Cross-Cultural Communication

Lorna Wright

From a small town in rural Ontario, to Udornthani, in the north-east corner of Thailand, Dr. Lorna Wright's experience in cross-cultural communication fans across the globe, but her links, both personal and professional, are most extensive in Asia.

Flying in a Beach Craft Sundowner , Dr. Wright, an Associate Professor of International Business and Organizational Behaviour in the School of Business at Queen's University in Kingston, became the first woman to get her pilots licence in Indonesia. Her instructor, having never taught a woman before, knew he could not follow the standard teaching practise as with his male students, which was to bop them on the ear if they made a mistake. Before each lesson he would take half an hour to meditate before taking her up, she said. She was very pleased to learn they later started accepting Indonesian women to train as pilots.

Her second cross-cultural success was meeting the man who would later become her husband. Eight years and a few countries later ( England and Japan), Dr Wright returned to Indonesia to be married in a traditional Javanese ceremony (traditional minus the part of the "wife's subjugation to her husband" adds Dr. Wright.) The woman who did her make up was so proud of having transformed a Western woman into an Indonesian woman, she kept Dr. Wright's wedding photo in her shop for years after.

They have been married for 13 years, the past nine of which they have lived oceans apart with Dr, Wright living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and her husband living in Indonesia. Their Indonesian friends view this long distance relationship as normal, except that in this case the woman does most of the travelling, while her husband works close to home. While their Canadian friends wonder how the romance endures, living on two separate continents.

During her undergraduate studies in International Business at Wilfird Laurier University, many of her friends were Canadian International Development Agency exchange students from Asia and the Caribbean. This, along with her father's stories and pictures from his travels with the Greek Merchant Navy, sparked her interest in meeting and working with people from around the world.

After graduating with her first degree, she headed for what turned out to be a five year sejour in Thailand with Canadian University Services Overseas (CUSO). There she found the Thai people in Udornthani had an unparalled friendliness and a very strong sense of community, which she embraced. She was in Thailand during the Vietnam War and said one of her greatest accomplishments was hearing her Thai friends ask Western visitors if "they were Canadian".

She became so immersed in the predominately Buddhist country that when she finally returned to Canada for a visit she "cringed" when she saw people exposing the bottoms of their feet. In Thailand, it is considered an insult to point the soul of your foot at someone, or move anything using your foot. As a Canadian she felt strange reacting so strongly to a value from another culture.

"Even though you know something intellectually, you have gut reactions which are more difficult to control." said Dr. Wright who is also the founder and Director of the Centre for Canada-Asia Business Relations at Queen's.

Dr Wright emphasizes in teaching cross-cultural communications, the critical importance of assumptions.

" Check your assumptions, since they are based on our own experience. 99 times out of 100 we will be wrong, and we will make mistakes." she said

For example, most Canadians perceive Asia ( beyond Japan and China) as underdeveloped, she said, yet Thailand's, Charoen Phokpand Group (CP Group) is the single largest foreign investor in China. The CP Group is a multinational in the Asian tradition, a conglomerate of industries including agriculture, chicken and shrimp, telecommunication, and retail.

Dr. Wright makes you think every step of the way. Her Asian Culture Awareness Quiz, does not score plain old right and wrong. The answers are scored relative to how much positive or negative effect certain actions would cause in a given Asian culture. For example, if you gave your Chinese friend a knife or scissors as a gift it would symbolize the severing of a friendship. This act scores a high negative impact (or lost face) on the quiz!

"Young Canadians can begin looking at cross-cultural communication right here in Canada. We have a great multicultural society where it is rare not to find at least more than two cultures in a classroom. You don't have to go outside of Canada to see the neccessity of learning each others values, and culture" encourages Dr. Wright

 

Some key pointers from an interview with Dr. Lorna Wright:

1. Check your assumptions: This is critical! Our assumptions are based on our own experience and 99 times out of 100 we are going to be wrong, and we will make mistakes. For example, non-verbal communication is possibly more important than verbal. Signals which we understand in one cultural setting may have completely different interpretations in another.

"Eye contact during conversation between two people in Canada denotes confidence, trustworthiness, and respect but if we meet someone who speaks to us without making eye contact we might think sneaky, can't trust" she said " but we must think does this have another meaning in their culture."

You need to ask yourself a) What are my assumptions? b) Are they correct? Then you need to ASK QUESTIONS! Find out as much as you can from as many different sources as possible. It is important to remember, everyone's experience will be unique. Also always respect the other culture.

2. Listen: To be good at cross-cultural communications, you need to listen, not just hear but really listen. In Canada, we tend to formulate the next question and start to jump in before the other person has even finished talking and had a chance to communicate their thoughts. Before asking our own questions, we need to respond to the other person Canadians are generally not good at asking questions. We tend to make statements but avoid asking questions, sometimes to be polite, and we tend to assume more than ask.

3. Be Empathetic: You may not embrace every aspect of a another culture, but no matter what it is important to respect the culture. Every person has their own personal 'culture' and discover they feel more comfortable in some countries more than others. Just remember, others may not embrace every part of our culture either.

"Anglosaxons have a particular burden, we feel we don't have culture, that the other guys have the culture and we are just blank slates. But Anglosaxons have their quirks, values and a culture. Dr. Wright said " Just think about this, we blow our noses on a kleenex, wrap it up and put it away in our pocket."