Lectures

4. Theme 2: A theoretical approach to intercultural communication

Understanding communication

Strangeness  and  familiarity  make  up  a  continuum.  As  for  William 

Gudykunst and  Young Yun Kim the term “stranger” is to refer to those 

people at the most unfamiliar  end of continuum.1 Thus anyone could be 

considered  a  stranger,  given  a  sufficiently  foreign  context.  A  stranger 

has  limited  knowledge  of  their  new  environment  –  of  its  norms  and 

values. And in turn, the locals have little knowledge of the stranger –  of 

their  beliefs,  interests  and  habits.  Generally  speaking,  communication 

with another involves  predicting or anticipating their responses. When 

communicating with someone familiar  we are usually confident in our 

anticipation,  and  may  not  even  notice  that  we  are  making  such 

predictions.  In  contrast,  when  we  communicate  with  strangers  we  are 

more  aware  of  the  range  of  their  possible  responses,  and  of  the 

uncertainty of our predictions.  Communicative predictions are based on 

data  from  three  levels.  First  is  the  cultural  level.  This  level  involves 

information about the other’s culture, its dominant values and

norms.  This  level  involves  information  available  when  communicating 

with a stranger. Even so, a better understanding of the stranger’s culture 

yields better predictions.