III.Edward Hall’s Dimensions

1.High-context and Low-context Cultures

One tool for examining the culture windows is the approach to cultures described by Edward Hall,distinguishing among cultures on the basis of the role of context in communication.High-context cultures rely on the context,either the actual physical environment of communication or an internalized social context or both,to convey a large part or even all of the message’s meanings.In cultures in which context is implicitly referred to in communication,the messages themselves can be indirect and allusive.In cultures in which context is not assumed to be understood,messages are explicit,direct,and completely encoded in words.This describes low-context cultures,in which the meaning is trusted almost entirely to words.

Hall drew a continuum(see Figure 2-1)reaching from the extreme of low-context cultures to the opposite extreme of high-context cultures,and plotted national cultures along the continuum.He identified German Swiss as a very low-context culture,in which messages are spelled out fully,clearly,and precisely.He identified Japan as a high-context culture,where messages are multilevel and implicit.He put the United States on the low-context side of middle.

High-context cultures,in which the context of the message is well understood by both sender and receiver,use the context to communicate the message.

A very distinguished 75-year old Chinese scholar and statesman was being honored by a university in the eastern United States.He and his wife had just made the 21-hour flight from Beijing,and they were met at the airport by some friends who exclaimed,“You must be very tired!” His response was keyi,“It’s possible.’’ or “It’s OK.” Of course he was tired! He was an old man who had sat on airplanes or in airports for 24 hours straight.But the context－the meeting in an airport at night,the fact of his long journey,his age,his slightly glazed eyes－communicated the obvious.It was unnecessary to put it into words.

Yet it is not hard for a Western imagination to suppose the situation in reverse.A traveler to Beijing gets off the plane after 24 hours of continuous travel and,in response to the same comment,“You must be tired!” replies,“Tired! I’ve never been so tired in my life! I’ve been sitting on planes or in waiting rooms for 24 hours and wondered if my legs would work again! My eyes are so gritty with sleep they feel like the Gobi desert was in that plane!” and so forth.

Members of low-context cultures put their thoughts into words.They tend to think if thoughts are not in words,then the thoughts will not be understood correctly or completely.When messages are in explicit words,the other side can act upon them.But high-context cultures have less tendency to trust words to communicate.They rely on context to help clarify and complete the message.

A Turkish male graduate student in the United States lived in a residence hall where he shareda room with an American.One day his roommate went into the bathroom and completely shavedhis head.The Turkish student easily discovered this fact when he himself visited the bathroom andsaw the hair everywhere,He returned to his room and said to his roommate.“You’ve shaved yourhead.” The American replied,“Yeah,I did.”

The Turkish student waited a little,then said,“I discovered you’d shaved your head when Iwent into the bathroom and saw the hair.” “Yeah,” the American confirmed.The Turk was at a loss.He believed he had communicated in the strongest possible language his wish that the Americanwould clean up the mess he’d made in the bathroom.But no such meaning was attributed to hiswords by his roommate.Later he discussed the surprising episode with Turkish friends who toldhim,“Listen,with Americans you actually have to say ‘Clean up the bathroom’!” The Turkishstudent believed his message had been very clear.He was relying on the context of thecommunication for the message to be understood:Hair was recently and widely scattered all overthe bathroom,and his roommate now had no hair.

Here is another example of how messages operate on more than one level and have the misunderstanding results.

A female neurologist from Beijing was working on a research project in a Toronto hospital.She shared a small office with a young Canadian male from a large family,who loved peanut butter.He was so fond of peanut butter,he kept a jar in the office.One day he came into the office and exclaimed.“Who took my peanut butter?”(This was not clearly encoded even though his Canadian culture is lower-context than higher-context.He really meant,“Where is my peanut butter? I can’t find it.”)But the Chinese woman immediately felt accused.After all,there were only two of them in the office.

She was deeply distressed,but true to her learned cultural behavior of never showing anger in public,she said nothing.Later that day she was working in a room where a physiotherapist was treating a patient who suffered paralysis of his legs and arms from a motorcycle accident.The physiotherapist moved one of the patient’s legs in a way that caused him pain.

“Ouch!” he cried.

“Oh,I didn’t do that.” said the physiotherapist.“It was that doctor over there,” and she pointed to the Chinese woman.

“How could she have done it since she’s on the other side of the room?” the patient pointed out.

“Ah,she has three hands.” the physiotherapist replied.

At these words the Chinese doctor became even more upset.She was so disturbed she behaved in a way uncharacteristic of her culture.She waited until the patient had gone,and then said to the physiotherapist,“I’m very upset by what you said.” The physiotherapist was taken aback.What had she said? “You said I had three hands,” the doctor finally choked.“You think I took the peanut butter.”

What was going on in this exchange? The physiotherapist was making a joke that operated on two levels when she said the doctor had “three hands.” She wasn’t serious,of course,and expected the patient to be amused at her fanciful explanation for his pain:the doctor on the other side of the room could have reached an imaginary third hand to touch him.

The Chinese woman came from a culture where the question “Who did this?” means someone is to blame.Her culture furthermore prohibits direct accusation unless a person has been targeted for shame.Shame is a terrible ordeal since it means punishment for not being a cooperative member of the group.And finally,in Chinese a “three-handed person” is slang for a thief.

The physiotherapist didn’t know that,nor did she know anything about a missing jar of peanut butter.But because the Chinese woman spoke out loud and put her distress into words,the whole episode was resolved.The physiotherapist explained to the doctor that she only said “three hands”because it was so obvious the doctor was not responsible for causing the pain to the patient.

2.Monochronic Culture and Polychronic Culture

Two of the most important time systems,established by Hall,which relate to international business are monochronic and polychronic time.Countries that follow monochronic time performonly one major activity at a time;countries that follow polychronic time work on several activities simultaneously.

The United States is a monochronic culture;other monochronic countries are Great Britain,Switzerland,and Germany.In monochronic cultures,time is spoken as something tangible;people use such terms as wasting time or losing time.In these cultures,it is considered rude to do two things at once such as reading a journal in a meeting.

Polychronic cultures include people of Latin America and the Mediterranean as well as Arabian people.These people are well adapted to doing several things at once and do not mind interruptions.

Table 2-7 summarizes generalizations related to monochronic and polychronic time systems.

Many other scholars provided their views about intercultural theories from their respective perspectives as we mentioned above.Here in this chapter,the purpose is only to give a general understanding that scholars contribute themselves to the study of intercultural theories and summarize similar or different ideas.And here we are not going to list all of them.