Vukolova V., Moroz O.

Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics KNTEU

MULTICULTURAL STUDIES AND CULTURE SHOCK

Nowadays, multicultural studies are on the rise in Ukraine, just as they are in other countries, where multicultural contacts have engendered both a multicultural and multilingual society. Although during the last years these studies in Ukraine were considered mainly from a social and political perspective, they are having certain repercussions on literary and educational fields as well. According to Canadian experts, multiculturalism is based on the belief that cultural diversity is beneficial for any society. Thus the philosophy behind it consists of creating a suitable environment where different cultures respect, value and mutually support one another.

Another interesting point concerning terms “multiculturalism” and “pluralism” is that made by Giovanny Sartori in his controversal book “Pluralismo, multiculturalismo e estranei” (2001). According to him, multiculturalism, as applied in the USA and which resulted in the unsuccessful experiment called the “melting pot”, highlighted differences between cultures and ethnic groups, producing closed circles within society. However, pluralism is based on tolerance and recognizing the value of diversity.

It is a challenge – to become an effective and successful intercultural communicator when you interact with neighbors who might speak a strange language. To be successful in these interactions in this new world you must be able to communicate with people whose entire backgrounds, whose way of viewing the world and doing things may be completely different from yours. Functioning in this new world means that you understand the theories, principles and dynamics of intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is the circumstance in which people from diverse cultural backgrounds interact with each other.

Intercultural communication is not a new human endeavor. Since the dim beginnings of civilizations when the first humans formed tribal groups intercultural contact occurred whenever people from one tribe encountered others and discovered that they were different. Later, as civilization developed, traders, religious missioners, and invading warriors all encountered alien people different from themselves. The reaction to aliens – to those who are physically or socially different – was well expressed over 2 thousand years ago by the Greek playwright Aeschylus who wrote “Everyone is quick to blame the alien”. It is still a powerful element in today’s social and political rhetoric.

Cultural references usually pose greater difficulties for translators than mere linguistic problems, since translators have to overcome cultural barriers, a task at which they have to be more creators than transcribers. Of the many factors that may lead to misreading in translation, cultural presuppositions merit special attention from translators because they can substantially and systematically affect their interpretation of facts and events in the source text without their even knowing it.

Intercultural communication means taking on roles, switching between a variety of identities in different culture-specific situations. The crucial element in this form of communication is culture and the impact it has on our communicative behavior. Culture is an extremely complex concept and an enormous subject. It embraces almost everything in the world, whether material or spiritual.

Culture strongly influences our beliefs, values and world views, it is reflected in our use of language, our nonverbal behavior and how we relate to others. It shapes our relationships with our family and friends, it teachers us how to raise our children, and provides us with prescriptions for forms of communication appropriate to a variety of social situations. The researches mention that people nowadays often construct their individual repertoire of behaviour out of two or more cultural systems. For many people it is no longer that easy to draw a clear line between original and target cultures.

The term, ‘culture shock’ was introduced for the first time in 1958 to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. We can describe culture shock as the physical and emotional discomfort one suffers when coming to live in another country or a place different from the place of origin. It is an anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. Often, the way that we lived before is not accepted as or considered as normal in the new place.

Communication is always culture-specific, that no perception of and reflection on something can be impartial. Translators/interpreters perform the function of an intercultural mediator by questioning given aspects in any culture and trying to break free of their culturally bound position. Culture learners and teachers as well as translators must act as intercultural communication experts. The translator/interpreter should be trained to mediate between cultures in real life situations, i.e. should obtain academic training based not so much on linguistic exercises in a vacuum-like classroom situation but shaped by an interactionist approach.

The specialists describe the translator as a professional who acts interculturally rather than merely possesses the abstract knowledge of this acting. In this context, the nonverbal and behavioural aspects of this acting play a very important role. Major emphasis must be put on close contacts and exchanges with members of the cultures concerned in multicultural working groups and during longer stays in those cultures. As a result the translator should know how to act in cultures according to and/or against the norms, rules, conventions, etc. While ‘learning’ a culture and later on when communicating with its members the translator should approach the members of this culture with the tools of cultural relativism as a remedy against ethnocentrism and culture shock.

All this implies preparing our future generations to become citizens of a new society where it is possible “to distinguish without discriminating”.