Context Dependence

Some cultures value verbal precision; in such cultures, speakers must explicitly say everything they mean. The language is structured so that nothing is left to conjecture. Cultures that find meaning in the words rather than in the shared context in which communication occurs, are called low-context cultures. In such cultures, the speaker assumes that the listener doesn't know very much about the situation and must be told everything explicitly. England, the United States, and other English-speaking nations are considered low-context cultures, as are many of the countries in Western Europe.

High-context cultures on the other hand don’t consider it necessary to spell out messages as explicitly. Speakers don’t bother to say what they believe listeners already know. They also believe that where and how something is said is as important as what is said. The Chinese language, for example, is highly contextual: a lot of the grammatical details we regard as important, such as verb tense or the distinction between the pronouns he and she, are not usually indi­cated. In Chinese, the same string of words can mean “he is going” or “she went.” How do Chinese speakers know which is the intended meaning? From context. If the speaker has been discussing a past event and the subject of the conversation has been a woman, then everyone will know that the speaker means, “she went.” On the other hand, if the topic of conversation has been the current actions of a man, then everyone will understand the sentence to mean “he is going.” In Chinese, it is often not necessary to say explicitly what can be inferred from context.

In other high-context cultures, such as Japan, business meetings may open with talk about non-business issues such as family, food and drink, the weather, and so on. During discussion, words are sometimes less important than tone of voice, eye contact, and other nonverbal cues. A “yes” may mean a number of things including “yes,” “I don’t know,” “perhaps,” or even “I hope I have said this unenthusiastically enough for you to understand that I mean no.” As you can imagine, these differences can cause problems. To the high-context speaker, low-context language can seem abrupt and insulting. And low-context speakers can become extremely frustrated and confused in high-context cultures.