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Interpersonal Communication Styles: Japanese & Chinese

Interpersonal communication style is made up of verbal and nonverbal styles. Scholars have best described the influence of the various dimensions of culture on verbal and nonverbal communication style such as those found in translation services. Verbal styles can be verbal personal or verbal contextual. The two styles focus on personhood versus situation or status. Verbal personal style is individual-centered language; it enhances the "I" identity and is person oriented (e.g., English). Verbal contextual style is role-centered language; it emphasizes a context-related role identity (e.g., Japanese, Chinese), which includes different ways of addressing different persons, related to their status. For example, the Japanese language adapts to situations where higher- or lower-placed people are addressed.

Verbal personal style is linked with low power distance (equal status) and individualism (low context), whereas verbal contextual style is linked with high power distance (hierarchical human relationships) and collectivism (high-context).

Another distinction is between elaborate, exacting, and succinct verbal style. Elaborate verbal style refers to the use of rich, expressive language (Spanish translation). Exacting or precise style is a style where no more or no less information than required is given. Succinct or understated style includes the use of understatements, pauses, and silences. Silences between words carry meaning. High-context cultures of moderate to strong uncertainty avoidance tend to use the elaborate style. Arab cultures, for example, show this elaborate style of verbal communication, using metaphors, long arrays of adjectives, flowery expressions, and proverbs. Low-context cultures of weak uncertainty avoidance (e.g., United States, United Kingdom) tend to use the exacting style. The succinct style is found in high-context cultures (e.g., Japan).

Silence is particularly appropriate in the contexts of uncertain and unpredictable social relations. Nonverbal style possibilities are unique-explicit and unique-implicit style and group-explicit and group-implicit style, which echo the self-orientation of individu­alism versus the group orientation of collectivism, and accessibility-inaccessibility, which refers to the degree to which the home environment emphasizes the openness or closedness of occupants to outsiders. Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures perceive outsiders as more threatening than do weak uncertainty avoidance cultures, and power distance reinforces that.

Together, verbal and nonverbal styles can explain how we communicate.

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