Chapter 9 Intercultural Communication Ethics

When looking at intercultural communication ethics it is interesting to look at the notion of a culture shock.  The book describes culture shock as "a natural reaction to the unexpected and unfamiliar" (162).  People from different cultures have different ideas of how they think things should go, these ideas are based off of our cultural narratives.  When we travel to a different culture, whether that be a different country or state or even a different region of the state, we sometimes expect things to follow our ideals.  When they don't, we get sent into this "shock", and can affect how we communicate with people in the new culture.

In my Italian class we have been discussing the differences between the cultures of the United States and Italy.  My Italian professor is from Italy and she was describing the differences that she noticed when she first arrived in the states.  As a class, we were eager to hear what she thought we did that was bizarre.  One of the things that she described was that when we are walking down the sidewalk we make room for other people.  While in Italy it is common to bump into people on the sidewalk and have no one apologize for it.  It's interesting to see the things that we do everyday that other people from different cultures might find strange.  My instructor told us a story of when she went back to Italy after having lived in the United States for sometime and she bumped into some people on the street and when she apologized they gave her a weird look and the cultural difference seemed to impact the communication between them.