Intercultural Communication : juxtaposition & discrepancies

Intercultural communication: juxtaposition & discrepancies.

Any society has its own culture, with specific verbal and non-verbal communicating means, styles, values and norms of a particular behavior. And owing to the revolutionary growth of the technology and the stream of immigration, the opportunities and necessities for communicating across cultures are steadily increasing. Nowadays, every one can be confronted with other strange ways of life styles, which can affect his/her behavior. This paper is a synthesis of my experience with a Dutch friend. After an interview in which we handle some aspects of cultural discrepancies. I will focus on the following points. I will speak about my culture and how it is viewed by foreigners. And I will deal also with the arbitrary relationship between language and culture and I will end up the paper on discussing the article entitled the Arab’s image written by Mustafa Nabil.

Culture is still a controversial concept and there is no clear-cut definition of this term. Culture may be defined broadly as something more than individual and less than univers

Language is a means by which culture is displayed and transferred from generation to generation. Culture produces, and is produced, via human interaction. And it is axiomatic that language is an efficient vehicle to produce culture. Language is a group of signs and icons. And via thinking we can give a meaning to the different coupling of those signs. Charles Osgood (1970) in his semantic differential theory speaks about measuring attitudes on affecting meaning. The particular language we use predisposes us to think in a particular way and not in other. The Arabic language, for instance, differentiates between masculine and feminine adjectives. This differentiation reflects the relationships between sexes in the Arabic culture; the role of sexes differs in the Arabic society. Traditionally, the upbringing of children is based on a sexual parameter. She differs from He and extremely he is somehow superior!

Still, I do believe that the interpretations of proverbs and their relation with human experience and nature of people is relative and open to change.

In this respect, Moroccans are supposed not to use direct styles; they dwell on the same topic and they like to verbose. However, Moroccans in the Netherlands speak Dutch with an accent and with a very direct style to the extinct of vulgarity and boldness. This fact may be due to the Berber race in which 90 % of the Moroccans, living in the Netherlands, belong to. Or their Dutch fellows may affect them. However, the Dutch people in the image of Anita are not direct at all. She was trying always to look for compromises for my arguments and she ovoid giving a clear-cut answer for questions concerning her attitude towards the negative image of Moroccans. Moreover, the communication in intercultural setting may be problematic. Anita has had many problems while communicating with her boy friend. During the fist period of her relationship she was upset that her boy friend kept not his promises. If she asked him whether he would do something he would answer yes but he would not do it. It takes a lot of time for her to understand that there are two kinds of yes. Yes of I did understand what you did say and the second one which implies that I will do it. The second yes must confirmed. This miscommunication appeals for the necessity of codes (Stuart Hall). Without the ability to understand codes, the communication becomes problematic because language bears specific aspects of the culture. One of the keys to cultural understanding is the expression called proverbs. Proverbs are sayings whish reflects the way of thinking of a particular group. The Moroccan proverb ‘do not do today what you can do tomorrow’ reflects the notion of time in the Moroccan culture. Paul Bowels, an American writer who lived in morocco describes this notion as the timeless attitude towards time. Moroccans do not feel committed to their meeting. And it is not embarrassing at all to come late. The following joke reflects vividly this statement. Two Moroccans were planning to meet each other. One said we will fix it up at 8 .00. The other answered him:’ ok, if I don` come at 8.00 I will call you at 9.00 to say that I will not be able to come at 10. Hence, I will come at 11.00 to fix up another meeting’. This what may be called the talent of disorder. Anita endures this attitude; she was always complaining that her boy friend rarely respects the notion of time.

Some topics in this essay:
Matrimony Arabic, Muslim Imam, NMartin TKNakaya, , Bowels American, Gudy Kunst, Comidia Divina, Charles Osgood, Moroccans Netherlands, Netherlands Dutch’, dutch people, moroccan culture, intercultural communication, boy friend, dutch society, nabil`s article, respect nabil`s article, arabic society, book entitled, bless decision, cultural differences,