UNIT 2

1. Find a video on the Internet, which demonstrates a principle discussed in the unit. In the discussion board, give the link so that other students can view the video.

Describe how the video demonstrates a principle you learned in the unit. Give the link to the video.

2. Identify any microcultural groups to which you belong (or think you do) and list at least 5 items regarding how, and in what ways, your group differs from mainstream US culture.

Remember, THERE'S A DROPDOWN MENU WITH DAYS AS GUIDELINES FOR WHEN TO POST.  Please post to threads using multiple days during the week. Engage with other students by (a.) discussing concepts you learned in this week's reading and materials, (b.) explaining how you are applying what you learn, and (c.) responding to the ideas of other students. The response should be about ideas, and more than just "I agree" or "good point," although those comments are welcome too. For more information, please take a look at the Discussion Rubric under Course Home.

PREREADING (Wednesday)

This week you will study contexts or the multi-cultural surroundings regarding Microcultural Contexts and the Environmental Context.. What do you want to know or need to learn about these topics?

FACT QUESTIONS (Friday)

Read the textbook assignment before you discuss an idea from the chapter reading. You will find the question is in the unit link called "Fact Questions." Your professor may assign a number to you for the term so students answer different questions. In that case, answer that question number each week. If there are fewer questions than your number, count through the list twice until you reach your assigned number.

MEASURE (Sunday)

Complete an assessment measure from the reading. What were your results? What are the implications for your multicultural communication strengths and needs.

ACTIVITY--APPLICATION  (Sunday)

See the Activity link and complete an Activity so you apply the principles from the reading. Discuss how you are improving your multicultural communication skills.

PROFESSOR'S CHOICE
General discussion, alternative points of views, stories, videos to watch, and media links.  If the provided link doesn't work, conduct an Internet search to find your own choice for an interesting link about exemplary multicultural communication.

Read the textbook assignment before you discuss an idea from the chapter reading. Your professor may assign a number to you for the term. In that case, answer that question number each week. If there fewer questions than your number, count through the list twice until you reach your assigned number.

1. Define and explain the idea of a microculture.

2. List and illustrate the five criteria for membership in a microculture.

3. Recount the fundamental assumptions of the Muted Group Theory.

4. Provide examples of the various microcultures in the United States.

5. Identify and discuss two cultural values of the Hispanic microculture.

6. Identify and discuss at least three aspects of African-American communication.

7. Identify and discuss and at least three aspects of Amish communication.

8. Identify and discuss and at least three aspects of Hmong communication.

9. Compare and contrast high and low load environments.

10. Discuss the relationship between culture and the natural environment.

11. Identify and describe fixed, semi-fixed, and informal built environments.

12. Compare and contrast housing patterns of Japanese, Navaho, and Marakwet cultures.

13. Assess your orientation toward privacy.

14. Assess your monochronic/polychronic orientation.

Quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

I. Microcultural Group Status

A. Social scientists generally recognize five characteristics that distinguish micro-cultural groups from the dominant culture.

1. Physical or cultural traits (e.g., race and sex).

2. Involuntary membership.

3. Endogamy (i.e., marrying within the ingroup).

4. Members are aware of their subordinate status.

5. Unequal treatment from the dominant group (e.g., segregation and discrimination).

II. Muted Microcultural Groups

A. The experiences and perceptions of subordinate microcultural groups are often different than those of the dominant cultural group. Microcultural groups often times are not as free or as capable as the dominant cultural group to communicate as freely as the dominant group.

B. The language of the dominant group may not provide the words and symbols representative of the microcultural group's perceptions and experiences. Thus, because such groups are forced to communicate (e.g., speak, write) within the dominant mode of expression, they become "muted."

C. The manifestations of the Muted Group Theory are that microcultural groups' speech and writing are not valued by the dominant cultural group. Moreover, micro-cultural groups experience difficulty expressing themselves fluently within the dominant mode of expression and "micro-macro" interaction is difficult.

D. Microcultural groups may respond to the dominant mode of expression in two ways. Some will refuse to live by the standards set forth by the dominant group and will try to change the dominant mode of expression. Another way subordinate groups respond is by using their own "private" language. They create symbols that are not understood or used by the dominant group. They use their own language in order to express their unique experiences.

III. Microcultures in the United States

 A. Many microcultures exist in the Untied States. The formation of microcultural groups is often the result of immigration, annexation, or colonization. This chapter explores five microcultural groups, with particular attention to the communicating and how it differs from the dominant macroculture. The five microcultral groups to be discussed are Hispanics/Latinos, Blacks, Amish, Hmong, and Arab-Americans

IV. Hispanics/Latinos

A. Hispanics comprise the largest microcultural group in the country, surpassing African-Americans. In 2006, 43 million, or just over 13 percent of Americans were Hispanic. The United States Government distinguishes between race and Hispanic origin. The government considers the two to be separate and distinct. Hence, Hispanics are not considered a racial group. Specifically, the government defines Hispanic or Latino as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race." Well over 50% of Hispanics consider themselves white.

B. The term Hispanic is confusing. The term Hispanic is a cultural reference, a way of identifying people that is neither racial or geographic. Persons who consider themselves Hispanic may be Black as in the Dominican Republic, or white, as in Argentina, or of mixed racial heritage as in Mexico. Racially, most Mexicans are correctly referred to as mestizos, meaning mixed blood, usually native and Spanish. Hispanic is a cultural reference to people from any Spanish-speaking country, except Spain (where the native peoples insist that they are Spanish, not Hispanic). In addition, Crouch also argues that the term Latino is a cultural reference that is more or less interchangeable with Hispanic.

C. Due mostly to immigration and high fertility rates, the Hispanic population in the United States increased by nearly 60 percent from 1990 to 2000 compared with an increase of approximately 13 percent by the rest of the population. Of the various groups represented under the Hispanic label, the Mexican population represents nearly 67 percent, Puerto Ricans comprise just under 9 percent, Cubans represent 3.7 percent. The remaining Hispanics of "some other origin," include Central and South Americans (14 percent), and Dominicans (2 percent). The remaining approximately 16 percent are labeled "all other Hispanics."

D. Like other micocultural groups, Hispanics are concentrated in certain geographical areas in the United States. In fact, half of all Hispanics live in just two states; that is, California and Texas. In addition to its overall population trends, the Hispanic population has unique demographics, compared to the rest of the United States. Generally, the Hispanic population is younger than the U.S. population. In terms of education, nearly 60% of Hispanics over the age of 25 have not graduated from high school. Economically, Hispanics are more likely than the general U.S. population to be unemployed. When working, Hispanics tend to work in different jobs and earn less than non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic children represent about 16 percent of all children in the U.S., but constituted nearly 30 percent of all persons living in poverty.

E. The Hispanic microculture is united by values, language, and religion. In Hispanic society, the family, or group needs, take precedence over individual needs. This collectivistic tendency, conflicts with the dominant U.S. culture's emphasis on individualism. Perhaps no where is the Hispanic group orientation more prevalent than in the family, or, familia. Commitment to the family is a dominant cultural value among virtually all Hispanics.

F. Verbally, many Hispanics make employ Spanglish. Hispanics have taken English words and "Spanish-ized" them and have taken Spanish words and "English-ized" them. The result is what linguists call "Spanglish;" a bastard jargon, that is part Spanish and part English. Although Spanglish appears to be a fairly recent phenomena, it has been around for over 150 years. As immigrants from Mexico settled in California and other parts of the southwest, they soon formed communities of people who spoke only Spanish. As usual, many of these people began learning English. And, as is typical of immigrants, they took phonological and grammatical complexes from each language and combined them.

G. A new dialect of English, called Chicano English, has evolved. Chicano English shares many of the phonological features of Spanish. For example, in endings like going or talking, Chicano English speakers tend to have a higher vowel, more like ‘i’ of Spanish (as in si), so that the words sound like ‘goween’ and ‘talkeen’. People who hear Chicano English typically assume that they are hearing the ‘accent’ of a native Spanish speaker. But many speakers of Chicano English are not bilingual and may not know any Spanish at all.

H. The Hispanic microculture has been the target of several unfortunate stereotypes. Perhaps the most common, and the most hotly debated, stereotype about Hispanics revolves around the construct of male gender identity called machismo. Machismo centers on the notion of Hispanic masculinity and male superiority and dominance in the traditional patriarchical Hispanic society. Stereotypic characteristics associated with machismo males include aggressiveness, violence, dominance and supremacy over women, infidelity, and emotional insensitivity.

V. African-Americans

A. The history of African-Americans in the United States dates as far back as the history of Euro-Americans (persons of European descent). Blacks arrived in the new world with the first white explorers.

1. Black English, Dialect, & Ebonics. Some linguists maintain that 80 to 90 percent of African-Americans engage in what is frequently labeled "Black Language" or "Black Dialect."

2. Ebonics, or Black language, is the language of the descendants of slaves that combines English vocabulary with a Niger-Congo grammatical structure.

3. Over time, Africans were forced to use English without the benefit of formal education and the result was what we now call Black language or Ebonics. The language is spoken very rhythmically and flows like other African languages in a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern where some syllables are held longer and accented stronger than in standard English, as in "DEE-troit."

4. In addition to its phonological and syntactic elements, black language includes other communication dimensions that distinguishes it from other languages and marks its speakers as members of a unique group.

5. Other modes of African-American communication including rappin', runnin' it down, and doin'/playin' the dozens. Doin'/playin' the dozens is a verbal battle of insults between speakers who are judged for their originality and creativity by a small group of listeners. This is the highest form of verbal warfare and impromptu speaking.

6. The origins of many of these African-American communicative modes can be traced to ancient African philosophies about the relationship between humans, the spoken word, and the fostering of community.

VI. The Amish

A. The Amish, sometimes called "The Plain People," or "Old Order Amish," are an Anabaptist religious group who emigrated from Europe to the United States in the early 1700s. Today, Amish groups have settled in about 22 states and Ontario, Canada. Historically, the Amish immigrated to the United States to escape religious persecution. Their name is derived from one of their earliest leaders, Jacob Amman, a young Alsatian bishop and farmer who held a strong Bible-centered faith and was staunchly conservative.

1. Perhaps more than any other micro-cultural group, the Amish have been relatively successful at isolating themselves from the influences of the dominant culture.

2. Although they are successful at avoiding contemporary American society, the Amish are considered American citizens and observe most US laws.

3. The Amish believe that God is the absolute power in the universe. They believe that their life on earth is preparation for their after-life in heaven. As a result, many of the values and behaviors of the Amish may be similar to mainstream America, but for very different reasons.

4. Sex roles among Amish men and women are very clearly prescribed. Patterns of dress and a strict division of labor separate men and women in Amish society. Exclusively, Amish women are homemakers and Amish men are farmers, with the exception of those men who join the ministry.

VII. The Hmong

A. The Hmong belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Being culturally similar to the Chinese, Hmong origins can be traced back to China, where they lived peacefully for hundreds of years. Hmong, which means "free people" or "mountain people" were singled out by the CIA during the Vietnam War because of their geographically strategic location in the mountains of Laos.

1. Many Hmong emigrated to the United States, Australia, and France. Approximately 100,000 or so made it to the United States. Today, approximately 150,000 Hmong reside in the United States with large concentrations in California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

2. The Hmong are unique in that they are first generation immigrants. Their values, customs, and modes of communication have collided head-on with mainstream American culture. For example, like many of their Asian cousins, the Hmong are a collectivistic culture. Hmong family clans are patrilineal.

3. In traditional Hmong culture, women maintain clearly subordinate roles. Their role is to bear children, maintain the household, and be subservient to their husbands.

 4. Like most micro-cultural groups, the Hmong share some unique verbal and nonverbal communication patterns.

VIII. Arab-Americans

A. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC in September of 2001, increased racial, ethnic, and religious hostility has left Arab-Americans, Middle Easterners, and those who bear physical likeness to members of these groups, in a precarious state. Arab-American groups (such as the American-Arab Ant-Discrimination Committee) report numerous attacks on people from these various cultural and ethnic groups since September 11, 2001.

B. Of all of the microcultural groups discussed in this chapter thus far, these groups (i.e., Arab-Americans, Middle Easterners) are perhaps the most ethnically, racially, and religiously diverse group in the country. In fact, to classify these people into one group is impossible.

C. For the first time in its history, in 2000, the US Census Bureau classified those persons within the US who had an Arab ancestry. According to the Census Bureau, people with ancestries originating from Arabic speaking countries or areas of the world were classified as Arab. The Census results indicate that in 2003, 1.2 million people living in the US consider themselves as having an Arab ancestry, an increase by nearly 40 percent since 1990.

D. The followers of Islam are called Muslims. Muslims are not to be confused with Arabs. Muslims may be Arabs, Filipino, Turks, Persians, Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians, Europeans, Africans, Americans, Chinese, or other nationalities. An Arab could be a Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or an atheist. The language of the Qur'an (the Holy Book of Islam) is Arabic.

Text directly quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Clipart from Microsoft. Photographs by S. Berridge Watson and C. Aitken-Palmer. Copyright. All rights reserved.

Directly quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

I. Environments and Information Load

A. There are a number of ways to compare one environment to another. One way is to calculate the information rate; that is, the amount of information contained or perceived in the environment per some unit of time. The more information available to process, the greater the information rate. An environment having a high information rate has a high load (e.g., uncertain, complex, novel, dense, crowded) where one with a low information rate has a low load (e.g., certain, redundant, simple, sparse).

B. Information load is equivalent to the level of uncertainty in a particular environment. The higher the information load the higher the uncertainty, especially in novel and complex environments. The more familiar we are with a situation the less uncertainty we experience. Of all the environmental factors, people are perhaps the greatest source of uncertainty. This is especially true of strangers, including people from different cultures. Hence, the probability is high that when we are interacting with people from a different culture (especially in their environment) the information load will be high.

C. The information load of a particular environment can affect people in three ways, including their feelings of arousal-nonarousal, pleasure-displeasure, and dominance-submissiveness. The arousal dimensions refers to your level of stimulation and excitability. Pleasure refers to your degree of happiness and satisfaction. Dominance refers to your feelings of control or command of the situation. These emotional responses cause people to approach or avoid the environment. Generally, lower load environments produce less negative arousal, are more pleasant, and controllable. Hence, we're likely to approach these kinds of environments. Conversely, the heavily loaded environments produce anxiety (e.g., negative arousal), are unpleasant, and less controllable.

II. Culture and the Natural Environment

A. The natural, or terrestrial, environment includes the physical geography of the earth, its climate, and its natural processes. The terrestrial environment for every person is the planet earth. The natural environment is valued differently for different people. A culture's relationship with nature is culture bound.

B. While all cultures exist within specific terrestrial contexts, some aspects of the terrestrial environment exist in every culture while others do not. Gravity, for example, exists everywhere on earth. Oceans, lakes, streams, mountain ranges, deserts, valleys, trees, and forms of vegetation vary considerably across cultures, however.

C. The natural environment of any culture influences life in that culture. Physical and climatic aspects of the environment can restrict the kinds of activities that occur.

III. World Views of the Natural Environment

A. Cultures can be described as having one of three orientations toward nature, including whether they believe that people are subjugated to nature, are an inherent part of nature, or dominate over nature. A culture's orientation toward nature affects how people within that culture communicate about nature and organize their daily activities.

1. In cultures where nature is viewed as supreme, people believe they are at the mercy of an omnipotent nature. The natural environment and nature are viewed as threatening and dangerous.

2. Many cultures attempt a balancing act with nature and try to live in harmony with it. In these types of cultures the natural environment is seen as orderly and cyclical. The days and seasons recur regularly and natural events repeat themselves in consistent patterns. People and environment are viewed as one, changing together.

3. In many Western societies people believe that nature is something to be controlled, domesticated, and subjugated. People are not just part of the environment, like trees, plants or animal, but are of divine origin.

IV. Culture and Natural Disasters

A. A culture's relationship with nature can be seen in how it deals with natural disasters. Whether it be drought, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, natural disasters occur in all cultures. How people manage such disaster is shaped by the culture and its view of nature. Moreover, many times when natural disasters strike, people from all over the world come together to help. Understanding the stricken culture's relationship with nature can facilitate communication among those directly affected and those offering aid and comfort.

B. One model of human responses to natural disasters segregates cultures into three types, including folk or preindustrial, transitional, and industrial.

1.Preindustrialized cultures are characterized by primarily rural agrarian land use, have low income and literacy levels, underdeveloped communication systems, and simple technology. These societies have a low level of resource use, low material wealth, and less exposure to hazard risk, hence they are the least vulnerable to catastrophic natural events. They display resonance with the environment and have great resilience to most natural hazards.

2. Transitional societies are characterized by rural to urban migration. These cultures may be investing in industry, see shifts from labor to capital-intensive land use, have low to moderate income, basic level literacy rates, developing communication systems, and some trade. Because of their marginal economic status, which restricts their ability to prevent and recover from loss, these cultures are quite vulnerable to hazards, and their adaptability to disaster is low.

3. Industrial societies can be classified as primarily urban land use. These cultures are capital intensive, heavily mechanized, have high income and literacy levels, highly developed communication systems, and high trade. Contemporary architecture and housing in many industrialized societies is earthquake resistant. Resilience is low, but different than that of transitional societies because the vulnerability to disaster is decreased.

V. The Built Environment

A. The built environment of any culture consists mainly of adaptations to the terrestrial environment, including architecture, housing, lighting, and landscaping. The built environment artificially changes natural patterns of behavior, heat, light, sound, odors, and human communication. Hence, the built environment affects the interaction between people and the natural environment.

B. Although sometimes designed for purely aesthetic reasons, the built environment is typically structured for specific activities. Culture affects how the built environment is designed. The interior of any given built environment influences and directs the way activities are carried out, how the family is structured, how gender roles are played, attitudes toward privacy, and the overall process of social interaction.

C. How the built environment is planned and constructed reflects the values, motivations, and resources of the culture wherein it exists. The overall economic, political, and legal system of a particular culture affects how that culture designs its built environment, including homes, schools, government, and private business buildings. As the built environments of cultures differ, so do communication patterns.

D. The degree of ease or difficulty afforded by the built environment when moving from one place to another is a major predictor of human communication patterns. People are more likely to communicate with each other in environments where access to others is facilitated by the built environment than in environments that where access is restricted.

E. Hall has identified three fundamental types of layout patterns in built environments, including fixed-feature space, semifixed-feature space, and informal space.

F. Hall also developed a four-level classification of space including intimate, personal, social-consultative, and public distances. Intimate, personal, social and public distances vary by culture and Hall's classification may not be universal. Hall argues that other factors, such as the relationship between interactants, or external environmental factors may influence distances between people.

VI. Cross Cultural Comparisons of Housing

A. In the past 150 years much has been written about Japanese architecture, especially the Japanese home. Since World War II, great changes have occurred in Japanese housing. Many of the traditional Japanese homes, where most of the daily activities occurred in one room, have been replaced by Western styles homes and high-rises where space is defined by walls. The contemporary Japanese house is caught between tradition and modernism.

B. Many American Navajo live in remote parts of reservations and have very limited contact with white Americans. Traditional Navajo families speak mostly Navajo and live in aboriginal dwellings called hogans. Hogans typically consist of three large converging support posts that interlock at the top with smaller support posts. The hogan is covered with earth. In addition to the hogan, the Navajo camp may consist of a wooden ramada, a wood-chip storage area, a horse corral, and small fields of corn. The hogan is occupied in the winter and the ramada is used in the summer. The hogan is used for storage during the summer months. Water is hauled in from tribal wells. There is no outhouse. Some camps will have a sweat house.

C. The Marakwet people are a part of the Kalenjin tribe who live in western Kenya. The Marakwet are divided into a number of villages called kor. The village is comprised of family compounds consisting of a family house, store, and goat house. The people are emotionally attached to the land and see themselves and the land they occupy as inseparable.

VII. Privacy

A. Most social scientists agree that human beings, regardless of culture, are a social species with an innate propensity to affiliate and communicate with other human beings. At the same time, however, humans beings cannot tolerate extended physical contact with other humans and need privacy.

B. Although the need for privacy is innate and universal, the degree to which an individual human feels the need for seclusion varies considerably across cultures. Anthropologists contend that individuals in virtually all cultures engage in a continuous process of seeking privacy at some times and companionship at others. In this sense privacy is culture bound and is considered a learned response to particular social situations.

C. Privacy is a necessary condition for acceptable social behavior. In some circumstances, privacy is literally required in order to not violate cultural norms. Most cultures specify (sometimes legally) that certain behaviors must be enacted in private. Such rules and norms vary from culture to culture.

D. Westin identified four types of privacy, including (a) solitude; the state of being free from observation of others, (b) intimacy; the state of being with another person but free from the outside world, (c) anonymity; the state of being unknown even in a crowd, and (d) reserve; the state in which a person employs psychological barriers to control unwanted intrusion.

E. Darhl Pedersen identified six types of privacy including (a) reserve, (b) isolation, (c) solitude, (d) intimacy with family, (e) intimacy with friends, and (f) anonymity.

F. Pedersen developed a privacy questionnaire for measuring the types of privacy preferred by individuals. This questionnaire has been used in cross cultural comparisons. The questionnaire contains 30 statements regarding the "privacy sphere."

VIII. Cross Cultural Variations on Privacy

A. Knowing a culture's preferences about privacy can help you determine when and where communication can and should take place. If you know when and how a culture desires privacy you would know when to restrict communication with persons from that culture. Invasions of privacy are negatively perceived across cultures and will be interpreted as a sign of incompetent communication.

B. Although the United States literally legislates privacy, perceptions of privacy differ throughout the country and among microcultural groups. Moreover, attitudes about privacy have changed dramatically in the past decade or so. There is a tension in American culture between the individual's desire for, and right to, privacy and the invasion of personal privacy brought on by the computer age. Because so much personal information about people is stored electronically, it is relatively easy to gain access to it, including virtually all of one's financial and medical data.

C. Different groups of people throughout the United States have different concerns about privacy. Many college students, for example, are concerned about what type, and how much information, their college or university can disclose about them. African-Americans seem to have different views on privacy compared with whites. Educated African-Americans extend broad privacy rights to individuals and, unlike whites, do not view information gathering techniques used by businesses as invasions of privacy. In addition, when African-Americans are concerned about privacy it is because they sense that a loss of control over personal information renders them more susceptible to discrimination, especially in terms of employment, insurance and credit.

D. The overall preferences for solitude, isolation, anonymity, and intimacy are virtually the same for Americans and Turks. Preferences for reserve and intimacy with family differed across cultures, however. Unlike American subjects, the Turkish subjects demonstrated a lower preference for reserve and with preferred intimacy with family members. The Turkish subjects preferred intimacy with friends over intimacy with family.

E. Irwin Altman has reviewed the privacy behaviors of several groups, including the Mehinacu Indians, a tribal culture in central Brazil. The Mehinacu live in communal villages where there is virtually no privacy in their houses. Instead of achieving privacy within their homes, the Mehinacu create privacy by actually leaving the village for extended periods of time, even years.

F. The Balinese and Tuareg cultures desire maximum privacy. The Balinese live in houses surrounded by high walls and narrow doorways. The Tuareg, a Moslem culture in North Africa, wear clothes that cover the entire body except for the eyes. In addition, they wear a sleeveless undergarment and a flowing outer garment that reaches from the shoulder to the ankle. A veil and headdress that covers the forehead and bridge over the nose are worn continuously throughout one's life.

G. Moroccans value privacy as a way of protecting themselves from the external environment. Moroccans keep private the things they value most. The outside surface of Moroccan homes, for example, are very plain so as to expose little information about the people who live there.

IX. Monochronic vs. Polychronic Time Orientation

A. In addition to its physical and spatial components, the built environment also contains a perceptual-temporal feature. Human communication occurs in a physical space and perceptual time.

B. Like other components of the environment, the perception and use of time is cultural. Unlike other elements of the built environment, time is not physical or tangible; it is a psychological component of the environment. Hall categorizes cultures as either monochronic or polychronic. Monochronic and polychronic oriented cultures organize time and space differently.

1. Monochronic (M-time) orientations emphasize schedules, the compartmentalization and segmentation of measurable units of time.

2. Polychronic (P-time) orientations see time as much less tangible and stress multiple activities with little emphasis on scheduling. P-time cultures stress involvement of people and the completion of tasks as opposed to a strict adherence to schedules.

C. An M-time orientation is learned and completely arbitrary; it becomes so ingrained in people that they have no other way of thinking about their world. Through compartmentalizing and segmenting time, a person's day is completely planned and scheduled, including sleep, work, leisure, and even sex. Perhaps the most important consequence of M-time is that it denies the natural context and progression of human communication.

D. In P-time cultures, schedules are not important and are frequently broken. Polychronic people can do many things at once and relationships take priority over schedules. P-timers are often distracted and tolerant of interruptions. In P-time cultures, time is not thought of as tangible and a person may be engaged in several activities, in the same space with several people, simultaneously.

X. A Cultural Conversation: Monochronic and Polychronic Cultures

A. Mr. Paul Bersik is the international sales representative for his computer equipment company. His most recent trip takes him to Saudi Arabia where he is scheduled to meet with his Saudi counterpart, Abdul Arami. In the following scenario, Mr. Bersik comes face to face with P-time. Mr. Bersik and his training team arrived in Saudi Arabia three days ago for a scheduled appointment with Mr. Arami. Mr. Arami had not yet met with Mr. Bersik or his team. Finally, a call to Mr. Bersik's hotel room indicates that Mr. Arami is prepared to meet with him. When he arrives at the location, Mr. Bersik is asked to wait outside Mr. Arami's office. As he waits he notices many people entering and leaving Mr. Arami's office at a very quick pace. The hallways of this building are a hustle and bustle of activity with people shuffling in and out of many rooms. Finally, after several hours, Mr. Bersik is called in to meet Mr. Arami.

XI. Assessing Time Orientation

A. Presented in the chapter is a scale designed by Charles Phipps. The scale is designed to measure one's monochronic and/or polychronic time orientation.

Text directly quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Clipart from Microsoft. Photographs by S. Berridge Watson and C. Aitken-Palmer and as indicated. Copyright. All rights reserved.