Social domain theory: interpreting intercultural communication
An empirical example
We shall test the utility of this stratified account of culture, structure and agency for the area of applied linguistics identified as intercultural communication by applying it in detail to another empirical example. This time, the illustration is an authentic one, described in an account by Boas (2001). It has been pointed out (Blommaert 1998) that much of the literature on intercultural communication relies on invented examples. We have already discussed the role of empirical data in language study, and are persuaded of the need for an authentic example to illustrate our approach to analysis.
As part of an assignment for a course in intercultural communication, Boas reproduced an email message from an 18-year-old Australian exchange student of her acquaintance, 'Joanne', sent when the latter had been in Germany for three months. The message lists several of Joanne's quite negative experiences as a visitor to Germany, all of which Boas analyses with reference to various theories about intercultural communication. We too will refer to these ideas, but we shall use the lens of Archer's analytical dualism and Layder's domain theory in seeking to demonstrate the explanatory gain which is afforded by this approach.
In her message, Joanne complains that she 'can never get a straight answer' from the Germans she encounters, and that none of her fellow students have explained to her some of the basic information she needs, such as where to find out which periods on the timetable are sometimes free: They aren't very specific, or helpful for that matter'. She has not managed to make friends, because:
I have got no idea how to start a conversation with these people, they are so short in their answers and questions it is impossible to get to know somebody (well I'm finding it impossible, and I made friends easily in Australia).
In contrast with what she is used to, Joanne finds that she is not invited to meet up outside the classroom with fellow students, or informed about their plans for socializing, so that 'I usually am left standing by myself. She is also discomfited by the confounding of her paralinguistic expectations:
They never smile. I would be sitting in the classroom and I would look up to see a person staring at me, so of course I smile, they don't smile back they simply look away. I don't feel very welcome in this country. When I smile at friends of mine that are guys (in particular) they shrug their shoulders, and go 'What?'. A friend of mine who is also from Australia and living in Germany this year has observed that the only people that smile back in the street are the mentally retarded.
Joanne finds Germans generally 'impatient' and 'pushy in the street, shopping etc. ... Didn't their mothers teach them manners! ... I think I'm trying to say that they lack common courtesy.' Finally, Joanne describes with some feeling a particular incident, which occurred just three weeks after her arrival in Germany. The class was to be divided into groups, but 'eventually I was left sitting completely alone, while the others all had a group'. The teacher noticed and, 'halfway through asking me where I wanted to go, I burst into tears (I was homesick, and had pms)'. He assigned her to a group, one of whose members objected, 'It will be too boring for her; put her in another group'. She describes feeling excluded when this group organized itself to go and get coffee, puzzled by their behavior - 'they had no reason not to like me' - to the extent that 'they sure made me feel like dirt'.
