Intercultural Communication Essay: Concepts, Analysis, and Reflection

This essay examines the core concepts of intercultural communication, drawing upon the work of Bennett (1998) and Spencer-Oatey (2013) as primary sources. The essay begins by introducing the importance of intercultural communication in today's globalized world and then delves into key concepts, including upper-case and lower-case cultures, individualistic and collectivist societies, and the impact of stereotyping and generalization. It further explores the culture-general and culture-specific approaches to intercultural interaction, the role of language and nonverbal behavior, and the process of cultural adaptation. The essay concludes by emphasizing the gradual nature of developing intercultural communication skills, highlighting the need for mindful stereotyping and a deep understanding of cultural differences to achieve cultural competence and promote effective communication in a global context.

Running head: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Intercultural Communication
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Five concepts..........................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Intercultural communication is an important skill that people require in order to
interact with people belonging different culture (Yoshida et al., 2018). In order to develop
competencies in intercultural behavior, one must first gain understanding of the differences in
culture and different ways of interacting in it (Sarwari & Abdul Wahab, 2017). In the article
of Bennett (1998), the author talks about differences in upper-case and lower case cultures
and the different approaches that one can use to deal with different cultural contexts where
communication is needed. Reflecting on the article, I find many concepts that we were taught
during the module. In this essay, the key concepts of the article and their understanding
through the module learning will be established.
The very first concept that Bennett (1998), introduces is the Upper-Case Culture and
Lower-Case Culture. In many cases, people misplace the idea of culture with cultural
institutions. Culture has two aspects and the first is the objective culture which is related to
the institutional aspects like art, literature, music, drama, social and linguistic systems, in
short, those aspects that have traditionally been associated with culture (Bennett, 1998). This
is considered to the higher point of culture (Bennett, 1998). The second is the Lower-Case or
subjective culture which includes the psychological aspects of people’s culture of the group
itself (Yoshida et al., 2018). The thinking pattern of the groups, their behavior, their rituals,
norms and habits all create the subjective aspect of culture. It is through the development of
subjective culture that people develop the skills related to intercultural interactions (Sarwari
& Abdul Wahab, 2017). The implication of this learning is on my personal and professional
development as intercultural interaction skills are useful for my future workplace.
The next key concept introduced by Bennett (1998), is the idea of individualistic and
collectivist culture as learned in our module. Bennett calls these cultural difference as high
level abstraction and low level abstraction. The individualistic cultures are quite different
than the other and the interaction with them vary for the same reason. For example, USA is

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an individualist culture and their cultural norms and beliefs vary. They give importance to
individual achievement and believe that everybody is responsible for their own outcome
while in collectivist cultures like Japan, people are more dependent on each other and are
likely to help one another in difficult situation. In these cultures, people value social or
collective development rather than individual. There are also other kinds of cultural diversity
such as socio-economic class, gender, regionality, religion and sexual orientation.
The third concept is related to the concept of gender differences which includes
stereotyping and generalization (Bennett, 1998). According to Spencer-Oatey (2013),
stereotyping and generalization is obvious when it comes to intercultural communication.
Bennett (1998), introduces the concepts of positive and negative stereotyping. When people
respect the assumed similarity that different cultural groups portray, it is called positive
stereotyping while the cultural characteristics are disrespected it is called to be negative
stereotyping (Spencer-Oatey, 2013). Through the reading of Spencer-Oatey’s essay, I learnt
about mindful stereotyping and mindless stereotyping (Spencer-Oatey, 2013). The mindless
stereotyping is the negative stereo typing where people so not think about the reason for their
prejudice in a rational manner. In mindful stereotyping, the differences are attributed
according to reason and it is more to understand the culture more effective than to distinguish
on the grounds of differences.
The fourth concept is the assumptions of intercultural communication perspective.
When people think about intercultural communication, they mainly focus on the aspects that
are likely to affect the interaction (Spencer-Oatey, 2013). In this regard, the culture specific
and culture general approaches are effective way of understanding the different ways
individuals can approach intercultural interaction (Holliday, 2011). Culture general approach
is understanding the difference between high context and low context culture and
understanding how people belonging two these two cultures are likely to interact (Bennett,

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1998). Culture specific is understanding how two specific culture are likely to interact with
each other, their greetings, norms of talking and meeting and their non-verbal cues and apply
them on real life contexts such as business meetings. In both cases, we generalize the two
cultures and try to find similarities and differences for better understanding (Yoshida, 2018).
The fifth concept that Bennett (1998), introduced is the intercultural communication
process. The first step of any kind of communication is language and is a necessary aspect for
intercultural learning (Spencer-Oatey, 2013). Different cultures have different language and
grammar (Yoshida, 2018). These syntaxes help us understand the cultural ideologies and
social contexts related to this culture (Sarwari & Abdul Wahab, 2017). For example, English
only has one form of 2nd person which is you while languages like Thai and Japanese have
different forms of you that are used based on the status of the person (Holliday, 2011).
Looking close into these aspect informs us that these two culture has the same differences as
their language, i.e. the importance of status and position is more in Japanese culture and
people believe in social and institutional hierarchy while in American culture people do not
(Sarwari & Abdul Wahab, 2017).
Another processes that include in intercultural communication is understanding of
nonverbal behavior, perceptual relativity, communication style, values and assumptions
(Bennett, 1998). All of these abilities and skills lead to the individual’s development of
cultural adaptation. Cultural adaptation includes and acceptance of the other cultures,
understanding of the differences and being able to respond to them empathetically (Spencer-
Oatey, 2013). This leads to cultural competence and the creation of a global cultural context
(Holliday, 2011). The cultural competency is also related to the concepts of ethnorelative
ethics which is based on the Perry Scheme of Cognitive and Ethical Development (Sarwari &
Abdul Wahab, 2017). This model encapsulates that cultural learning is progressive and the

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more people learn about different cultures the more their thinking becomes ethical (Bennett,
1998).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it becomes evident that developing skills and ability of
intercultural communication is a gradual process. It requires the understanding of the broad
concepts related to cultural differences and the historical backgrounds. Along with it, the
understanding of cultural norms, nonverbal cues, body language and the language itself forms
the basis of communication. There is also the need of rejecting the mindless stereotyping and
starting mindful stereotyping in order to get better understanding of the cultural differences.

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References
Bennett, M. J. (1998). Intercultural communication: A current perspective. Basic concepts of
intercultural communication: Selected readings, (1), 1-34.
Holliday, A. (2011). Intercultural Communication & Ideology: SAGE Publications. Sage.
Sarwari, A. Q., & Abdul Wahab, M. N. (2017). Study of the relationship between
intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence among
international postgraduate students: A case study at University Malaysia
Pahang. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), 1310479.
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2013) Mindfulness for Intercultural Interaction. A compilation of
quotations. GlobalPAD Core Concepts. Available at GlobalPAD Open House
http://go.warwick.ac.uk/globalpadintercultural
Yoshida, T., Indurkhya, B., Larson, J., Dujmovich, J., & Keith, B. (2018). Integrating
intercultural communication into the language classroom. Speakeasy, 30.