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Indirect-Direct Communication Styles

Anamaria — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:58:10 +0000

by :: Anamaria

We recently talked about communication styles here and here. The theory on cross-cultural communication styles is extensive, but I think many people are familiar with the distinction between direct and indirect communication styles.

In a nutshell:

Direct communication is when the meaning of the message is communicated mainly via words.

Indirect communication is when meaning is not only in the words, but mainly in the surrounding context of a conversation. In other words, somebody who is indirect will leave it up to the listener to fill in the blanks and make out the meaning by correctly reading the contextual clues (e.g. non-verbal communication, status and/or age of people involved in the conversation, attire, etc.).

No matter how much we read about indirect communication, it is virtually impossible for a direct person to fully understand the complexity of indirectness until we’ve been immersed in it.

At a first “direct” glance, it will seem that indirect people can literally read people’s minds. A second, third and fourth … and often a hundredth glance will reveal the contextual clues, all those things that are not being said. Things that indirect people have been taught to see and to correctly interpret since the day they were born. Direct people are not being taught to look at the context for what is NOT being said when interpreting a message. They are taught to listen to the words being said.

Just like with cultural dimensions, it is important to remember that both communication styles are found in every culture. However, cultures do have tendencies towards one more than the other. Also, they manifest themselves differently in each culture (e.g. an indirect US American communicates very differently than an indirect Japanese person).

In the context of education, it’s interesting to think of how these two communication styles shape teacher-student interactions. Or student participation. Or classroom management styles.

Are there any teachers reading our blog who have taught in both indirect and direct cultures? Or teachers who taught students from both direct and indirect cultures? We would love to hear from you.

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Ask 3 Questions to Improve Your Cross-cultural Skills

Cate — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:09:28 +0000

photo by !borghetti

by :: Cate

When I was learning how to do ethnographic research I had to develop keen observational skills.

One of the things my classmates and I did to become better observers was to make the familiar strange.

In one activity, for example, we chose a situation or environment that we knew very well (e.g. a classroom, the check-out line in a supermarket, eating dinner, etc.). Then we observed and described the situation as if we were seeing it for the first time.

Doing this helped us uncover latent interpretations and assumptions. This was important because in collecting ethnographic data one strives to document meaning as determined by the observed, not the observer.

The practice of making the familiar strange taught us how to observe with the goal of understanding the perspectives of others.

If you want to be cross-culturally effective, develop keen observational skills.

Most of us go through a large part of our day on auto-pilot, quickly interpreting and categorizing what we see and experience. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every day we’re inundated with a huge amount of information, and we simply can’t stop and ponder every single thing we come into contact with.

But in order to be effective in cross-cultural situations, we need to disengage our cultural auto-pilot.

Instead of automatically interpreting what see or experience, we need to carefully observe it. We need to uncover our latent assumptions and interpretations. Making the familiar strange in our daily lives can help us develop the keen observational skills necessary to be cross-culturally effective.

Ask these 3 questions to improve your cross-cultural observation skills.

Even if you’re not in a cross-cultural situation right now, this simple practice can help you develop the observational skills that will come in handy the next time you are.

As you go through your day, look at everything and everyone with new eyes. Pay close attention to interactions between people (e.g. greetings, a heated discussion, a parent-child interaction, etc.) and get in the habit of asking yourself these 3 questions:

What do I see?
Describe what you see concretely and objectively. Avoid interpreting or evaluating.
Who do I see?
What experiences and perspectives might they bring to the interaction that’s influencing their behavior?
How might the where influence the what?
If the context changed, would the interaction between these people change?

What questions do you ask in order to better understand cross-cultural situations?

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Who’s Flying The Plane?

Anamaria — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:10:36 +0000

photo by bfraz

by :: Anamaria

Every morning at 7 am you will find me in my car, driving to work and listening to NPR. Recently, I heard an interview with science writer Shankar Vedantam, about his new book The Hidden Brain.

The more I listened to the story, the more I wanted to read the book. So I put it on my long list of books to purchase, and, eventually, read. In the meantime, I wanted to talk about it here.

Although this is not a cross-cultural communication book, many of the things Vedantam addresses in the book could explain why cross-cultural interactions are so tricky. And incredibly challenging. And exhausting.

Let me explain.

In his book, Vedantam talks about how our brains have two modes: one conscious and one unconscious.

Pilot and autopilot, he calls them.

And Vedantam believes that people are constantly switching back and forth between the two. This makes perfect sense to me, I thought as I was driving to work.

And then I started thinking about Vedantam’s theory from a cross-cultural perspective.

When we live in our own culture, I do believe that we switch back and forth between pilot and autopilot all the time. But what happens when we move to a different culture? Does this switching back and forth continue at the same frequency? Should it?

It’s difficult to stop the autopilot part of the brain from taking over, sometimes. However, in a cross-cultural context, it is very important to minimize the autopilot mode - as much as possible.

When your brain is on autopilot, it makes assumptions which, in a cross-cultural context, it should not be making.

These assumptions will result in cultural misunderstandings, frustrations, and miscommunications. Being on autopilot when we shouldn’t be is what leads to “unsupported snap judgments about people in the world around us” – as Vedantam points out in his NPR interview. How true!

A good cross-cultural communicator is one that suspends the autopilot mode as much as possible when interacting cross-culturally. But not being able to freely switch to autopilot mode can be exhausting for a person.

And this is why living or working abroad is so tiring. This is also why interacting with people from other cultures can be so exhausting. And this is why foreigners will happily look for the company of other fellow country men and women: to give their brain a break, and allow the autopilot to take over. Even if for just a little while.

We’re Not Fighting, We’re Just Being Romanian

Anamaria — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:01:37 +0000

photo by Geir Halvorsen

by :: Anamaria

A few weeks ago we invited you to reflect a bit on your communication style. Well, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting of my own lately, especially during the winter break. Some of you may already know that my house was full of family for Christmas: the Romanian side of the family. My side of the family.

And when my side of the family comes into our home, I sometimes find myself wondering how my interactions with my family are perceived by my US American husband.

Why am I saying that? Well, because of differences in communication styles between Romanian and US Americans.

Romanians, like many other Latins, are very expressive when we talk. We are loud (we seem loud to Americans), use a lot of gestures, stand pretty closely to each other. So, when we talk to each other, even if it’s on the phone, we always look to Americans like we are having a fight.

I can’t tell you how many times my husband asked me during the Christmas holiday, when my family was here, if everything was OK. I smiled every time he asked.

Of course everything is OK – I would respond – that’s just how we communicate.

The non-verbal behavior is not the only thing that is different.

WHAT we talk about is also VERY different from the topics that most American families would discuss. Basically, we don’t have many conversation subjects that are off limits. Especially among close family members.

It isn’t uncommon to hear Romanians talk about money, weight, or religion. In detail. Talking about these things often involves openly questioning each other’s choices or opinions on these topics. And somehow, rarely does one get upset or offended. Why? Because for Romanians, talking about this “very personal stuff” (which is how most US Americans perceive these subjects – personal) is a way to get closer to each other. To establish deeper, more meaningful relationships with people. To become close friends.

Needless to say…I had to adapt my communication style when I moved to the US. I was clueless about these things when I first moved to this country…so I made a lot of mistakes.

Some of the questions that I would ask my new American friends were being perceived as very personal, and quite intrusive.

I thought I was making friends, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that I wasn’t.

So, pretty soon I learned to communicate one way with Americans, and my old way with Romanians. It’s fascinating to me how people find ways of transitioning in and out of their culture – national or regional. Going in and out of different ways of communicating is definitely one aspect of this complex cultural transition.

What about you?

Have you experienced these transitions related to communication styles? Do you find yourself communicating one way with a cultural group, and a different way with another?

Interview :: Bablingua Co-founder Álvaro Mediavilla

Cate — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:04:23 +0000

Álvaro in snowy Madrid (!)

by :: Cate

After teaching for 2 years in the U.K. and 3 in the U.S., Álvaro Mediavilla returned to Madrid, Spain to co-found Bablingua, a company that provides “great videos that really show our country, and that are interesting and understandable for a foreign student.” As a former world language teacher, I know how compelling authentic and up-to-date videos can be for students, so I’d like to help Álvaro and his business partner Laura get the word out about Bablingua. Back in July Álvaro wrote up a School Snapshot and today he’s talking about education in Spain, his experience teaching abroad, and what Bablingua offers Spanish teachers.

Álvaro, please tell us a little about yourself.

I feel very glad of living at the moment in one of the greatest places of Madrid: La Plaza Mayor. I was very lucky to find an apartment here, and I love getting up in the morning facing the famous square.

I’m currently teaching English to adults through different programs: I’m doing some courses for unemployed people, courses in companies and also teaching in what we call Formación profesional, which is an alternative to college.

This is my seventh year teaching. I started in Salamanca (Spain), doing my student teaching in a high school, then I moved to North Carolina (USA), where I stayed for three years. I’ve been teaching here in Madrid since I got back three years ago.

Why did you decide to teach in the U.S.?

Our educational system in Spain is in a very deep crisis. This is not only a personal opinion, many international reports and the main Spanish political parties share this point of view.

Going to the U.S. was a great opportunity for me to learn from another system, to improve my teaching skills and to get new ideas I could later use in my country. Apart from my professional development, there were also personal reasons, such as my love for traveling and knowing other cultures.

Álvaro with students in Madrid

How did living and working in North Carolina change your perspective on Spain? The U.S.?

I don’t think it changed my perspective on Spain. I had already lived in the U.K. for two years and I had the experience of looking at my country from abroad.

My perspective on the U.S. did change dramatically though. All I knew about the U.S. was basically from TV and movies, but there are many things you can’t learn unless you live in a place.

One of them is that the U.S. is a huge country. I know you can see that on a map, but it was when I drove from North Carolina to California (and back) when I truly understood what that implies. I had visited many countries before going to the U.S., but none of them was close to it in size.

The U.S. is so big, and the regional differences so significant, that I don’t dare to generalize about the whole country since I finished that long trip. I know many people here in Spain who might say Americans are…or the U.S. is…, but I don’t think you can finish those sentences with adjectives you can apply in such a generic way.

People from North Carolina are quite different to New Yorkers, and Florida doesn’t look like South Dakota at all. Even the language sounds so different that it’s hard to consider it the same language!

How would you describe education in Spain?

In Spain, the educational system is in a critical moment that requires brave and innovative changes, but it’ll be too hard or impossible to change it because there are too many groups benefiting from the current situation.

And in the U.S.?

In the U.S., at least in the region where I taught, education is not so rigid, principals have more freedom to do their job and it’s easier to take decisions that have a real impact in school life.

I think there were more and better training opportunities for teachers, and all those factors make me be optimistic towards the future of the American educational system.

When you were in the U.S., what did you miss about/from Spain? Now that you’re back in Spain, what do you miss about/from the U.S.?

I think I’m a person who adapts very well to live in a new country, but there’s always something I miss: people. When I was in North Carolina, I missed my family above all, but also my friends, and now that I’m in Spain I miss the friends I made in the U.S.

Apart from that, I really miss American cost of life. Spain is a much more expensive country, and our wages vanish at a surprising speed compare to American’s.

Now tell us about Bablingua…why you decided to start this business?

Laura and I were always shocked by the interest that students, teachers and the members of the community where we lived had about Spain. It didn’t matter who we talked to, from the postman to the person who helped us with our taxes, we were always bombarded with questions about our country, and we loved that.

In school, our culture was constantly linked to teaching the language, but it was difficult for us to present Spain as it is with the resources we had. Pictures were a great help, but there is nothing like videos.

The problem is that the videos we had were too focused on stereotypes: bullfighting, flamenco, Feria de Abril, etc. I think all those are important, but I don’t believe they should be the only thing to show about our country.

We realized students were mainly interested in seeing what ordinary people of their age look like, what clothes they wear, their hair styles, the houses where they live, their schools, cars, etc.

That was the way we started thinking about Bablingua. It was our last year in the U.S., and we decided to fill that gap when returning to Spain, filming regular people in ordinary situations, with some activities to help students to get the most of each video.

How does Bablingua help students learn about other cultural perspectives?

When we were thinking about this project, we came up with the idea of a door as a symbol. Our goal was to help teachers to open a virtual door in their classrooms so they could take their students to Spain at a reasonable price. 21 short videos and a DVD later, we think we have achieved this goal.

Our audiovisual resources, in our opinion, present Spain as it is. Some of our videos are filmed in touristic areas, but many others show the kind of residential places that are usually left behind because they don’t seem interesting enough. We think culture involves extraordinary events and also ordinary ones, and by including examples of both of them we think our materials give a very realistic perspective to students.

How does Bablingua help teachers?

As teachers, Laura and I are perfectly aware of the importance of good resources in a Foreign Language class. We know there are many great textbooks for Spanish language teachers in the U.S., but we also think that overusing textbooks lead to certain problems such as boredom and an excessive repetition of the kind of activities done in class.

We didn’t start this project to compete with the existing resources, but to offer new ideas and additional materials that can spice up Spanish classes. Many teachers have written to us to thank us for offering something different and appealing for students.

We try to help them by covering as many topics as we can, paying a lot of attention to the activities that come with the videos. We want students to be ready to watch them, to understand them, and that’s why we need to provide teachers with some good exercises to introduce the topic in class, including the key vocabulary and the grammatical structures covered in the video.

What’s in store for both you and Bablingua in 2010?

We’re more and more excited about Bablingua as we receive positive feedback from other teachers. Our main satisfaction comes from seeing that almost every teacher who tries one of our materials buys another one in the following weeks. That is something that make us feel very proud of what we’ve done this far, and it’s the reason why we’re going to try to put more time into this project in 2010.

We have many ideas in mind, such as offering online series of short episodes, or visiting other Spanish speaking countries so teachers can take their students to as many places as possible.

Editor’s note: Click here to preview the awesome videos Bablingua offers! If I were teaching Spanish, I’d definitely use them.

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33 Simple Ways to Experience Other Cultures

Cate — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:59:21 +0000

photo by Desirée Delgado

by :: Cate

Watch a movie in another language
Listen to an online radio station from a different country
Cook a meal using an ingredient you’ve never tried
Read a blog written by someone from another country
Try that international restaurant you’ve driven by
Visit an international bakery and order something unfamiliar
Read a book by an author from another country
Buy your groceries at an international grocery store
Peruse a magazine from another country
Read Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World to a child
Read a Culture Smart or Culture Shock book
Take an international cooking class
Join a cultural meet-up or language group
Attend a SIETAR Local Group event
Join Twitter and follow people from around the world
Strike up a conversation with the next person you hear speaking a different language
Learn a dance from another country
Read an online international newspaper
Attend your local university’s international coffee hour, lectures, movie nights, etc.
Collaborate on a project with a colleague from another country
Read a book in another language
Celebrate a holiday from another country with friends or family
Listen to NPR
Browse Flickr for photos taken by people all over the world
Google a city you’ve never visited to learn more about it
Learn how to say hello in multiple languages
Read a book set in another world region
Watch or play a sport you’ve never tried before
Invite someone from another country for coffee
Buy an international cookbook and make something you’ve never eaten before
Peruse Material World: A Global Family Portrait or Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Invite an international student from your local university to celebrate a holdiay with your family (contact the International Students and Scholars Office)
Take RDU taxi service if you’re ever in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (my drivers have always been from around the world)

This list was generated from things I’ve either done or would like to do. I’m sure there are many more creative ideas out there – I’d love to hear yours!

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It’s All About You! November Edition

Cate — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:14:59 +0000

photo by Éole

It’s all about you: our readers.

No matter how passionate one is about something, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to devote ourselves to that passion as much as we would like. We’re sure you know what we mean!

We know our readers are passionate about education. And that you’re also interested in cross-cultural communication. In other words, we know you enjoy reading our blog.

However, we also know that life might not have permitted you to read every single one of our posts this month. So we started an It’s All About You: Month in Review series, which we’ll post at the end of every month.

The goal of this new series is to highlight for you, our readers, some of the most interesting posts in each topic we blog about. So whenever you have a busy month, don’t worry, we’ll help you catch up!

Month in Reviews are also perfect posts to forward to your friends and colleagues who might enjoy sampling CulturallyTeaching.

Month in Review – November Edition

::: How you count cash: A cultural thing?
According to the video, yes! Watch it to find out if you count cash the way the video says people in your country do.

::: What’s your communication style?
There’s no question that culture has a huge impact on how people learn to communicate with one another. In this Culture School post, Anamaria kicks off a series of articles on communication styles across cultures by explaining how doing and being cultures often communicate differently.

::: The danger of a single story
Reader Lisa Velazquez mentioned this video in her comment on Cate’s post about a thought-provoking Mercy Corps commercial. As Lisa noted in her comment, this video sparked her (and us) to consider the question where do I hold a single story that prevents me from seeing the complete story of a person or a place?

::: The stories of culture
Stories make up a large part of any conversation we have about culture. Life offers some of the best examples to illustrate the cultural theory that we both learned in school, so we’re always on a quest for more stories. Read this post for two stories that beautifully illustrate how deeply perceptions of time permeate cultures.

What’s in store for December?

Here’s a glimpse of what we’re working on for the final month of the year:

::: A holiday gift-giving guide for 2009

::: An interview with Álvaro Mediavilla, an English/Spanish teacher and Bablingua co-founder living in Madrid, Spain. (Bablingua creates culturally authentic videos for Spanish teachers and their students.)

::: Pamela, who’s wrapping up the school year in Argentina, shares her students’ School Snapshots and an exciting new project we’re taking world-wide

::: Anamaria turns her Romanian on

::: Cate discovers 30+ everyday ways to learn about other cultures

And much, much more…

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What is Your Communication Style?

Anamaria — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:06:42 +0000

Culture School is in session! In this series, we take an aspect of intercultural theory and apply to daily life. Basically, our goal is to expose those cultural moonwalking bears. And because this blog is about culture and education, we consider each topic in the context of the classroom.

photo by maryatexitzero

by :: Anamaria

Think back to the last time you were confused or a bit annoyed when talking to somebody.

Was that an unpleasant experience for you because of the conversation topic or a disagreement of opinion…or was it simply because of mismatched communication styles?

photo by dhammza

Here are a few things that make up a communication style:

Pitch
Intonation
Turn-taking rules
Number of topic details included in the conversation
How long before one gets to the point?
Is there a point?
Use of non-verbal behavior

There is no question that culture has a huge impact on how people learn to communicate with one another.

So let’s think back to our conversation on Being and Doing cultures. If you come from a Being culture, chances are that you will have some difficulties communicating with somebody from a Doing culture?

Why? Well, here are a couple of reasons:

1. The Doing (D) person is eager to get to the point. The Being (B) person would rather spend some time getting to know the person they’re speaking with, and talk about personal stuff before getting to the point.

2. Given the concern for deadlines and schedules of D people, they are very careful about the amount of details they include in a conversation. Only the details that are DIRECTLY related to the topic will make it. The others will be left out. This can be quite challenging for B people who need a much larger amount of details in order to fully understand an issue, and feel comfortable talking about it.

3. The monochronic D people, used to do things linearly, are usually careful to allow the person they’re speak with enough time to finish their thought before responding. The polychronic B people are comfortable with a more flexible turn-taking style, which can be perceived as rude by D people.

Remember, of course, that not everyone in a culture will communicate in the same way. But there are general “rules” related to communication that members of a culture subscribe to – often unknowingly. Just think about what your parents and teachers taught you about “good” communication. They were teaching you your culture’s “rules” for communication.

Now, think back to your most recent frustrating conversation: did it have anything to do with culture?

More on communication styles in the weeks to come…

The Stories of Culture

Anamaria — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:00:10 +0000

photo by maryatexitzero

by :: Anamaria

In the past few weeks we have been looking at various ways in which time affects our lives. Cate and I have spent many hours talking about this topic, discovering all the unexpected ways in which our own cultural perceptions of time affect our thinking, our behavior, our relationships…the list can go on and on and on.

Cate’s perspective is more monochronic (in line with U.S. culture), whereas mine is a bit more polychronic (in line with my collectivist Romanian culture). The beauty of these conversations is the cultural self-awareness they bring about. I have discovered myself many times over during these conversations.

Stories make up a large part of any conversation Cate and I have about culture. Mainly personal stories, many from our travels. Life offers some of the best examples to illustrate the cultural theory that we both learned in school, so I am always on a quest for more stories.

Recently, I heard two that made me think about time, and which I would like to share with you. They are both from Jason Patent’s blog, and they beautifully illustrate how deeply perceptions of time will permeate cultures.

Here is an excerpt from the first story:

In 1972, when Nixon was visiting China, one day he was strolling the grounds of the Forbidden City with Premier Zhou Enlai. Kissinger had told Nixon that Zhou was an avid student of French history. Looking to make conversation, Nixon asked: “What has been the effect of the French Revolution on Western civilization?” Zhou’s answer: “It’s too early to tell.”

And here is a bit from t he second story :

How could a ghost gain a foothold in American cities? People move about like the tide, unable to form permanent ties with places, to say nothing of other people.…

Enjoy!

It’s All About You! October Edition

Anamaria — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:57:56 +0000

by :: Anamaria

It’s all about you: our readers.

We know our readers are passionate about education. And that you’re also interested in cross-cultural communication. In other words, we know you enjoy reading our blog.

Month in Reviews are also perfect posts to forward to your friends and colleagues who might enjoy sampling CulturallyTeaching.

Month in Review - October Edition:

::: Children Full of Life
In video about an elementary school in Japan, 4th graders talk and learn about life. Emotions, tears, smiles are all part of the conversation and contribute greatly to learning. Take a look (you might want to have tissues nearby).

::: The Great Italian Pizza Fiasco of 1994
Many of us have experienced cross-cultural fiascos. But how often do these fiascos become cross-cultural turning points? How often do we look back, take the time to really reflect on what happened, and LEARN from it? Cate did in 1994, and it changed her forever.

::: Cate visits schools in Argentina
As you may know, Cate was in Argentina in October, attending and presenting at the FAAPI conference. While in Argentina, she visited three schools: Ciclo Basico, Colegio Martin Miguel de Güemes, and J.A. Pradere. Big THANK YOU to Patricia, Pamela, and all the wonderful English students who welcomed Cate into their classrooms.

::: Doing and Being Cultures
We have covered quite a bit of cultural theory since we started out blog, mostly having to do with cultural dimensions. If you haven’t had a chance to follow all of our posts on cultural dimensions, this post summarizes all these theoretical concepts quite effectively.