Cross-cultural communication online

During one of our lectures, R asked us to consider the following questions:


What non-verbal processes do you rely most on? Have these cues ever been misread? If so, how did it resolve itself? How does technological-based communication contribute, complicate or re-shape non-verbal processes?



I have used learning management systems in my teaching practice for the past few years, mostly with WebCT and D2L. Consequently, I have found it necessary to employ textual, contextual and subtextual cues in my communication with learners, being careful to read the subtle signs, to note the responses and also the silences.  In much the same way that in a verbal communication, the intended audience will focus on the speaker's body posture and cues, facial expression and tone, in a non-verbal dialogue, the audience also seems to have ways of determining meanings -- direct and subtle.


I rely on instinct, the situation and the purpose of the dialogue to determine the correctness of the non-verbal messages relayed by others that are inherent in this new way of communication in the educational environment.  By learning to dissect the meaning between the lines, emotional icons, and sometimes a void instead of a response, on-line communication requires the interpretion of a different set of non-verbal cues. The quotation marks and capitalizations of texts, the font type and style, the length and size of the texts, all possibly convey meaning, but it is equally true that they may not.  Therefore, I have learned to be careful in how I treat online communication and have discussed a few online communication practices:


1. Smile. \(^_^)/ . :=) :o)

Use smiles if you feel that your tone may be misconstrued as less than gentle.  Smiles can take many forms.:). There is always the fear that I may over use these symbols, and there is the subsequent fear that I may be perceived as frivolous or unprofessional. 

There is the additional fear that readers tend to perceive a tone that was not intended by the speaker, or read their own emotional response in another. "WHAT?" someone may type.  Is this read as shouting, rejoicing, curiosity, anger, disbelief?  Should one then err on the side of caution?  Specifying an emotion takes the guesswork out of the communication especially in situations where the communicators are little known to each other.



2. Don’t just walk away.

I would never walk away from an individual during mid-conversation but sometimes people have walked away from me during email conversations. I send emails to individuals and I never hear responses from them acknowledging the receipt of the email.



3. Acknowledge me a year later…or maybe even 5 years later.

Have you sent an email to someone and have them acknowledged it many weeks and even months later? This happens to me to quite a bit in my line of work. At first, I was insulted, considering it a slight on my honour, and then I would start to psychoanalyze my emails. Did I insult someone? Were my remarks misconstrued? I agonize and re-read my email but than I started realizing that some people were uncomfortable navigating the waters of online communication.



4. Netiquette… Please and thank you.

Here is the scenario. I receive a desperate email from a colleague or student. "Help me…I need to locate this resource or I need you to send me this attachment." I burn the midnight oil trying to be helpful, and then I send off the response. Nothing. I hear nothing. Not a word of thank you I appreciated your time and effort. I was raised in an environment where “please and thank you very much” was the norm and when I started teaching in distributed environments I realized that many people did not carry this concept to the virtual world even though it was expected in their homes. The truth was that I was offended at first but now I am not as troubled by this fact.



5. Short and long emails.

I have been trying to dissect long and short emails. I once sent out a long carefully constructed email to a colleague and she sent me an email back asking if I was offended at something. So be careful about the lengths of emails and how that appears. However, also be careful of short emails. Nothing is as abrupt as sending a long email to an individual and receiving a short one sentence response back. I always find myself questioning whether the person is peeved at me or whether the individual is just this way because of other pressing concerns and could not be more verbose online.



6. Hierarchies

There was a time when I assumed that carbon copying was not that important but I am recognizing sadly that it is important for strategic online communications. It is truly sad but there exists hierarchies in email communication as well. This is not always the case but matters of power and authority are quite clear in an online world. I have noticed that some people in positions of authority may not acknowledge the emails of those whose status is below them in the workplace. In these cases, carbon copying another high status individual may increase one’s chance of getting a response. It may also increase one’s chance of being ignored by both individuals, and then one must resort to meeting these individuals in person via their secretaries even though we all work in the same office and see each other on a regular basis. Not all high status individuals choose to ignore their subordinates. Some respond quickly and follow-up with thorough emails, and I am comforted by the fact that some individuals choose to laterize the workplace hierarchy through email communication.


Some of my non-English speaking parents prefer to email me since they can spend time composing a clear communication with me via email. It is worth noting that some of my non-English speaking students will prefer to email me rather than speaking to me via the phone since they feel uncomfortable speaking.
I have worked hard to ensure that I do not inundate people’s inboxes and that I respect their right to a private space, but most importantly, I remember to acknowledge someone who has taken the time to email me.  If our belief as educators is in removing barriers rather than erecting them, then we need to bring equality to our online communication practices as well.