To Natives of Those Cultures?

Contributions of Cross-Cultural Orientation Programs and Power
Analysis to Translation/Interpretation
Richard W. Brislin
East-West Center
Honolulu
At a meeting held recently in Japan, an American was discussing two alter-

native proposals with his colleagues, all of whom were native speakers of Japanese.
The American was well schooled in the Japanese language and was, indeed, often
called "fluent" by those around him. At this meeting, proposal A was contrasted
to proposal B, and a consensus was reached about future action, and the meeting
then dismissed. Upon leaving the room the American commented, "I think the
group made a wise choice in accepting proposal A." A Japanese colleague, however,
noted, "But proposal B was the group's choice." The American continued: "But I
heard people say that proposal A was better." The Japanese colleague concluded,
"Ah, you listened to the words but not to the pauses between the words."
This (true) cross-cultural misunderstanding is just one example of the diffi-

culties in communicating with people from other cultures. Communication is not
based solely on verbalizations. There are non-verbal cues, styles, routines, accept-
able and unacceptable techniques for confrontation and disagreement, and so forth,
that are rarely found in language-instruction courses and materials but which playa
tremendous role in communication among people. Using Japan again as an ex-
ample, the Japanese do not increase the intensity of their voice or use hand/arm ges-
tures to indicate anger to the degree that French or English speakers do. How,
then, can people learn about the communication skills in other cultures that will
allow them to express a wide range of feelings and emotions in a manner acceptable
to natives of those cultures? Long-term travel abroad is sometimes cited as the best
method, but such an approach is too expensive and too inefficient for a large-scale
solution. Another alternative is the establishment of cross-cultural orientation pro-
grams. My goal in this chapter is (1) to discuss these programs, (2) to indicate their
potential for the training of interpreters and translators, and (3) to indicate two
content areas of possible use for such training: power analysis and the relationship
between language, culture, and translation.
CROSS-CULTURAL ORIENTATION PROGRAMS
Cross-cultural orientation programs (Brislin and Pedersen, 1976) are designed
205
D. Gerver et al. (eds.), Language Interpretation and Communication
© Plenum Press, New York 1978
206 Richard W. Brislin
to prepare people from one culture in methods of adjusting and interacting (with
minimum stress) in a culture other than the one(s) with which they are familiar.
The clearest examples are programs for students about to study in a foreign country,
businessmen about to be given an overseas assignment, or members of the American
Peace Corps about to live in a third-world country_ Because they are not a well
established entity, some of the descriptions of cross-cultural orientation programs
are not complimentary. Such programs are usually of short· term duration, and
staffed by people for whom cross-cultural training is not a full· time job, are only
modestly budgeted, and are aimed at people who are not always sure that the pro-
gram is necessary for them. Elaborating on this last point, many potential parti-
cipants feel that adjusting to another culture is not difficult and that the time
necessary for the orientation program will not be well spent. In my experience,
this feeling is more common on the part of people who have not experienced an-
other culture than for people who have encountered a culture different from their
own.
There are five basic techniques which an administrator might consider in

setting up a program. Most programs use more than one of the following, based
on the administrator's preferences, resources, and predictions about acceptability
to the program participants:
1. Cognitive training. This approach is concerned with beliefs and facts about
other cultures as seen by outsiders who have lived in those cultures. Top-
ics such as food, clothing, entertainment, methods for making decisions,
and etiquette might be covered. This approach is usually staff-centered,
meaning that the staff prepares material and presents it to participants in
lectures or guided group discussions. This approach is the most common
of the five to be considered, is probably the easiest to administer, and is
the "safest" since it is difficult to have a completely unsuccessful program
if materials are well prepared. The common complaint of participants,
however, is that the number of facts presented can become overwhelm-
ing, and that the accumulation of facts does not necessarily add up to a
meaningful whole.
2. A ttribution training. The key to this approach is that beliefs and facts are
presented as seen by members of the host culture. For instance, a personal
question may be seen as nosiness by an outsider, but it may be seen as
friendliness by members of the host culture. The behavior (a personal ques-
tion) is attributed to different qualities dependent upon the culture from
which the individual comes. The most well-developed materials for this
type of training are culture assimilators (Friedler, Mitchell, and Triandis,
1971), which consist of over 100 incidents which might be encountered by
people who live in another culture. Different culture assimilators are pre-
pared for each culture to which participants will be assigned, an obvious
disadvantage if the budget is finite. After reading the incident, participants
choose which of several attributions is the best explanation as seen by host
nationals.
3. Self-awareness training. The foci of this approach are the qualities that
participants bring to another culture. Participants might learn about traits

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Contributions of Cross-Cultural Orientation Programs and Power

At a meeting held recently in Japan, an American was discussing two alter-

This (true) cross-cultural misunderstanding is just one example of the diffi-

There are five basic techniques which an administrator might consider in

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