Culture Is Communication and Communication Is Culture
"Culture is communication and communication is culture."
Every culture around the world has a unique language. This language is made up of ideals, values, beliefs, traditions, and further attributes that constitute the essence of one’s ways of communication. Understanding how a culture communicates will, not only, allow people to convey a message to one another the way it was intended, but it will also help individuals to find identity in the differences and commonalities of the numerous cultures. The miscommunication or ignorance of a cultural group can cause segregation, division and, even war.
In looking at culture and communication, undoubtedly, the written and spoken language is one of the most obvious distinctions. All the same, Edward T. Hall (1959), an American anthropologist, outlines the importance of recognising that communication proceeds in more ways than this. It is not just the visible deed of exchanging information or a message from one person to another through words, pictures or the arts. But a less visible yet, the more dominant substance of communication is the unspoken, the "silent language". It is in the non-verbal gestures; the commonalities, within the culture in which they are part, of attitudes towards work, leisure, learning, values, beliefs; it is in the way relationships are handled and in the way 'time' and 'space' is treated. It is in the enlightenment of these modes of communication where we can discover culture. Furthermore, it is in looking at culture where we can find the means to communicate. Consequently, Hall states, "Culture is communication and communication is culture." (Hall, 1959, p.???)
Culture and communication exist in accordance with each other. So as is the verbal language, where words exists to verbalise things that could be a norm of thought to one culture but, in another, cannot be translated into just a single word. A word could have a deep significance that has been shared amongst a cultural group
Every culture around the world has a unique language. This language is made up of ideals, values, beliefs, traditions, and further attributes that constitute the essence of one’s ways of communication. Understanding how a culture communicates will, not only, allow people to convey a message to one another the way it was intended, but it will also help individuals to find identity in the differences and commonalities of the numerous cultures. The miscommunication or ignorance of a cultural group can cause segregation, division and, even war.
In looking at culture and communication, undoubtedly, the written and spoken language is one of the most obvious distinctions. All the same, Edward T. Hall (1959), an American anthropologist, outlines the importance of recognising that communication proceeds in more ways than this. It is not just the visible deed of exchanging information or a message from one person to another through words, pictures or the arts. But a less visible yet, the more dominant substance of communication is the unspoken, the "silent language". It is in the non-verbal gestures; the commonalities, within the culture in which they are part, of attitudes towards work, leisure, learning, values, beliefs; it is in the way relationships are handled and in the way 'time' and 'space' is treated. It is in the enlightenment of these modes of communication where we can discover culture. Furthermore, it is in looking at culture where we can find the means to communicate. Consequently, Hall states, "Culture is communication and communication is culture." (Hall, 1959, p.???)
Culture and communication exist in accordance with each other. So as is the verbal language, where words exists to verbalise things that could be a norm of thought to one culture but, in another, cannot be translated into just a single word. A word could have a deep significance that has been shared amongst a cultural group