commucation across culture

Keiko obviously has taken those used items from Mary, Ed and Marion as gifts, for she

probably doesn’t know that Americans frequently donate their used household items to church or to the community.

Mary, Ed and Marion would never consider those used household items given to Keiko as gifts. No wonder they felt very uncomfortable when they received valuable gifts in return. Case 8 p.62-63

Why did the girl consider the menu created by her mother a strange one?

What cultural differences can you find in this case?

Analysis

When the Chinese girl fell in love with an American boy at that time, it seems that she

preferred to celebrate Christmas in the American way, for she wanted very much to appear the same as other American girls. She did not like to see her boyfriend disappointed at the “shabby” Chinese Christmas. That’s why she cried when she found out her parents had invited the

minister’s family over for the Christmas Eve dinner. She thought the menu for the Christmas meal created by her mother a strange one because there were no roast turkey and sweet potatoes but only Chinese food.

How could she notice then the foods chosen by her mother were all her favorites?

From this case, we can find a lot of differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in what is appropriate food for a banquet, what are good table manners, and how one should behave to be hospitable. However, one should never feel shame just because one’s culture is different from others’. As Amy’s mother told her, you must be proud to be different, and your only shame is to have shame.

3.1 Definition of Communication

---A behavior-affecting process in which one person (a source) intentionally encodes and

transmits a message through a channel to an intended audience (receivers) in order to induce a particular attitude or behavior.

---Transmission and reception of meaning through the manipulation of symbols, language and context.

---A process involving the exchange of messages and the creation of meaning.(p.58)

It involves a sender who encodes a message and a receiver who decodes the message.

3.3 Types of Communication(1)

Interpersonal Communication (Dyad)

Intrapersonal Communication (Within)

Mass Communication

Group Communication

Public Communication

Business Communication

Intracultural Communication

Shared communication between members of the same cultural group /communication between people from the same culture