ABSTRACTS

• Lily A. Arasaratnam, The Development of a New Instrument of Intercultural Communication Competence
  
• Richard Ellis, Understanding Interpersonal Relationships in the Chinese Context
  
• Sabrina Fusari & Ilaria Montagni, Between English Humour and National Stereotypes – Translating Stephen Clarke’s Novel Merde Happens into Italian
  
• Rebecca S. Merkin, Cross-cultural communication patterns: Korean and American Communication
  
• Don Moen, Korean Hybridity: The Language Classroom as Cultural Hybrid
  
• Harald Martin Olk, Translation, Cultural Knowledge and Intercultural Competence
  
• Ying Wang, Shaojing Sun & Paul M. Haridakis, Internet use ad cross-cultural adaptation. Testing a Model of Internet Use in the Cross-Cultural Adaptation Context
  

Lily A. Arasaratnam

Abstract

A review of past literature reveals that there is need for a measure of intercultural communication competence (ICC) that can be used in culturally diverse groups of participants. The present study describes the development and initial empirical testing of a new instrument of ICC. Student participants (N = 302) from multiple cultural backgrounds were used. Using regression, factor, and correlation analyses, the instrument was tested for reliability and construct validity. The preliminary results are very promising. Implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords: intercultural communication competence, instrument development

Richard Ellis

Abstract

The author draws upon personal experience and written sources to reflect upon the difficulties a Canadian of European extraction encounters when interacting with people of Chinese descent. Four themes are explored: friendship; connections (guanxi); personal space and privacy; and altruism.

b>Keywords: China; autoethnography; altruism; friendship; privacy; guanxi; interpersonal relationships
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Sabrina Fusari & Ilaria Montagni

Abstract

This paper discusses the translation into Italian of Merde Happens, a novel by Stephen Clarke, an English author who has lived and worked in France for over a decade. This novel is relevant to intercultural communication because it satirizes three nations and cultures at the same time: French, English and US American. Irony based on national stereotypes is usually considered to be very difficult to translate, and this sometimes discourages publishers to the point that very valuable fictional products end up not being translated. Our aim is to show that a novel like Clarke’s can (and indeed, should) be translated: we argue that playing on national stereotypes and laughing about them can be one of the most effective ways of fighting prejudice, and we show that this can be achieved in translation through a careful balance of foreignizing and domesticating choices.

Rebecca S. Merkin

Abstract

The most recent extant studies on Korean communication were carried out in the 1990’s. Thus, the purpose of this study is to test and thereby update research on Korean in contrast to American communication practices. Students in Korea and the US filled out questionnaires testing their direct, indirect, immediate, verbally aggressive and communicatively apprehensive communication. This study quantitatively tested the impact of culture on direct, indirect communication as well as verbal aggressiveness and communication apprehensiveness. Results showed that Koreans use less direct and more indirect communication than US Americans and that Koreans were also more communicatively apprehensive and less nonverbally immediate than their US American counterparts. Tests on culture and verbal aggressiveness were not significant.

Keywords: cultural differences, verbal behavior, direct and indirect communication, verbal aggression, nonverbal immediacy, communication apprehension.

Don Moen

Abstract

This paper looks at the Korean language classroom as a cultural hybrid of Korean and perceived American culture. It is based around the idea of the language classroom as a subculture. Through discussions of classroom geography, Confucianism, and identity construction, the paper concludes that this hybrid subculture offers an opportunity to explore new cultural identities within a subculture without having to join subcultural groups in normal life. The paper concludes this is significant since teachers need to be prepared with accurate intercultural expectations. The paper offers that more empirical research in specific teacher/student and student/student relationships is needed, as well as looking at other cultures to see if classroom cultural hybridity is unique to Korea.

Harald Martin Olk

Abstract

The article suggests that translation can be a suitable activity to explore and develop aspects of foreign language students’ intercultural competence. This point is illustrated with a study into the translation processes of British university students of German. As the study indicates, cultural knowledge problems impinged on the students’ translation performance in various ways. Thus, frequently students did not seem to be sufficiently familiar with concepts of their native culture and with German standard terminology for British concepts. Furthermore, decisions as to whether German readers would comprehend transferred English terms were regularly based on a bilingual dictionary. This led to the transference of items which would probably be obscure for a fair proportion of German readers. Based on a discussion of these problems some suggestions for foreign language teaching practice are made.

Ying Wang, Shaojing Sun & Paul M. Haridakis

Abstract

The growth of new communication technologies has presented new challenges to traditional cross-cultural adaptation (CCA) research. Guided by uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, we proposed a model of Internet use in CCA, investigating how individual differences, Internet use motives, and Internet use influenced Chinese students’ CCA. Eight Internet use motives were identified in the CCA context, including social involvement, acculturation, pass time, information, entertainment, convenience, companionship, and ethnic maintenance. The results showed that loneliness, English competence, separation attitude, and convenience motivation predicted socio-cultural adaptation; Loneliness, English competence, information motivation, entertainment motivation, pass time motivation, and American Internet use predicted psychological adaptation. The findings partially supported the proposed model. Implications for CCA and U&G research were discussed. Cross-cultural adaptation, Internet use, uses and gratifications, Chinese students Back to start