Cross-Cultural Communication - Science topic

Language plays a major role in communication between members of multicultural research teams. See my paper from 2021 with Dr Alison Southwell, on work in Lao PDR.

In short, yes. The solution is to learn about the other culture and bee open minded. Even within the English speaking world, I know a guy who went from the US to Australia and argued with a waiter over the meaning of a word on the menu, not appreciating that the way they spoke English was different.

Meta-cognition is important here. You need to be aware of not only what you think but why you think that. Then you can have conversation with your counterpart (from another culture) and you can discuss not only what your solution is but the underlying assumptions that led you to that point.

Culture is an essential part of human race, customs and believes. It can be done without or kept at arms length. it depicts who we are, where we are from and the kinds and types of things we do in relation to food, dance, art, sculptor, dressing and also craft. Hence is a phenomenon.

it will be great Actually I need some help to work on my topic because it's a little bit complicated !

Good idea! but I can't decide between two topics startups and CCC and storytelling and CCC

Thank you so much. Could you please send a reminder in the month of October 2023? We will be starting a new project (socially significant and Health Humanities related one) in October.

Kindly visit..

Hope this helps

Yes, I think it needs.

very important! especially in countries with new democracy, Post-Soviet countries, etc. it is important to give such competences (international competencies) to students who will be global citizens.

Regards,

Mariam

I'm glad my comments were useful. You will also find that if a question is shaped primarily by analytical concerns, you will likely not be able to translate the question into everyday language that will be easily understood. If we ask a survey question in any language, and we get a puzzled look, then we have failed to do our job. A good survey question is one for which you know in advance more or less what answers people will give; you just don't know how many will give which of the 3-5 likely answers.

In the environment of globalization it is most important for persons to be culturally competent in all aspects including communications. This means that the person not only understands the spoken or written word but also the nuances, body language (if applicable) and cultural context behind the conversation.

Cummunicators need to be aware of special meanings attached to certain phrases (idioms) that don't have a straightforward compositional meaning in some contexts. Also awareness of "false friends" is important, since there is a tendency to cognitively process similar words in different languages as having the same meaning:

Often loan words undergo some shift in meaning. For example the German word "Limonade" doesn't always refer to lemonade but is sometimes used in a generic sense. So orangeade would be "Orangenlimonade". And to ensure you get the drink specifically made from lemons (or "Zitronen" in German) you might have to ask for "Zitronenlimonade".

Another aspect on which it may be interesting to work, which is linked to the acceptance of cultural diversity, communication and cultural humility is the relationship between the local and the global. From the personal point of view, the relationship between you and me (the different from me), expressed in the thought of Martin Buber.

In the experience of coordinating intercultural exchanges of students I have deepened from a theoretical and practical point of view the importance of knowing one's own context, one's roots, and then knowing other contexts. The importance of knowing oneself, of being aware of one's own values, to then meet and get to know others always with "a clear understanding that one's own values, beliefs and practices are not inherently 'right' nor necessarily shared by the person with whom one is communicating" (as suggested by Vivian J.C.).

You might want to look at how certain traditional medicines and treatments indigenous to a particular region has been adopted by other nations. There can also be a look at how the hit-and-run technique has been used by Nigeria to fight Polio. International health strategies have also been influenced by success and failure across different regions with different cultures.

Cultural competency is an OLD term amongst those beginning to working in cross cultural health care contexts - medicine in particular. As clearly noted by Tervalon and Murray-Garcia. One cannot be competent in all ~ and 1 or 2 is insufficient in a multicultural world. In addition, competence seems to reinforce a one way hierarchy. Other, more process focused and INTERPERSONAL terms are: cultural literacy, intercultural competence or, another I use, is cross-culturally, informed or responsive. BOTH descriptors lend at least an essential two way process - and where one is on the process is determined through listening and the acknowledgement by all parties of the need to learn about each other. I and a team of researchers defined culture for health research ~ a suggested read re: the complexity that is lost in the concept of "cultural competence" ( ). Lawrence Kirmayer wrote an article in 2012 in Transcultural Psychiatry outlining underlying power dynamics of the use of the concept of cultural competency from a social political stance. "Rethinking Cultural Competence"

Diversity is the chorus. Inclusion is their song. Our cultural diversity training solutions for increasing and leveraging global inclusion. I send some link that connected to workshop

 https://www.pdx.edu › ... › Diversity Advocacy › Diversity Action Council

At best, AI may help you find references relating to your research. I say at best because even that can not be guaranteed. What an AI would lack is the ability to interpret the data in context; an achievement which is still exclusive to the scientist who constructs the study. So as far as scientific vigour is concerned, while AI may help with some formalities, the best research will still depend on the general enthusiasm put into it by the researcher.

Dear Mirna, please find the article attached. It contains valuable info on the comparison of the results compiled based on the Hofstede database, contrasted with the results of Varga, a Hungarian researcher. It shows some remarkable differences (distortions of the Hofstede material in my opinion). The author of the article is one of the leading experts of Hofstede studies in Hungary. 

Article's full reference format: Falkné Bánó Klára 2014. Identifying Hungarian cultural characteristics in Europe's cultural diversity in the 21st century: a controversial issue. In: Solt Katalin (szerk.) Alkalmazott tudományok I. fóruma: konferenciakötet. Budapest: Budapesti Gazdasági Főiskola. 195-206.

Downloadable: http://publikaciotar.repozitorium.bgf.hu/209/

Howdy, all,

   No one has mentioned the old Italian pun, "traductore, tradittore" (translator, traitor). I recall a comment by an interpreter at the UN on interpreting a speech by Kruschev. When he told a traditional Russian story to illustrate a point, the interpreter realized that the story would make no sense to English hearers, so he quickly realized this and substituted a completely different story which would be familiar and make the same point. 

  Research has shown that, even at a literal level, different languages "pack" different kinds of information in, for example, verbs. Both English and Spanish have a general verb of motion, "go"/"ir", but Spanish has a verb "salir", which would be translated by the Verb + Particle combination "go out", which separates the motion and direction. Translations of novels from English to Spanish and vice-versa show differences in the amount of information omitted or added. 

  Even in technical translation, people working in a field have standard expressions which a translator unfamiliar with the field would be unfamiliar with. A professional translator hired by an archeology journal to translate article summaries into Spanish produced odd literal translations because she was unfamiliar with the field. Literary translation, of course, is vastly more complex because it includes a great deal of cultural and emotional content, and poetry in particular requires a complete re-casting. I have heard it said that the English translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is better than the original. 

  Pedagogically, translation provides an important "boot-strapping" which speeds access into the target language. Learning a second language in a school setting can be likened to gaining familiarity with another country and its culture by looking at pictures in a book, or reading descriptions. Only by gradual steps does one gain greater sociolinguistic and cultural knowledge, but only living in the other country gives one the experiential and existential sensibility for deeper knowledge. (Even then, of course, no one can ever become a complete native of a second culture.) All second language learners necessarily begin with translation, overt or covert, until their linguistic competence reaches the point at which they can use the L2 without conscious awareness, but even then, psycholinguistic research shows that the L1 is being activated, suggesting that translation is still taking place subliminally.

   Rudy Troike

   University of Arizona

   Tucson, Arizona, USA

Dear Monica Opole

The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional activities are also significant. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method. Peer review, through discussion and debate within journals and conferences, assists in this objectivity by maintaining the quality of research methodology and interpretation of results.

History of scientific communities

The eighteenth century had some societies made up of men who studied nature, also known as natural philosophers and natural historians, which included even amateurs. As such these societies were more like local clubs and groups with diverse interests than actual scientific communities, which usually had interests on specialized disciplines.Though there were a few older societies of men who studied nature such as the Royal Society of London, the concept of scientific communities emerged in the second half of the 19th century, not before, because it was in this century that the language of modern science emerged, the professionalization of science occurred, specialized institutions were created, and the specialization of scientific disciplines and fields occurred.For instance, the term scientist was first coined by the naturalist-theologian William Whewell in 1834 and the wider acceptance of the term along with the growth of specialized societies allowed for researchers to see themselves as a part of a wider imagined community, similar to the concept of nationhood.

Membership, status and interactions

Membership of the community is generally, but not exclusively, a function of education, employment status, and institutional affiliation. Status within the community is highly correlated with publication record. Scientists are usually trained in academia through universities. As such, degrees in the relevant scientific sub-disciplines are often considered prerequisites for membership in the relevant community. In particular, the PhD with its research requirements functions as a marker of being an important integrator into the community, though continued membership is dependent on maintaining connections to other researchers through publication, technical contributions, and conferences. After obtaining a PhD an academic scientist may continue through post-doctoral fellowships and onto professorships. Other scientists make contributions to the scientific community in alternate ways such as in industry, education, think tanks, or the government.

Members of the same community do not need to work together.Communication between the members is established by disseminating research work and hypotheses through articles in peer reviewed journals, or by attending conferences where new research is presented and ideas exchanged and discussed. There are also many informal methods of communication of scientific work and results as well. And many in a coherent community may actually not communicate all of their work with one another, for various professional reasons.

Speaking for the scientific community

Unlike in previous centuries when the community of scholars were all members of few learned societies and similar institutions, there are no singular bodies or individuals which can be said today to speak for all science or all scientists. This is partly due to the specialized training most scientists receive in very few fields. As a result, many would lack expertise in all the other fields of the sciences. For instance, due to the increasing complexity of information and specialization of scientists, most of the cutting-edge research today is done by well funded groups of scientists, rather than individuals.However, there are still multiple societies and academies in many countries which help consolidate some opinions and research to help guide public discussions on matters of policy and government-funded research. For example, the United States' National Academy of Science (NAS) and United Kingdom's Royal Society sometimes act as surrogates when the opinions of the scientific community need to be ascertained by policy makers or the national government, but the statements of the National Academy of Science or the Royal Society are not binding on scientists nor do they necessarily reflect the opinions of every scientist in a given community since membership is often exclusive, their commissions are explicitly focused on serving their governments, and they have never "shown systematic interest in what rank-and file scientists think about scientific matters". Exclusivity of membership in these types of organizations can be seen in their election processes in which only existing members can officially nominate others for candidacy of membership. It is very unusual for organizations like the National Academy of Science to engage in external research projects since they normally focus on preparing scientific reports for government agencies.[8] An example of how rarely the NAS engages in external and active research can be seen in its struggle to prepare and overcome hurdles, due to its lack of experience in coordinating research grants and major research programs on the environment and health.

Nevertheless, general scientific consensus is a concept which is often referred to when dealing with questions that can be subject to scientific methodology. While the consensus opinion of the community is not always easy to ascertain or fix due to paradigm shifting, generally the standards and utility of the scientific methodhave tended to ensure, to some degree, that scientists agree on some general corpus of facts explicated by scientific theory while rejecting some ideas which run counter to this realization. The concept of scientific consensus is very important to science pedagogy, the evaluation of new ideas, and research funding. Sometimes it is argued that there is a closed shop bias within the scientific community toward new ideas. Protoscience, fringe science, and pseudoscience have been topics that discuss demarcation problems. In response to this some non-consensus claims skeptical organizations, not research institutions, have devoted considerable amounts of time and money contesting ideas which run counter to general agreement on a particular topic.

Philosophers of science argue over the epistemological limits of such a consensus and some, including Thomas Kuhn, have pointed to the existence of scientific revolutions in the history of science as being an important indication that scientific consensus can, at times, be wrong. Nevertheless, the sheer explanatory power of science in its ability to make accurate and precise predictions and aid in the design and engineering of new technology has ensconced "science" and, by proxy, the opinions of the scientific community as a highly respected form of knowledge both in the academy and in popular culture.

Political controversies

The high regard with which scientific results are held in Western society has caused a number of political controversies over scientific subjects to arise. An allegedconflict thesis proposed in the 19th century between religion and science has been cited by some as representative of a struggle between tradition and substantial change and faith and reason.[citation needed]. A popular example used to support this thesis is when Galileo was tried before the Inquisition concerning the heliocentric model.[9] The persecution began after Pope Urban VIII permitted Galileo to write about the Copernican model. Galileo had used arguments from the Pope and put them in the voice of the simpleton in the work "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" which caused great offense to him.Even though many historians of science have discredited the conflict thesis it still remains a popular belief among many including some scientists. In more recent times, thecreation-evolution controversy has resulted in many religious believers in a supernatural creation to challenge some naturalistic assumptions that have been proposed in some of the branches of scientific fields such as evolutionary biology, geology, and astronomy. Although the dichotomy seems to be of a different outlook from a Continental European perspective, it does exist. The Vienna Circle, for instance, had a paramount (i.e. symbolic) influence on the semiotic regimerepresented by the Scientific Community in Europe.

In the decades following World War II, some were convinced that nuclear power would solve the pending energy crisis by providing energy at low cost. This advocacy led to the construction of many nuclear power plants, but was also accompanied by a global political movement opposed to nuclear power due to safety concerns and associations of the technology with nuclear weapons. Mass protests in the United States and Europe during the 1970s and 1980s along with the disasters of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island led to a decline in nuclear power plant construction.

In the last decades or so, both global warming and stem cells have placed the opinions of the scientific community in the forefront of political debate.

Dear Celine,

The following resources may interest you:

Discrimination, Acculturation, Acculturative Stress, and Latino Psychological Distress: A Moderated Mediational Model by Lucas Torres, Mark W. Driscoll, and Maria Voell.

Thanks a lot. I already have the text as a reference for consultation. Best regards

My pleasure John! cheers

I might be able to help. Can you be a bit clearer about what you are looking for when you say "recommend a cross-cultural assessment"?

This might help a little - includes and extends his work

Yes, They can. Cultural factors as contributors are: power distance, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance. You may find this paper useful:

Liao, Meng-Yuan (2015). Safety Culture in commercial aviation: Differences in perspective between Chinese and Western pilots. Safety Science, 79, 193-205

I think it will depend on Chinese students knowledge of English. If that cohort of students have fluency in English than I will be better to teach them otherwise it is very difficult for Non-Chinese teachers. So, try to use Visual-Aid and Pictographic way of teaching that will be also significant.

Hi Melanie,

hope you will find helpful, best wishes.

Ghanim.

These are first world appreciations of Latin America

http://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/Journal/2007-2010/Vol_21_1_2009_spring/16_Galvez_CENTRO_Journal_21_1_2009.pdf (A review)

A review of Latin America in its films

An these could be other point of view

May be the best analysys about Latin America as a cultural phenomenon

And these are the postRomero´s legacy

And a romantic and pop version of "Latinoamérica" 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-L0GV9bdjY

And a classic version of the Sub-D (underdevelopment) by Ruben Blades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOIBDjhTTFA (lyrics = http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/ruben_blades/el_apagon.html)

try this article: https://www.academia.edu/7380042/Compare_and_contrast_cultural_frameworks_developed_by_Geert_Hofstede_and_Fons_Trompenaars

Thanx a million Michael for the very useful feedback.

Good question. Please allow me to extemporize a bit.

My performing career in classical music spans over three decades. This includes experiences in the academy as a student, in the symphonic world (including ballet and opera) Broadway type musicals, church performances,and casual dance "gigs." If one looks at the historical growth of Western art music (often considered "serious" music) patronage has always played a significant role in the creation and performance of music. 

The early Christian church (a.k.a. Catholic church) played a significant role in the development of notation and the establishment of the modes to allow the singing of chants to have the same intervallic relationships between notes regardless of the starting pitch or the "tonic." Composers began to develop new styles such as organum which introduced polyphony and the rhythmic modes. Not to go into too much theory or medieval history, if  composers were not supported by the church, the development of Western art music would likely have suffered.

Other early patrons include nobility and the merchant class, particularly in the city-states of Italy. F. J. Haydn enjoyed a lengthy tenure as court composer/conductor/performer with the Esterhazy family. His patron so admired Haydn that he was provided an opportunity to travel to London on two occasions and to solicit/receive commissions for several symphonies.

Serious music performances were largely associated with worship or the court until the development of opera which although early on was sustained by the wealthy became one of the first large-scale publicly attended art events. By the 17th and 18th  centuries composers were seeking commissions and were beginning to establish themselves as independent from the patronage system as it had existed previously.

In today's world patronage still exists and the philanthropic endeavors of arts presenting organizations is highly developed. Organizations have developed support groups such as guilds, societies, memberships, etc. to supplement the income brought in through ticket sales and subscriptions as well as selling advertising in the concert program. Corporations, foundations, and individuals are sought to sponsor a season or a particular performance (or series). For corporations and foundations, this serves as a public relations or marketing outlet. Private individuals have a variety of personal motivations to support the arts.

The costs incurred with presenting serious music are considerable. Professional musicians, conductors and soloists demand to be paid unless it is a benefit concert in which the individuals have agreed to perform gratis. Their remuneration covers rehearsals and performances. Rental of the rehearsal space, performance space, and frequently music is an expense that some audience members do not readily consider. The same is true for marketing, advertising, and the publication of printed materials such as tickets, posters, and programs. Additionally the ticket staff, ushers and concessionaires will need to be paid. Some upscale performance also provide valet parking as a perk for the most expensive seats.

The actual percentage of the overall production costs that ticket and advertising revenue generates is roughly 20-35% depending on a host of factors surrounding the production. A single ticket for the New York Philharmonic in March 2015 can cost from close to $150 to over $400. Certainly serious music can demand "serious cash"...and that is with corporate, foundation, and individual contributions as well as selling advertising and other "soft goods."

All of this is just on the cost side of the equation. Other factors to consider include the impact of popular culture in the development of taste. This may be somewhat geographically influenced similar to the argument of "nature versus nurture." However with the widespread availability for the electronic playback of music regardless of the genre or style most listeners are now consumers of music who often choose to listen to anything but serious music. Arts presenting organizations generally have public outreach concerts that are free in public parks and schools to acquaint potential audiences with their artistic product. These are supported through donations, grants, gifts and the general operating budget of the organization. However these are only momentary interactions with the arts and unless the artistic exposure is frequent, sustained, or regularly available, the popular culture seems to win out.

In addition to my performing career, I've been a college professor for 25 years. In teaching courses from music appreciation to more advance music history and literature during this time my music major students more often listen to popular music even if they desire to be a professional performing musician in an orchestra. Peer pressure and culture prevail, it seems.

Thanks for bearing with my rambling, but I did want to share some of my insights.

Regards,

Jim

 

 

Dear Debi,

The trouble is though we can distinct geographically, economically and historically Eastern and Western worlds but the people are much more similar to each other and because of the quasi uniform media effects people's commitments are congruent.

• Multicultural communication supposes the coexistence of several cultures.

• Intercultural communication suggests interactions between different cultures.

• Intercultural communication necessarily concerns situations of contact.

• Transcultural communication can be defined as communication which are valid across social groups, or which do not take into account cultural differences.

For more, see:

A PhD student in our department, Tamiryn Jones, recently completed a study on "Linguistic strategies used in the construction of performance assessment discourse in the South African workplace". Sounds relevant to your focus on multilingualism and team conflicts.

And then a PhD project that I was co-supervisor of dealt with multilingualism in Lesotho Health Care centres (focusing on language discordant HIV and AIDS interactions), which is possibly not relevant to your specific question but may point you in the direction of useful sources.

I am not a specialist in this field, but having worked 7 years for a Japanese company in Hungary and being very much interested in comparative cultural research I do have a (non-expert) opinon. My impression is that acculturation is a notion used for people living on the territory of another culture for a longer time. Inter-cultural communication skills are needed, however, for a much broader circle of people, e.g. for those working in joint ventures. (Hall has very good examples of cultural misunderstanind even for European-European companies using monochronic and polychronic timescale, let alone Asian-European cooperations). From the practical viewpoint one cannot send each coworker to spend years in another culture, nevertheless (I believe) that certain inter-cultural commincation skills may be taught to them to reduce the cultural shock and misunderstanding. The most important thing is, however, empathy and keen observation. That's why women are better in this respect than proud males ...

Yes. people in low power distance, indulgence, low uncertainty avoidance, and individualistic societies may easily communicate with the others. Strongly suggest Hofstede and Hofstede publications.