INTERCULTURAL INTERVIEWS

Overview

Achieving communication competence in a culturally diverse society is necessary for personal and professional success. One way to enhance our understanding of communication as a relationship-building activity is to interview people who belong to different cultural groups. Purpose The purpose of this assignment is to explore and understand the ways in which culture influences our perceptions, relationships, behaviors, and communication. The assignment is designed to help improve the ability to communicate competently in cross-cultural interactions. Content You must interview two people who belong to two cultural groups. An american, Chinese, while I am an India. 93 cultures). While you will likely interview both in English, choose interviewees whose first languages is not English nor any language that you speak (three languages). With your interviewees, you’ll ask well-crafted questions concerning their typical communication practices when they interact with members of their home culture, as well as their views about communicating with other cultures, including yours. Avoid simply asking, “tell me about your culture,” since they aren’t likely to define “culture” in the way you will. You should attempt to identify specific cultural constructs, behaviors, assumptions, similarities and differences among the three cultures involved. Be sure to note basic information about each interviewee (approximate age, sex, social status, occupation, length of time outside of their home country, etc.). Based on what you learn about intercultural communication, your project will help you understand how latent cultural assumptions establish cultural communication practices. Your interviews and paper must cover a number of interpersonal communication topics. Cover at least two or three of the following communication areas: • Common language-based differences and misunderstandings when communicating with people not from their culture • Nonverbal communication norms and differences • Gender communication issues • Family communication issues • The expression of emotions in their culture • Conflict communication norms • Relationship communication (friendship, romantic, and marriage) • Organizational communication issues • Listening behaviors and norms Try to cover the same topics with both interviewees. Use conversational language during your interviews rather than specific intercultural communication terms. For example, while you may understand, “conflict communication norms” regarding cultural studies, they will not. Instead, you could ask: “What happens when you and your friend disagree about something?” You will identify cultural constructs by interpreting their conversational responses. In addition to their opinions and attitudes, try to have them discuss specific behaviors. Be very sensitive to signals that they are uncomfortable with a topic areas. Adjust or move to a different topic if necessary. One alternative is to design alternate questions for each topic. Consider covering one or two extra topics in case the first interviewee does not allow for a topic you chose, or the second interviewee does not wish to discuss a topic the first one discussed. Construct interview questions in advance and prepare notecards so you deliver them in the same order. Be careful to design them so they are conversational, can offer sufficient detail in the responses, cover your minimum topics areas, and do not offend. The quality of your paper will directly depend on the quality of your interviews, so plan and prepare them carefully. Be sure to take notes from their responses; do not trust your memory. If an interview does not yield adequate content, find another interviewee. Organization Organize your paper into the following three parts. I. Introduction: Provide a brief description of the interviews, your interview participants, and the cultural groups involved. Include a brief preview of the body of the paper. II. Cultural Background: Describe the home cultures of the two interviewees. This section should have no opinion in it; use only credible sources to establish what is known about the home countries, cultures, and languages. Discuss the location and the demographics of the home countries (population density, major languages, political structure, religions, etc.). Cite your sources. III. Body: Address the cultural differences and similarities in relational communication you uncovered in the interviews with your partners. Organize this section paper around the topics you covered. You may include a few direct quotes from your interview partners, but only if they serve a specific purpose. Apply theoretical principles and provide primary journal-based citations to maximize your credibility (and your paper score). Do not use unauthored web content, or any content where the credibility of the author is unknown or suspect. As always, source every idea or statement of fact you present that originated from an outside source. Paraphrase all material and research you use and include inline citations and a reference page in APA. IV. Conclusion: Provide a brief summary of the body of the paper. Next discuss your impressions and observations of the interviews, how well you feel they went, and discuss possible problems caused by your particular interview method (be specific here). Summarize what you learned