Amy was a traveler from Japan, Bruce was an American, and Carl came from Tunisia. They were in an airport. Amy asked Bruce that whether the airport had baggage car service. Bruce looked at Amy and made an “OK” sign with his fingers (the thumb and the index finger form a circle and the rest three fingers are left upwards). Amy looked very surprised and disappointed, and she did not go for the baggage car service. Bruce got confused, and he thought that Amy was a strange person. At the same time, Carl passed through them and he saw the “OK” sign made by Bruce. He looked at Bruce with his brow closely knitted, he seemed very angry. Bruce was confused again, and he thought that Carl was crazy and might do something harmful to him, so Bruce walked away quickly. Carl saw Bruce ignore him, he got irritated and thought Bruce was very impolite.
Interpretation:
For Bruce, the “OK” sign means that there is baggage car service in the airport, and it is free.
For Amy, the “OK” sign means “money”, so Amy interprets it as the baggage car service is very expensive.
For Carl, he thinks that Bruce is making a signal to tell Amy that Carl is a mean and shameless thief.
What a mess here! Due to the different understandings of the “OK” sign, Amy, Bruce and Carl did not make an effective communication with each other, and misunderstanding happened. In this case, when Bruce felt that Amy’s behavior was strange after his answer, he should have talked to her to make the thing clear. Similarly, for Carl, he should have realized that there could be some misunderstanding, and he could ask Bruce to clarify it.
From this case, we can see that even a small gesture has different meanings in different cultures. Hence, we can never assume that people with different cultural backgrounds would have the same knowledge regarding to the same thing. During the communication, if we feel some gestures or words that are strange in our own understanding, we may talk to the person to make it clear. Furthermore, since nowadays there are more and more intercultural communications, we need to enlarge our knowledge about different cultures to minimize misunderstandings.
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Hey Rachel,
ReplyDeleteThe interesting situation mentioned in your post is pretty likely to happen. The cultural gestures play a very important role in our communication. The misunderstandings of them are also very typical. The use of fingers in your example is not an exception.
Your story is very concise and easily to read. Your explanation of the non verbal response is quite helpful in the sense that is I can understand the story, moreover, I learnt about culture as well. Thanks for that. However, the post would be greater without some minor mistakes as below.
The story sounds pretty rough because of the character's names. Should you give each person a name so that they would become more alive ?:)
Secondly, "The thumb and the index finger forming a circle and leave the rest three fingers upward" should be tailored a bit more. It could be "the thumb and the index finger forms a circle and the rest three fingers are left upwards."
"his brow closely knitted" could be changed into "his closely knitted brow"
"C saw B just ignored him" should be "C saw B ignore him"
"Due to the different understanding" --- understandingS
"In this case, when B felt that A’s behavior was strange after his answer, he could talk to her to make the thing clear. Similarly, for C, he should realize that there could be some misunderstanding, and he could ask B to clarify it." --> "In this case,...... he should have talked to her ....... Similarly, for C, he should have realized ......"
"Hence, we can never assume that people with different cultural backgrounds would have the same knowledge regarding to the same thing." --> we should not assume that .... have the same understanding for the same things."
Lastly, "we need to enlarge our knowledge for different cultures to minimize misunderstandings." --> knowledge about different cultures
I hope that mine correction is not very confusing and it's helpful for you. In case my correction is not correct. Please let me know.
Thanks for your sharing, Rachel.
Jake
Hey Jack,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the inconvenience caused, and Thank you so much ^_^
Rachel
Hello Rachel,
ReplyDeletethis sort of non-verbal miscommunication is pretty common, especially so for it differs from people to people from different parts of the world. I am kind of confused how Carl got into the picture, especially so when it was Amy and Bruce who were communicating with each other. I did not really understand how Carl thought Bruce was signalling to Amy that Carl was a mean thief.
I guess between Amy and Bruce, Bruce should have made his intentions clearer. Or Amy should have probed/questioned him further to clarify her doubts. Or she could easily approach any airport personnel.
If I were Bruce and saw angry and irritated Carl, I probably would not approach Carl. Too intimidating to me, I guess.
In all cases, where this sort of miscommunication can occur, I agree with you it is always good to clarify your doubts before assuming the worst.
Regards,
Michelle
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your effort constructing this hypothetical approach to this assignment, Rachel. It's easy to see that you want to convey the idea that non-verbals can be interpreted differently depending on the cultural background of the interpreters. After all our discussions, that should be fairly obvious by now. (I think Michelle's comments about feeling some confusion in reading the scenario are particularly relevant.)
ReplyDeleteFor this assignment, it might have been better to follow the directions and to describe a real situation, one that you, with your in-depth knowledge and experience living out of your native culture, have experienced first-hand. That might have resonated more convincingly.
The analysis in such a case could have been more real and less like it was written for a textbook.
Now here I have a couple questions. Is it possible that there is some cultural reason for you and the other class member from China both presenting hypothetical responses to an assignment that actually requested that you do your own observation? Or was your common approach to writing a "canned" response because you are both very busy?
In any case, I appreciate your effort.
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
I'd like to answer your questions. Before writing this post, I actually tried to think about a real situation, but after searching my mind, I just couldn't remember any real scenario happended before. I don't know, maybe it is because that most of my friends are Chinese, and we don't have that intercultural miscommunication. Though in the daily life, I also need to communicate with people from different cultures, I haven't encountered any conflicts due to misunderstanding so far. Because I would always ask if I don't understand something, it's just an inborn trait of me.
Next time, if I really had the experience for the topic, I'd like to share it with you ^_^
Regards,
Rachel