Research Paper on:
Edward T. Hall, Intercultural Communication, and Time

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
an example. For example, Americans are, for the most part, monochronic, while the French are largely polychronic (Van der Horst, 2001). Lets say that an American businessman living in Paris  arrives on-time for a meeting with French businessman. As the American attempts to discuss business, the Frenchman takes calls and answers questions from subordinates. His family drops by, and he  stops to speak to them. The two men continue their meeting over lunch and the Frenchman invites along a couple of friends. To the American, all of this appears to  be extremely disorganized, while to the French businessman, its "business as usual" since the French are quite at east at doing many tasks at the same time (Van Der Horst  2001). As this illustrates, a difference in the perception of time can greatly affect expectations and perception. Edward T. Hall in his seminal book Beyond Culture (1976) was one of  the first scholars to address the subject of time within the framework of cultural difference. Hall pictured high and low context cultures as being strung along a continuum much like  laundry on a line (Beamer, 2000). Hall placed the Germans and the Swiss on one end of the spectrum as a low context culture, and the Japanese at the other  end of this fulcrum as a high context culture. Context is emphasized in the communication of culture in "value relationships and are homogenous, and context tends to be ignored in  the communication of cultures that value results and are heterogeneous" (Beamer, 2000, p. 111). Communication in context-conscious cultures has a tendency to be implied and allusive; whereas, communication in context-unconscious  cultures is generally explicit and straightforward (Beamer, 2000). Sociologists have been investigating this subject for quite some time. Parsons, in the early 1950s, did some pioneering work in