Cultural Communications Final Essay.

There comes a moment in the lives of every individual when we “find one’s feet in unfamiliar cultural terrain”. It might come in the form of visiting a new city or country, starting a new job, navigating a crowded lunchroom on your first day at a new school, sitting in a courtroom, listening to a political speech, or carefully figuring out one’s place within the family you’ve just married into. These moments can feel disorienting and overwhelming due to the newness of the situation and our lack of understanding about how things work within these new spaces and cultures. Thankfully with a little effort, we can soon discover the inner workings and cultural codes already at play within these new environments and ease our way into becoming a part of the community.

The first step to acclimating to new cultural terrain is to simply observe and listen. Be an active observer and notice the delicate cultural dance between communicating parties. See if you can identify any implicit or explicit cultural codes being communicated. Notice the dynamic between speakers to identify any communicated social hierarchies. What is the emotional temperature in the space you are in? Do people seem happy or sad? Do they communicate verbally or nonverbally? Are there any patterns that show up in who and how people communicate with one another? Does this space feel like a cohesive community or are there smaller cultures within the larger culture of the institution? We can learn a lot from taking a minute to open our eyes and ears to the greater story being told within a room, a place, or an organization or institution. As an ethnographer of speaking, we can stretch our muscles through observation to analyze what codes of communication are being transmitted in everyday life, in social dramas, and rituals as well. The power of observation is critical to the cultural learning process. This was evident in Waterlily where from birth she learned by watching the behaviors of her elder tribeswomen. Well before she could communicate verbally, she learned to communicate cultural values through implicit teachings that were not only beneficial but essential to her survival. The courtroom during the divorce proceedings was another great example of how observation benefits someone who finds him/herself in new cultural terrain. Each player within that courtroom shared their own cultural beliefs through nonverbal behaviors such as displays of emotions or gestures. They also shared them verbally through the recounting of stories that led them to where they are. Joanna Kramer discusses how the lack of quality communication between her and Ted led her to feel stifled and depressed. This premise of good communication being necessary for a good relationship is ultimately what led her to leave and is an example of discovering cultural codes in a new terrain.

Once we feel like we have a base level understanding of the speech community we find ourselves in, we can test the waters a bit more through active communication and interactions with someone in that speech community. We can observe their reaction to what we say and do to analyze how and where our cultures are aligned or misaligned. This can feel a bit scary because of the risk of creating social drama. Do not be discouraged, a social drama is another opportunity to learn more about the culture you find yourself in and where you might diverge in your cultural norms and expectations. In the example of Mayor Daley's speech, we see how a social drama is an opportunity to identify two distinct cultural codes. Mayor Daley communicates a code of honor while his dissenters communicate a code of dignity. Both are justified within their cultural code but find themselves in the middle of a social drama when their worlds collide.

Another way to identify cultural codes is to listen for keywords within the speech community. Are there words that show up often in the community? How and when are those keywords used? What are the cultural values the keywords are communicating about that particular community? In the Nacirema community, the word communication is itself a keyword. But what does that mean? Well, for the Nacirema community, communication is essential to healthy relationships. This is important to this community because they also believe that healthy relationships are essential to personal growth, another cultural value of the Nacirema community. Without communication that is open, supportive, and close, personal growth is stunted and that is an unfavorable outcome for those within this community.

Lastly, one could both observe and participate within the new cultural terrain to identify any rules of communication that are present. This could look like identifying how certain behaviors or speech is supported and encouraged as well as identifying the social and individual behaviors that create friction and are discouraged by others through both verbal and nonverbal communication. In Waterlily, Blue Bird discusses the kinship rules that prohibit her from speaking up while in labor in the presence of her father-in-law. As Blue Bird raises her daughter Waterlily, she shares these rules with her so that she can honor her family by adhering to the rules as she enters into her marriage and relationship with her in-laws.

While it’s sometimes unnerving to find oneself in new cultural terrain, it’s also a unique and exciting opportunity to learn more about ourselves and the world around us through shared cultural exchanges. We need only be open to these new experiences and have a keen sense of curiosity and a little patience to help us navigate and understand this new terrain. Before you know it, the new terrain doesn’t feel quite so unfamiliar. is short, sweet, and to the point.