Table of contents introduction

Positive Stereotypes
It is common knowledge that language has both the function of conveying information and the function of maintaining relationships among participants in speech events. Generally speaking, if we contrasted Chinese and Americans, we would see that Chinese would be on the relationship end of this con­tinuum and Americans would be on the information end of the same con­tinuum. In other words, Chinese tend to be concerned that good relationships are maintained, even if this means that less information may be exchanged, while Americans and Europeans in general will tend to emphasize the exchange of information, even if relationships cannot be easily maintained.
In communication between American men and American women, there is a tendency for men to emphasize information over relationship and for women to emphasize relationship over informa­tion. There is no reason to deny that on this single dimension one would expect to find better under­standing between American women and Chinese in general. The mistake is to proceed from there and conclude that because there is common ground on this single dimension, there will be commonality across all of the cultural characteristics of these two groups.
Whether the stereotyping is positive or negative in intent, it should be clear that it stands in the way of successful communication because it blinds the analyst to major areas of difference. As you know, communication is ambiguous. Effective com­munication depends on finding and clarifying sources of ambiguity as well as learning to deal with places where miscommunication occurs. Such clari­fication is impossible when the analyst does not recognize areas of difference among participants, because he or she will assume common ground and mutual understanding. The perennial paradoxical situation of the analyst of intercultural communication is that he or she must constantly look for areas of difference between people which will potentially lead to miscommunication, but at the same time he or she must constantly guard against both positive and negative stereotyping.
An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group. Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.
Most English people think they are normal and that all others (whom they call "foreigners") are abnormal—that is to say, they might be all right, but they really cannot act and think like the English, because, after all, they are foreign. You only have to look at them, you'll know what that means.
If people from each culture consider themselves normal, then the corollary is that they consider everybody else abnormal. By this token Finns consider Ital­ians overly emotional because they wave their arms while talking. The individu­alistic Spaniards consider the Swiss stuffy and excessively law-abiding. Lively Italians find Norwegians gloomy. French-influenced Vietnamese find Japanese impassive. Most South Americans find Argentineans conceited. Germans think Australians are undisciplined. Japanese see straight-talking Americans as rude.
We can achieve a good understanding of our foreign counterparts only if we realize that our "cultural spectacles" are coloring our view of them. What is the route to better understanding? To begin with, we need to examine the special features of our own culture.
Our second task, once we realize that we, too, are a trifle strange, is to under­stand the subjective nature of our ethnic or national values. While Scots see stub­bornness largely as a positive trait, flexible Italians may see it as mainly intransigence, the diplomatic English, possibly a lack of artfulness or dexterity. We also make assumptions on the basis of our subjective view and, even worse, assumptions about other people's assumptions. The Italian who assumes that French people feel intellectually superior also assumes that the French therefore think Italians are suitable mainly for manual labor when emigrating to France. Finns who judge Swedes as snobs also assume that Swedes stereotype Finns as rough and rustic. There may be a grain of truth in many of these judgments and assumptions of assumptions, but the danger involved in making them is only too obvious!
The world is filled with conflict, racial tension, and war. How can such con­flict be dealt with, avoiding the escalation that leads to violence? How can conflict be transformed into positive and constructive directions?