Edward Hall Case Study

Introduction Communication is a difficult concept. There are so many things to say, and even more ways to say them; however, each culture has their own way of getting their point across. At the end of the day, it all depends on the context of the communication. Edward T. Hall has made a model for the level of context communication in cultures and broke it down into two styles: low and high. This paper will focus on the communication styles of the Barbadian culture to gain a better understanding of their people and values. The nature of the relationships and culture of the people of Barbados are framed within Hall's low context communication style because of their open and direct way of life. After exploring the connections between Hall's context

It is all the situational factors that include the communicators, occasion, place, and time of the interaction. Hall's model organizes cultures by the amount of information that is given by the context when the communication is taking place. High context cultures relay and convert messages with the use of metaphors and cues and requires the recipient of the message to read between the lines. On the other hand, low context cultures relay simple and clear messages that are much more overt and explicit. Not only does Hall's model account for how messages are relayed, but also accounts for how a culture expresses their reactions. Generally, the reactions of people from high context cultures are reserved and inverted, whereas low context cultures' reactions are more visible, external and outward (Hall's Cultural Factors). Much of how people communicate with those in their culture depends on their association with other people. The way a culture associates with the people in their relationships factors into the context in which the communicate. High context relationships depend greatly on trust and build overtime, whereas

Instead of assuming that someone is rude because they are blunt, I can better understand that someone's directness or indirectness is rooted from the traditions of their culture. Two people from two different cultures, may have a hard time communicating if they aren't able to pick up the context around what's being said. Two of same messages can be said completely different, depending on the context of communication, and from this, I learned that it is important for me to focus more on the message than how the message is said. In the future, I can use this experience to prevent myself from judging people before I know their background. After learning more about Jerrad and the people of Barbados, I had a much better understanding of who he was and why he acts the way he does. Jerrad is direct because he wants to be as truthful and straight to the point as possible, not because he is being short or rude, and I might have made the wrong assumption if I hadn't sat down and got to know him. I believe that this will also stand true in future intercultural interactions if I take the time to learn more about people from different backgrounds. I will continue to seek an understanding of people from different cultures because it will provide me with insight on who they are and the motives of their actions. Hall's