#Intercultural Communication

[youryurigoddess]

The classical proxemic theory (Hall, 1966) classifies interpersonal distance into four categories:

Public distance, maintained in impersonal settings (above 210 cm)

Social distance, maintained in interpersonal, but formal settings (122-210 cm)

Personal distance, maintained in interactions with friends and family members (about 46 to 122 cm)

Intimate distance, maintained only in closest relationships (from 0 to 46 cm)

No wonder that Aziraphale and Crowley had to be eventually separated by force — otherwise the speed with which they were closing their intimacy gap would render them useless against the Second Coming.

[wesleysniperking]

usopp positivity post #21

I recently delved into the idea of Usopp's character being African, as Oda suggested. While this topic can be controversial, I believe it offers a positive perspective. I'm passionate about intercultural communication, and One Piece is a great example of diverse characters learning to appreciate each other's cultural backgrounds. This is evident in the stark differences between characters like Zoro and Franky, and the initial reactions to Brooke's politeness.

Usopp's character embodies several African ideals, making his representation meaningful. Here’s how:

Storytelling Tradition: Usopp is the crew’s storyteller, a role central to many African cultures that rely on oral traditions to preserve history and teach lessons. The Straw Hats' adventures are like living history, and Usopp is the one to chronicle them. Then we gotta think back to Aesop. But we’ll save that for another day. Which also makes me think that Elbaf is meant for Usopp. Elbaf is Fable spelled backwards, we all know this, right???).

Respect for Heritage: Usopp's respect for his parents and the Going Merry reflects a deep reverence for ancestors and heritage, akin to African traditions. His belief that the Merry had a spirit and his emotional farewell to the ship mirrors African animistic beliefs, where objects and nature are considered to have spiritual essence.

Resourcefulness: Usopp's ability to create tools and weapons from limited resources showcases his ingenuity, reflecting the adaptive spirit found in many African communities.

Community and Loyalty: Usopp’s loyalty to his crew and his willingness to put others before himself align with the African value of Ubuntu, which emphasizes community and interconnectedness. Not to mention, he also didn’t want the villagers to know about the battle that’d happened between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Black Cat Pirates (back in the Syrup Village arc).

Usopp’s character is a rich tapestry of these cultural elements, making him a profound representation of African ideals in One Piece. I think if we took the time to think about the intercultural aspects found in One Piece we’d understand certain parts of the narrative better. (Might further explore this in another post).

previous post

next post

related link

Usopp fan club (feel free to join)

[pratchettquotes]

"What's slab?" said Cheery.

"It are chloric ammonium an' radium mixed up. It give your head a tingle but melts troll brains. Big problem in der mountains and some buggers are makin' it here in der city and we tryin' to find how it get up dere. Mister Vimes is lettin' me run a"--Detritus concentrated--"pub-lic a-ware-ness campaign tellin' people what happens to buggers who sell it to kids..." He waved a hand at a large and rather crudely done poster on the wall. It said:

"SLAB: JUS' SAY

'AARRGHAARRGHPLEEASSENNONONOUGH.'"

He pushed open a door.

"Dis is der old privy wot we don't use no more, you can use it for mixin' up stuff, it the only place we got now, you have to clean it up first 'cos it smells like a toilet in here."

He opened another door. "And this der locker room," he said. "You got your own peg and dat, and dere's dese panels for getting changed behind 'cos we knows you dwarfs is modest. It a good life if you don't weaken. Mr. Vimes is OK but he a bit weird about some stuff, and he keepin' on sayin' stuff like dis city is a meltin' pot an' all der scum floats to der top, and stuff like dat. I'll give you your helmet an' badge in a minute but first--" he opened a rather larger locker on the other side of the room, which had "DTRiTUS" painted on it--"I got to go and hide dis hammer."

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay*

*For the anon who simply requested "Detritus" -- I present you with the most quintessential Detritus moment I know.

[kingmystrie]

Discord message on "high context" "low context" culture dichotomy

(I was just gonna post a screenshot but i realized that's not very acessible so I'm copy and pasting what I wrote)

im thinking high context/low context cultures arent a thing because like if you think about of course you're not gonna understand the phrases people with a completely different history use in certain conversations or all their mannerisms

american culture probably comes off as high context to other countries

i dont think its fair for us to say that its too difficult to understand when we're on the outside looking in

i was thinking about this because when i was in south korea none of the korean students in my class understood that the poems we read during black history month were about racism even though to me and other american students it was obvious

food for thought because i think there's unchecked ethnocentrism in some of the stuff im reading, esp when they use this colelctiveist individualist dichotomy, it seems extremely inaccurate to me

[murasaki-sama]

Looking for communication (studies) nerds

Hello! I have a BS in Communication (Intercultural) and I am looking for a few fellow nerds in the field. Do you like to talk about proxemics, group think, muted group theory, culture shock, high and low context cultures and how they differ, when public communication becomes mass communication, organizational culture and more related theories and topics and concepts?  Are you fascinated by real world examples for these theories and concepts? what about fictional world/story examples? Do you just like to bullshit and rant about the concepts for fun?

I am creating a discord group for like minding fellow nerds, and one of the biggest groups I would like to have join is communication (studies) nerds! Also people who are queer, neurodivergent, have chronic physical and/or mental health issues, and like stories (reading them and/or writing their own!).

For now, though, I would really love to connect with some communication people! Send me an ask or a private message if you are one and would like to connect! I’ll reply with a link to the discord (its still a WIP).

Please reblog this so it breaks containment! Thanks.

[mangalaprathabangm]

Master the nuances of the Intercultural Communication

[themaninthelighthouse]

From the River to the Sea, All Will Be Free

From the videos shown in the last meeting, it's clear how much chaos this war has brought to people's lives. This long-standing war has been ongoing for years and affects people on both sides. However, we must always be careful not to call it a conflict because this is not a conflict; this is a genocide towards the Palestinian people. Unlike what the videos show, we should not equate the experiences of Israelis with those of Palestinians because they are not at all the same. The crimes the Israeli Government has committed against Palestinians are far worse than what is commonly known, and with countries like the USA government offering support, the situations are not comparable.

With this, I have also realized the importance of Nonviolent Communication, given that it is our social responsibility as humans to be conscious of the things happening around us. We may not feel the impact directly of the war that is happening, but it is certainly affecting us in ways like economic forces and also socially related issues, such as the displacement of people being forced to live in places they are not familiar with. What we could do as individuals in showing empathy is boycotting companies or businesses that are continuously funding the genocide; we could also use our voices through social media. With language and communication, we could use this to amplify the calls that should bring attention to these happenings. We could always ask what these affected people want or need, hear their calls, and express our feelings and deepest empathies towards them, as simple as that. Indeed, Nonviolent Communication is a great tool in aiding the abolishment of conflicts like these; and we all can do this by joining local peace protests here in our country, given that there is nothing as strong as us people coming together, standing as one, to make the people in power accountable for the things they do. Not all things should be done in violence since violence already exists with the war, and there is no need to contribute more violence anymore. This is literally a humanitarian crisis that only we, ‘humans,’ can solve even without the slightest help of machinery and violence. I will always and never stop hoping for a day where I get to see these people covered with the debris of chaos see the sun without them worrying about whether or not they get to see it again tomorrow.

Hence, we should always call for a ceasefire and never stop talking about it because even though you may not hear about them soon, it is still happening and will still be happening in the future if we don't do anything about it. A little empathy isn't that hard to muster, so whatever we can do, even a little shared post or even doing things like boycotting is already a big help. However, it is also important that we can make other people aware of this too.

[k12academics]

Level Up Village (a product of Language Testing International) is a global communication platform that is uniquely designed to allow students to expand their learning and engage in meaningful exchanges with students around the world. With Level Up Village, students engage in collaborative tasks that encourage the development of 21 st century skills and global competency through our unique peer-to-peer global collaboration experience.

[ayessasthoughts]

MODULE 1: LESSON 2

What insights are you having?

Communicating both verbally and nonverbally. We are all aware that there are two different forms of communication. Though verbal communication is always preferred because it is simpler, I have found that this is not always true.

Nonverbal communication has the drawback of being readily misinterpreted or misunderstood. I have personally been misunderstood, which makes me wonder if it was my fault for being unclear. Or maybe they just don't get me.

How are you applying what you learn to your professional, academic or personal life?

Professional. I have to be precise with how I communicate. Make it short but understandable enough.

Academic. Make it also precise but make it a little deeper. Expound your point.

Personal Life. I prefer to be straight forward.

[jaatanilsolanki]

Discover effective strategies for navigating cultural differences in relationships and fostering understanding and harmony. Learn how to embrace diversity and build stronger connections with your partner.

[wesleysniperking]

Usopp and the Going Merry and the Clash of Cultures and Faith

I want to delve into how Usopp's devotion to the Going Merry reflects his animistic beliefs. His deep conviction stems from the belief that all inanimate objects, weather, and living things possess a soul, a perspective central to many Indigenous and African cultures. This connection is significant, as Usopp's role as a storyteller mirrors these traditions. I believe Oda was intentional in this portrayal, considering his statement that Usopp's real-life nationality and ethnicity would be African.

The Water 7 arc highlights issues of intercultural communication and the clash of differing beliefs. Usopp's fight with Luffy over the fate of the Going Merry stems from his animistic beliefs, underscoring how deeply faith and cultural perspectives can impact relationships and decisions.

related link

Usopp fan club (feel free to join)

[jpf-sydney]

Tabunka kyōsei no komyunikēshon

New item:

The author, who has been involved in Japanese language education for international students and the local community for many years, explains in an easy-to-understand way what communication is needed for multiculturalism, based on the field of Japanese language education. The book includes not only intercultural communication theory, but also a wealth of concrete examples and many activities that can be put into practice. The book is structured to enable an understanding of multicultural conviviality from a variety of angles.

Shelf: 361.45 TOK rev Tabunka kyōsei no komyunikēshon : Nihongo kyōiku no genba kara. by Tokui Atsuko.

Kaiteiban. Tōkyō : Aruku, 2020. ISBN: 9784757436084

230 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

The enlarged and revised of the previously published in 2002. Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-226) and index (pages 227-230). Text in Japanese.

[lurkingteapot]

Every now and then I think about how subtitles (or dubs), and thus translation choices, shape our perception of the media we consume. It's so interesting. I'd wager anyone who speaks two (or more) languages knows the feeling of "yeah, that's what it literally translates to, but that's not what it means" or has answered a question like "how do you say _____ in (language)?" with "you don't, it's just … not a thing, we don't say that."

I've had my fair share of "[SHIP] are [married/soulmates/fated/FANCY TERM], it's text!" "[CHARACTER A] calls [CHARACTER B] [ENDEARMENT/NICKNAME], it's text!" and every time. Every time I'm just like. Do they though. Is it though. And a lot of the time, this means seeking out alternative translations, or translation meta from fluent or native speakers, or sometimes from language learners of the language the piece of media is originally in.

Why does it matter? Maybe it doesn't. To lots of people, it doesn't. People have different interests and priorities in fiction and the way they interact with it. It's great. It matters to me because back in the early 2000s, I had dial-up internet. Video or audio media that wasn't available through my local library very much wasn't available, but fanfiction was. So I started to read English language Gundam Wing fanfic before I ever had a chance to watch the show. When I did get around to watching Gundam Wing, it was the original Japanese dub. Some of the characters were almost unrecognisable to me, and first I doubted my Japanese language ability, then, after checking some bits with friends, I wondered why even my favourite writers, writers I knew to be consistent in other things, had made these characters seem so different … until I had the chance to watch the US-English dub a few years later. Going by that adaptation, the characterisation from all those stories suddenly made a lot more sense. And the thing is, that interpretation is also valid! They just took it a direction that was a larger leap for me to make.

Loose adaptations and very free translations have become less frequent since, or maybe my taste just hasn't led me their way, but the issue at the core is still a thing: Supernatural fandom got different nuances of endings for their show depending on the language they watched it in. CQL and MDZS fandom and the never-ending discussions about 知己 vs soulmate vs Other Options. A subset of VLD fans looking at a specific clip in all the different languages to see what was being said/implied in which dub, and how different translators interpreted the same English original line. The list is pretty much endless.

And that's … idk if it's fine, but it's what happens! A lot of the time, concepts -- expressed in language -- don't translate 1:1. The larger the cultural gap, the larger the gaps between the way concepts are expressed or understood also tend to be. Other times, there is a literal translation that works but isn't very idiomatic because there's a register mismatch or worse. And that's even before cultural assumptions come in. It's normal to have those. It's also important to remember that things like "thanks I hate it" as a sentiment of praise/affection, while the words translate literally quite easily, emphatically isn't easy to translate in the sense anglophone internet users the phrase.

Every translation is, at some level, a transformative work. Sometimes expressions or concepts or even single words simply don't have an exact equivalent in the target language and need to be interpreted at the translator's discretion, especially when going from a high-context/listener-responsible source language to a low-context/speaker-responsible target language (where high-context/listener responsible roughly means a large amount of contextual information can be omitted by the speaker because it's the listener's responsibility to infer it and ask for clarification if needed, and low-context/speaker-responsible roughly means a lot of information needs to be codified in speech, i.e. the speaker is responsible for providing sufficiently explicit context and will be blamed if it's lacking).

Is this a mouse or a rat? Guess based on context clues! High-context languages can and frequently do omit entire parts of speech that lower-context/speaker-responsible languages like English regard as essential, such as the grammatical subject of a sentence: the equivalent of "Go?" - "Go." does largely the same amount of heavy lifting as "is he/she/it/are you/they/we going?" - "yes, I am/he/she/it is/we/you/they are" in several listener-responsible languages, but tends to seem clumsy or incomplete in more speaker-responsible ones. This does NOT mean the listener-responsible language is clumsy. It's arguably more efficient! And reversely, saying "Are you going?" - "I am (going)" might seem unnecessarily convoluted and clumsy in a listener-responsible language. All depending on context.

This gets tricky both when the ambiguity of the missing subject of the sentence is clearly important (is speaker A asking "are you going" or "is she going"? wait until next chapter and find out!) AND when it's important that the translator assign an explicit subject in order for the sentence to make sense in the target language. For our example, depending on context, something like "are we all going?" - "yes" or "they going, too?" might work. Context!

As a consequence of this, sometimes, translation adds things – we gain things in translation, so to speak. Sometimes, it's because the target language needs the extra information (like the subject in the examples above), sometimes it's because the target language actually differentiates between mouse and rat even though the source language doesn't. However, because in most cases translators don't have access to the original authors, or even the original authors' agencies to ask for clarification (and in most cases wouldn't get paid for the time to put in this extra work even if they did), this kind of addition is almost always an interpretation. Sometimes made with a lot of certainty, sometimes it's more of a "fuck it, I've got to put something and hope it doesn't get proven wrong next episode/chapter/ten seasons down" (especially fun when you're working on a series that's in progress).

For the vast majority of cases, several translations are valid. Some may be more far-fetched than others, and there'll always be subjectivity to whether something was translated effectively, what "effectively" even means …

ANYWAY. I think my point is … how interesting, how cool is it that engaging with media in multiple languages will always yield multiple, often equally valid but just sliiiiightly different versions of that piece of media? And that I'd love more conversations about how, the second we (as folks who don't speak the material's original language) start picking the subtitle or dub wording apart for meta, we're basically working from a secondary source, and if we're doing due diligence, to which extent do we need to check there's nothing substantial being (literally) lost -- or added! -- in translation?

[atthebell]

i am very happy about all the posts circulating about being aware of cultural differences and i think it makes a lot of sense considering none of these streamers will speak english and will have very different cultural touchstones but it is kind of funny to me how little people discussed this previously when we already did have incredibly different cultural communication styles and contexts on the server like. the amount of times things have had to be explained or people have gotten pissed off because someone was "too loud"/"too aggressive"/"too indirect" or whatever is kind of ridiculous.

like again im very glad and i hope this means they're continuing to learn and see what does and doesn't work however from the fandom side of things im seeing people rb things and im like okay so when it's east vs. west that's easy for you to understand that there's differences but when it's europe vs. latam it's not. interesting. wonder if rampant orientalism has anything to do with that.

anyway im not trying to be like a self-righteous dick about this and i want people to be kind and think the best of people without leaping to conclusions i just wish people had given more grace in previous situations of conflicting cultural elements and i hope everyone is better going forward

[3-2-whump]

Friend needs cheering up?! *busts in your window with your favorite food and drinks*

So gush about your favorite whump tropes!!! 👀

-- @whumperofworlds

Thank you 🥹 you brought my favorites I see!

*slurping and munching noises*

So, my favorite whump tropes…

Well, I love an unequal power dynamic. Especially when it comes to the NSFW side of things. Rarely is consent asked in these circumstances, and if it is, does the disadvantaged party really have any choice but to say yes? Do they have the freedom to say no?

I love bondage because I am a human being with eyes and a working blood circulatory system. Idk how to fully explain it, but when I saw Aladdin at the impressionable age of …what, like four?… that was it for me. Just didn’t know what it was called or that I didn’t have to be embarrassed about it until semi-recently.

I also love culture whump, particularly as it pertains to language barriers. I haven’t published anything on this blog about it yet, but in my personal copy of Whumpee and Whumper’s stories (Khaled and Thomas), they can’t understand each other. One has limited English comprehension, the other doesn’t even know what language his pet is speaking. Of course, this changes as the story goes on, Khaled becomes fluent and forgets his natal tongue (with some encouragement), and that makes it all the harder on him when he’s eventually rescued and returned to his family.

Hang on to your hats, everyone, shit’s about to get real under the cut

My love of culture whump and language barriers probably stems from my long-underaddressed adoption trauma. I only just realized as I began seriously writing whump this last year that I also had my culture and my mother tongue ripped away from me without my consent, and, like my Whumpee, I may never be able to fully reclaim it in a way I would have if I had grown up within its framework my entire life. (No wonder I always write about it!) That is why, when my Whumpee recovers, he is never the same person he was before he was taken. But he is doing better than he was, even though his tongue stumbles clumsily around words his siblings could say in their sleep. He is happy enough. And that is enough.

Wow, making me emotional again. But it feels good to kind of lore dump/give backstory about the author now and again. And I do feel kinda better. So thanks!

[roboticutie]

Being a useful tool makes you no more human in the eyes of the one holding the toolbox