Communication

The fear of becoming guilty influences how Malagasy people communicate. As expected, people try to avoid conflicts. Harmony is important and humbleness and respect are highly valued. The Malagasy culture is in many ways indirect and you should avoid offending people. When mistakes are made, accidents appear or conflicts arise, it may be difficult to point out the one responsible for the incident – all participants are afraid of the tsiny [guilt]

(Dahl, 1998; Dahl 1999). Without knowing the different strategies when communicating with Malagasy people, it is difficult, if not impossible, to dig deep into feelings, thoughts and opinions. Because of the reservation of Malagasies to openly discuss thoughts and feelings, the terms being discussed are important to understand the unspoken ramifications of any interchange.

According to Hall (1976) there are different types of cultures, he distinguishes between high-context culture and low-high-context culture. In a high-high-context culture the people’s focus on interpersonal relationships would be the collective, more than the individual. The culture is seen to be intuitive and feelings are important. “A high-context communication or message is one in which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message” (Hall, 1976, p.79).

In low-context cultures people focus on facts and logic. The cultures are more individualistic

18

and action oriented. “A low context communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of information is vested in the explicit code” (Hall, 1976, p.79). All communication is influenced by the culture of those communicating. A culture often tends to be more high contextual than low contextual, or the other way around (Hall, 1976). How does this concern the Norwegian culture and the Malagasy culture? Malagasy culture may be seen to be a high-context culture, where people often speak indirectly. They give signals and hints, but things are not said directly. The point is to avoid the point, but still express it in a way that the respondent understands it. Norwegian culture on the other hand may be seen as a country having a low-context culture. What is said should be clear and precise and the less room for misunderstandings, the better. The different tendencies regarding the Norwegian and the Malagasy culture obviously creates room for misunderstandings, insults and frustration. I tried to keep this in mind when I did my research. Being aware of the contrast in the way of phrasing oneself was crucial when I developed the interview guide; especially since the topic was so sensitive.

In his book, Dahl (1998) lists several factors which he sees as contrasts in the Malagasy and the Norwegian culture. The picture he draws is, as he himself states, a bit black and white.

Though, they are not “empty” statements and definitely have roots in reality. He compares the Malagasy idea expressed as: “Don’t show/share” your deepest feelings and thoughts” in contrast to the Norwegian value: “Show what you mean and want to achieve” (Dahl, 1998, p.208). This is interesting and worthy a thought when analyzing my findings. While Norwegians would underscore the importance of being individualistic, independent and work-oriented, a Malagasy would emphasize the importance of collective, dependent and peaceful orientation. Instead of solving the problem and moving on, they concentrate on reconstructing the “good relation” and hiding what has been problematic. They would strive to have a fihavanana [kinship] of harmony.

The Malagasy language mirrors some of the indirectness in the Malagasy culture. People may seem very diplomatic in their phrasing and show a lot of solidarity when communicating. The language is moreover full of proverbs, literary pictures and metaphors. For instance masoandro [sun] means the “eye of the day”, airplane is “flying car”, fiaramanidina. When people describe feelings or situations they tend to draw pictures. Sometimes, for a foreigner, it may even be a challenge to understand what a person wants to express when the large verbal pictures are drawn. What is really essential in this poetic picture? When a conversation has a

19 special purpose you always talk a lot before the core of the conversation is touched upon. And when you do, you (the people communicating) touch it together (Dahl, 1998. p. 202).

As mentioned in the introduction of this subchapter, along with the verbally pictures that are drawn, the language is rich in sayings. The sayings are related to cultural habits, ways of thinking and traditions (Dahl 1998). If you do not know the culture, some sayings may be difficult to understand because you do not know the cultural depth reflected in the actions or sayings. You may understand the saying, but not the depth of it. For example: “Rather crazy, than having a mad wife as mother to the children” (Dahl, 1998, p.150). This saying reflects the mother’s position in the family; traditionally she is responsible for raising the children.

Dahl (1999) writes about how traditionally, and often still, the culture is defined by people avoiding confrontations and arguments. In conducting this research it has been critical to remember these characteristics when asking people about how they react and respond to things they disagree with. There is a saying: “Rather a rickety hut with peace, than a beautiful castle with strife. “ Harmony is a value which triumph everything. The fear of tsiny [guilt] is closely related to this, and the thought of disobeying or offending an elder is very serious.

People focus on the other’s “face” rather than their own. If there are disagreements, rather than saying things directly, rumors are spread and people talk “behind” each other’s backs.

When conflicts arise the elderly have a special responsibility to solve the problems and to arbitrate. In a western culture people use argument to solve problems. In a Malagasy culture, people do not necessarily aim to solve the problem, but they may in a diplomatic way just

“cover” it, or agree upon forgetting it. A ray aman-dreny [parent] may ask different parties to calm down and back off, which most likely will be, met by appreciations and thankfulness. It is important to remember that there are local variations and people in general along the coastline are often said to be more direct in their speech and formulations.

20

3 Theory

Emotions as an aspect and part of educational organizations are not a new phenomenon.

However, its importance of it was first shed light on during the 1990s (Milley, 2009; Beatty &

Brew, 2004). The myriad of emotions which are found within the educational organizations are a result of the individuals who operate within them. Different individuals take part in each other’s lives and shape and challenge each other’s values and attitudes. People in school explore and develop, they discover and they learn. In such processes, different emotions are represented enthusiasm, joy, happiness, curiosity, excitement, fear, disappointment, guilt and so on and so forth (Milley, 2009; Ackerman & Maslin-Ostrowski, 2004). As Harris (2007) so cleverly puts it; schools are “powerhouses of emotion” (p.3).

There are different definitions of emotions. Professor George (2000) chose to define emotions as “high intensity feelings that are trigged by specific stimuli (either internal or external to the individual), demand attention, and interrupt cognitive processes and behaviors” (p.1029).

With few words George (2000) touches the breadth and complexity of emotions. Emotions are complex; they might as well be constant or changing. They might as well keep your mind busy for a while, or be fleeting, they may be internal or external – or both at the same time.

Some choose to distinguish between what a feeling is and what an emotion is. However, in this paper the two terms will be used interchangeably (Fineman,2003).