 The Whorf hypothesis A hypothesis holding that the structure of a language affects the perceptions of reality of its speakers and thus influences their thought patterns and worldviews.

 Communications have multiple meanings interpreted by reading the situation  Asian and Arabic languages are among the most high context in the world

 The words provide most of the meaning  Most northern European languages including German, English, and the Scandinavian languages are low context

EX 3.1 High Context and Low Context Countries High Context: Meaning Implicit Languages Japanese Arabs Surrounding Information Necessary for Understanding Latin Americans Italians British French North Americans Scandinavians Germans Swiss Low Context: Meaning Explicit in Language

Basic communication styles: Direct communication = comes to the point and lacks ambiguity.

Formal communication = acknowledges rank, titles, and ceremony in prescribed social interaction.

Nonverbal communication:  Communication without words  Includes array of behaviors that enhance/supplement spoken communication includes kinesics, proxemics, haptics, oculesics, and olfactics…

Kinesics: Communication through body movements:  eg. facial expressions, body posture.

  Most Asian cultures use bowing to show respect. Caution: can be easy to misinterpret gestures.

Proxemics: Use of space to communicate:  Each culture has appropriate distances for communication.

  The personal bubble of space may range from 9 inches to > 2 feet.

North Americans prefer more distance than Latin and Arab cultures.

Haptics (or touching) Shaking hands, embracing, or kissing when greeting one another    No touching Moderate touching Touching (eg. Japan, US, England) (eg. Australia, China, India) (eg. Italy, Greece) Oculesics: Communication through eye contact or gaze  US and Canada: people are very comfortable and expect eye contact to be maintained  China and Japan: eye contact is considered very rude & disrespectful

Olfactics: use of smells as a means of nonverbal communication   U.S.: find body odor offensive Arab: consider body odors natural

 Provide simultaneous translation of a foreign language  Require greater linguistic skills than speaking a language or translating written documents  Insure the accuracy and common understanding of agreements

    Use the most common words with most common meanings Select words with few alternative meanings Follow rules of grammar strictly Speak with clear breaks between words

 Avoid “sports” words or words borrowed from literature  Avoid words that represent pictures  Mimic the cultural flavor of nonnative speaker’s language  Summarize  Test your communication success

 Attribution - process by which we interpret the meaning and intent of spoken words or nonverbal exchanges  Attribution errors