Coping with the Challenges of

Intercultural Communication
 Inputs:

• Challenges of Intercultural
Communication
• Sources of Misunderstanding
• Approaches to Studying
Intercultural Communication
 Challenges of Intercultural
Communication

• Different languages results in Intercultural

miscommunication and misunderstanding
• Wrong interpretation of the non-verbal code
• Handshake
• Greetings
 HANDSHAKE
COUNTRY OR TYPE S OF HANDSHAKE
REGION
United States Firm handshake
France Soft handshake
Germany Firm handshake, for men , traditionally
accompanied by a slight bow

Japan Handshake with arm firmly extended,

accompanied by a bow

Middle East Handshake and free hand placed on the

forearm of the other person
 GREETINGS

• Greeting rituals vary

– Japanese bow
– German bow
JAPANESE BOW
GERMAN BOW
 Sources of
Misunderstanding
1.Ambiguity – lack of explicitness on the part of the speaker.
2.Performance – slips of the tongue and mishearing.
3.Language- ungrammatically of sentences.
4.Gaps in world knowledge – gaps in content rather than
language.
5.Local context-turns and the turns within sequences
APPROACHES TO STUDYING
INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
 SOCIAL SCCIENCE INTERPRETATIVE CRITICAL
FUNCTIONALISTICI
Discipline on which psychology Anthropology
approach is founded ,sociolinguistics various

Research goal Describe and predict

le be predict Describe behavior Change behavior
behavior
Assumption of reality External and subjective Subjective and
describable material
assumption of human Predictable Creative and voluntary changeable
behavior
Method of study Survey , observation Participant observation Textual analysis of
, field study media

Relationship and Communication Culture created and Culture as a site of

communication influenced by culture maintained trough power struggle
communication
Contribution of Identifies cultural Emphasizes Recognizes the
approach variations; communication and economic and political
culture forces