More handpicked essays just for you.
Why intercultural communication is important
Importance of intercultural communications
Importance of intercultural communications
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Intercultural communication doesn’t only refer to the communication between people with different nationalities, but also to communication between members of different social groups. The Breakfast Club is about five high school students from a different life endure a Saturday detention together. Each person represents a different type of culture/social group; there is the jock, the rebel, the princess, the outcast and the brains. Each has a chance to tell their story, and when the detention is over, they question whether the school will be the same. The movie starts with Brian saying a message to the principal, “Dear Mr. Vernon… We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong, what we did was wrong, that the defiant act of the Ego threatened you, that individualism triumphed over the slow stagnation of collectivism.” Notice how I emphasized the words individualism and collectivism, I did this because I will be discussing these concepts, …show more content…
along with stereotypes, that were present in the movie. Individualism is a type of culture where an individual focuses on their own preferences, rather than the needs of the group.
This concept was present in the film because, at the beginning of the movie, everyone was there because of themselves. They were all strangers, so they weren’t focused on the needs of the group just yet. Instead, they all are focused on what they can do to occupy themselves while in detention. Each person has their own thing to do, for example, the outcast is drawing, the rebel is playing with matches and the jock is flicking paper footballs. However, interpersonal communication shows the communication across the cultures, not within the cultures. So, a more fitting example of interpersonal communication is when the rebel seems to be more focused on his enjoyment and not the group’s feelings, by going around dissing everyone’s social group. This is more fitting because this is communication across all of the cultures, not just within their
own. Collectivism is a type of culture that focuses on the group's needs rather than individual preferences. As the movie goes on, they all start to really bond with each other and focus on the needs of the group, instead of themselves. An example of collectivism in the movie was when the group was running around the school and came to a dead end, as all of them feared of getting caught by the principal. The rebel ran off trying to get the principal's attention so that he could get caught and let the others be safe. In this scenario, he was doing things for the group rather than for himself, which is what this concept is defined as. Stereotypes are when individuals or groups from different cultural backgrounds meet, certain preconceptions that have of each other influence their interactions. In the beginning of the film, they all are either disgusted, annoyed or afraid of each other. Each person has different assumptions about one another's life. The rebel, John, first comes off as a very stereotypical character who seems to be stirring up all of the commotions by insulting everyone’s culture. For example, John thinks the princess, Claire, has a perfect life with no issues. This is a typical stereotype of popular girls, who have a lot of money, and live in a nice home. After awhile the stereotypes are broken as they get to know one another. The intercultural concept of stereotypes was present in the film because, at the start of the movie, each person had their own stereotypes about one another. However, John even though John’s character clashed with all of the other characters, he does it in such way that he brings out the truth about their lives. Allowing them to relate and better understand one another, something our present culture should do more often.
The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey tells a story of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a mental institution, and the way her patients respond to her harsh treatment. The story is told from the perspective of a large, Native-American patient named Bromden; he immediately introduces Randle McMurphy, a recently admitted patient, who is disturbed by the controlling and abusive way Ratched runs her ward. Through these feelings, McMurphy makes it his goal to undermine Ratched’s authority, while convincing the other patients to do the same. McMurphy becomes a symbol of rebellion through talking behind Ratched’s back, illegally playing cards, calling for votes, and leaving the ward for a fishing trip. His shenanigans cause his identity to be completely stolen through a lobotomy that puts him in a vegetative state. Bromden sees McMurphy in this condition and decides that the patients need to remember him as a symbol of individuality, not as a husk of a man destroyed by the
People often find themselves as part of a collective, following society's norms and may find oneself in places where feeling constrained by the rules and will act out to be unconstrained, as a result people are branded as nuisances or troublemakers. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the author Ken Kesey conveys the attempt McMurphy makes to live unconstrained by the authority of Nurse Ratched. The story is very one sided and helps create an understanding for those troublemakers who are look down on in hopes of shifting ingrained ideals. The Significance of McMurphy's struggles lies in the importance placed on individuality and liberty. If McMurphy had not opposed fear and autocratic authority of Nurse Ratched nothing would have gotten better on the ward the men would still feel fear. and unnerved by a possibility of freedom. “...Then, just as she's rolling along at her biggest and meanest, McMurphy steps out of the latrine ... holding that towel around his hips-stops her dead! ” In the novel McMurphy shows little signs like this to combat thee Nurse. His defiance of her system included
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a movie and list five sociological concepts outlined in our textbook, Sociology A Down-To-Earth Approach, 6th edition by James M. Henslin, which was published by Pearson Education, Inc in 2015, 2013, and 2011. I have chosen the movie, “The Breakfast Club.” This is a 1985 movie directed by John Hughes. It is about five high school students that have detention on a Saturday for nine hours. The five students are played by, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. These five students are deviant in their own particular ways and have different stereotypes. Eventually the students share personal information about their
Breakfast Club film contained a wide variety of behavior and stereotypes. Each person had their on personality and taste at the beginning of the film. I believe that communication played the biggest part in the movie. It shows the way that people from totally different backgrounds can communicate and even agree on issues. The various types of communication and behaviors within the film will be discussed.
"Who are you?" This is the question five high school students are asked at the beginning of a Saturday detention session in The Breakfast Club. This question is not just unique to these students in this high school, but this is a question all high school students attempt to figure out by the time they go off to college or join the work force. Unfortunately, a person is often perceived based on stereotypes which does not reveal the true person. In The Breakfast Club, perception of students based on stereotypes leads to biased expectations, isolation, and peer pressure in American high schools.
Social Psychology is the study of how we think and relate to other people. These psychologists focused on how the social situation influences others behavior. We see social influences everywhere we go, but might not notice it. Like when watching a movie for fun you do not notice it as much as when you are actually looking for the behaviors, like in the film The Breakfast Club. There are several examples of social psychological behaviors in the film.
In the film The Breakfast Club there are various social psychological theories and concepts that describe the inner selves of the characters. The characters in the film are initially perceived in a certain manner by each other because of knowing the way they behave in school and the type of people and environment they surround themselves with in school. However one detention on a Saturday brings these characters together and throughout the film their true personalities and behaviors start to reveal themselves by means of social psychological theories and concepts. The characters individually and as a group display their personalities through theories and concepts of social psychology. At the very start of the film, one of the concepts displayed is the acceptance type of conformity. The principal assigns the characters (students) to complete a task and because he is a figure of authority, the characters accept having to complete the task by the end of the day without any attempts to alter that. One of the students, Claire Standish, is revealed to display the concept of narcissism, which is unfortunately a dark side of herself. This is evident as Claire claims that she is popular and loved by her fellow schoolmates and seems to care and showcase her rich and beauty too much. She is, as her detention-mates discover, full of herself. In addition this also shows signs of the spotlight effect theory which can relate to Claire in that she believes that her schoolmates look at her and pay so much attention to her appearance add rich, spoiled-like behavior. Another character to show a theory of social psychology is Allison Reynolds. In the film, Allison is a character with an introvert personality, although she also displays strange and...
I will begin by selecting a scene from the movie and using it to explain what interpersonal communication is. The interpersonal transaction I chose to isolate was the scene where we see Bender and Claire going through each other’s wallet and purse. Claire inquires about the pictures of girls in Bender’s wallet and Bender asks about the number of items in Claire’s purse. This scene shows that interpersonal communication is a dynamic process. In previous transactions between the two characters, they are hostile towards each other and self-disclose minimally. In this conversation, Claire calmly asks Bender personal questions, although Bender is still watchful of what he self-discloses. Interpersonal communication is inescapable. While Claire is asking these questions, no matter how Bender responds, he is still sending Claire a message about himself, which is a form of communication. Interpersonal communication is unrepeatable, in that Claire probably wouldn’t ask the same kind of questions after realizing Bender’s disbelief in monogamy. The conversation couldn’t be reenacted exactly the same. Interpersonal communication is also irreversible. After this interpersonal transaction, it would be impossible for Bender to argue that he believes in monogamy or for Claire to argue that she doesn’t. Even if they were to say they didn’t mean what they said, the transaction would still have some sort of effect on both of them. Interpersonal communication is complicated because Claire must take everything she knows about Bender in consideration before she forms her questions. When she asks Bender why he doesn’t believe in monogamy and Bender doesn’t respond, Claire doesn’t take into consideration the fact that Bender likes to disclose very little about himself. This scene also shows that interpersonal communication is contextual. If Bender and Claire weren’t in detention together, they wouldn’t even b...
Adler, R. B., Rosenfeld, L. B., & Proctor, R. F. (2013). Interplay The Prrocess of Interpersonal Communication. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
The film the Breakfast Club demonstrates how a person’s identity can be influenced by conflict he or she has experienced in life. First, Brian is influenced by his parents and his grades. He was born having to have high expectations for grades so much that has programmed like a computer to think that he should never get a bad grade. His parents influence towards him to get all A’s is so stressful he wanted to kill himself. For example a part in the movie where another character (Claire) tries to say that Brian and Allison (the Outsiders) didn’t know pressure. Brian with anger interrupt Claire and curses her out for saying that. “I don’t understand what? You think I don’t understand pressure, Claire? Well fuck you! Fuck you!”. In that quote you can witness and kind of feel the anger and
The film The Breakfast Club illustrate, how a person’s identity can be demonstrate by he or she has experienced in life. John Bender is known to be the bully of the group, because his relationship with his abusive family. Leaving the fact that Bender has no one to help him deal with his conflict influencing him to put it out on other people. For example, when everyone was at the up top of library’s balcony Bender made an insult to Claire. “Oh Claire you’re just a princess, did daddy you bought that.” Andrew Clark have a problem that he can’t think of his self, that he has to please everyone including his father. Which demean him to feel guilty and have hatred on his father. For instance, Andrew told his story of how he put duct tape on one
Some of the most common terms related to similarity among friends include “opposites attract” and “simplicity and complexity need each other”. This concept is often proven true. One of the greatest examples of this is seen in The Breakfast Club. Bender, the poster boy for a typical high school “bad boy”, and Claire, the epitome of a stuck up and rich student, find love amongst their differences. With that said, these characters had striking similarities that were not highlighted in the movie- they both had to deal with the social pressures of being high school students and they both grew up in the same town with the same students. Similar to Bender and Claire, Nel and Sula have stark differences but underlying similarities. Eva, one of the wisest and toughest characters in Sula says to Nel, “Just
There are a profuse amount of elements that contribute as to why a person’s self image is formed and how it is formed in that particular way. In the movie, The Breakfast Club, the element that is most evident in the contribution of self image is the parenting style. The movie clearly shows how the characters’ personalities and self image are a result of the different parenting styles they were raised in.
The definition of intercultural communication in the book is one of the most complex definitions to learn. This is due to the fact; it takes many steps in order to develop growth in
To elaborate, by mentioning intercultural understanding, I meant that each cultural group has different ways to communicate. For example, Western culture encourages people to be up-front and straight-forward with their communication; contrastly, people who are influenced by Eastern culture might be less outspoken about their ideas and pay a lot of attention to nonverbal language of the people around them. Culture is something that if one have never encountered or exposed to it, he or she would never know. I hope that after this project, besides of the knowledge we gained from the research itselves, all four of us would improve even more on our intercultural and interpersonal communication skills. Because at the end of the day, the knowledge that one have learnt might be forgotten, but all of the skills that one have gained will stay for a very long time.