By Indie Von Martin, Amber Curiel, Ashley Goines, & Jocelyn Phoumavongsa
Introduction
For this assignment, we chose to interview Professor Tenzin Dorjee. Professor Dorjee got his PHD at University of California, Santa Barbara, where he completed his PHD dissertation on intercultural dependence in India. He now works as an Associate Professor within the Human Communication Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton. He specializes in intergroup communication, and has vast amounts of knowledge in communication studies. At Cal State Fullerton, he met fellow Communication scholar, Stella Ting-Toomey. Since Professor Ting-Toomey had similar interests in Intercultural Communication, she invited Professor Dorjee to become a co-author for the second edition of her book entitled, “Communicating Across Cultures” (2018). Our interview mainly focused on the research process for this book, which intersected their two perspectives of intercultural communication and intergroup communication.
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How Was Research Conducted for the Book?
Since the book focused on a theoretical framework based on a multitude of intercultural studies, quantitative and qualitative data was used to prepare the text. Interview-based discussion and experimental based research done by different authors was analyzed and used so that the book included a well-rounded understanding of the text’s topic, communication across cultures.
What Did You Expect People to Gain from the Book’s Publication?
Professor Dorjee discussed how there were many intercultural textbooks that exist, however there are few that are written at this level. He explained that many of these pre-existing textbooks on the subject are not written at a higher-level due to these types of books having a history of not selling well, or being difficult or time-consuming to produce. Nevertheless, the book by Dorjee and Ting-Toomey was created at a 400-undergraduate level to be used as a bridge to the 500-graduate level. In their textbook, complexities and advanced approaches within intercultural and intergroup communication are expanded upon due to their love of research for the topic. The book focuses on Identity Negotiation Theory and Integrative Identity Negotiation Theory, with inter-group perspectives present within the text. Intercultural intergroup communication competence, complex identity, and social identity negotiation are some other important topics which are included. Professor Dorjee expressed that the book can be used as evidence for other researcher’s publications, as well as can be used by Intercultural Trainers as an aid in their profession.
What Challenges Did You Face in Your Research Process?
In asking about potential challenges within the research process for their book, Professor Dorjee discussed how the main challenge was time. Being a professor is a timely position, so finding time to do un-paid research was the most difficult. He also explained how many weekends and summers were spent trying to synthesize information from intercultural communication and intergroup communication into one updated book. Due to the size of both communication fields, this was a daunting task. However, they found it important to do this, as well as include certain newer concepts such as intercultural adjustment, culture shock, adaptation, and intimate intercultural relationship development within their text.
How Does Intercultural Communication Change with Rising Modern Media?
In speaking with Dorjee, we spoke about how globalization is highly impacted by the ever-changing advancements in technology and media that occur in society today. The Professor explains how through modern technology and social media, people can now virtually travel to other parts of the world, which greatly improves our ability to meet people across the world, who may come from different cultures, and this greatly impacts our ability to connect with them. Due to technological and media advancements of the modern age, the Professor explains that more research needs to be done on the impact of technological advancements on intercultural communication.
How Does Music Play a Role in Intercultural Communication?
Through our discussion with Professor Dorjee, we spoke about how music can play a big role in intercultural communication. In many ways, music can be used as somewhat of a universal language. Although not every song can be understood by people, if the lyrics are not in the same language that they speak, emotion often can be felt through the tone of voice of the singer, rhythm of the music, note progressions, and more. If a song is within a language that a group of people speak, then this song has an even greater ability to create a unified message for these people. Professor Dorjee also mentioned how some songs may relate or resonate with people from specific cultures. For himself, he said he has a special relationship with Bollywood music because he grew up in India. Another example he mentioned was the song “Gangnam Style” which is a type of Korean music which is popular and liked by many different cultures, despite being a part of Korean pop music genre.
Despite our first-hand knowledge of the impact of music on communication across cultures, Professor Dorjee explained that more research can be done regarding music’s impact on intercultural communication. He mentioned examining low-powered distance and large powered distance communication as possible facets to explore as well as messaging in music communicated with low-context, explicit messaging, or high-context, implicit messaging. Further knowledge on these areas of communications in relevance to music, would be greatly beneficial to our understanding of music’s impact on society, and specifically how we communicate across cultures through music.
General Discussion
The information provided by Professor Dorjee was incredibly useful to our knowledge of research processes, and gave us great insight to how intercultural communication is impacted by media, and music specifically. This interview will be greatly helpful in our own research topic, which will examine how people depend on music in times of social change, and times of uncertainty. Our chat with Professor Dorjee further amplified our existing belief that music has the power to bring people together, even across cultures, and this is why people might turn to music as an aid during big social movements or major events. Overall, the knowledge we have obtained from this interview will further help us in our future research endeavors and has given us valuable insights to the realm of intercultural communications.
Figure 1. Visual representation of framework showing the basis, conditions, and potential outcomes of Intercultural Music Engagement. Crooke, A. H. D., Thompson, W. F., Fraser, T., & Davidson, J. (2023). Music, social cohesion, and intercultural understanding: A conceptual framework for intercultural music engagement. Musicae Scientiae, 1-21. Advance online publication.
Figure 2. Table 7.1. Navigating intercultural and intergroup communication. Ting-Toomey, S., & Dorjee, T. (2018). Communicating across cultures. Guilford Publications.
Video link for interview: Interview with Professor Dorjee
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