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Intercultural Communication Examples - Understanding Emotions Across Cultures
Imagine walking along the streets of New York. Take a look at the people around you. What emotions do you see on their faces? Or is everyone so busy that all the facial expressions look neutral to you? What if you imagine yourself on the streets of Rome? Do you notice more expressions on people's faces?
Happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, fear, and anger are universal emotions. That means every person can understand and show these emotions no matter their cultural background. Despite different cultures, for example in Japan and the USA, universal emotions are also experienced in similar situations.
How do different cultures express emotions?
However, the way emotions are displayed varies a lot from culture to culture, as culture shapes how we express emotion; environment and social situations and context influence our emotions. As a traveller or expat, you may find yourself in a country where emotions are displayed differently. Even if you understand what facial expression is displayed, you may not be able to interpret where the emotion originated due to deeply rooted cultural norms.
When we are born, we learn that there are only good or uncomfortable emotions. As we communicate with others, we develop a skill set to categorize and experience these emotions according to cultural norms.
Culture influences a lot how we interpret emotions, especially when it comes to more complex emotions such as shame, guilt, or pride. In Western countries, for example, shame is often perceived as a negative emotion, whereas in many Asian countries it is perceived as an emotion that shows humility and your place in the world. Understanding that will make it a lot easier to settle into a new country.
Interestingly, disgust only has one facial expression, which is recognized all over the world. Moreover, there are up to 17 different facial expressions for joy! That is quite remarkable.
Cultural differences in non-verbal communication
Although people have a knack for understanding universal emotions, we pay attention to different things when communicating with people from different cultures. We also use different communication styles in different cultures. You can learn more about high and low context communication styles and the use of words and body language in this blog post.
A study by Ting-Toomey (1999) showed that up to 65% of our communication is non-verbal. In other words, 65% of all our communication is left to an interpretation learned in our own culture. This is one of the biggest challenges when communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds.
When you are living in a foreign country, pay attention to how people express their emotions. Are they showing both happiness and sadness or are they trying to cover up their anger behind a smile?
When you know how that culture displays feelings, you can adjust your own behaviour accordingly. This will enhance communication with the locals since people usually prefer to work with others who share similar attitudes.
Want to deepen your knowledge regarding emotions in cultures? Would you like to learn how to avoid the most common mistakes in intercultural communication? If so, then you should check out my personal coaching program. You'll learn everything you need to know about communicating with people from different cultures, including how to overcome cultural differences and misunderstandings. You will understand why culture matters in everyday life, and you will also be able to identify and address any cultural issues that may arise during your interactions with others.
Tanja is a Certified Intercultural Communication Coach and an expert on Work Style Analysis (WSA). With a Master's Degree in Business Administration, specializing in Leadership and People Management, she helps companies and assists leaders in comprehending cultural dimensions and leveraging existing cultural differences to create powerful organizational strengths.
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