The process of perception in intercultural communication

Lack of consideration for others is seen as another clear manifestation of impoliteness. It also appears that intercultural communication between western cultures, such as the English and the French, who live in close proximity, is often fraught with prejudice and animosity: The French have no consideration when smoking in front of you - even when you're eating food. Very impatient when you try to speak their language. Tend to look down on the English with disdain (I'm Scottish, by the way - and they treat us different!)Another problem experienced by some of the British respondents with representatives of other cultures is foreigners' lack of restraint and the overt manifestation of emotions in critical situations: Foreigners often demonstrate rapid escalation of emotion if they are offended. Americans are also seen as direct and sometimes impolite: American society has become much more liberal, and many Americans act impolitely in various ways - spitting, talking loudly over other people, and a general lack of awareness or respect for other people.

At the same time, the politeness of American service people is acknowledged, but seen as manipulative, feigned and profit-driven: Americans use polite terms and always seem cheerful, but you know it's because they're just after a tip.

The American respondents show slightly less confidence about their own politeness. Unsurprisingly, many of them refer to the friendliness of employees in the service sector for support: Clearly the stereotype is that the English are more reserved and somehow more polite. But I've actually found American service people, waitresses for example, to be far more polite than their British counterparts. But that's probably because I'm American and consider friendliness to be part of being polite. That same, "friendliness" i.e. "Have a nice day" or "Hi, I'm Susan, I'll be your server today" is what some English people point to as fake or silly about American culture. But I like it.

Some respondents are less convinced of the politeness of their compatriots. They refer to the American informality (in comparison to the British more formal politeness), or the Americans' self -centeredness, or to a general state of carelessness about others in terms of proper behavior: Many Americans focus excessively on their own best interests, thus seeming rather impolite. We're also an informal society, so perhaps it's less of a priority.

There is awareness that American politeness is less formal and perhaps emphasizing friendliness rather than formal behavior, as opposed to British politeness: I believe Americans are polite in terms of friendliness, and that the British are more polite in terms of 'acting proper' or 'proper behavior'.

There is also awareness of the cultural relativity of politeness conventions and the impossibility to make broad generalizations on a national basis: I have trouble with these kinds of generalizations- obviously, you'd only think of the" culture" as a whole as polite or impolite based on what you're used to.

Americans express quite negative opinions about the politeness of the British. According to some American respondents, British politeness is sometimes perceived as an enactment of surface politeness markers without any deeper motivation. The distancing behavior, characteristic of many British people, is also criticized as impolite. Finally, lack of consideration for others (especially by younger people) is often observed in public places in modern Britain: They say “please” all the time, but that's about as far as it goes. Impoliteness in Britain often takes the form of ignoring or refusing to acknowledge someone with whom you in some way come into contact. This is often excused as “British reserve”, but it comes off as rudeness to (I think) a lot of foreigners.

But there is also the realization that what is perceived as `British politeness' is a result of a stereotype which is often at odds with reality, since people within any given culture vary vastly: Also, the American stereotype of British people is that they are just so `very' polite, but that's because we always see movies about rich old Brits with butlers. Few Americans ever come in contact with British street punks.

Another cultural difference is the T/V distinction in some languages, not found in modern English, which creates confusion and sometimes impressions of greater politeness about foreign languages. The cultural expectations of Americans in interpersonal communication with others are well summed up by one of the respondents, who seems to be particularly well aware of cultural differences:

· The use of the familiar and formal forms of “you” which creates confusion for outsiders/native speakers of English when learning a new language;

· The varying degree to which smiling is seen to be an essential part of a polite interaction (most Americans like smiles);

· The absence or presence of small talk to create some sort of human connection(most Americans like small talk);

· The more casual attitude about punctuality typical of Latin cultures (most Americans are fairly punctual);

· Eye contact is important in the U.S. to polite interaction, unlike in many parts of Asia.

By comparison, the Bulgarian respondents who think that Bulgarians are polite form only 27% of all replies. The comments provided express rather strong opinions, usually excessively negative and self-critical: Bulgarians are not very polite people. Bulgarians as a whole are not well behaved, they lack respect for others, show rudeness sand lack of consideration for those around them. The upbringing and culture of Bulgarians, especially younger ones, in recent years has declined. They are often aggressive and rude; they do not form straight lines when queuing but crowd together; and they often shout in public places. Bulgarians are not exactly impolite but bitter and very competitive to the extent of destroying everything around them.

Some have experienced specific difficulties regarding politeness in interpreting for English people: In interpreting for some English people I had to constantly decorate the expressions of the Bulgarians with polite expressions; in spite of that, the English people noted in the end: Bulgarians are not very polite, are they”.

The Bulgarians' perceptions of British and American culture show that Anglo-Americans are generally seen as polite, and quite often as more polite than Bulgarians. The formal markers of their politeness are most usually the increased use of “thank you” and “sorry” and the linguistic strategies available for encoding distance and indirectness. For some of the respondents, these observations are related to certain embarrassment when a comparison with Bulgarian politeness is made. They [The English] more often find reason to say “thank you” or “sorry.”

They [The English] have many more linguistic forms for expressing indirect attitudes to something. I almost experienced culture shock when I noticed that almost in every sentence Americans add “please”; it is rude [for them] not to thank for anything, be it material or not.”I was struck by the constant use of “I appreciate this” by Americans. It is surprising how many times in a conversation an American can use “Please” and “Thank you.” A friend from London always replied with “Yes, please” when offered water, bread or anything else (which is hardly used as often in Bulgaria). Foreigners (excluding Americans) always say “Please”, “Could you”, “Would you”, while I at first used “Искаш ли” (`Do you want').

A considerable number of respondents, however, see English politeness in slightly negative terms. While they acknowledge that the English are more polite than Bulgarians, they see this politeness as a mask for people's feelings. The reserved politeness of the English is perceived as a surface expression which is not necessarily motivated by politeness at a deep level. For this reason, English politeness is often seen as contrived, exaggerated and in sincere. There is a perceived mismatch between the surface form and the deep motivation behind it. The strict adherence to some formal rules of etiquette also receives criticism. Some respondents state their disapproval of English politeness in even stronger terms, observing that politeness should be distinguished from hypocrisy. They clearly express preference for sincerity over the formal observance of etiquette. More rarely, such views are expressed regarding American politeness too: The English are more reserved and do not openly disclose their thoughts, but prefer to mask them with politeness. The English are rather reserved, which does not allow you to determine whether their behaviour is motivated by politeness. English politeness is too cold; it is “frosty politeness.” The English follow different models of behavior and their politeness often looks exaggerated and feigned in the eyes of Bulgarians. English people seem to observe some rules for good manners only because they have read somewhere that this is the right way to behave. Sincerity is more important than the formal observance of rules. Americans overdo their politeness; they say “sorry” all the time, even when there is no need for it; this form of politeness is not sincere but has become routine.

There are also some observations of the impolite behavior of foreigners: for example, Americans do not usually wish things such as “Much health”, “A lot of luck”, “Lots of love” on people's birthdays, name days and other holidays. American students in the USA eating snacks did not offer any to their Bulgarian companion; it turned out later that this was not a form of rudeness but an accepted way of behavior. Negative experiences with English people concern requiring the observance of some formal rules of politeness which were perceived as exaggerated by the respondent. For example, she was told that coffee must bed runk with the saucer in hand.

A small number of the respondents have expressed a more balanced view and have presented English politeness not as a rational choice made by individuals, but rather as culturally conditioned behavior. In this way, they have managed to show understanding and tolerance both of the English “excessive” politeness and of the Bulgarian “insufficient” politeness: The English are generally considered very polite, but their politeness is a part of the language and it would be wrong to label all English people polite and all Bulgarians rude. The English are more polite not by virtue of some qualities they possess and we do not, but rather because they possess a culture of behavior which is inseparable from their upbringing; politeness for them is not a matter of choice but an acceptable way of socializing.

Conclusion

As you can see, I think an intercultural perspective offers more than an effective way to analyze interaction and facilitate adaptation. In this vision, intercultural communication envisions a reality which will support the simultaneous existence of unity and diversity, of cooperation and competition in the global village, and of consensus and creative conflict in multicultural societies.

The analysis of the responses of British, American and Bulgarian respondents reveals substantial differences between their self-evaluations regarding the politeness of their own respective cultures. The British and American respondents show much greater self-confidence than their Bulgarian counter parts.

One possible line of explanation would be that these opinions reflect the actual state of events and that Bulgarians are in fact less polite than British and American people. And indeed, it has been shown elsewhere that more formal politeness markers are used in English than in Bulgarian, there is greater distance encoded in routine requests in English, more attention is paid to the formal observance of norms of appropriate behaviour and so on.

However, such an interpretation would be rather simplistic. Surprisingly, Greeks, who are often seen as too direct, competitive, queue-jumping and rule-breaking by foreigners, have shown much greater self-confidence in a parallel survey conducted by Sifianou (1992); 63% of the Greeks asked think that the Greeks are fairly polite: more than twice the percentage of the Bulgarian respondents. There is no match in the Greeks' responses for the low self-esteem, negative self-stereotyping, feelings of inadequacy and national inferiority that Bulgarians exhibit.

The explanation therefore should be sought elsewhere. In my opinion, the weak degree of codification of politeness norms in Bulgarian society is a more plausible reason. The perceived shortage of “linguistic capital” in the eyes of Bulgarians is another possible explanation. This creates a feeling of uncertainly, unease, inadequacy, especially in contacts with cultures which enjoy much higher degree of codification, such as British culture, thanks to the long-established tradition of etiquette training, and more recently, American culture, particularly in the area of service encounters. Thus Bulgarians often feel “timidity, tension; they are ill at ease with themselves” (in Bourdieu's words), while British and American people are much more at ease with themselves and revel in the feeling of “being what one ought to be”.

This is a well-known sociolinguistic phenomenon: the ` lower 'social group in a society experiences linguistic insecurity and regards its own language as incorrect and improper. The language of the `higher' group is seen as correct and proper and is thus attributed greater prestige. At the same time, however, its speakers are perceived as cold, unfriendly and unhelpful, while the people from the `lower' group see themselves as kind, friendly and helpful. The same mechanism seems to operate behind Bulgarians' self -perceptions as less polite and the perceptions of the English as more polite, but at the same time cold an insincere.

The feelings of inadequacy experienced by Bulgarians can eventually become more detrimental to effective intercultural communication than ignorance of some peculiarities of the other culture. The problem is compounded if the Bulgarian learners of English have been trained to seek near-native speaker proficiency and to believe in the native speaker superiority.

That is why it is particularly important to develop critical awareness about the peculiarities of one's own and the foreign culture. A critical approach would help learners not only to look at cultural differences and to learn how to avoid causing offence, but also to gain better understanding of the behaviour of others without necessarily accommodating to the foreign culture. It could also help to create greater tolerance to one's own and to the other culture. It seems, in fact, that there is less need to develop tolerance in Bulgarian learners of English towards the dominant Anglo-American culture, than there is to develop self-tolerance towards Bulgarian culture.

We reviewed in detail the main attributes of effective and meaningful communication in different culture. There are 4 main attributes: language, nonverbal behaviour, communication style and values assumptions.

We also examined 6 stages of Intercultural Sensitivity, which developed by M.Bennet: denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, integration.

We discussed and analyzed the most important differences in process of perception of British, American, Bulgarian Peoples.

References

1. Dean Barnlund, “Communication in a Global Village” In his book Public and Private self, 3-24.Yarmouth,ME:Intercultural Press, 1989.

2. Bennett, Milton J. “Basic concepts of Intercultural Communication”, 191-213.

3. Terminasova S.G. Language and intercultural communication.35-225 Moscow, 2000.

Размещено на Allbest.ru