High-Context and Low-Context Cultures
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- The scale of high- and low-context cultures helps explain much about how we experience communication across our cultural experiences. These experiences include a mixture of verbal, nonverbal, and contextual cues in a situation that helps make sense of and interpret communication in high vs low-context cultures.
Working from Beebe & Masterson's Communicating in Small Groups (Affiliate): amzn.to/2YtsUhd
Reference: Beebe, S. A., & Masterson, J. T. (2020). Communicating in small groups: Principles and practices. (12th edition). Pearson Publishing.
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Thanks for the video. As someone from a high context culture, I wasn’t sure how to interact with people appropriately in America. For example, I didn’t know if I should follow up on an email hadn’t gotten responded. Was he ignoring me on purpose? Is that a hint for rejection? I didn’t know if a casual invitation was brought up simply out of politeness. Did she really want me to join or was she just being nice? Then I gradually learned that I was overthinking sometimes. That makes me feel much more relieved. I am still adapting to this culture. Overall I feel less stressed but also more disconnected to other people living in a low context society. Very hard to form long term social relationship.
How are low context cultures more "disconnected" when they are more direct with their intentions?
Are you sure your feelings of disconnect aren't just because you're an immigrant with a different culture and naturally that leads to feelings of disconnect?
Hi, i am from a low context culture (Thailand) but i spent my undergrad years studying in a high context culture (US). I have had many "cultural clash" moments when i came back. For example, i once brought a cup of hot tea in an interview with a senior manager for an internal promotion. I didn't get the promotion, and the first reason, as my boss told me, turns out to be that teacup, because it showed disrespect.
In business, the best way to say no to someone is to not follow up with them. People will say they will get back to you. But, if they don't want to continue working with you, they will not get back ever.
Thanks for a great video!
Thanks for sharing that example, Alisa.
What is your experience with *_high_* and *_low_*-context cultures?
The low-context cultures tend to imply lower intelligence because they put so much focus on putting across the knowledge they remember as objective fact, truth, etc. to the point where they don't know if what they are saying is misleading, misled in itself, false, backward or inappropriate. They can spend long amounts of time distracting, taking advantage or derailing someone without noticing because they simply want to recite, and they load their communication with judgements about the person they're speaking to, which create misunderstandings. These cultures push individuality to the point where they have become ratcages of selfish, greedy, aggressive, maladjusted, publicly isolated people with no ability to play, work with others, or sustain an ideal social network, as such ends up being a luxury of the wealthy.
Now, when it comes to high-context cultures, the incessant disruptions, obsession with social interactions, irrational communication, high social regulations, eruptive behaviors and generally walking all over others is highly insulting. They imply lower intelligence for that reason, as well. If these cultures see any good reforms, it will be a miracle because they have normalized behaving like animals.
I don't know who or how high-context and low-context were instituted, but they are both equally terrible ideas.
@@DanZhukovinbro you ok
I wrote that two years ago and I was actually accurate about the bad sides of both low and high context cultures.@@x999uuu1
I am a German who was working a while in Italy. I was used to direct feedback and it took me way to long to find out that I was not doing everything great and the "suggestions" my boss made was in real critic of my work 😂
Thanks for sharing! That's a great example.
@@orgcomm yes. I would have needed your video half a year ago
one example is saying i love you. in the us where i now live, i had to train myself to say i love you because back in the philippines, we didnt really say this a lot. in the us i noticed people say i love you quite a lot and so casually and easily. it was fascinating to me at first when id hear people say i love you so easily to friends and family. back in the philippines, it would take a LOT for me to say i love you to my parents or my friends. its almost like i didnt need to tell them i love them because thats already a given, of course i love them. i would reserve saying i love you for those soecial occasion monents. culture is so interesting.
I come from Germany and I already notice drastic differences within the country. Cologne is closer to Paris than to Berlin and mentalities are not separated by national borders. Moreover, many European countries have a high percentage of migrants (in Germany it's over 1/4), so everything gets even more mixed.
In the professional environment, this clear separation is more likely to exist due to contracts and laws.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Can we have an example of culture clash from the least context cultures like Switzerland so that we understand what that means viscerally?
I'm from Germany and my family immigrated from the former UdSSR. so I grew up with both languages and cultures around me.
I would totally agree that Germany has a low context culture. sometimes I would compare the vibe to being in the army.
Thanks for sharing. I've never been to Germany.
Thanks for posting this video!
You're welcome, Joseph.
This is true. Asian people are high context and that results in they are soft and very sensitive. Dutch people are direct and they are hard and not sensitive. These are not about being reasonable or not at all. With Asian people, sometimes being very reasonable in context also means rude to them.
Thank you from Thailand for your time making video. Love it!
I wonder if low-context cultures have always been low-context throughout history or if it’s a more recent development.
It seems to me that even those low-context cultures on the chart were high-context before industrialization, modernization, or social revolution.
Also, I assume early civilizations and simpler societies, like tribes, are or were all high-context cultures.
I’m wondering how culture is passed on to later generations in low-context cultures. I mean, being Japanese, the idea of explicit expression being fundamentally required by others sounds exhausting.
How does low-context culture affect relationships in kinship?
For example, I know my parents love me but have never heard them verbalize it. Hence, I never feel that affection needs to be expressed verbally.
Thanks
Very informative and clear.
Glad it was helpful, Antara.
Hey I know I’m late but at 2:50 did you mean that high context individuals may not see low context individuals as trustworthy? Let me know, thanks!!
Very helpful video thank you sir🙏
Most welcome! Glad it was helpful.
Good video.
I never see this blue eyes before.
Hi Sir, Your video is so helpful but I have a question.
Can a low-context culture transform to a high-context culture? and can a high-context culture be a low-context culture?
Thank you very much
Interesting question. I would say that it is hypothetically possible but not likely, at least in the short run. National cultures do change but they change very slowly over generations.
As far as I understood from reading Erin Meyers book "The culture map," whether a culture is low or high context is greatly dependent on many factors that don't really change as for example, collectivism as also stated in this video, but what I found even more interesting is that the countries language plays a big role. They basically reflect the communication style. In languages like Japanese or Hindi (both very high-context languages), you will realize that many words and expressions can have several meanings depending on the rest of the sentence, the time of day, the type of person you're talking to, etc., so basically, the meaning of the used words are based on the environment which is also why the Japanese "read the air/atmosphere" as mentioned in the video. In Korea, they call this "Nunchi," and it is taught children from a very young age to not just read in between the lines and understand the real hidden message behind the words but also how to behave and act upon different situations. They understand each other's intentions without spelling them out, which can also be explained through history. History greatly influences the countries position on the high/low - context scale. For example, consider the US and Korea or Japan, you will see a huge difference. While Korea has always been a homogenous society living on the Korean peninsula dating back to 6 AD (and considering Korean is one of the oldest languages alive), they share a long history, and Japan is literally an island society. On the other hand, the US is a mix of many cultures that live together and formed a society only a few hundred years ago. There are still many people immigrating to the states. So while Koreas have a shared context and can easily communicate "vaguely" as they can pick up the real meaning through Nunchi/ reading the air, in the US, they can't because the people don't share a context, so they have to be as clear as possible when trying to convey a message to avoid any kind of misunderstanding which arise easily when high context cultured people communicate with other which are not from their own culture. Therefore I would say that a country can't just transform from high to low or vice versa. Still, they can adapt and settle to a lower context level of communication when interacting with other cultures. Yet, I don't think that an entire country's communication style could alter, especially if we consider that a language itself requires you to be high-context.
@@foniklein4913 I read that book, too. Technically, it is possible to change from high-context to low-context and vice versa because humans can learn and adapt. Realistically, good luck (for decades and/or centuries)!
Where does Portugal belong to?
That's a good question. I'm not sure. I've never been there and I don't think it was listed in the data from the studies I've seen or conversations with the original author.
@@orgcomm yes... But I heard it's also coming under high context culture.
I have both high and low context cultures in my family. Both cultures are stupid, inconsiderate, maladjusted jerks for their own reasons. When one is communicating or interacting with others, he or she wants to have his bubble of himself or herself respected and complimented. But neither of these aspects of culture respect that fact in any way which is why it's good to read your company when you interact with them, and totally throw away bad ideas.
As a Swiss I wouldnt say Switzerland is a low context culture, not at all. That Germany is placed above Switzerland makes no sense for me German are way more direct in speech than Swiss people what generates a lot of misunderstandings.
Thanks for adding your valuable first-person point of view and experience. I've never been to either country and I have no data of my own to refer to. They graph comes from the original studies. You'd see this similar scale used in lots of books. Perhaps it's time for some researchers to collect some new data.
Japan's ancient capital, Kyoto's high context culture is extremely extreme. Even the average Japanese person doesn't like Kyoto people.
Check a video titled "The 2 Surprising Reasons Why Japan HATES Kyoto"
A professor who does little more than read the words on the Powerpoint presentation? You may know your stuff but this was terrible!
I made this for my own class during COVID, Mike, when my classes were virtual. I was cranking out 10 to 15 videos per week. I posted it here after the fact for anyone else who might benefit from it.
Was this comment from a high or low context culture? 😂