“Learning about stereotypes, ethnocentrism, discrimination, and acculturation in the abstract can be flat and uninspiring. But if we experience intercultural contact with our own eyes and ears, we begin to understand it” (Summerfield, 1993). In other words, in order to expand knowledge about different cultural backgrounds, it is useful to have firsthand experiences. Films are enormous cultural treasures for us to have visual and auditory experiences and facilitate intercultural learning. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (2002) is a ideal film to obtain knowledge of a lot in term of intercultural communication, in particularly, individualism/collectivism, communication style and power distance.
Involving intercultural communication between American and Greek cultures, the films tells about Toula, who belongs to a lower middle class Greek America felt in
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They decided to marry but faced to the disapproval of Toula’s family about the cultural differences.
Firstly, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” illustrates the conflict between members of two different cultural groups in terms of communication style: low context culture and high context culture. In theory, a low context culture tends to “uses language primarily to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas as clearly and logically as possible... The meaning of a statement is in the words spoken”; in contrast, a high context culture “relies heavily on subtle, often nonverbal cues to convey meaning, save face, and maintaining social harmony. Communicators… discover meaning from the context in which a message is delivered” (Adler & Elmhorst, 2008). In the movie, Ian represents to a straight-talking style reflecting