Navigating Cultural Differences through High Context and Low Context Communication
In central Tokyo, American anthropologist Edward T. Hall once stayed in a hotel that had a mix of western and Chinese accommodations. Most of the rooms were Japanese, with only a few Europeans staying there.
One day, when Hall returned to his room after his work, he was shocked to find that his luggage was missing. Instead, he found the belongings of a stranger in his room. At first, he thought that someone had broken into his room.
Later, when he inquired about his missing luggage, the hotel staff politely informed him that they had moved his belongings to another room to accommodate other guests. This was the first time Hall had experienced an unannounced room change, but it was not the last.
This experience in Japan made Hall realize that it's unfair to judge other cultures based on one's own values. Every culture has its own "hidden culture," which might be different from what one is used to.
Context Matters: Navigating High and Low Context Communication
Hall concluded from his own experience that people tend to make two mistakes when encountering a foreign culture: intellectualizing and cultural misreading.
Intellectualizing means that one tries to rationalize an unfamiliar culture with his/her own knowledge and experience thus erasing the cultural differences——“Why, they are no different than the folks back home-they are just like I am."
Cultural misreading occurs when a person who is only familiar with their own culture encounters something foreign or exotic. They tend to interpret it with their own cultural system, adding "meaning" to the experience and rationalizing it. This can lead to misinterpretation and prejudice. Hall noticed this behavior and compared culture to a filter that determines what we pay attention to, ignore, and how we interpret the world.
When a culture is overloaded with information, its value system may collapse because it can no longer digest too much new information. The extreme example of this is Nazi Germany. After World War II, philosophers found that the established values of German culture (and the world at large) could not provide a rational and scientific explanation for Nazi behavior. They had to study the causes of Nazism repeatedly. One famous scholar, Arendt, interpreted the motives behind the Holocaust by looking at the personal characteristics and circumstances of Nazi officers instead of using logical analysis.
This "information overload" creates various problems in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the need for cultural understanding led Hall to develop his context theory. He reminded people to pay attention not only to the obvious information when understanding culture but also to the hidden meanings beyond the information that are not directly expressed by the symbol coding. Hall divided this theory into two parts according to different cultural backgrounds: high-context and low-context.
High-context (HC) communication refers to information that exists in the actual context or is intrinsic to the person, is rarely symbolized, and is rarely explicitly conveyed. Low-context (LC) communication, on the other hand, delivers as much information as possible.
In high-context communication, language is often brief and incomplete, while in low-context communication, language is more detailed and precise. For instance, in personal conversations, people tend to use high-context language, while in business settings, low-context language is preferred.
In high-context cultures, understanding language content takes time and effort to accumulate the ideas and behaviors rooted in the culture's past experiences and history. The language is interconnected and forms a stable whole that changes slowly over time. This type of communication can be efficient and effective, but it requires a lot of time to develop a shared understanding.
High-context communication has some advantages in making communication more efficient and effective. However, it also requires a lot of time to develop a tacit understanding, especially when people lack shared values and historical experience. This "threshold" of high-context communication makes it difficult for outsiders to fit into the conversation quickly. In cultures that are low-context, people don't have as many shared experiences to draw from. This means that communication requires more elaborate expression to make sure everyone is on the same page and avoid misunderstandings. However, the good news is that the threshold for entry is not as high, which makes it easier for people who are new to the group to jump in and start communicating effectively in a shorter amount of time.
Figure 1: Different emphasis in high and low contexts
In understanding the difference between high context and low context communication, a simple figure can be used to summarize it. High context communication emphasizes the importance of the context, allowing people to reach an agreement based on shared values and customs without having to repeat information. On the other hand, low context communication does not assume any preexisting conventions, and focuses more on explaining concepts and symbolic information. Regardless of the style of communication, the ultimate goal remains the same -- to convey meaning.
Exploring the Complexity of Cultural Differences between East and West
When it comes to communication, the level of context has been found to be closely linked to the differences between Eastern and Western cultures by many cultural scholars. In fact, Meyer has even ranked Eastern and Western countries based on the differences in communication contexts that arise from their language and history.
Figure 2: Distribution of high and low context by country
Let's take a closer look at the chart above. As you can see, the horizontal axis represents the level of context, with the left end being low context and the right end being high context. According to cultural expert Meyer, Western countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom are all considered low context communication countries. Meanwhile, countries in Southern Europe, including Italy, Spain, and France, as well as Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, tend to fall in the middle of the context spectrum. On the other hand, most African and Asian countries are located in the high-context range towards the right side of the chart.
Meyer's research on communication context highlights that while many cultures tend towards either high or low context communication, it is not a clear-cut division. One example of a culture leaning towards high context communication is Japan, which is considered by Meyer as the most extreme high-context culture in the world. The Japanese language has the ability to interpret a single sentence in multiple ways, depending on the context in which it is used. Additionally, Japan's long history and limited territory and population have allowed for the development of hidden forms of communication that can be challenging for outsiders to comprehend.
However, it's important to note that high/low context communication and East/West culture are not absolute binary divisions. Many cultures are complex and have unique tendencies in communication, which cannot be easily categorized into one or the other.
Effective communication is crucial when it comes to interacting with groups from different countries. To achieve this, we need to tailor our communication strategies according to the cultural background of the other party, and adapt our usual way of speaking accordingly. Nowhere is this more important than in the commercial field, where communication efficiency can be the difference between success and failure. Understanding the concreteness and complexity of cross-cultural context is key to building cooperation. This means recognizing what the other party values, whether it's ideas, people, behaviors or something else entirely, and adjusting our communication accordingly.
By doing so, we can avoid poor communication resulting from excessive high context, as well as the inefficiency, redundancy and cultural conflict caused by extremely low contextualization. By taking the time to understand cultural differences and adapting our communication style, we can improve our chances of success in cross-cultural interactions.