The development of New Zealand’s multicultural society has resulted in the occurrence of intercultural communication (interaction between individuals of different ethnicities or cultures) to be commonplace. As Martin and Nakayama 2010 argues, the core concept in intercultural communication is considered to be the term culture. However, the complexity of culture, in itself, instigates no one definition plausible (Martian and Nakayama 2010). Martian and Nakayama 2010, define the term in three perspectives, those being: social science perspective, interpretive perspective and critical perspective. Hall (1959) on the other hand, narrowed it down to three simple imperatives: Culture is a system of complex, interrelated parts, for example, language,
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As Kim (2001) justifies, when individuals encounter a new culture, they may be opposed with cultural shocks in which their identities are called into question. These conflicts within themselves result in the disposition of external influence and compel them to learn new cultural systems, known as acculturation (Liu, 2011) . According to Berry (2005), there are differences in how people acculturate according to how much stress they experience, and how well they adapt psychologically and socioculturally. Furthermore, as Kim (2001) explains, as immigrants and migrants adapt to the new environment, new cultural elements are added to previous internal conditions. During this process, however, previous cultural elements can be “unlearned” resulting in an internal transformation by acculturation and deculturation (Gudykunst and Kim p.358). Congruently resulting in general adaptive changes of the exterior of cultural identity, such as overt role behavior, language developments and clothing choice (Kim, 2001). This adaptation into behaving in ways defined as appropriate by the dominant mainstream culture is known as communicative competence (google). The measure of this communicative competence is demonstrated by the level to which the individual fits in within the culture by …show more content…
When Mr Kaung first arrive in New Zealand – as an 8 year old — he went through what Ting-Toomey (1999) calls the initial adjustment or ‘honey moon’ phase (p.126). Mr Kaung was excited about being in this new county and described seeing all the different ethnicities like “being in a western movie”. For the first few weeks Mr Kaung was in awe of New Zealand and the new culture, however, after some time Mr Kaung began to feel differently with feelings of confusion, frustration and loneliness. This is a clear example of the of the second stage of the ‘U’ curve adjustment model, the crisis stage (Ting-Toomey, 1999). As well as not understanding the humor of the low-context culture, Mr Kaung felt very much alone in the individualistic culture. Back in China, every night, Mr Kaung and his entire family and extended family would have a joint dinner, demonstrating his culture of collectivism. However, in New Zealand, with the infrequency of such practise, Mr Kaung felt lonely and though something was missing without the intimate relationships of his extended family. However, as time went on Mr Kaung became concerned with basic living again, with life in New Zealand becoming more normal.
As Kim (2001) justifies, when individuals encounter a new culture, they may be opposed with cultural shocks in which their identities are called into question. These conflicts within themselves result in the disposition of external influence and compel them to learn new cultural systems, known as acculturation (Liu, 2011) . According to Berry (2005), there are differences in how people acculturate according to how much stress they experience, and how well they adapt psychologically and socioculturally. Furthermore, as Kim (2001) explains, as immigrants and migrants adapt to the new environment, new cultural elements are added to previous internal conditions. During this process, however, previous cultural elements can be “unlearned” resulting in an internal transformation by acculturation and deculturation (Gudykunst and Kim p.358). Congruently resulting in general adaptive changes of the exterior of cultural identity, such as overt role behavior, language developments and clothing choice (Kim, 2001). This adaptation into behaving in ways defined as appropriate by the dominant mainstream culture is known as communicative competence (google). The measure of this communicative competence is demonstrated by the level to which the individual fits in within the culture by …show more content…
When Mr Kaung first arrive in New Zealand – as an 8 year old — he went through what Ting-Toomey (1999) calls the initial adjustment or ‘honey moon’ phase (p.126). Mr Kaung was excited about being in this new county and described seeing all the different ethnicities like “being in a western movie”. For the first few weeks Mr Kaung was in awe of New Zealand and the new culture, however, after some time Mr Kaung began to feel differently with feelings of confusion, frustration and loneliness. This is a clear example of the of the second stage of the ‘U’ curve adjustment model, the crisis stage (Ting-Toomey, 1999). As well as not understanding the humor of the low-context culture, Mr Kaung felt very much alone in the individualistic culture. Back in China, every night, Mr Kaung and his entire family and extended family would have a joint dinner, demonstrating his culture of collectivism. However, in New Zealand, with the infrequency of such practise, Mr Kaung felt lonely and though something was missing without the intimate relationships of his extended family. However, as time went on Mr Kaung became concerned with basic living again, with life in New Zealand becoming more normal.