1. Perception

Before we can communicate, we must have something to communicate about.  Our culture provides the basis for how we perceive our environment.  Perception is the process by which we select, organize, and interpret the stimuli that are assaulting us from our environment into a meaningful and coherent representation of the world.  Thus, it is through our five senses—touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell—that we take in our environment, attempt to make sense our of it, and in turn evaluate and make decisions about the world.

We selectively perceive the world based on our individual experiences, our culture background, our education, our religious upbringing, our work experience, and so forth; in sum, we perceive the world from out past experience. 

We look at the world, not necessarily through “rose-colored” glasses, but through whatever colored glasses our past experience has taught us to look at the world through.  It is primarily our enculturation or cultural upbringing that provides the tint for our glasses; that is, for our perceptions.  Our culture teaches us to perceive and understand the world in certain ways.

            In the Maxims, the French author and philosopher, Francois de la Rochefoucauld, put our tendency to perceive based on our cultural background fittingly and succinctly when he stated: “The accent of one’s birthplace persists in the mind and the heard as much as in speech.”

Our perceptions give us something to communicate about.  It is our language that provides us with the means to exchange information about things, ideas, concepts, and anything else we desire.  Language allows us to label our experiences.

2. Labeling

It is through our perception that we receive stimuli and information about the world around us.  Those perceptions form a system that allows us to abstract and categorize our experiences and to make sense out of them. 

As humans we label our experiences and our perceptions.  Then, we tend to respond to the labels themselves, not to the actual experience.  For example think of what color you see here, not what the word says: GREEN

Most people read the word “green,” rather than actually perceiving the color red.  That is how powerful labels are.

Labels are the symbols we use to communicate with one another.  Symbols—words—form the basis for our communication interactions in any setting, whether it is with family or friends, with acquaintances or strangers, or on the job.

We know that people are not the only creatures that communicate. If you’ve ever watched a long line of ants trooping along your kitchen counter to a sugar bowl someone left out, heard cats “discussing” who has first access to the food dish, or seen a school of fish swim and turn in the choreographed perfection that even professional dance troops can only dream of, you realize that all creatures communicate.

The ability of our vocal chords to form so many different sounds, and the ways our brains are wired to let us develop complex thoughts and express them in symbols—or words—let us communicate better than and different from any other creature.  As humans, are able to label our experiences—to create arbitrary mechanisms that allow us to communicate about events in the present and in the past, anticipate events that might happen in the future, and even talk about ones that are strictly imaginative.

3. Language

While humans are not the only animals that communicate, we are the only ones that use symbols to communicate through language.  As Morton Bloomfield put it in Language as a Human Problem:

“Language is our all-encompassing medium, almost certainly the oldest means of communication and expression, one which is both central to and pervasive in the realm of human thought. It is the basis of whatever social cohesion we can attain. It determines in large measure the way we look at the world; it enables us to control it. It links the past intimately with the present and makes possible at least some continuity into the future. It possesses magic and hypnotic powers. It may elevate and depress. We cannot escape its influence even by silence. We need it to grasp things intellectually and to get others to do so. We cannot avoid it even when we talk about it. To a large extent, it defines our very humanity.”

            Communication scholar, Julia Wood, points out that: “symbols are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract ways of representing other things.”  Words are symbols and thus their meanings are not obvious or indisputable. 

Symbols are Arbitrary.  This means that there is no inherent connection between a word or symbol and the thing it represents.  The word “sad” merely represents an emotion we feel, it does not the emotion itself.  The fact that other languages use different words to represent the same emotion—in this case, “triste” in French—clearly illustrated the arbitrary nature of symbols.  The word “kitchen” in English no more looks like a kitchen or has any connection—other than symbolic—to the place in the house where we cooks meals, than does “la cucina” have any connection to that place, other than evoking the meaning for us when we hear the word.

4. Language (Continued)

Symbols are Ambiguous.  Words don’t have meanings that are clear or definite.  Even words that seem simple and seem to have a common meaning can be interpreted very differently by different people.  You might tell people that you were born in a “small town” and ask them to guess the population of the town.  It is entirely likely that the numbers you get from people will vary widely.

Even though words are ambiguous and don’t mean the same thing to different people, there is a range of commonly understood meaning within any given language community.  So while we may each get a different image when someone talks about a house, most of us will have a somewhat similar conception of a place where people live.  The more abstract the meaning, the greater the range of interpretations.

Symbols are Abstract.  This means that words stand for other things, but are not things in and of themselves.  Words stand for ideas, objects, emotions, and so forth, but are not those any of those things.  The more complex, multifaceted, and complicated the idea a word represents is, the more abstract the word is. 

We know that even concrete ideas or objects like “house” or “table” can be interpreted differently by different people.  When the idea is an abstract one like “justice” or “love” or “organizational responsibility,” the ways we interpret them can be vastly different.

One of the strongest cultural differences we can note between others and ourselves derives directly from the fact that symbols are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract ways of representing other things—different cultures are generally defined by the different languages that they speak.

5. Language Differences

            All languages use symbols, which are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract.  Symbols provide us a way of representing other things, ideas, and concepts.  Words are symbols and thus their meanings are not obvious or indisputable.

            Because symbols are arbitrary, each language uses different symbols to represents the same things, ideas, and concepts.  Different languages even different alphabets to create their symbols; these include the Roman alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet, the Arabic alphabet, and the Greek alphabet, just to name a few.  There are even languages, like Chinese, that are ideographic, where each character represents an object or idea, not the sound of the symbol.

            It is estimated that there are over 3,000 languages in the world today.  The most common is Mandarin Chinese, with close to a billion native speakers, followed by English, Hindi, Russian, and Spanish.  Chinese is the oldest living language, dating back for more than 4,000 years.  The youngest language is New Guinea Pidgin English, which is around 100 years old. 

            One of the most unusual languages is that of the Khoi-Khoin of South Africa.  The language consists of clicks and clacks and is unique because it is spoken by breathing in rather than breathing out as other languages are.  Khoi-Khoin is the language that was spoken by the natives in the movie, “The Gods Must be Crazy.”

            Another unusual language is Yiddish.  It is a hybrid language, composed of medieval German as its core, but it also contains words from Hebrew, English, Russian, Polish, and other Eastern European languages.  Although it is now a dying language, Yiddish is spoken by about four million people, even though it is the official language of no country. 

6. Language Rules

            We learn our first language—our mother tongue—with very little, if any conscious awareness, and it becomes one of those things we take for granted about our culture. 

            Myron Lustig and Jolene Koester point out five sets of rules that all languages contain:

·        Phonology: the basic sound units of the language.  Different languages have different sets of sounds, or phonemes, from as few 15 to over 80.  When we learn a new language, we need to replicate the sounds of that language, but some of those sounds may be unfamiliar or novel for us.  Accents occur because we are not able to produce those sounds as accurately as native speakers can.

·        Morphology: the basic units of meaning in a language.  A morpheme, the smallest unit of meaning in a language, is composed of the fewest number of phonemes that create symbolic meaning.

·        Semantics: the study of the meaning of words.  Words, or vocabulary, form the basis for our ability to use language.  We cannot communicate with others unless we a common vocabulary.

·        Syntactics: the grammar system of a language.  Having a common vocabulary is necessary, but not enough to speak a language.  We also need to know how the words are put together. 

·        Pragmatics: the effect of language on behavior and perception.  This aspect of language looks at how it is used in the social setting.  Pragmatics has to do with how language is used in the cultural context.

7. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

            Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf felt that language, culture, and thought all interact with one another.  They noted that language is not merely an instrument for voicing ideas, but language is also a shaper of ideas.  The vocabulary and grammar of our first language teach us to view the world in certain ways.  Language is the window through which we look at the world.  This idea became known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

            According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, we experience our environment because of the language we speak.  Our physical environment has an effect on our language, which in turn influences our perception.  Eskimos have up to 50 different words for snow.  Most other languages have a few words at most to describe the same phenomenon.  Arabic has an abundance of words to mean a camel. 

            Our social environment is not only reflected in our language, but our language teaches us to interpret that social environment.  This is especially true for kinship relationships.  Some societies place great importance on the extended family, thus have a rich vocabulary to refer to such ties as maternal versus fraternal relations.  Other languages focus more on the nuclear family and make no such distinctions. 

            The language we speak causes us to see the world in particular ways.  If we have no words for uncle on our father’s side of the family, we may understand that kinship tie, but we don’t see any real difference between an uncle who is our father’s brother and who is our mother’s brother.  People who speak languages that do make such distinctions do see relationships in that manner—because the language they speak teaches them to do so.

8.  Language Variations

            Even if we might speak the same language, there can also be wide variations in our understanding and in the way we use that language. 

Jargon

Jargon is the specialized language that is used by members of a profession to facilitate and enhance their communication interactions.  Doctors, lawyers, engineers, academics, information systems specials, and just about any profession you can think of has its own jargon.  When you know the jargon, the meaning is very clear; if not, then the meaning is a mystery.  One of the problems with jargon is that words that mean something very specific in jargon to members or the profession might be commonly used words that have very different meanings in the wider society.  

Too often we assume that what is natural and normal for us is natural and normal for everyone.  This is what we mean by the COIK principle—Clear Only If Know.  Just because something is clear to me does not mean it will be clear to someone else.

To become a more effective communicator, avoid jargon when it will only confuse others.

Dialect

Lustig and Koester note that: “Dialects are versions of a language with distinct vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation that are spoken by particular groups of people or within particular regions.” 

Accent

            According to Lustig and Koester accents are distinguishable marks of pronunciation that differ from place to place or because non-native speakers of the language have difficulty reproducing the sounds of a language.

9. Translation

Because so much of a language is based on culture, translations sometimes create major problems.  Some of these difficulties are humorous; some have disastrous results. 

Toward the end of World War II the Japanese knew they were a defeated nation.  The Potsdam Proclamation offered terms of surrender that were more lenient than they had expected.  They sent the Allies a message that they were considering the offer using the term, mokusatsu.  The Japanese wished to save face and the term meant that they had the offer under consideration but did not want to comment on it at the moment.  Unfortunately, mokusatsu was translated into English as “ignore.”  Believing that the Japanese were ignoring the offer to surrender, the American President, Harry Truman went ahead with his plan to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. 

            Many advertising campaigns have failed because of the inability to be aware of subtle cultural issues, some with humorous results.  Here are a few examples:

• When 3M translated its Scotch Tape slogan, “Sticks   like crazy,” into Japanese, the result was, “It sticks foolishly.”
• Chevrolet introduced its Nova model into Central and South America a couple of decades ago.  The only problem is that “no va,” means, “it doesn’t go.”  No one wanted to buy car whose name means doesn’t go.
• Sav-on Drug stores committed a similar error when they changed their name in California to Osco Drugs.  The large Spanish speaking population in California started avoiding the store because the meant, “brings on nausea” in Spanish.
• The Kellogg organization introduced its Bran Buds into Sweden, but had a problem because the name loosely translated into Swedish as, “burnt farmer.”