Background -- Chapter 8, Peace Education Volume

This chapter of the Peace Education volume is on Developing Empathy. Empathic communication is described as extending oneself into another person’s space in order to see things from the point of view of that person. In cross-cultural situations, empathy includes adjusting to the cultural as well as the individual identities of others. The activities in this chapter give students opportunities to develop an awareness of empathy and to use language skills to send appropriate messages that communicate shared understanding of others through role-taking tasks. Language development includes working with concepts and vocabulary associated with emotions, attitudes, and feelings, which are the basic elements of empathic communication. Teachers can use this unit by itself or expand it by adding additional content and activities in related lessons. The Internet resources and bibliography at the end of this chapter give ideas for extending the lesson.

Tolerance of the cultural differences is based on shared understanding, good will, and a common positive goal for the people or groups involved. This understanding is called empathy and means putting aside one’s personal and cultural perspective of a situation and assuming an alternative perspective. Unlike sympathy, which carries the connotation of pity and sufferer-supporter social roles, empathy assumes an equality between two people or groups from different cultural backgrounds. While sympathy functions as a communicative strategy for those that share common values, empathy provides the best interface for cross-cultural communication.

In order to develop empathy, one must realize how difficult it is to practice this interpersonal skill. Empathy requires that we extend ourselves beyond the level of cultural and sociological understanding and try to make connections on the level of individual personality. Our own moods, feelings, emotions, and attitudes change constantly, and it is even more challenging to predict the emotional state, needs, and reactions of others from a different culture. Practicing empathy is a psychologically and emotionally demanding interpersonal skill, but one that is necessary for effective cross-cultural communication.

Samovar and Porter (1997, p.258-261) suggest a number of important behaviors that can be developed to improve empathic communication skills:

Be sensitive to the values and customs of the culture with which you are interacting. Learning about these values and customs is a good foundation for becoming more sensitive and will help you to avoid being unintentionally insulting or insensitive.
Pay attention to the spontaneous emotional expressions of others and stay focused on the other person and the situation. This requires concentration, practice, and objectivity.
Be reciprocal in expressive behaviors. You need to inspire confidence and trust in your communication partner in order to learn about their inner feelings and thoughts. For this to happen you need to be aware of their cultural expectations for interpersonal responsiveness. Know which cultures value physical gestures of friendliness, such as touches and hugs, and which cultures value interpersonal restraint, then act accordingly.
Interpret another person’s verbal and non-verbal actions from his or her cultural orientation, not from your own.

According to Samovar and Porter (1997), behaviors that interfere with empathy are as follows:

Constant self-focus makes it impossible to gather and reflect on information about the other person. Empathy requires that our attention be on our communication partner, and not on our own thoughts and feelings.
The tendency to note only some features in an intercultural interaction to the exclusion of others often causes us to misuse information. The physical characteristics and the person’s name are only a part of the information we need if we are to do a good job of empathizing.
Stereotyped notions concerning gender, race, and culture often cause us to make assumptions and judgments about other people that are untrue and are obstacles to empathy.
If we show defensive behavior toward another person, it is difficult to imagine that person disclosing personal information to us. For example, imagine how you would feel if you confided in someone and they immediately gave you a lecture on your action.
Attitudes of superiority often result in remarks that are perceived as criticism or ridicule.
Dogmatism, or believing that you have all the answers and must put those views forward, is also a negative attitude in intercultural communication.
We are most personally involved with members of our families, our friends and neighbors, and our community acquaintances. Thus, it is hard to show the same attention to and enthusiasm for the problems or issues of people who live thousands of miles away. While this is a normal reaction, empathy requires that we work to understand and respond to experiences of people who are not part of our daily lives.

Empathy, then, is a very complex and demanding communicative interaction. It is, however, a necessary response for successful interpersonal and intercultural communication. Empathic communication combines socio-cultural, psychological, and linguistic skills to send meaningful and appropriate messages to others. It uses the language responses of labeling, verifying, accepting, validating, extending, and at times prescribing to communicate shared understanding with others of different cultural groups. The following activities focus on developing empathy according to these guidelines.