Intercultural communication as a scientific direction arose due to the practical interests of American politicians, businessmen, diplomats, who had an urgent need to find out the causes and solve problems that they encounter when interacting with representatives different cultures. The fact is that after the Second World War, the sphere of influence of American politics, economics and culture began to actively expand around the world. American government officials working abroad often found themselves helpless in practical contact with people from other cultures. Often this led to conflicts, mutual hostility, resentment. Even a perfect knowledge of languages did not eliminate the problems that arose. In this regard, the awareness of the need to study not only languages, but also the cultures of other peoples, their customs, traditions, and norms of behavior gradually developed.
As part of the program of economic assistance to developing countries, experts and activists of the Peace Corps visited various countries, where they also encountered misunderstandings and conflicts, which often led to the failure of their missions. It was these failures of the Peace Corps activists that raised the question of the need for special training, in which the main attention was paid to the development of practical skills of intercultural communication, and not formal information about the peculiarities of the culture of a particular country.
In 1946, the US government passed the Foreign Service Act and created the Foreign Service Institute. To work at the institute, scientists of various specialties were involved - anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, linguists, etc., who developed new training programs for specialists to work abroad.
The Institute's research was completed in 1956. According to their results, in 1959, E. Hall's book "The Silent Language" was published, which became the program for the subsequent development of intercultural communication. In the book, E. Hall proposed an understanding of culture and communication ("communication is culture, culture is communication").
Soon, several directions appeared already within the intercultural communication itself. One of them was headed by K. Klakhon and F. Strodbek, who proposed their own methodology for studying the cultures of different peoples. The main differences between cultures, from the point of view of the authors, can be established in relation to individual cultures to such concepts as the assessment of human nature (the human nature orientation), the relationship of man to nature (the man-nature orientation), the attitude to the concept of time (the time orientation). ), activity/passivity assessment (the activity orientation).
The founders of another direction were L. Samovar and R. Porter, whose scientific interests were related to the study of issues of verbal and non-verbal communication. The authors pay special attention to the problem of interpreting non-verbal behavior, given that non-verbal symbols that are positively evaluated by one culture may receive a negative interpretation from speakers of another culture.
In the 1960s and 1970s, works appeared concerning adaptation to a foreign cultural environment. At the same time, the term "culture shock" appears. Studies of the adaptation process have made it possible to establish that culture shock is divided into several stages. The first stage is characterized by euphoria, manifested in admiration for the new cultural environment. Then comes frustration, accompanied by a feeling of doubt and rejection of differences in the values of native and foreign cultures. The process of adaptation ends with the fact that the new cultural environment begins to be perceived as natural and the person acts in accordance with the social and cultural norms of the new environment.
On the European continent, the formation of intercultural communication took place somewhat later than in the United States, and was caused by completely different reasons. In Europe, interest in intercultural communication began to awaken due to the fact that the formation of the European Community opened the borders of many states for the free movement of people, capital and goods. European capitals and large cities began to intensively change their appearance due to the appearance of representatives of different cultures in them and their active involvement in the life of these cities. The practice itself actualized the problem of mutual communication between bearers of different cultures. Since that time, studies have been carried out in Germany related to the problems of acculturation, the migration of foreign workers, and the relationship between foreign and German workers. In various studies, depending on the goal, aspects of perception, behavior and language differences were brought to the fore.
In the domestic science and education system, teachers became the initiators of the study of intercultural communication foreign languages who were the first to realize that for effective communication with representatives of other cultures, only one knowledge of a foreign language is not enough. Diverse practice of communication with foreigners has proved that even deep knowledge of a foreign language does not exclude misunderstanding and conflicts with native speakers of this language. Today it has become obvious that successful contacts with representatives of other cultures are impossible without knowledge of the characteristics of these cultures and practical skills in intercultural communication.
To date, there are two main areas of research in intercultural communication. The first of them, based on folklore. It is descriptive. Its tasks are to identify, describe and interpret the everyday behavior of people in order to explain the underlying causes and determining factors of culture.
The second direction, which has a cultural and anthropological character, is the subject of its research. different kinds cultural activities social groups and communities, their norms, rules and values. The social differentiation of society generates in each group its own models and rules of behavior. Knowing them allows you to quickly and effectively resolve situations of intercultural misunderstanding.
The main objectives of research in the field of intercultural communication are:
definition of the subject, methodology and conceptual apparatus of intercultural communication;
identifying the place of intercultural communication among other sciences;
the formation and development of cultural susceptibility among participants in intercultural communication, the ability to correctly interpret specific manifestations of communicative behavior and a tolerant attitude towards it;
development of a methodology for teaching practical skills and abilities in communicating with representatives of other cultures.
Intercultural communication can be carried out and explored either at the group level or at the individual level. In other words, one can study communication processes between different cultural groups (large and small) or between individuals. Most of the studies conducted at the group level are of the nature of cultural-anthropological and sociological studies that consider the cultural group as a collective unity (whole) and try to understand it holistically.
Interpersonal level of communication. The end subject of intercultural communication is the person himself. It is people who interact directly with each other. At the same time, voluntarily or not, these people are part of various social groups with their own cultural characteristics. The behavior of each person is determined by the system public relations and the culture in which it is included. Each participant in cultural contact has his own system of rules, but these rules are determined by his socio-cultural affiliation. Differences in these rules can be seen as differences between verbal and non-verbal codes in the specific context of intercultural communication. Therefore, in direct communication, representatives of different cultures must overcome not only language barriers, but also barriers that are non-linguistic in nature and reflect the ethno-national and socio-cultural specifics of the perception of the surrounding world, national characteristics thinking, specific mimic and pantomimic (kinesic) codes used by carriers of various linguocultural communities.
Thus, it is known that the success or failure of communication largely depends on whether or not the partners in communication inspire trust in each other. This trust is determined primarily by two factors - the personality of the person and his special knowledge. But these factors are relative in different cultures. In not Western cultures trust in a person's personality is more important than trust in his special knowledge, and in Western cultures - on the contrary. Of course, this does not mean that all communicators in Western cultures are not trustworthy, and communicators in Eastern countries do not have the necessary knowledge. It is only about the Western countries special knowledge is more important than personal reliability, while in the Eastern countries reliability is more important than special knowledge.
Finally, it should be taken into account that the process of communication and interpretation of messages in interpersonal communication, in addition to cultural differences, is influenced by the age, gender, profession, and social status of the communicant. They also leave an imprint on the nature of each specific act of communication and the level of mutual understanding of its participants.
Intercultural communication in small groups takes many forms: planned negotiations, for example between representatives of government agencies or business organizations from countries with different cultures; unplanned interactions, such as during tourist trips, at conferences, or at academic seminars. In the latter case, representatives of the same culture try to stick together and a lot of time and effort has to be spent on harmonizing the relations between the two cultural groups.
Communication in a small group consisting of representatives of different cultures will be fruitful only if its participants are able to adapt their communicative actions to the specific conditions of this group. Members of monocultural groups tend to adhere to common group norms, while members of intercultural groups act as representatives of their cultures and their specific values have a significant impact on the nature of communication. Everyone who has had to participate in such discussions or negotiations claims that representatives of any culture feel hurt if the discussion or proposal goes against their cultural values.
For effective communication in a small group, the communicator is forced to adapt to the cultural values and beliefs of other cultural group members. Often in an intercultural group, the participants in the discussion show the stereotypes of their own culture not intentionally, but out of habit, and many cultural factors influence their behavior, as well as the course of the discussion. Therefore, in situations where cultural values influence the very nature of the discussion and the issues discussed, it is very important that communication partners realize and try to convince others that
these problems are culturally conditioned, and not the result of someone's malicious intent.
This does not mean that the participants in the discussions should try to change their own cultural values or the cultural values of their partners and thereby open the way to agreement (experience shows that there is no such culture, representatives of which would be inclined to blame their own cultural values for their problems). On the contrary, it is much more correct to solve problems in such a way that no one goes beyond their own culture. Sometimes the cultural system does not allow the introduction of those changes that are dictated by rational projects and programs proposed in the course of discussions. In this case, it is better to try to look for a different practical solution that does not require radical cultural changes.
Intercultural communication in large groups. In cases where intercultural communication is carried out between large groups of people, ethnic and national levels of communication are distinguished (see: Erasov B.S. Social cultural studies. M., 1998. S. 422-424).
The ethnic level of intercultural interaction is observed between local ethnic groups, ethno-linguistic, historical-ethnographic (according to the commonality of spiritual culture), ethno-confessional and other communities. In modern ethnology, an ethnos is considered to be a historically formed set of people in a certain territory, characterized by common features of culture, self-consciousness and jointly carried out economic activities. Ethnic unity is based on the idea of the presence of consanguineous ties between groups of people that form an ethnic group. Ethnic culture concerns mainly the everyday life of an ethnic group and includes language, customs, customs, customary law, values, knowledge, beliefs, types folk art, tools, clothing, food, buildings, vehicles, etc. Like any culture, ethnic culture appears as a unity of continuity and renewal. Culture renewal can be endogenous (arising within a culture without outside influence) and exogenous (borrowed from outside), resulting from intercultural communication.
In the interaction of cultures at the ethnic level, two trends are clearly manifested. Mutual assimilation of elements of culture, on the one hand, contributes to integration processes, mutual cultural exchange and enrichment, and on the other hand, is accompanied by an increase in ethnic self-awareness, the desire to consolidate ethnic specificity.
In itself, intercultural communication at the ethnic level, expressed in increased contacts, bilingualism, an increase in the number of mixed marriages, etc., does not yet lead to the establishment of a cultural community. The culture of an ethnos not only ensures its integration and stability as a system, it also performs an ethno-differentiating function, which consists in distinguishing between “us” and “them”. Each ethnic group perceives the existence of other ethnic groups as an external phenomenon and distinguishes it both by the nature of its life activity and by virtue of the dissimilarity of its cultural appearance. Attitude towards him may cause interest or, on the contrary, rejection. Mutual or unilateral penetration is possible as a result of the use of any elements of culture, but without the loss of mutual separation. Thanks to cultural contacts, elements of interethnic culture are formed, on the basis of which communication between various ethnic groups takes place. The elements of such a culture primarily include languages of interethnic communication, which do not necessarily have a clear national attachment. An example is Swahili, used by the peoples of Tropical Africa for commercial and economic communication.
However, according to B.S. Erasov, such a culture does not have the degree of maturity that will ensure intensive interaction and harmony of heterogeneous elements. The differentiating characteristics of culture can serve as a pretext for hostility and violence, disagreements and conflicts often arise. An extreme expression of such enmity can be ethnocide - the destruction by the dominant group of the cultural traditions of another ethnic group. In this case, a weak group can survive, but lose or radically change the culture of their ancestors. All this speaks of the need to form sustainable unity at a higher, national level.
The national level of intercultural communication is possible in the presence of national unity. National unity arises both on a mono-ethnic and multi-ethnic basis through common economic activity and state-political association. This is complemented by the formation of an appropriate culture. National culture is a set of traditions, norms, values and rules of conduct common to representatives of one nation, state.
Since the nation encompasses a state-organized society, and society is characterized by stratification and social structure, the concept of national culture embraces subcultures of social groups that ethnic culture may not have. Ethnic cultures can be part of the national culture, as well as the cultures of representatives of other nations. Thus, the American national culture is extremely heterogeneous, it includes Irish, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and other cultures. We can say about the heterogeneity of Russian culture. Most national cultures are poly-ethnic, but unlike ethnic cultures, national cultures unite people living in large areas and not necessarily related by blood relations.
This determines the varieties of intercultural communication at the national level: communication between subcultures within a single national culture and communication between proper national cultures. Such communications often turn out to be ambiguous and lead, on the one hand, to national consolidation (and sometimes to supranational consolidation, which European nations demonstrate today, which made it possible for the famous philosopher, sociologist and writer A.A. Zinoviev to insist on introducing a new term - Western "super society"), and on the other hand, to the growth of interethnic contradictions within the framework of one state or between states.
For example, in India, direct condemnation is caused by the tendencies of ethnic, linguistic and religious consolidation, causing clashes between representatives of different ethno-linguistic and religious groups (Kashmir). Many Indian scholars and politicians consider local nationalism to be the cause of conflicts and tensions leading to the disorganization of state unity.
Often, measures to strengthen territorial and national-state unity cause the restriction of rights and the expulsion of groups of other nationalities. So, in the 1970s. in a number of African countries (Guinea, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, later Somalia) "foreigners" were expelled, many generations of whom lived in these countries. In the 1990s similar processes covered a number of countries of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The appeal to such measures is most often explained by economic reasons, primarily by the desire to weaken competition for the "titular ethnic group" in access to local resources, which often causes significant economic damage due to the outflow of the active population and enmity with neighbors. In addition, there are sociocultural reasons, in particular religious ones, as was the case in Bosnia and Croatia, where irreconcilable enmity broke out within a single South Slavic ethnic group, divided confessionally.
Intercultural communication
Intercultural communication is communication and communication between representatives of different cultures, which involves both personal contacts between people and indirect forms of communication (such as writing and mass communication). Intercultural communication is studied at an interdisciplinary level and within such sciences as cultural studies, psychology, linguistics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, each of which has its own goals and means.
The definition of intercultural communication given by A.P. Sadokhin: “Intercultural communication is a set of various forms of relations and communication between individuals and groups belonging to different cultures.” The question, therefore, is what and how correlates different cultures. Moreover, "what" and "how" here not only presuppose each other, but can be essentially identical.
Recall that when they talk about culture, then - among other signs - they mean that culture is a set of forms of human activity, without which it cannot be reproduced, and therefore exist. Culture is a set of "codes" that prescribe a particular behavior to a person, thereby exerting a managerial impact on him. Therefore, for the researcher, the question cannot but arise as to which of them he should start with in order to understand further on this basis.
Thus, I. Kant contrasted the culture of skill with the culture of education. “He calls the external, “technical” type of culture a civilization,” notes A.V. Gulyga. - Kant sees the rapid development of civilization and anxiously notes its separation from culture; the latter is also moving forward, but much more slowly. This disproportion is the cause of many of the ills of mankind.” (Gulyga A.V., Kant today. // I. Kant. Treatises and letters. M.: Nauka, 1980, p. 26.).
At present, the leading place in intercultural interaction undoubtedly belongs to electronic communications. Nevertheless, pre-electronic communications still play a significant role in it, which is often expressed in the fact that researchers, recognizing the primary role of electronic communication, understand it by analogy with pre-electronic communication.
For modern Russia up to the present time, electronic communications as a form of managerial culture and independent action play a secondary role in intercultural interaction, which is a serious factor behind its lag. Until now, research activities are organized mainly according to the patterns of Gutenberg technology (as something that should be carried out linearly and sequentially), and not in the mode of electronic simultaneity, which significantly hinders its development.
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Books
- Intercultural communication in the information society, Taratukhina Yulia Valerievna, Tsyganova Lyubov Alexandrovna, Tkalenko Dmitry Eduardovich. The textbook provides a systematic and comprehensive description of the history of the emergence of intercultural communications as an academic discipline, a thorough analysis of Western and non-Western ...
- Intercultural communication in the information society. Textbook, Taratukhina Julia Valerievna. The textbook provides a systematic and comprehensive description of the history of the emergence of intercultural communications as an academic discipline, a thorough analysis of Western and non-Western ...
role, consolidate or create conditions for their comprehensive development and improvement.
Note
1 The material was processed using the SPSS software package, which is designed to process statistical information.
2. Pomegranate N.L. Decree. Job. - S. 310.
3. Nugaev M.A. Labor activity of the working class of a developed socialist society (theoretical and methodological aspect) / Nugaev M.A. - Kazan: Publishing House of Kazan University, 1975;
4. Nugaev M.A. Theoretical and methodological foundations for studying the quality of the region's social potential / Nu-gaev M.A. - Kazan: Publishing House of Kazan University, 2006.
Bibliographic list
1. Pomegranate N.L. Legal consciousness and legal education // General theory of state and law. Academic course / N.L. Pomegranate; Ed. M.N. Marchenko - M., 2003. - S. 303-308.
FAKHREEVA Lucia Shamilovna, Senior Lecturer.
The article was received by the editors on December 26, 2006. © Fakhreeva L. Sh.
UDC 811 N. A. MARTYNOVA
Orlovsky state institute economy and trade
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AS A SPECIAL TYPE OF COMMUNICATION_
This study devoted to the problem of intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is presented as a special process of communication, which has its own characteristics and conditions. A thorough analysis of the process of intercultural communication shows that intercultural communication is a different type of communication from intracultural communication with its own specifics and structure.
Communication is a complex and multifaceted process that can simultaneously act as a process of interaction between individuals, as the attitude of people towards each other, as a process of their mutual influence, empathy and mutual understanding. In general, it is one of the most important factors of human life.
Due to its practical significance, the process of communication attracts the attention of specialists from various fields of humanitarian knowledge: philosophy, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, ethnology, linguistics, etc. At the same time, each science or scientific direction that studies certain aspects of communication singles out its subject of study in this process.
Along with the concept of "communication" in the past few years in domestic science, the term "communication" has appeared and become widespread, which has firmly entered the conceptual apparatus of social and humanitarian knowledge. L.S. Vygotsky, V.N. Kurbatov, A.A. Leontiev equate these two terms based on the etymological and semantic relationship of these concepts. Based on the original meaning of the Latin term "communicatio", which means "to make common, bind, communicate", supporters of this point of view understand it as the exchange of thoughts and information using various signals. In its turn, Russian word"communication" also reflects the process of sharing thoughts, information and emotional experiences between people. In both cases, supporters of this approach do not see a fundamental difference in the content
understanding of the concepts of "communication" and "communication", therefore they are equal.
In the process of intercultural communication, each person simultaneously solves two major problems - to strive to preserve their cultural identity and to be included in a foreign culture. The combination of possible solutions to these problems defines four main forms of intercultural communication: direct, indirect, mediated and direct. In direct communication, information is addressed directly from the sender to the recipient. It can be done both orally and in writing. In indirect communication, which is predominantly one-sided, information sources are works of literature and art, messages, radio and television programs, publications in newspapers and magazines, etc. Direct and indirect forms of communication differ in the presence or absence of an intermediate link acting as an intermediary between partners.
IN modern world in connection with the increasing interest in the languages and cultures of peoples, interethnic communication occupies one of the important positions in social life person.
Since it is recognized that one of the prerequisites for communication is the commonality of consciousness of communicants, then its incomplete commonality can cause misunderstanding. Incomplete community of consciousness is a consequence, including the belonging of communicants to different national cultures.
Considering that “intercultural communication is pathological to a certain extent and deviates from the norm, since in intercultural communication the commonality of consciousness of communicants is not optimal, as a result of which the usually automated process of verbal communication is disrupted and its constituent parts that are not distinguishable in the norm become noticeable”, then it can be define as a case of functioning in abnormal conditions, when there is no optimal community of consciousness of communicants. It is generally recognized that representatives of each specific culture, being the bearers of their national culture, have the qualities of consciousness that were formed during the development of a particular national culture.
There is a close, inextricable link between language and culture. This implies that we are talking about the culture of the people to whom this language belongs. With all the course of your historical development language is directed to the area of internal culture. Describing the essence of language, scientists use various metaphors to explain the nature of this phenomenon. Compare, for example: “Language is a living organism or a system of rules similar to a chess game, or a device for translating deep structures into surface ones, or a mirror of consciousness, or a repository of experience, or a shell of meanings. Each of the explanations has the right to exist, since it highlights one of the sides of the language. At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that if earlier scientists were mainly interested in how the language itself is arranged, now questions have come to the fore about how language is connected with the human world, to what extent a person depends on language, how the situation communication determines the choice of language means.
The ability of a language to switch from an internal culture to an external one and vice versa, depending on communication needs, is ensured by the flexibility of the cultural orientation of language units. Words are oriented in different ways to the world of cultures of different peoples, while several groups of cultural orientation are distinguished: neutral vocabulary that does not have a cultural orientation; lexical units denoting phenomena characteristic of all cultures; lexical units denoting phenomena characteristic of a given culture; and, finally, lexical units denoting specific foreign cultural phenomena, or realities.
Naturally, the language is used most of all in orientation to one's internal culture. However, for quite some time now, no people can live in cultural isolation, and any language is used to a greater or lesser extent in communicative situations related to external cultures. The term "intercultural communication" has become widespread, which involves the interaction of two or more cultures and overcoming language and cultural barriers. The growing interest in the peculiarities of intercultural communication contributed to the formation of a new scientific field in which the dialogue of cultures is considered as an object of study.
The appeal of language to external culture is the result of intercultural communication. The exit of the language into the field of external cultures occurs in a number of typical situations: newspapers, magazines, everyday contacts, special linguistic and cultural literature, etc.
Intercultural communication is a very multifaceted phenomenon and is studied by various disciplines. Intercultural communication can be interpreted in a broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, intercultural communication is considered by cultural studies. Culturology studies intercultural communication as a dialogue of cultures and those social formations to which these cultures belong. Analyzing different cultures, culturology substantiates the laws that are characteristic of many cultures, and reveals features and characteristics that are unique and exist only in one particular culture. Intercultural communication can be considered as "the conversion of a language into the area of a foreign culture" .
Intercultural communication simultaneously confirms and refutes the postulates of normal communication, first formulated by H.P. Grisom, and then developed and supplemented by other scientists. On the one hand, intercultural communication is subject to the same rules as communication within one culture. On the other hand, intercultural communication in its essence presupposes regular violations of these rules due to its specificity. Grice's principles of cooperation, which are considered as a necessary condition for successful communication, do not always work in the process of intercultural communication, and sometimes even become an obstacle to mutual understanding. Grice's main categories of successful communication include:
The category of quantity implies the amount of information sufficient for a full-fledged communication process, that is, the statement should be as informative as necessary. At the same time, there should not be too much information, since over-informativeness can confuse the addressee, distracting him from the main subject of the conversation. In addition, as H.P. Grice, if the addressee suspects the intentionality of the addresser's verbosity, this will give him reason to doubt the veracity of the transmitted information.
Within one culture, there is no need to explicitly express all the information, since it is already familiar to the participants in communication as "shared knowledge". Redundancy in such cases slows down the course of communication, saving effort becomes an important factor in effective communication.
In intercultural communication, this principle may not work due to the fact that there is an imbalance between the volumes of old and new knowledge of communicants about native and foreign cultures and, accordingly, between the concepts of sufficiency and redundancy. The result of this imbalance can be a violation of the linearity and continuity of the communication process. Therefore, a necessary condition for the effectiveness of intercultural communication is not the "loss of links", but, on the contrary, the redundancy of information, expressed in repetitions, reformulation of what has been said and the obligatory implementation of feedback.
The postulate of identity can fail as a result of a different vision of the world. The identification of new objects by analogy with the old ones is something that at all stages of cognition and communicative activity
within one culture, facilitates the process of understanding - in intercultural communication it can lead to erroneous reference, incorrect establishment of generic relationships, incorrect determination of the place of objects in the world or in a number of other objects and, ultimately, communication failures. The property of human memory, due to which the selection of a certain concept automatically causes associations with other concepts and, thus, allows you to recreate logical connections, restore blocks of already known information in memory, in the process of intercultural communication becomes the reason for the formation of false associations and turning to incorrect information.
Habitual actions within one culture are correlated with scripts, or scenarios - chains of stereotyped actions used as a response to a situational stimulus. Once formed, scripts save us from unnecessary cognitive efforts and serve as the basis for forming connections between new experience and existing knowledge about the world. However, a consequence of the mismatch of scripts in different cultures - an attempt to apply familiar scripts to situations of intercultural communication can lead to confusion, confusion, embarrassment and difficulties in communication. Ultimately, there are communication failures and additional efforts to overcome them. In the conditions of natural communication in the country of the language being studied, the wrong situational choice of speech means and scenarios of certain types of activity can achieve the goal of communication, but marks the speaker as a foreigner, and in some cases can also leave an undesirable imprint on the nature of the relationship between the participants in communication.
The postulate of common memory is also indisputable for intercultural communication, since cultural memory includes a complex range of connotations, presuppositions, background knowledge, familiarity with precedent texts, that is, the area where significant intercultural differences are inevitable.
Cultural memory consists of individual and collective components. The volume and nature of individual cultural memory depend on the properties of an idiolectic personality, its life experience, level of education, interests, social circle, etc. The basis of communication is collective memory, which includes both universal and cultural-specific components. Accordingly, the amount of shared memory will be greater for members of one culture than for members of different cultural groups. Obstacles in intercultural communication can be a lack of knowledge about certain cultural and historical events, personalities and concepts, their different assessment, lack of memory of the historical contexts for the use of idioms, etc.
The quality category implies the sincerity and truthfulness of the information. Sincerity in intracultural communication is expressed not only with the help of verbal means, but also with the help of non-verbal (gestures, facial expressions) and paraverbal means (pauses, intonation), which is very difficult in intercultural communication, since gestures and intonation of speech in different languages have different meanings. And these discrepancies can lead not only to communicative discomfort, but also to communicative failure.
As a result of the mismatch of semiotic systems at different levels of language and culture in intercultural communication, there may be violations of semantic coherence, which is one of the most important conditions for successful communication. Significant for this aspect of communication are all types of signs used in communication at the verbal (phonetic, grammatical and lexical) and non-verbal levels, i.e. all types of codification of information in contacting cultures. The asymmetry of semiotic systems, causing cultural and linguistic interference, can lead to intercultural communication failures.
The postulates of normal communication require sincerity and truthfulness from communicants. However, the concepts of the truth of a judgment in different cultures may differ due to such factors as the relativity of the concepts of time, space, value judgments, ethical and moral norms, etc. communication hindrance.
When analyzing the universal patterns of communication, differences, including interlingual and intercultural ones, are perceived as barriers to adequate communication, as a result of which the focus is on points of similarity. In intercultural communication, differences come to foreground and become the central problem, and the ability to overcome them is the most effective way achieving mutual understanding.
At present, the point of view is generally accepted, according to which both in the culture and in the language of each people there are simultaneously universal and national components. Universal meanings, equally understood by all people in the world or representatives of individual cultures, create the basis for intercultural communication; without them, intercultural understanding would be impossible in principle. At the same time, in any culture there are specific cultural meanings enshrined in language, moral standards, beliefs and behavioral patterns.
The category of relevance seems to be more important for intercultural communication than for intracultural communication, since in intracultural communication the participants in the dialogue have common background knowledge, which allows them to avoid communicative discomfort, despite a sharp change in the subject of conversation or unwillingness to follow the interlocutor's thoughts. Differences in the cultural base of interlocutors in intercultural communication can lead not only to communicative discomfort, but also to complete misunderstanding.
The way of communication is also an important category of communication. H.P. Grice believes that the main condition for successful communication is clarity, simplicity and intelligibility of the statement. Brevity and consistency in presenting your thoughts allows you to make communication extremely comfortable for the receiving party. The absurdity of expression and ambiguity complicate the process of communication, creating abnormal situations of communication. Turning to the interlocutor, the participant in the dialogue should take into account the individual characteristics of the interlocutor that affect the success of communication: his age, level intellectual development, interests, etc. The less information about the interlocutor we have,
the more consistently, clearly and concisely you should express your thoughts.
In intercultural communication, such a category of successful communication, as a category of method, acquires special meaning and importance. Considering that communication in this case takes place in unusual conditions. We are not just dealing with an interlocutor about whom we know little, we are dealing with a person immersed in a different cultural continuum. Intercultural communication takes place between interlocutors who have different cultural bases. In the process of intercultural communication, the concept of adequacy does not always meet their expectations.
The proximity of cultures is the key to mutual understanding. However, there is another opinion: the greater the illusion of the proximity of cultures, the greater the likelihood of communication failures. So, for example, when going to Japan or African countries, Americans are ready for cultural differences, because there their interlocutors are “different”: they look, gesticulate, behave differently, etc. At the same time, they are not ready to resolve cultural contradictions with Russians, because there is a great sense of intercultural similarity.
Thus, it can be argued that intercultural communication has some differences from ordinary intracultural communication. Intercultural communication is a special form of communication between two or more representatives of different cultures, during which there is an exchange of information and cultural values of interacting cultures. The process of intercultural communication is a specific form of activity, which is not limited only to knowledge of foreign languages, but also requires knowledge of mathematics.
the real and spiritual culture of another people, religion, values, moral attitudes, worldviews, etc., which together determine the behavior model of communication partners. The study of foreign languages and their use as a means of international communication today is impossible without a deep and versatile knowledge of the culture of the speakers of these languages, their mentality, national character, lifestyle, vision of the world, customs, traditions, etc. Only the combination of these two types of knowledge - language and culture - provides an effective and fruitful social
Bibliographic list
1. Sadokhin A.P. Theory and practice of intercultural communication: Tutorial for universities. - M.: Unity-Dana, 2004. - 271 p. - from. 68.
2. Tarasov E.F. Intercultural communication - a new ontology for the analysis of linguistic consciousness // Ethnocultural specifics of linguistic consciousness. - M.: Institute of Linguistics RAS, 1996. - S. 7-22. - from. 13.
3. Karasik V.I. Language circle: personality, concepts, discourse. - Volgograd, "Change", 2002. - 476 p. - from. 4.
4. Kabakchi V.V. The practice of English-language intercultural communication. - St. Petersburg: Soyuz Publishing House, 2001. - 480 p. - from. 418.
5. Grice H.P. Logic and conversation // Syntax and semantics. - vol. 3: Speech acts. - N.Y.: Academic Press, 1975. - 41-58 p.
MARTYNOVA Natalia Anatolyevna, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Languages.
The article was received by the editors on November 9, 2006. © Martynova N.A.
UDC 8133 O. K. MZHELSKAYA
Omsk Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
ACTUAL PROBLEMS
BIBLICAL TRANSLATION_
This article is a brief overview of the problems that a translator may encounter when transmitting phraseological units of biblical origin. Particular attention is paid to the translation of phraseological units with an onomastic component in the article. The author gives several examples of the semantic evolution of proper names in English and Russian, which occurred on the basis of acquired connotations.
It is no coincidence that the question of the adequacy of the translation of biblical expressions has been raised more than once in scientific works. The last decade of the 20th century created the prerequisites for the return to the Russian language of a large layer of set expressions of biblical origin, which were previously actively used in Russian literary speech. But, unfortunately, the culture of translating biblical words was lost, and practically no attention is paid to this aspect when teaching a foreign language. Although “biblical aphorisms, both in foreign
In other languages, as well as in Russian, including biblical proverbs, in addition to the nominative (designation of typical situations) and aesthetic (decoration of speech) functions, they also perform an argumentative function (confirmation of what has been said) ". In this article, attention will be paid to phraseological phrases of biblical origin, which include personal proper names.
Highlighting the difficulties that a translator may encounter, among the main ones it is worth highlighting his awareness of the encyclopedic and cultural
The content of the article
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION, communication carried out in conditions of such significant cultural differences in the communicative competence of its participants that these differences significantly affect the success or failure of a communicative event. In this case, communicative competence is understood as knowledge of the symbolic systems used in communication and the rules for their functioning, as well as the principles of communicative interaction. Intercultural communication is characterized by the fact that its participants, in direct contact, use special language variants and discursive strategies that are different from those that they use when communicating within the same culture. The often used term "cross-cultural communication" usually refers to the study of some particular phenomenon in two or more cultures and has the additional meaning of comparing the communicative competence of communicating members of different cultures.
The ability to develop communicative competence is inherent in all representatives Homo sapiens, however, the specific implementation of this ability is culturally determined. In addition, it is also determined by the unique individual experience of each person, from which it follows that during communication, which is a process of messaging, meanings are constantly being recreated, since they do not coincide even among people who speak the same language, who grew up in the same and the same culture. It goes without saying that in the presence of different cultures and different languages, communication becomes so complicated that understanding, one can speak only with a certain degree of irony.
From birth, a person belongs to many groups, and it is in them that his communicative competence is formed. Larger groups, commonly referred to as cultures, essentially determine the cognitive and pragmatic basis of communicative activity.
In the process of communication, messages are exchanged, i.e. transfer of information from one participant to another. Since humans cannot communicate directly—say, by means of electrical impulses sent from one brain to another—information is encoded in a particular symbol system, transmitted, and then decoded, or, more broadly, interpreted by the addressee of the message ( cm. SEMIOTICS). Communication always takes place when some meaning is attributed to some behavior or its result and they act as signs or symbols. Of all the types of sign (symbolic) behavior in the human community, the most important are the use of language (verbal communication) and the nonverbal behavior that accompanies it (nonverbal communication). Taken together, they form sign communication, or communication in the narrow sense. The applicability of the concept of communication to the exchange of messages of a non-sign nature is allowed by a number of concepts (in particular, K. Levi-Strauss spoke about such communication, whose views on this issue were sympathetically quoted by R. Jacobson), but within the framework of this article, communication in a broad sense, including the exchange of messages of an unsigned nature is not considered.
Sign communication occurs in accordance with the following principles:
As is clear from its very name, sign communication deals with signs. Therefore messages must be interpreted.
Specific participants are involved in the communicative event. Therefore, the same statements mean different things in different communicative events.
A communicative event is an interaction (transaction) in which each of the parties in real time acts as both a Source and a Receiver. To interpret the message, i.e. to create mutually acceptable meaning, which requires cooperation.
Communicative behavior, in particular its non-verbal component, is often unconscious.
Thus, communication is a complex, symbolic, personal, transactional and often unconscious process that is necessarily imprecise. Communication allows participants to express some information that is external to the participants themselves, their internal emotional state, as well as the status roles in which they are relative to each other.
Natural language is an ambiguous symbolic system, and yet its implementation in communicative events usually leads to mutual agreement between communicants on the interpretation of linguistic meanings. This is facilitated by culturally conditioned communicative competence - several types of general knowledge shared by communicants. Firstly, this is knowledge of the symbolic system itself, in terms of which communication takes place, and, secondly, knowledge about the structure of the external world. Knowledge about the outside world consists of personal experience individual; basic, fundamental knowledge about the world that all people have; and all other knowledge that we possess as a result of our belonging to various national, ethnic, social, religious, professional and other groups.
Differences in individual experience underlie the statement about the uniqueness of each communicative event, as well as the fundamental ambiguity of the language that arises during the generation and interpretation of messages in a communicative act.
The commonality of basic knowledge about the world explains the fundamental translatability of messages from one language to another and the possibility of understanding between members of the same language community using the same symbolic system.
Knowledge that is more specific, but common to a particular group of people, provides support for the generation and interpretation of messages. This group or "cultural" knowledge categorically determines how the information coming to the individual is interpreted and how the verbal-thinking impulse is formed when the message is generated.
In theoretical works, culture is compared either with a program embedded in a person’s head, or with a screen standing between him and the world, or with an instrument in his hands. One thing is clear: the world is given to us not at all in sensations, but in complexly organized interpretations of these sensations. The interpretation model is culture.
Culturally conditioned knowledge is described, in particular, in specially designed formats of scenarios and frames (see, for example, the works of M. Minsky and R. Shenk; APPLIED LINGUISTICS;); in them, one or another sphere of human activity can be conceptualized as a scheme of certain simpler steps and even described in terms of some basic metalanguage (one of the most famous semantic metalanguages, Lingua Mentalis, was developed by A. Vezhbitskaya for many years).
From the history of intercultural communication.
The term "intercultural communication" in the narrow sense appeared in the literature in the 1970s. In the famous textbook by L. Samovar and R. Porter Communication between cultures(Communication between cultures), first published in 1972, provides a definition similar to that given above. By this time, a scientific direction had also been formed, the core of which was the study of communicative failures and their consequences in situations of intercultural communication. Subsequently, there was an expansion of the concept of intercultural communication in such areas as translation theory, teaching foreign languages, comparative cultural studies, contrastive pragmatics, etc. To date, scientific research in the field of intercultural communication focuses on the behavior of people faced with culturally determined differences in language activity and these differences. The results of the research were descriptions of cultural specificity in the expression and interpretation of situational language actions of communicants. From the very beginning, these studies were of great practical importance and were used in numerous developments for practical exercises (trainings) on the development of cross-cultural susceptibility.
Intercultural communication as a social phenomenon was brought to life by the practical needs of the post-war world, ideologically reinforced by the interest that since the beginning of the 20th century. formed in the scientific community and in the public mind in relation to the so-called "exotic" cultures and languages ( cm. LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY HYPOTHESIS). Practical needs arose as a result of the rapid economic development of many countries and regions, revolutionary changes in technology, and the associated globalization of economic activity. As a result, the world has become much smaller - the density and intensity of long-term contacts between representatives of different cultures has increased greatly and continues to increase. In addition to the economy itself, education, tourism, and science have become the most important areas of professional and social intercultural communication.
These practical needs were supported by changes in public consciousness and, above all, by the postmodern rejection of Eurocentric approaches in the humanities and social sciences. Recognition of the absolute value of the diversity of world cultures, rejection of the colonial cultural policy, awareness of the fragility of existence and the threat of destruction of the vast majority traditional cultures and languages led to the fact that the corresponding disciplines began to develop rapidly, based on a new phenomenon in the history of mankind, the interest of the peoples of the Earth to each other. Among many, many anthropologists, ethnographers, linguists, culturologists, whose works on the description traditional societies, cultures and languages contributed to the formation of the idea of a multipolar human community, we should especially mention the American anthropologist and linguist Franz Boas and his work on the languages of North American Indians, which appeared in the late 19th - early 20th century.
Fundamentals of discipline.
As an academic discipline, intercultural communication primarily uses the achievements of cultural anthropology and research on communication processes in society. The most significant contribution to the study of communication is made by cognitive and social psychology, sociology, cognitive linguistics and typology of languages. Such a variety of methods is not surprising when it comes to such a multifaceted, continuous and endless activity, invariably inherent in a person, as communication.
Communication can be characterized by what type of communicative competence is conventionally involved in a communicative event. For social communication, these are schemes and scenarios of behavior in corresponding everyday situations; for professional communication, this is the area of knowledge related to professional activities in the workplace. Unlike these types of communication, interpersonal communication is based on individual experience and is possible only with a certain degree of its commonality among the participants in communication. Based on this, we can talk about different functional areas of intercultural communication: interpersonal, social, public, intergroup, professional, mass communication and communication within small groups.
The study of intercultural communication involves familiarity with the following phenomena and concepts:
principles of communication;
main functions of culture;
the influence of culture on perception and communication in its various spheres and types;
parameters to describe the influence of culture on human activity.
It is important to note the fundamental applied orientation of many studies: their results are intended for direct use in fields of activity and professions that carry out themselves through communication (in such cases it is called professional communication). These include education, social and political activities, management, counseling (including medical), social work, journalism, etc. Operational parameters for describing the influence of culture on human activity and the development of society were formulated in the works of anthropologists F. Klukhona and F. Schrodbeck, linguist and anthropologist E. Hall, sociologist and psychologist G. Hofstede.
It is clear that when discussing intercultural communicative differences, it is necessary to resort to a high degree of generalization, since the individual characteristics of a particular speaker or a particular communicative situation may not fit into a cultural stereotype. This is reflected in research methods, in which, in order to obtain reliable results, reliance on a large body of data and accurate statistical analysis is necessary. Statements have to be formulated in terms of a "standard" case or "trends".
Klukhon and Schrodbeck drew attention to cultural differences in value systems, which generally make up the picture of the world of a given culture. This picture includes such fundamental things as the attitude to time, to activity, to nature, ideas about the value of interpersonal relationships.
Edward Hall in his books described different parameters of culturally determined communicative differences. So, in particular, he introduced a distinction between high- and low-context cultures, which manifests itself in the amount of information explicitly expressed in the message. An example of a high-context message is a remark in a conversation between two close people: “How can you talk about it like that.” The low-context example is a good guide on how to find an item you've never seen in a place you've never been. Given that cultures may tend to have higher or lower context messages, this can be used as a parameter to compare them. In a standard utterance within a low-context culture (Swiss, German, North American), the information that is required for the correct interpretation of this message is contained in the most verbalized form. Statements in high-context cultures (China, Japan) often cannot be understood on the basis of the actual linguistic signs contained in them. For their correct interpretation, knowledge of the context is required, and not narrow, situational, but rather broad, culturological. Therefore, at the level of ordinary European consciousness, Japanese conversation is often described as a game of omissions. And the Japanese, in turn, often think that the Europeans are too direct and tactless. The differences between high-context and low-context communication manifest themselves, in particular, at the level of so-called discursive macrostructures. They are used to describe communication styles in various scenarios.
The well-known sociologist and management theorist Geert Hofstede, as a result of his extensive research in the late 1970s, was able to formulate four features that can describe national cultures in terms of their position relative to each other on a scale of each of the four parameters. The study consisted of a survey of a large number of employees (more than 1,000) of a multinational corporation in more than one hundred countries about their attitude to work and behavior in the workplace. The resulting clusters of features made it possible to formulate the following axes of cultural oppositions.
Power distance. The degree to which a society accepts an uneven distribution of power among its members. In cultures with low power distance (such as Scandinavia), the communicative style of politicians is markedly different from, for example, Turkey, where a politician must radiate significance, authority and power.
Individualism. The degree to which society agrees that the views and actions of an individual can be independent of collective or group beliefs and actions. Thus, in the United States, success is formulated in terms of individual achievement and emphasizes individual responsibility for actions. Collectivism, on the contrary, means that people must link their views and actions with what the group (family, organization, party) believes. In such cultures (Latin America, the Arab East, Southeast Asia) in the choice that the individual makes, the role of the group is very large - for example, the family.
Avoidance of uncertainty. The degree to which members of a society feel insecure about uncertain, unstructured situations and try to avoid them by developing rules, formulas, and rituals and refusing to tolerate behavior that deviates from the standard. Societies with a high degree of uncertainty avoidance are afraid of innovation and welcome the search for absolute truth. In production and educational process representatives of such societies prefer well-structured situations.
Competitiveness. The degree to which a society is oriented towards achieving success, being assertive, solving problems, acquiring things. This is opposed to the ideas of quality of life - caring for others, solidarity with the group, helping the less fortunate. Highly competitive cultures clearly contrast traditional male and female social roles. Success - including for women - is associated with the manifestation of "male" qualities. Highly competitive cultures are equally opposed in many other respects to the US and Japan. To low-competitive - the Scandinavian countries. In the works of Hofstede in the 1980s, this parameter had another more ponderous name "masculinity" (masculinity / femininity dimension). Later, in many works, the manifestations of this parameter began to be called the orientation of society towards competition.
The main directions of research.
In the studies of intercultural communication, psychological, sociological and linguistic directions can be distinguished. This division depends both on the object of study and on the methods used.
Sociologists working in the field of intercultural communication use methods traditional for this science to question certain groups of respondents in a certain way. Their questionnaires are aimed at identifying value attitudes and stereotypes that are manifested in people's behavior. It mainly deals with behavior in the workplace, in business interaction and business. This is due to the fact that sociological research finds its practical application, first of all, in modern transnational corporations. Based on the generalizations received by sociologists about the types of behavior characteristic and preferred for a particular cultural group, the corresponding practical advice which are implemented in the form of special intercultural trainings. Typical subject areas of the questionnaire are the following: information exchange, interaction with colleagues, decision-making, behavior in conflict situations, attitude towards the leader, work-life connection, attitude towards innovation. It is clear that most of the studied culturally determined behavioral stereotypes can be traced back to the cultural parameters introduced by Hofstede. Therefore, such work often has the character of testing how these parameters operate in a particular environment: changes are studied with respect to a given period of time, the age of the group under study, more often two or more cultural groups working together.
More general sociological problems are related to the social adaptation of migrants, the preservation or loss of traditional cultures among national minorities, and so on.
Psychologists in the field of intercultural communication are primarily interested in the influence of cultural differences on the processes of interpretation and categorization, as well as the nature of the corresponding behavioral stereotypes. Since the 1970s, important concepts of anxiety, uncertainty, the potential scope of categories, features of intergroup categorization, and many others have been studied by methods social psychology.
When it comes to communication, especially intercultural communication, it can be very difficult to draw a line between sociological and psychological research conducted in the field of social psychology. Both of them deal with complex categories arising in the process of communication or transmitted through it - values, motives, attitudes, stereotypes and prejudices. The task of both those and others is to designate the observed phenomenon (perhaps by linking it with others) and to show differences from similar reactions and attitudes in a situation of intra-group rather than intercultural interaction.
And only linguists are primarily interested in how exactly this happens. What in a language message signals the presence of intercultural interaction? What exactly characterizes the messages exchanged between representatives of different cultures? In what communication contexts does this manifest itself? How exactly does misunderstanding, incomplete understanding occur, what linguistic features and mechanisms allow or do not allow compensating for under-understanding?
Of the linguistic topics being developed, the closest thing to psychology is the study of various communication styles in their use within and outside one's group. The psychological concept of accommodation is applied to such communication parameters as the rate of speech, the choice of the appropriate vocabulary (when talking with a foreigner, with a child, etc.), simplified or complicated grammatical structure. Accommodation can be positive (adjusting to the interlocutor) or negative (using the most different style from the interlocutor). Orientation of accommodation during communication of representatives different groups depends (if we talk about the contribution of the cultural component) on how one group relates to another. The structure of relations includes the scales "bad - good", "bottom - top", "close - far". Special consideration is given to such oppositions as the functions of speech itself and silence as the absence of speech. So, in European cultures, silence in a situation of communication with unfamiliar or even strangers is not encouraged and is considered impolite. Hence the invention of special topics “about the weather” for situations of so-called phatic communication aimed at maintaining a certain level of social relations, expressions like “an awkward silence hung”. In contrast, in the Athabaskan culture of North American Indians, talking to a stranger is considered dangerous and discouraged. They are silent with strangers until they get to know them properly. Conversation is not a way to get to know each other better, as is commonly believed in European cultures.
The second important area of linguistic research is associated with the rapid development in recent decades of the study of discourse as some integral process, central to communicative activity. The complexity and versatility of such a phenomenon as discourse, and attempts to identify the main factors influencing its forms, rather quickly led to the development of a number of areas that study non-linguistic (in addition to grammar and vocabulary) factors of discourse existence. Within the framework of pragmatic discourse factors, factors of a cultural nature were revealed. Discourse on the same - even a very rigidly defined one (for example, a business letter, an expression of condolence, a speech at a meeting, an apology for being late, etc., not to mention traditional genres such as fairy tales or ritual formulas) - is very different in terms of proper discursive rules (used macro- and microstructures) depending on the culture of the group within which this discourse is formed. Yes, in South-East Asia the text of a business letter is built inductively: first, the reasons, circumstances, and only at the end of the actual requirements or business proposals. Representatives of the European and North American tradition, this style seems "muddy" and not businesslike. From their point of view, such a letter should begin with the formulation of the main requirement or proposal, followed by its justification and detailing.
Cross-cultural studies of discourse in general can be aimed at revealing the culturally determined picture of the world behind the stories of the incident or the most memorable event. So, in the book of Livia Polanyi American storytelling(Telling the American Story, 1989) builds an archetype of modern American consciousness - a set of some unformulated statements that are unshakable presumptions on which both the narrator and the listener rely.
A fruitful approach to the study of discourse for the purpose of cross-cultural comparison is realized in the works of Ron and Susan Scollon, in particular in the book Intercultural communication: a discursive approach (Intercultural Communication: A discourse approach, 1995), who explore the genre of professional communication and try to deductively calculate the main cultural oppositions according to various discursive parameters.
Another option for research on the pragmatic aspects of discourse has become the so-called cross-cultural pragmatics, which deals with a comparative analysis of individual principles that characterize communicative activity, and corresponding cultural scenarios. Among the most important and, at the same time, culturally contradictory pragmatic principles, it is necessary to note the "Principle of Politeness" by P. Brown and S. Levinson and numerous works devoted to speech acts, one way or another built on this principle - prohibitions, apologies. Cross-cultural differences are manifested, in particular, in what type of politeness - based on solidarity or maintaining distance - is characteristic of a given culture. Thus, Russians may seem impolite to Germans, because the principle of solidarity with a communicative partner pushes them to express their opinion and give advice in cases where the German communicative culture, which respects the principle of autonomy and distance, considers this as an obsession.
Cross-cultural linguistic research often takes the form comparative analysis"languages" of two culturally opposed groups that seem to use one common language code. The most striking example of this kind is the work of Deborah Tannen on the peculiarities of the communicative behavior of men and women. The simplest statements of the representatives of these two groups, made in the same English language, are understood by them differently in different scenarios. So, when a “standard” woman complains to a “standard” man about some problem, they are involved in completely different communicative acts: the woman wants to be sympathized with, and the man believes that they are expected from him practical advice. Tannen's most famous book is called - You just don't understand(You Just Don't Understand, 1990).
In Russia, research on intercultural communication was considered until recently a part of sociolinguistics. Within this discipline, one can single out, firstly, comparative studies of the use of one language as a lingua franca of several ethnic or cultural groups, and, secondly, the functional limitations faced by the language of one (usually smaller) ethnic group in a situation of intercultural communication. In addition, the problems of intercultural communication were considered to one degree or another within the framework of teaching Russian as a foreign language, as well as regional studies.
Applied aspect of intercultural communication.
From the very beginning, intercultural communication had a pronounced applied orientation. This is not only a science, but also a set of skills that can and should be mastered. First of all, these skills are necessary for those whose professional activity is associated with the interaction between cultures, when mistakes and communication failures lead to other failures - in negotiations, to inefficient work of the team, to social tension.
The central concept in the field of applied intercultural communication is intercultural sensitivity. Its increase in the conditions of multiplying differences, uncertainty, ambiguity and changes that characterize modern society becomes an important component of the professional suitability of a specialist. This goal is served by a large amount of educational and educational literature and intercultural trainings.
Various kinds of reference books, guides, manuals on how best to trade (train, negotiate, work, etc.) with the Japanese, French, Russians, etc., provide specific knowledge about the characteristics of a particular culture in the field of professional, social and partly interpersonal communication. They may target two or more cultures being compared. The information they contain enhances knowledge about another culture, but does not directly lead to increased intercultural receptivity. This role is played by cross-cultural trainings based on the idea that it is not enough to simply provide participants with a certain amount of new information about another culture. This knowledge must be mastered in such a way as to change some communicative and cultural presumptions and thereby influence the behavior of people in situations of intercultural communication. The increase in intercultural susceptibility occurs in several stages.
First, participants must recognize that problems do exist. This is not so obvious, since neither the principles of communication nor cultural stereotypes are in most cases conscious. At this stage, role-playing games are widely used. One of the most famous games of this kind is that the participants, without the right to talk, play a simple card game; while they think that everyone plays by the same rules, while in fact the rules given to them are somewhat different from each other. The resulting feelings of confusion, bewilderment, anger, and powerlessness are a good analogy for the emotional consequences of cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Then the participants receive the necessary information about the features of intercultural communication in general and for these cultures in particular. At this stage, specific critical cases are actively used in the form of problem situations to be resolved. This helps to develop motivations for resolving intercultural communication conflicts. The following exercises are aimed at consolidating the acquired knowledge in the form of behavioral communication skills.
This kind of training and the development of appropriate materials, critical situations and role-playing games have become an important part of the activities of many management professionals in large corporations and independent institutions.
Mira Bergelson
Literature:
Ter-Minasova S.G. Language and intercultural communication. M., 2000
The concept of intercultural communication is primarily based on the concept of intercultural competence. That is why we have chosen it as one of the basic concepts of our study.
Summarizing various points of view, we have come to the following working definition of the key concept: “intercultural competence”. We believe that we are talking about an integrated systemic formation of an interconnected humanistic worldview, including a high culture of interpersonal communication and a developed general cultural level, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as methods of activity that allow an individual to carry out activities in a modern multicultural space, the ability to show tolerance, friendliness and other positive feelings and emotions, the ability to act actively on the basis of holistic self-determination in accordance with social requirements and expectations.
In search of the essence of the basic concepts related to the problem of the formation of intercultural communication, we turned to the works of domestic linguists (E.M. Vereshchagin, V.G. Kostomarov, E.I. Passov, I.L. Bim, N.D. Galskova, I. I. Khaleev, S. G. Ter-Minasova, N. V. Baryshnikov, A. L. Berdichevsky, I. M. Salomadin) and foreign scientists (W. Helmolt, K. Müller, H. Krumm, V. Pauwels, I. Geringhausen and others). As a result, it was possible to find out that this concept is interpreted by domestic linguodidacticians as a set of specific processes of interaction between communication partners belonging to different linguoethnocultural communities.
The problem of intercultural communication became relevant in Russia in the late 90s of the last century due to the fact that new conditions required specialists using language as real money communication with colleagues from different countries. To address these urgent needs of Russian society, some universities began to restructure the teaching of foreign languages, taking as a basis the thesis that "languages should be studied in inseparable unity with the world and the culture of the peoples who speak these languages" (S.G. Ter-Minasova ).
At the same time, every culture does not stand still, but constantly develops and improves in the modern world. Thus, we come to the concept of cultural dynamics. These are changes that occur in the culture of a particular people at a certain point in time.
In cultural anthropology, it is customary to single out the following sources of cultural dynamics:
- 1. Innovation - the invention of new images, symbols, norms and rules of behavior, new forms of activity aimed at changing the living conditions of people and forming a new type of thinking and perception of the world.
- 2. Appeal to cultural heritage
- 3. Cultural borrowings.
It should be noted that in the process of borrowing, the recipient nation does not accept everything, but only what is close to its culture, can bring obvious or hidden benefits and, as a result, give an advantage over other peoples. It is also characterized by some factors:
- a) intensity of contacts
- b) the conditions of intercultural communication contacts (whether it was done voluntarily or through violence)
- c) the degree of differentiation of society, i.e. the presence of sociocultural groups ready to accept the innovation
- d) fashion
- 4. Synthesis - the interaction and connection of heterogeneous cultural elements, as a result of which a new cultural phenomenon arises, which differs from the constituent components, and has its own quality.
The main prerequisites for the formation of intercultural competence are sensitivity and self-confidence, understanding of other behavior and mental patterns, as well as the ability to clearly and accurately convey one's own point of view; be understood and show flexibility where possible and be clear where necessary.
It's about an adjusted balance between:
- * Knowledge and experience, respectively, of other cultures, personalities, nations, behavior, etc.,
- * sensitivity, empathy, the ability to put yourself in the place of others and embrace their feelings and needs,
- * and self-confidence, knowledge of one's own strengths, weaknesses and needs, emotional stability.
According to these and other criteria, countries, regions, enterprises, social groups, as well as individuals are distinguished.
At the same time, for effective interaction in intercultural terms, a clear understanding of the inclusion in the culture of the so-called "inculturization" is necessary.
Mechanisms of inculturization.
- 1. Imitation - the conscious desire of the child to imitate a certain model of behavior. Examples are parents and teachers. Years later, he would train his children in the same imitative attitudes he had absorbed;
- 2. Identification - a way for children to learn parental behavior, attitudes and values as their own;
- 3. Shame, a sense of shame - appear if caught at the scene of a crime, exposed and disgraced;
- 4. Feeling of guilt - is associated with the same experiences, but for its appearance you do not need to expose, just the voice of your conscience, which says that you did badly, and you will be tormented by the consciousness of your bad deed. Those. It's about punishing yourself.
Thus, for a person who grew up in a certain environment, there are several ways to be included in this environment. Most of them are not even perceived by native speakers as a learning process. So naturally there is an immersion in the environment that surrounds each person.
Thus, the concept of intercultural communication is closely related to the concept of intercultural competence, as an opportunity for effective dialogue in real time with representatives of other cultures. The presence of certain knowledge relating to the actual, non-linguistic factors, makes it possible to better understand your interlocutor, to build more trusting and friendly relations. Avoids unnecessary disputes and misunderstandings.