This shows how even someone with a religious affinity with Oscar cannot necessarily connect with Oscar's experience. Although both men are Jews, the American assumes that with gumption and hard work, someone can find a home in America, after an initial rocky start. The individual, never the culture is at fault -- a very American, individualistic assumption. Perhaps this reflects both men's anxiety with 'the other' -- with America Oscar's part and with the sight of a foreign Jew on the part of the American.
This sense of miscommunication and frustration when the 'other' is not happy to become a part of a new culture is hardly exclusive to clashes of national perspective, however. In "Diary of an Indian Girl," the American "palefaces" cannot understand, in Chapter One of the narrative, why the American Indian girl is not delighted to leave her supposedly primitive culture, because they assume they would feel the same way: "I had arrived in the wonderful land of rosy skies, but I was not happy, as I had thought I should be. My long travel and the bewildering sights had exhausted me. I fell asleep, heaving deep, tired sobs. My tears were left to dry themselves in streaks, because neither my aunt nor my mother was near to wipe them away." (Sa, p.186) Not only is the language foreign to the Indian girl, sent to be educated by Whites in a White school, but the stiff clothes and the ways of moving seem to injure her: "The annoying clatter of shoes on bare floors gave us no peace. The constant clash of harsh noises, with an undercurrent of many voices murmuring an unknown tongue, made a bedlam within which I was securely tied. And though my spirit tore itself in struggling for its lost freedom, all was useless." (Sa, p.186)
The girl's hair is cut, and her teachers try to transform her ways of movement and dressing. She regards these white women, understandably, as her captors because they have removed her from her home. The body...
Pure linguistic understanding does not bring peace: "Within a year I was able to express myself somewhat in broken English. As soon as I comprehended a part of what was said and done, a mischievous spirit of revenge possessed me." (Sa, p.188)
The Indians are seen through the guise of White stereotypes, not as they really are, because the assumptions of this enforced education is that Indian culture is inferior. The children are judged only by their willingness to obey their teachers, and to adopt white ways -- these decisions make them either bad or good, in the stark judgment of the teachers. "Then she stopped to say something. Judewin said it was this: 'Are you going to obey my word the next time?'" (Sa, p.188) To live in an alien environment, where she is seen as someone in need of cultural reform, with nothing good to give back to the culture is to live in a state of: "actively testing the chains which tightly bound my individuality like a mummy for burial." (Sa, "Iron Routine)
Simply because there is a point of common connection, through Jewishness or through Americanness, cannot create an automatic, perfect cultural translation or erasure of stereotypes. Although "The German Refugee" and Zitkala-Sa's "The School Days of an Indian Girl" are tales of extreme situations, these sorts of misunderstandings can take place on an everyday basis, and must be guarded against, as Barna counsels.
Works Cited
Barna, Laray M. "Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks." From Intercultural
Communications: A Reader. New York: Wadsworth, 1997.
Malmud, Bernard. "The German Refugee." From Great Immigrant Stories. New York:
Klett, 1993.
Sa, Zitkala. "The School Days of an Indian Girl." Electronic Text Center. University of Virginia Library. [8 Dec 2006] http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=ZitGirl.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=5&division=div1
Intercultural Communications -- Definitions -- In its most basic form, multicultural communication is a way of understanding how people from different cultures communicate, behave, and perceive the world. One scholar defines it as the "interpersonal interaction between members of different groups, which differ from each other in respect to the knowledge shared by their members and in respect of their linguistic forms of symbolic behavior" (Knapp in What is Intercultural
He must instead keep aware of the accepted verbal and nonverbal communication gestures of other cultures. He should break out of the habit of preferring or revering his own verbal and non-verbal communication over those of others. Cultural relativism views all cultural practices as good. But unlike cultural relativism, effective intercultural communication does not state that al cultural practices as good. Rather the effective intercultural communicator exerts efforts to
Some cultures are overtly emotional, while there are others which believe in keeping emotions concealed, or only reveal them to a "rational" degree. Naturally such differences often lead to problems. Following are two examples from international diplomacy, cited by the University of Colorado's Conflict Research Consortium, which illustrate that lack of awareness of a certain culture and its values can result in longstanding misunderstandings, whereas accommodating cultural differences and
Intercultural Communication When people from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other, they face various problems in effectively communicating their messages and expressing their thoughts, expectations, and beliefs (Paulston, Kiesling, & Rangel, 2012). These problems lead to serious intercultural communication issues in multicultural societies. Researchers have found that difference in languages is not the sole reason of intercultural communication problems; people fail to effectively communicate due to different cultural dimensions that
Intercultural Communication in the Workplace: As the world continues to experience globalization because of the numerous technological advancements, intercultural communication has become an important element in today's working environments. Intercultural communication is critical because workplaces are currently made up of people from diverse backgrounds, races, ethnicity, and cultures. Therefore, understanding intercultural competence and communication is vital since it helps in promoting effective communication in the workplace. Such understanding also helps in
In addition to vocabulary shaped by environment, different languages also develop arbitrary differences in idiomatic expression. For just one example, modern Hebrew has a word pronounced "dafkuh" that does not translate directly into English. It is used to denote "just at that time," or "exactly that person," or "that very day" in a manner that suggests either irony, coincidence, misfortune, or even sarcasm, in the following manner: "I knew someone
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now