

• Michelle Yeoh & Jean Todt

"We've talked about it. I've been married before. We'll stay together as long as we're happy. We don't necessarily have to get married. Marriage is a bonus. Being together is enough. I also like to be independent"
Michelle Yeoh was quoted as saying at a horse racing event in Hong Kong.

You may think that Asians are not as conservative after all; look at Michelle Yeoh. This is so untrue. Most Asians still believe that marriage is a sine qua non, especially among the older generation. The only reason to explain her being an exception is that she has had high exposure to western culture since young (she moved to London in her teenage years to study dancing at the Royal Academy). Hence, she sees that it does not really matter whether she and Jean Todt get married or not. The older generation may say that this is outrageous.

• Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie

No wedding plans for Brad and Angelina. Jolie said, "There is nothing in the air. The focus is the kids, and we are obviously extremely committed to the children and as parents together ... to have a ceremony on top of it is nothing."
Source:People.com

In the more liberal western society, having children and not getting married is deemed as alright. However, the more conservative eastern society would see it otherwise. Especially among the Chinese, shotgun marriage is alreadyl being considered a shameful act; having children and not getting married is worse. This is because of the differences in the cultural environment in both areas. People in the east are mostly brought up in a more traditional environment and are hence more conservative unlike in the west, where the societies are more open to new thinking.

So you see, culture affects our perception.


Another example would be how culture impacts on our role identity.

• Muslim model's beer drinking issue in Malaysia.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced to 6 strokes of canes for beer-drinking. Religious roles in the Malaysian culture is vital and sacred, and do not allow any form of violation. However, if Kartika were to be drinking in a Singapore-based night club, the punishment, if there is any, might be much lighter. This is because the culture in Malaysia stresses a lot on religion, especially for the muslims. It has taught that as a muslim, it is compulsory for you to behave as one; it is wrong to drink in public. Hence, an act as that of Kartika is deviant as compared to the other law/religion abiding local muslims.

Culture therefore affects the way one act.


Furthermore, culture also affect the basic notions of human nature. 2 rather distinctive values are individualism and collectivism.

• Moving out at legal age

Western culture has been seen as more individualistic most of the time. People are encouraged in self decision-making, to solve their own problems, and setting out from a self perspective. Take moving out for instance, teenagers in western societies tend to move out once they reach the legal age. From then on, they depend mostly on themselves, how they earn their pocket money, how they manage their expenses, how they go about achieving their goals. Besides their parents helping them out on their college tuition fees, they are virtually on their own in every other aspect.

On the contrary, in Asian families, it is common that children, married or not, stay with their parents regardless of their age. Most Asian parents, who often lose the sense of security as they age prefer to have their children at their side. As for the children, many of them will also honour their responsibility as a child to their parents by living with them.

During a poll on whether people prefer to move out after they get married in the October issue of the Elle magazine, 66% of those polled said they prefer to stay with their parents. One of such answers is as such:

"Eventually there will be a time when you will be without your parents so it's better to live with them as long as you can."
-Debbie Chia, Brand Manager

This is a result of the value of filial piety in the society, especially among the Chinese. They believe that it is morally due to stay at the side of their parents who have given so much to them. The children's personal goals/targets are secondary to repaying the relentless love their parents. Such is the trait of collectivist culture.

Thus, culture do affect the images of 'self' of members of the society.

All in all, culture impinges different aspects of communication such that the way people communicate with others will in turn be affected as well. Therefore, when we interact with each other cross-culturally, it is important that we be sensitive to their culture, even if we do not understand or agree with it. This will help us in avoiding unnecessary unhappiness or impairment on the relationship.