<p> Empathy in Intercultural Communication YANG Shu-hua</p><p>(Chien-Shiung Institute of Technology,Taicang 215411,China)</p><p>Abstract: Empathy plays a vitally important role in intercultural communication. Empathy includes cognitive empathy and communicative empathy, of which the latter one seems more important in the process of intercultural communication. This paper tends to pose the concept of empathy, the functions of it in intercultural communication, and hindrances to empathy, thus to discuss how to improve the competence of empathy. Key words: intercultural communication; empathy;competence of empathy </p><p>1. Introduction Intercultural communication involves not only the differences of two languages, but also different cultures. So as to communicate efficiently and sufficiently, as a famous Native American proverb tells us that “we should not judge one another until we have walked two moons in his moccasins.” That is to say, we should not only “put ourselves into someone else’s shoes”, but also “understand how one’s position looks upon the other fellow’s shoes.”(Daniel H. Pink: P3)That is, we need to develop empathy ——be able to see things from the point of view of others. There is not a universally accepted definition of empathy. Bell, in Social Involvement, regards empathy as involving various aspects of competence, including cognitive competence, affective competence, and communicative competence. Some scholars take empathy as a kind of communicative competence or a communicative instrument, which is applied to overcome the cultural barriers in intercultural communication. Though different scholars make different interpretations of empathy, they all hold the same view that what is essential in intercultural communication is the communicative competence of empathy. Many researchers in the area of interpersonal and intercultural competence believe that our success as communicators depends, to a larger extent, on our skill at establishing and maintaining desired identities for both oneself and the others. Our identities help us to define the message we receive from the others, and assist us in selecting the most appropriate message to send to another person. Briefly speaking, empathy is, in intercultural communication, the communicator automatically transforms his/her cultural position, and consciously goes beyond his/her cultural conventions and constraints, and then put himself/herself in other’s cultural situation to feel their words, to understand their feelings and thoughts, and make proper response. 2. Functions of empathy in intercultural communication Empathy serves as a means to develop acculturation for language learners. Empathy is an important as well as an effective measure to reduce the psychological distance between the communicators. Due to long standing historical, biological, technological, social structural factors, there exists great difference between various languages and cultures. As Dunnett Dubin says that it is as impossible to cut oneself off from his/her own culture as to separate one from his/her own skin. As we are deeply rooted in our own culture, how can we overcome the cultural barriers to develop acculturation? Empathy plays an essential role in this process. Generally speaking, empathy includes cognitive competence and commu- nicative competence. Communicative competence inv- olves two levels: first to project oneself to the other’s position to feel their words, to understand their feeling, and then to respond appropriately, through verbal and nonverbal behaviors, which is of great help to develop acculturation. Through empathy, language learners can project themselves to the other’s language and culture instead of separating themselves with their own ones. Empathy can help a communicator acquire sufficient information in intercultural communication. Lacking of cultural information turns to be a great barrier in the process of communication. Though advanced technology and transportation make the world smaller and smaller as a global village, the social distance of people is narrower and narrower than before, and it is quite easy to acquire information from other culture, not all valuable information can be shared by everyone. People who are insufficient in empathy hardly share the other’s feelings and thoughts, and are indifferent with the other’s culture, so they cannot coexist happily with the others. While people in high empathy are willing to adapt themselves to the other’s culture, thus communicate efficiently. Empathy is also a means to overcome the cultural barriers. The barriers in intercultural communication are mainly out of ethnocentrism, stereotyping, prejudice, and lack of knowledge, motivation and skill. Everyone takes their culture as the most superior one, and is reluctant to project themselves into the other’s position, which becomes an obstacle in intercultural communication. Ethnocentrism, stereotyping and prejudice are products of such kind of superiority, which generate in improper evaluation of the other’s culture. Empathy as a communicative competence promotes a communicator casting aside those barriers by avoiding evaluating and criticizing the other’s culture to establish and maintain his/her identity in intercultural communication. 3. Hindrances to empathy Perhaps the most common of all barriers to empathy is a constant self-focus. It is difficult to get information about the other, and to make response on that information, if we are self-focused. It is guilty to behave according to the proverb “Everyone thinks that all the bells echo his own thoughts.” Stereotype notions concerning gender, race, and culture serve as potential stumbling blocks to empathy. Stereotype notions are part of our personalities that we must be careful not to allow the unsuspected generalization to serve as our models of other people. Ethnocentrism, an attitude of superiority, keeps us from developing empathy. We may engage in defensive behavior produced by such kind of superiority that keeps other people from wanting to reveal information about themselves --- information we need if we are going to engage in empathetic behavior. If people feel rebuffed by our actions, they are not likely to disclose very much to us. Because defensive behaviors are so common, it would be useful for us to examine how some of these actions inhibit our ability to empathize. When we appear to be evaluating other people, whether by what we say or what we do, we are likely to make them feel defensive towards us. If we believe others are judging and evaluating us, we will hesitate to offer information that will foster empathy. We could feel awkward when, after sharing some personal information, the other person quickly lectures us on the foolhardiness of our act. After a few minutes of criticism and ridicule, we probably would decide not to disclose any other information to that person’s cultural habits of mediating as “a complete waste of time”. Empathy is best when it is reciprocal; hence, most of us have an aversion to revealing very much to a person who seems uninterested in us and our ideas. Empathy cannot take place when one of the individual becomes defensive over the other person’s lack of interest. Dogmatism is yet another attitude that keeps us from developing empathy. If someone behaves as if he/she had doubted everything we said and had all the answers, even to questions we had not even asked, we probably would become defensive. With a dogmatic person, our defensiveness may take the form of silence or of dogmatism of our own. In either case, this defensive behavior will not be conclusive to empathy. Be cautious of dogmatism on either part of the communicators. We must all seek to avoid behaving the character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice who notes, “I am Sir Oracle? And when I open my lips, let no dog bark!” Many of the hindrances to empathy can be traced to a lack of motivation. This problem might well be the most difficult to conquer. We are most motivated to respond to people who are close to us both physically and emotionally. We are primarily concerned about our families. As our personal circle widens, it includes relatives and friends. Interest in other people then moves to neighbors and other members of the community. As we get further and further away from the people in our immediate circle, we tend to find it hard to empathize. In most instances, we should be more motivated to learn about our friends than people thousands of thousands of miles away from us. Although this is a normal reaction, it often keeps us from trying to understand the experiences of people far removed from personal sphere. For intercultural communication to be successful, we must all learn to go beyond personal boundaries and try to learn about the experiences of people who are not a part of our daily lives. We must avoid following the Russian proverb that states, “When you live next to cemetery you cannot weep for everyone.” We must bear in mind that we are living in a global village, thus we must have the motivation to understand everyone wherever he/she comes from. Up to this point, we have pointed a rather dark picture of empathy and the problems related to it. Although it is nearly impossible to know another person empathically and accurately, we can, with practice, develop the skills necessary to overcome the problems we have mentioned. 4. Conclusion: Improvements of the competence of empathy The first and foremost principle of empathy in intercultural communication is the moderate principle, which means neither overempathizing nor underempat- hizing. In order to maintain the moderate principle of empathy, it is necessary to follow the principle of cultural equality, to be against ethnocentrism, and to eliminate prejudice and stereotypes. In this way can we develop the competence of empathy in intercultural communic- ation. The diversity of human cultures, which is the fundamental element that shapes the colorful world, is principally and practically, the presupposition and foundation of intercultural communication. The diversified cultures with their own characteristics came into being and developed according to their own rules. They are equally important and indispensable for their people without the distinguishing of superiority and inferiority. Therefore, in intercultural communication, the principle of cultural equality can promote correct and appropriate empathy. Another most important thing we can do is remind ourselves to pay attention to the spontaneous emotional expressions of others. As we know from personal experience, staying focused and concentrating on one idea or one person is difficult. This high level of attention is even more strenuous when applied to empathy, for it, like our attention span, is dynamic. Barnlund underscored this idea in his Communication Styles of Japanese and Americans, “Empathy tends to be a fleeting phenomenon, fluctuating from moment to moment and from situation to situation.” Thus, problems associated with concentration can be overcome if we work on staying focused on both the other person and the situation. Because empathy is a reciprocal act, the communicators must be expressive. A communicator cannot expect individuals from other cultures to offer verbal and nonverbal messages about their internal states if his/her behavior is not in tandem with their efforts. Empathy can be enhanced through awareness of specific behaviors that members of a particular culture or co-culture might find important or insulting. For example, according to Rich, many African Americans find it offensive when they hear stereotypic statement (“All African Americans have good voices”), when they are called “boy” or “son”, or when they are referred to as being “a culturally deprived minority.” A communicator would not receive vital information to use for empathy if he/she refused the hospitality offered by an Arab. The examples above prove, to be successful as an intercultural communicator, one must develop empathy, and that can be cultivated only if he/she becomes sensitive to the values and customs of the culture with which he/she is interested. Besides, empathy can be increased if one resists the tendency to interpret the other’s verbal and nonverbal actions from his/her culture’s orientation. Learn to suspend, or at least leap in check, the cultural perspective that is unique to his/her experiences. Knowing how the frame of reference of other cultures differs his/her own will assist one in accurate reading what meaning lies behind words and actions. For example, in our culture, as a means of “saving face”, we will often say one thing when we mean something else; in Australia, people usually say “you are quite sexy” to a beautiful lady, which often makes a lady from Chinese embarrassed. Knowing these can help the others understand what is actually being expressed.</p><p>References: [1] Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future[M]. Penguin Group (USA), 2006. [2] Hall, Edward T. The Silent Language[M]. New York: Anchor Books, 1973. [3] Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E.& Stefani, L.A. Communication Between Cultures[M]. Beijing: Foreign language Teaching and Research Press, 2000. [4]高永晨.跨文化交际中文化移情的适度原则[J].外语与外语教学,2003(8). [5]顾嘉祖.跨文化交际——外国语言文学中的隐蔽文化[M].南京:南京师范大学出版社,2000. [6]贾玉新.跨文化交际学[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社,1997.</p><p>跨文化交际 的移情 杨恕 华 </p><p>（健雄职业技术学院，江苏 太仓 215411）</p><p>摘 要：移情在跨文化交际 中起着非常重要的作用。 它 包括 认 知移情和交 际 移情，其中交 际 移情的作用在跨 文化交际 中更重要。本文在分析移情的基本含 义 、在交 际 中的功能及阻碍跨文化交 际顺 利 进 行的因素的基 础 上， 探讨 如何提高跨文化交 际实践 中的移情能力。 关键词：跨文化交际 ；移情；移情能力 中图分类号：H313 文献标识码：A</p><p>作者简介：杨恕华（1981—），女，山东烟台人，硕士，健雄职业技术学院助教，研究方向为翻译理论与实践。</p>