Just as an independent individual is in no way capable of acting in isolation from other people in accordance with the norm, so also no civilization can in any way fully work in isolation from the cultural achievements of other peoples. In the course of their own life, they are obliged to regularly resort either to their own past, or to the experience of other cultures. At the present time, there are almost no cultural communities absolutely separate from society, in addition to small indigenous tribes, lonely in the most hidden corners of the earth. On Today’s Day, the situation is immediate, if each population is disclosed in order to perceive someone else’s cultural experience, along with this, is also personally ready to exchange provisions of its culture with other peoples. This statement to the cultures of other peoples has acquired the name «interaction of cultures» or «intercultural communication». As well as a rule, these concepts are considered as synonyms, despite the fact that they have a certain peculiarity.
The essence and peculiarity of the definitions «interaction of cultures» and «intercultural communication»
When cultural contributions are explained, it refers to contacts among large groups of people (cultures and subcultures). In the current circumstances, the formation of civilized relationships takes place in the most diverse areas of human life — tourism, sports, personal contacts, etc. In addition, the social, socio-political and financial changes that have happened in society in the past years have plunged into deep migration of peoples, their resettlement, confusion and conflict. As a result of these actions, more and more people, without exception, overcome the cultural barriers that previously delimited them. They should familiarize themselves with foreign cultures, merge with them. Hence, in fact, the interaction of cultures is performed directly through contacts among individual peoples. In fact, they are the ones who represent the process of intercultural communication.[2]
The presentation “intercultural (cross-cultural, interethnic) communication” (or “intercultural interaction”) was introduced into the general scientific circulation by G. Treiger and E. Vestibul in their own work “Culture and Communication. The Model of Analysis” (1954), which defined it as an absolute goal, towards which the individual must strive in his own aspiration as best as possible and successfully adapt to the society around. Since that time, scientists have made great progress in the abstract study of this paradox, in particular, they have established all more characteristic features. Thus, it has been established that intercultural communication is carried out if the sender and the recipient of information belong to different cultures, if the participants in the communication understand the cultural differences of each other. According to its essence, intercultural communication is always interpersonal communication in a special context, when one participant discovers the cultural difference of another. Such communication creates a large number of difficulties associated with the differences in expectations and prejudices that are characteristic of each person and, of course, varied in different cultures. The properties of intercultural differences can be interpreted as the differences between verbal and non-verbal codes in a kind of communication context. The presence of this any participant in the cultural contact has its own system of laws, functioning in such a way that the sent and received messages have the ability to be encoded and decoded. The interpretation procedure, in turn, is influenced by age, gender, specialty, social status of the communicants, their tolerance, initiative, individual experience.
Figures of intercultural communication
There are 4 main forms of intercultural communication — direct, indirect, indirect and direct. The presence of direct communication, information sent by the sender directly to the recipient is also capable of being realized both orally and in writing. In this case, the maximum result is achieved with the help of oral speech, combining verbal and non-verbal resources. In indirect communication, which is predominantly one-sided, works of literature and art, radio messages, television broadcasts, publications in print media and magazines, etc. are considered informative keys.
Mediated and direct forms of communication are distinguished by the presence or absence of an intermediate link, which stands out in the importance of an intermediary between partners. A person or a technical device can act as an intermediary. Communication mediated by technical means is able to remain direct (dialogue on the phone, rewriting by e-mail), but this excludes the possibility of using non-verbal means.[4]
In intercultural communication, it is established to emphasize the internal and external appearance of communication. As an internal context, a set of low-priority cognitions, value attitudes, cultural identity and personal characteristics of an individual are designated. This context can include the attitude with which the communicant interacts and what constitutes the psychological atmosphere of communication.
The external context of communication is time, the sphere is also the conditions of communication. For intercultural communication, a significant circumstance is considered to be the place where communication is performed, which characterizes the environment of the communicative course. Thus, a communicant who is in his own territory feels most comfortable and is much better oriented in the space of his culture than a newcomer. The type of communication in the workplace will also differ at home according to the degree of deepening into everyday culture and the influence of individual factors.The temporal context is a given sequential interval in which the communicative situation takes place. In various periods of time, relations among the participants (partners) of communication are formed in different ways. Communications are consistently rushy: synchronous, which are made through individual contacts, by phone, the Internet in on-line mode, and at different times — all other communicative conditions.
Intercultural communication at micro and macro levels
At the present time, our planet has vast territories, structurally also inherently linked into one social system with their own cultural traditions. For example, it is possible to say about American culture, Latin American, African, European, Asian, etc. These cultures differ according to the continental indicator and, due to their own scale, have acquired the name of macrocultures. From within macrocultures, both subcultural differences and general features are revealed, which makes it possible to say about the presence of such a family of macrocultures, and consider the public of the corresponding regions as residents of one culture. There are massive differences between macrocultures that affect their communication. In this case, the intercultural connection is performed outside the connection with the status of its accomplices in the horizontal plane.
Intercultural communication at the micro level
Intercultural communication at the micro level is performed in some configurations. A countercultural connection is also made among the residents of the original culture by these components of it also by groups that disagree with the dominant values and standards of the original culture; countercultural categories are unwilling from the values of the prevailing culture, they also expose generally accepted personal standards and principles, opposing them to the values of many.
Communication from among social classes and companies is based on differences among social groups and classes of this or another community. There are no socially homogeneous communities in society. Differences among peoples appear as a result of their origin, creation, specialty, social status, etc. In absolutely all states of society, the top is also a large part of the inhabitants, the wealthy and the poor also have opposite beliefs, morals, foundations, etc. Despite in this case the fact that all given societies without exception belong to one culture, similar differences divide them into subcultures are also reflected in communication among them. Communication among residents of different demographic groups, for example, religious (among Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland), age and gender (among the stronger gender also by the fairer sex, among residents of different generations), is conditioned by their adaptation to this or another team also, thus, distinctive features of the culture of this category.[1]
Communication among urban and rural populations is based on differences among megalopolises and townships in the genre of the pace of existence, the general degree of creation, a different type of interpersonal relationship, different «philosophy of life».
Regional communication appears among the populations of different spheres (territories), the actions of which, under equal conditions, can differ significantly. For example, a resident of American New England rejects the «sugary-sweet» way of communication of the population of the southern states, which they consider insincere, but a resident of the southern states accepts the dry image of his own midnight companion as audacious.
Interethnic communication — interaction among personalities who see different people (popular categories), can be considered equally as a connection at the micro level in this case, if these individuals enter the structure of a common country. In other versions, the previously given level of interaction of civilizations.
Cultural interconnections are also a continuous and significant element of communication among peoples and countries, as a result of which values, generally accepted standards, knowledge are formed, stored, and mutual mutual enrichment of various cultures occurs. Failure to comply with the usual relationships among people stops or complicates cultural contacts, despite the fact that in the given circumstances they are kept, coping with all obstacles and limits without exception, also waiting for a suitable stage in order to complete communication. Certain communities for a long period were formed almost entirely separately, in the absence of external contacts, as a result of which there was a prolonged recession, underdevelopment, and the loss of a significant share of their cultural heritage (for example, about many of the main people of the North). For this reason, accessibility to external influences, communication is a significant requirement for the effective formation of each culture.
In cultural relations, large people also have every chance of assisting, as well as small people who have their own statehood and do not have anything. Of course, the impact of a significant people, civilization or culture is much larger than that of small people’s companies, but the past also show a civilized influence in their neighbors in their region, record their own investment in world civilization. For this reason, the current international documents formulate the rule of the equality of civilizations, which presupposes the prevention of one or another legal restriction as well as the internal suppression of the aspirations of any national or state category to observe its own culture and to maintain its own individuality.
Results of intercultural communication
Like every other type of communication, intercultural communication in all degrees has personal goals, the implementation of which explains the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of communication. Here, the idea of »intercultural competence» is of no small importance, which, as well as the principle, is combined with the definition of the communicative area of responsibility, which is also characterized as «the level of formed interpersonal skill, i.e. learning to interact with those around. This skill is necessary for an individual in order to work safely in this society within the framework of his own capabilities and social status ”.[5]
By the mid-1980s. in Western cultural studies, an understanding has been formed, according to which it is possible to master intercultural competence through the development of knowledge acquired in the course of intercultural communication:
— characteristic, which are formed as well as data about a certain culture in classical nuances;
— the same, to which such communication skills belong, as well as tolerance, empathic listening, understanding of the same cultural universals.
In accordance with such a distribution, intercultural competence is assessed in two nuances — as well as the ability:
— to develop for yourself someone else’s cultural identity, which implies an understanding of the style, values, generally accepted standards, stereotypes of action of another communicative society. The presence of this scenario, the main target of the course of communication is considered the mastery of the largest amount of data and the corresponding cognition of another culture. Such a goal is capable of being set with the goal of accomplishing acculturation close to the point of absolute disagreement with one’s cultural affiliation;
— to achieve prosperity in the presence of contacts with residents of another cultural society, including the presence of the missing knowledge of the key components of the culture of their own partners. Directly with this type of intercultural area of responsibility is required to meet more often in the practice of communication.
The constituent elements of intercultural competence are:
— affective — empathy and tolerance, which are in no way limited by the confidential relationship to another culture, but form the basis for the purpose of successful intercultural interaction;
— cognitive — culturally specific cognitions, which serve as a basis for the purpose of a corresponding explanation of the communicative action of representatives of another culture, preventing misunderstanding and changing their communicative action in the interactive process;
— procedural — strategies that are directly applied in the moments of intercultural contacts. There are strategies aimed at a successful interaction process, the desire for speech influence, the selection of common cultural components, the desire for comprehension, also the detection of signals of misunderstanding, the use of the skill of past contacts, etc., as well as strategies aimed at expanding knowledge about the cultural originality of the partner.
On the basis of the selected groups of elements, it is possible to establish ways of developing intercultural competence:
— the formation of the ability to think about one’s own foreign culture, something that initially prepares for a friendly relationship to the manifestations of an outsider culture;
— expansion of knowledge about proper culture with the aim of in-depth understanding of diachronic and synchronic relationships among their own culture also outsider;
— gaining knowledge about the circumstances of socialization and inculturation in their own outside culture, about social stratification, socio-cultural forms of interaction established in both cultures.
International experience demonstrates that a more effective strategy for achieving significant between civilized competence is considered to be unification — support of one’s civilized identity by the presence of other people mastering civilization.
According to the judgment of the German culturologist G. Auernheimer, the preparation of intercultural competence must be started with a concentrated introspection, and also dangerous self-reflection. In the initial period, the desire to accept differences among peoples must develop, which later will develop into the ability to intercultural understanding and conversation. For this, learners should accept multicultural comparability as an implied requirement of existence.
Levels of cultural interaction
The interaction of cultures concerns the most diverse categories of people — from a few ethnic groups, consisting of some 10 individuals, up to billions of people (similar, as well as the Chinese). For this reason, the presence of considering the interaction of cultures emphasizes the corresponding degree of interaction are folk, state, civilized.
Ethnic level of interaction of cultures
This assistance expresses ambiguous tendencies. The mutual study of the components of culture, on the one hand, promotes integration actions — an increase in contacts, the popularization of bilingualism, an increase in the number of hybrid unions, but on the other hand, it is accompanied by an increase in national self-awareness. The presence of this, the fewest also similar folk categories, most
stubbornly protect their own particularity.[3]
For this reason, the level of culture of an ethnos, supplying its stability, carries out in no way only an ethno-integrating function, but also an ethnodifferentiating function, which is manifested in the presence of values that are unique for the purpose of this culture, generally recognized standards and standards of action are also fixed in the self-consciousness of the ethnos.
Due to different internal and external conditions, the connection of civilizations in the popular degree is capable of carrying out various figures and also being a source of 4 permissible alternatives of ethnocultural contacts:
— increase — an elementary numerical change in the culture of an ethnic group, which, when faced with a different culture, masters certain of its achievements. Similar was the influence of Indian America in Europe, which enriched it with the latest types of cultivated plants;
— difficulty — a high-quality change in the culture of an ethnic group under the influence of the most adult culture, something that activates the subsequent formation of the first culture. The influence of a strange culture in Japanese and Korean can be an example, the past is established to be considered as daughter according to the relationship to the strange culture;
— reduction — the loss of personal abilities as a result of contact with the most formed culture. This numerical change is characteristic of the purpose of many non-literate people, also often as it turned out to be the basis for the degradation of culture;
— impoverishment (erosion) — the destruction of culture under the influence of the outside, taking place in the power of the inaccessibility of a fairly stable and formed culture. For example, the culture of the Ainu is almost entirely absorbed by the Japanese culture, but the level of culture of the North American Indians was preserved only on the reservations.
In general, popular movements passing through the presence of assistance in the popular degree have every chance to cause various configurations as well as the organization of ethnic groups and their cultures (fusion, unification), thus also their distribution (transculturation, genocide, segregation).
Culture shock in mastering a foreign culture
The presence of contact with an outsider culture makes familiarization with the latest imaginative creations, social and material values, the actions of people, which are dependent on the canvas of society, value views, generally accepted standards and conventions, configurations of thinking, characteristic of outsider culture. Such meetings, as well as the principle, enrich people, but often the connection with another culture leads to questions also incidents, predetermined by a misunderstanding of this culture.
Experts called the stressful influence of the newest culture on people a culture shock; in some cases, similar definitions of «transition shock» and «cultural fatigue» are used. At this or another level, almost all immigrants without exception suffer from it. Someone generates non-compliance with psychological well-being, the most or less formulated psychological shock.
The word «culture shock» was introduced into general scientific usage by North American explorer Kalsrvo Oberg in 1954 the verb. Someone indicated that the presence of entering the newest culture, the individual feels a few unpleasant feelings. Today it is that the skill of the newest culture is considered unpleasant or shock, due to the fact that someone is unexpected also due to the fact that he is able to cause a negative score for his culture.
As a rule, the corresponding figures of the manifestation of civilized shock emphasize:
— tension with due to the efforts used in order to achieve emotional adjustment;
— a feeling of loss due to the loss of friends, personal approval, specialty, property;
— a feeling of loneliness (rejection) in the newest culture, which can be transformed into the rejection of this culture; about non-observance of role hopes and self-identification;
— anxiety, turning into discontent and dislike after realizing cultural differences;
— a feeling of inferiority due to the inability to overcome the situation.
The main factor of culture shock is cultural differences. Any culture has forged many symbols and images, standards of action, with the assistance of which an individual is able to function automatically at various moments. If the individual, as it turned out in the circumstances of the newest culture, the usual concept of orientation becomes incomplete, since the beloved is based on different judgments about society, other norms and values, standards of action and perception. Directly disillusionment with the adequacy of one’s culture, understanding of its non-universality becomes a shock factor, thus, just as in the circumstances of one’s own culture, the individual does not give a report for himself that it contains this secret, invisible share of culture.
The position of culture shock has the most direct approach to the course of communication. Any individual accepts his own skill for communication, as well as something that is implied by itself also does not comprehend in any way, this or that significance is represented by this skill in its existence, up to these times, until it turned out to be in conditions of misunderstanding. Unsuccessful interaction, as well as a principle, generates around him sincere suffering and disappointment. But in this stay, the individual comprehends that the basis of the disorder is his personal inability to communicate appropriately. The conversation is in no way just so much about ignorance of style, how much about the skill to parse the developed information of another cultural society, about emotional comparability with the bearers of another culture, the possibility of realizing their meanings.
Modern scholars view culture shock as being part of the process of adapting to new circumstances. Most of this, in this course, a person in no way simply acquires knowledge about the newest culture and the norms of action in it, but he becomes the most formed in a civilized way, despite the fact that he also feels tension. For This Reason, from the foundation of the 1990s. experts choose to speak not about culture shock, but about the stress of acculturation.
The system of the formation of culture shock for the first time is depicted in detail by Oberg, who stated that society proceeds through specific stages, the excitement of civilized shock also, over time, achieve a mediocre degree of adaptation.
Culture shock is a difficult and painful condition in the interests of a person, however, it speaks of individual growth, breaking existing standards, for the purpose of which large expenditures of physiological and emotional resources of a person are required. As a result, the newest situation of society is created, based on the acceptance of cultural diversity as well, the division of We-They is photographed, stability arises before the newest tests, tolerance for the newest and extraordinary. The main result is the ability to exist in a regularly changing society, in which all, without exception, have the least significance limits among states, and all, without exception, the most significant are concrete contacts among people.
References:
- Риэрдон, Бетти Э. — Толерантность – дорога к миру. — Москва: Бонфи, — 2001. -301 с.
- Нысанбаев, А.Н. — Глобализация и проблемы межкультурного диалога // Евразийское сообщество = Eurasian community. — Алматы, 2002. — N 1. — С. 109-114
- Арутюнян Ю.В., Дробижева Л.М. Этносоциология: пройденное и новые горизонты // Социс — 2009. №4. -230 стр.
- Тер-Минасова С.Г. Язык и межкультурная коммуникация. М., 2000.
- Е. М. Верещагин, В. Г. Костомаров. Язык и культура. М., 1990
