Different Voices

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.. .. .. .. .. Hi, welcome to different voices. In this, the third program of the series will be looking at cross-cultural communication in the journalism setting. In the preceding programs of the series, we've seen the communications problems that can arise between English speakers and native speakers in a job interview setting. In the media interview setting, however, youth speakers are often put in a position in conflict with their own cultural rules of interaction. We regularly see news interviewers asking native speakers to predict how they're going to do or what they'll do in a certain situation. Also, we see regularly praising youth speakers for their past accomplishments. While these types of questions and these types of observations may seem normal to English speakers in a similar situation, to youth speakers, they often confuse and embarrass those

people, often to such a degree that the youth speaker will many times turn away or actually be unable to answer those questions. To get around that, we have to come up with ways to avoid that type of communication. Through the preceding programs, one thing that's stuck out in my mind, one way to avoid that is to heighten awareness of these cultural differences in the preparation of the interviews. Okay, next segment we are about to see is several years ago when I first started teaching interest in communications courses at KCC, several people that took the course decided to produce a video on the journalism world with those types of things happening shown in the film that we have been talking about.

Some of the sections that we will be seeing in the segment are real true situations that happen in the journalism world, you know, the interviewer asking the epic speaker and receiving typical reactions and sometimes there's a lot of hesitation going on between the interviewer and the interviewee. So and at times we can see even in the news media, the two people interviewer and the interviewer and the interviewee are working at cross purposes, they're not really interacting with each other. So this film will show things that we've been talking about, things like pause pattern, length differences, reactions, how you pick people, react to future questions and how you pick people, react to questions that are asked of them where they have to display

their accomplishments and how you can tell how people react to when they're asked about future questions and these will be all shown in the next segment. During this segment too, pay particular attention to the cheerleader when the native interviewer is asking her questions about her team right after the segment, we'll be back to discuss specific points of this film. The problems of internet communication have been examined in many of the common situations where members of different cultures meet. The job interview, for example, has been shown to be a critical situation where differences in cultural communication style can result in misunderstandings that can put the job applicant at a real disadvantage. Other no less critical situations can occur between members of different cultures at the hospital in the classroom or in a social service agency or at any point where communication

is essential if both parties are to be satisfied. Here in Alaska there's another situation that's becoming increasingly important in terms of internet communication between native people and English speakers. That's the area of journalism. More and more native leaders, sports figures, and others are being covered by the predominantly English-speaking media. When this communication occurs, these native interviews may not come off looking as well as they could to an English-speaking audience. They may seem hesitant, unsure of themselves, or simply uncommunicative. On the other hand, the native interviewee may feel that he or she isn't really being given a chance to talk, that the journalist doesn't really care or that the questions asked are simply rude or inappropriate. Studies in internet communication have shown that many factors count in a dialogue between two people, including such things as the way people talk and the things they choose to

talk about. We'll be looking at just three of the many factors in a news interview. In terms of the way people talk, we'll be looking at pause patterns. That is, the amount of time that people allow when they take turns in a conversation. Studies have shown that English speakers typically allow less time, around a second or so, for the other person to take a turn. We'll also be talking about two examples of the kinds of things that people consider appropriate to talk about, future events, and their own achievements. Studies have shown that you pick speakers are usually unwilling to predict the outcomes of future events, and to talk about their own achievements in any way that might seem boastful. This first example that we'll look at is an interview between a reporter from Bethel and Blanco Wosselly, a noted dog mushroom from doing him. Watch the reporter's microphone to see if Mr. Wosselly's pause patterns are being interpreted correctly.

Listen to, as Mr. Wosselly has asked about his own achievement, leading the pack, and about his future plans for the next portion of the race. Blanco, you're the first one coming in here. Did you expect to be so close to the front of the race when you're first year here? I hope so. I don't know. I don't know. I don't kind of trust my dokes. They're some of my GM. Are they getting pretty tired? They look a little tired. Are you coming in? No. When they got stumped, there's something inside of their stomach. They go for pretty good. Also, they're just hungry, I think, probably. So a few hungry they are, because it's low look like they're eating them again. You're resting a little bit here, and they'll be ready to go again. Whenever we're true, I guess. How long do you think that'll take? I don't know. It depends how fast we go anyway. Right, you're about the second one out of here going up river, and did you have people pass you and then you had to pass them again?

I had a little, little problem here going up river, you know. It's either blowing too, had a turn, turn around two to three times, maybe. Two times going up, boy. So ruined, you and Gus started out first this morning. Mike, William for Island, and we follow him behind, and then he gave up, I guess, and we take turns and going a little ways, and we keep going till the day light. And so you got a little bit ahead of everyone else that way, I guess so. So you think you're going to be able to do pretty good going down river. Now you got the wind at your back, it's maybe dying down a little bit, is that going to help? I don't know, depends how the dokes going to be anyway, I don't think they'll do any good. Goodbye now, later. You don't think you'll do good because they're young, is that the problem?

Some are young, you know, this year once, probably, I don't know if I know. You may have noticed at least two occasions when the reporter pulled the microwave before Mr. Wassley was finished talking. You may have also noticed how Mr. Wassley avoided talking about his own achievements, or even, about how he thought his dogs were going to do. Here's another example, an interview with a measure from New Stoyahawk, Gus Chuckknock. Mr. Chuckknock avoids responding to direct praise in the questions about the future by simply not answering and by turning away. First thing to take care of the dogs, right? Yeah, main thing you got to eat good. Your dogs look a little tired coming in, you've been pushing for a long ways? No. Where did you pass those other measures that were ahead of you coming out of any act? Last night, we were together and we kept losing that fail, so yeah, when they stopped,

we didn't want to stay too long, so we took off. So you didn't camp where they camped. Did you camp at all last night? We stayed there with them for a while, and before we start from any act. I see, how early did you head for a white fish this morning? Oh, we start, we stayed three hours when we first went up to the flat. And then you left before daylight? And we walked around and we finally went into that trail, you know, markers. Yeah, sound like everybody had a little trouble finding the trail there in the dark. Yeah, it was hard for all of us, I guess. How was it from white fish here? Did you have any problems there?

No, markers are good, good to you. And you and Blumka, did you travel together since any act? Yeah, we've been further into that area. Well, for a rookie, you're doing pretty good right in front now, are you going to be able to have good speed going out of here? Oh, I really can't say. How long do you plan to stay? We've got to feed our dogs first. And you're not going to rest them too long, or mostly just feed them and let them rest on that a little bit. Yeah. Okay, well, good luck. These are just two examples of the way that native people and journalists interact or fail to interact in an interview situation. In some sense though, there may be more going on in a journalism situation than simple differences in native and English communication styles. Modern American journalism imposes a style all its own, demands that the report will be

aggressive and persistent, digging for information and keeping the conversation moving. It's a style that can affect the communication pattern of even a native journalist interviewing native people. In this next example, we'll see a native reporter asking a future question of a young native cheerleader. Watch the response. How do you think your girls are going to do? How have you been doing so far? Have they, do you think they're doing good? Yes. Okay. These are just glimpses of a few of the elements of native and English speakers' communications as they occur in a journalistic situation. Because these are sports interviews, they're a good deal simpler and easier than most of the subjects with which native people make news in Alaska every day.

It's easy to see how these problems can multiply when a native leader is interviewed on subjects as complexes offshore oil development or the alien ability of stock in original corporations. From a journalist's successful, international communication is the only way to get the full story, with all its subtleties of meaning and feeling. For the native speaker, it's the only way to achieve full expression of the things that really are meaningful and important. Modern journalism can impress its message on vast audiences in a very short time, depending on the journalists' awareness of international communication differences, if can either break stereotypes or make them. For a real interesting segment, before we left, I asked y'all to pay a particular attention to the cheerleader that was being interviewed by the native news person, a real good example of the problems some types of questions can cause, especially when they were asked

how she thought the team was doing and how they thought they would place in the overall competition. Real good examples, plus the dog-mushing questions also. You know, Cecilia, from looking at this segment and from the preceding segments, I've kind of been trying to put together in my mind a workable type of interview situation that would work for both job interview and say a media interview for the news or something. I've come up with kind of maybe five elements that I feel would make these type of situations go easier. I thought we could maybe discuss those a little bit. I was thinking that before an interview starts, it seems to me that one of the critical factors in cross-cultural communications, whether it's an interview or even a conversation, one of the critical points is for each person to be aware of the potential differences

that might occur in the communication. By this, I mean, for example, in a job interview, say the interviewer is an English speaker. Before the job interview took place, I would imagine that the person would want to sit down, look through the applications and say, oh, well, okay, here we have a couple of the applicants or say, you pick speakers. I would think that the interviewer would want to then sit back with that knowledge and think, okay, what do I know about the UPIT culture? What do I know about how they communicate, whether nonverbal gestures and communications type of cues, so that I could become more aware of what I might encounter in the job interview, is that a good way to start off? One another thing that I might add to that is when an interviewer, even with interviews

for media, interviews in a job situation, interviews, not interviews, but sitting around talking, one of the things that should happen before, if a person knows that they're going to be talking to, especially, a UPIT person, one of the things that English speakers should do is if they have questions, for instance, if I was an English speaker, I mean, I speak or talk into an English person, I might want to know how they start off, how do you start, and then if I don't know, the answer, I would go to somebody who might know and ask. Yeah, that's real, it is important, because then once you've hyped and you're aware in a set of the potential differences, then you realize things like, well, I'm going

to have to allow, for example, more time for this interview. I know here in Bethel, especially at the television station here, that's a built-in factor on interviews and on news stories, for example, that these will take longer than say an English presentation of the same story. And going... Did you want to say that? Yeah, before, and I'd like to stress the fact that when, you know, after you become aware of all these things, maybe we should back off and find out, you know, how the two systems of beginning interaction happen with English speakers and your big speakers. And I'd like to stress the fact that English speakers, you know, start off with a lot of questions, verbal questions, questions, questions. And if you and I met for the first time, I would like to just sit here for a while, you

know, kind of observe you before we do that. That leads into the next point of kind of the, I call it the ideal job interview or a workable job interview. You say, after awareness, after the interviewer becomes more aware of the differences that might be encountered, the next step I would think would be a real clear planning session on that person's part. By that, I mean, sitting down and thinking about the types of questions that the interviewer would want to ask, and by that I mean, the information that that person needs to know about the person being interviewed, for example, you'd want to plan out your questions so that you would make sure you wouldn't ask questions that would embarrass the other person or that would seem to be prying into their private lives or something like that. You'd want to sit down and really plan out your questions very well so that they would

minimize any type of miscommunication. And along with that planning, I know in jobs employers want to know the skills of a person that they're interviewing. What are some concrete ways to get that information without asking them, what can you do which of course puts the non-English speaker in a kind of embarrassing position? How would you find out what skills that person has? One of the methods that I might employ if I was interviewing a big person would be for looking on the interview sheet, anything that they can show me, you know, I don't have to ask the question. Like typing, for example, like typing speed or something. And if that typing speed is down there, one of the habits of English interviewers is to ask questions that they already can see and repeat, repeat questions and the thought, things

that go on in the mindset of a big person is, I've already done that, you know, why do they ask again, you know, what went wrong, you know, maybe something went wrong. Another thing on questioning is a typical example, maybe of drawing information out from a Yupik speaker is not to directly ask the question, you know, are you going to go dog machine today, you know, maybe say, and it might be around about the way for an English speaker because they're so used to going at things very directly to them, it'll be around about the way, but to us, it's what is around about the way for an English speaker is a direct way for us.

For instance, that whether it looks really nice, you know, just just saying that there were these very nice, I'm asking if you're going to go dog machine today. And those type of things have to be, I think, learned from the English interviewers part. So you really have to think out your questions and try to avoid putting the native speaker, avoid putting them in a position to where they have to predict the future or they have to, you know, accept praise for an accomplishment which would tend to embarrass them. Well you mentioned something earlier, you said that in any interview situation, you want to establish that link and a lot of times that comes from silence. And to establish a link, for example, when the person inter, when the person inter encounters the person, you know, the native speaker that he's going to interview, how would you establish a link?

Would you try to maybe, well, answer, how would you, what's a good step for establishing a human link with the other person? If you were around for quite a long time in this area, you know, you, I think it would be, I would assume as a native speaker that you'd find something out about it, that you know something about the native culture or language or land or anything, villages. I would certainly assume in my mind that since you are here, even for a month or so, you need to find something out and maybe use that knowledge that you have gained to establish the link between you and that person. So something as simple as saying, oh, you're from Bethel, oh, well, I lived in Bethel for a few years. Yeah. Do you know Mary and so and so, it's something like that you're talking about? And that kind of link I think is especially important in the interaction or process for that kind of questions you're going to be asking to happen.

Because with us when you're establishing that interaction pattern among ourselves, between ourselves, you have to establish that link before you can go on. I know in many cultures around the world, important conversations or interviews are preceded by, by I get together, I get to know any of each other that period before the interview. This takes place, the awareness, you know, heightening the awareness and planning your questions and, and when the person actually comes in, you try to establish that human link. Oh, before you go on, um, um, one of the things that I think an interview or should find out, um, non-verbal cues of the person they're going to be speaking to because some non-verbal cues are the same, but they give different messages. All right, a real source of confusion there. Well, after those links are established when the person is coming in for the interview,

then of course, you would want to get into the interview, find out the information that, uh, um, that you'd want to know whether it's in a media interview or a job interview. Um, the interview starts taking place. Well, I, I guess the person that's doing the interview and interviewing has to realize that, well, I've got to, you know, I, I have to take this out of a five minute constraint. I have to, I have to be more flexible and allow more time for this interview. Is that a good time to take like that? Well, even if you have five minutes, you know, that preceding part is very, very important because if you didn't have that preceding stuff and you have five minutes, it, it'll be our wasted five minutes. But then if you have done all the preliminary stuff that we've been talking about, those five minutes, I think it'll be much, much more. Yeah. So there's a lot to the interview after the interview to the post interview situation.

Um, most people, when we're interviewed, we never know what's going to happen to that information. Right. So they, they, they ask you all these questions and stuff. We don't know where it's going is, is it important to let that person know what's going to happen to this information? I think for both English speakers, any big speakers, it's very important to let them know what's going to happen to whatever it just went on between, like it's going to be shown on TV or it's going to be printed in the newspaper or whatever. Just out of Syria, just out of courtesy if nothing else. Right. I mean, we, we've seen that, that the interview situation, whether it be a job interview or a journal or a media interview, is much more involved in just asking questions, especially in a cross cultural setting. There has to be a lot of preparation you have to find out about the culture, the person, the culture that that person is from in order to conduct a successful interview. Um, I'd like to invite you to join us for the last program of this series, different

voices. And we'll have a group discussion with people from the local area on the different aspects of inter-ethnic communications that we've seen in the previous programs. So uh, so please make it a point to join us then.