|
By Keith Davis |
Group to discuss intercultural communication in the workplace |
An American student raising his hand to ask his American teacher a question would probably be regarded as bright; but if the same student asked a question of a Chinese teacher, he'd very likely be considered rude because asking a question implies that the teacher wasn't explaining things clearly.
"In Asian cultures there's a great deal of attention given to forms," says Sandra Herndon, professor and chair of the College's graduate communications program. "Communication, especially nonverbal communication, is very subtle and nuanced in Asian cultures, but in Western cultures it isn't. That's not good or bad, it's just different, and if we don't understand those differences, there'll be misunderstandings."
|
To know more about those misunderstandings -- and how they might be prevented -- Herndon is in the midst of a two-week trip to the People's Republic of China. She is part of an 18-member international delegation of educators, consultants, and communications professionals who will meet with Chinese teachers and business leaders to discuss various aspects of intercultural communication in the workplace. The trip is being sponsored by the Citizen Ambassador Program of People to People International, a private Spokane, Washington-based organization that arranges for people of similar professional interests to visit other countries and exchange information and ideas. This is the first time the program is sending a delegation of communications professionals. The group members met their interpreter in San Francisco on May 2, and they left for China the next day. Their itinerary will include visits to cultural sites and meeting Chinese educators and business people in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing. Their stops will include three universities, a bank, an insurance company, the China Enterprise Management Association, and the Beijing Branch of AT&T China. There will also be time to visit the Great Wall, a Buddhist monastery, and the Summer Palace in Beijing. Preliminary formats for the meetings are running more toward miniconferences and smaller informal gatherings. Herndon was notified last November that she had been invited to be part of the delegation, and she has spent months reading about Chinese history, studying videotapes about Chinese culture, and talking to people who have lived and studied there. A student in the graduate communications program, Jian Han, has even translated Herndon's business card into Mandarin. The trip will be paid for by an instructional development fund grant, funds from the offices of the president and the dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications, as well as Herndon's personal funds. |