Intercultural communication can be difficult in many aspects, whether you are speaking with your neighbor down the street, someone at a community event or a business acquaintance on the other side of the Earth. To insure a successful intercultural encounter/communication you need to be aware of your own preconceived stereotypes and expectations of the culture. You may need to investigate the language, cultural norms and expectations of the person to whom you are going to communicate with. You must be willing to listen and be open to two way communications, verbal and non-verbal; learning not just the language but also the values of the culture. Many people do not recognize the probability of misunderstandings and frustrations that intercultural …show more content…
You should become familiar with the cultural rules, values and beliefs; if you do not know these rules, values and beliefs in advance you need to be willing and able to observe and learn quickly. In any communication you should be open, tolerant, accepting and understanding of cultural differences. If you are able to perform these tasks you will demonstrate that you are trustworthy and worthy of the intercultural …show more content…
No longer do they shoot out insults directed at an individual, they have become socially responsible by thinking first, how this statement may affect the others feelings or thoughts. Red Wing is quoted as saying, "I would fight for his right to believe in what he does to the death. I 'll also fight for our rights."
The encounters between Vander Plaats and Red Wing demonstrate the value of intercultural competency and civility in everyday life by providing a good example of how persons with extremely different life styles and political views can find common ground and maintain respect for one another; they do not share one another’s views but that they do respect one another as an individual and are able to find causes and views they both support.
The opportunity for intercultural communication occurs daily. One must decide if they are prepared to attempt to cross the barriers (stereotypes, language and difference in values and beliefs) of intercultural communication; once these barriers are crossed intercultural communication can and will severe as a gateway to tolerance and understanding and the greater human
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Ting-Toomey, Stella., & Chung, Leeva C. (2012). Understanding Intercultural Communication. Oxford University Press. 43, 159-160.
Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
When individuals or groups from different cultures communicate, this process is called intercultural communication. The transaction process of listening and responding to people from different cultural backgrounds can be challenging. The greater the difference in culture between two people, the greater the potential of misunderstanding and mistrust. Misunderstanding and miscommunication occur between people from different cultures because of different coding rules and cultural norms, which play a major role in shaping the patterns of interaction (Jandt, 2012).
I have learned a great deal about different cultures and the communication between those cultures. I didn’t really think I would learn as much as I did. I am from an older cohort than most of the people in my class; therefore my experience level is a little greater. This did not prevent me from learning a few things and enhancing the knowledge I already have.
Intercultural communication is an evolving discipline that occurs between individuals from contrasting backgrounds. It include...
I wasn 't quite sure what I was getting into when I first enrolled in Intercultural Communications. I had assumptions as to the goals of the course such as I would be learning about the way cultures interact with each other, learn about communication in general, or I would be learning about the ways we use communication through our culture. I think that I achieve the latter goal, but I also gained knowledge about more then just my culture. I came to realize that there is more to a culture than just language, appearances, and customs, which are aspects of culture that could be seen above the waterline, or they are more noticeable/obvious to someone outside of that culture. There are aspects of culture that are below the waterline, or more
According to Hofstede’s (1980), ‘culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another… culture in the sense, includes systems of values: and values are among the building blocks of culture.’ It is necessary to determine how culture impacts our communication behavior as culture directly influences our perception and understanding of the message that is transmitted from one party to another. People from different cultures encode and decode messages differently; this therefore increases the chances of misunderstanding. Intercultural communication refers to interactions between people whose cultural assumptions are so different that the communication between them is altered. Verderber, Verderber, & Sellnow, (2010).
One way to be a competent communicator is to be aware of things that can affect the way you communicate. For example, your environment. Personal experiences and your personal cultural background can affect the way you think about others, which can resultantly affect the way you communicate. While you might think something you do is right and ethical, while another person might find it wrong and unethical, or vice versa. This can make communication more of a challenge or impossible. One way to eliminate this problem is to try to be more understanding to someone’s background, to put yourself into their shoes and to understand that everyone has different backgrounds and different ways of perceiving what is right and wrong. It is important to remember that people from different backgrounds often can share enough common ground to make an effective relationship which can lead to effective communication.
Many people who go to visit or work in another country suffer some misunderstanding from the local people, because they have a different culture. Different culture will cause disparity points of view about almost everything. In the article, Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks by Laray M. Barna, there are five stumbling blocks mentioned that are seen in a cross-culture communication. These blocks are: language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, the tendency to evaluate and high anxiety. Barna wants to use these stumbling blocks to show the common blockades between different cultures. I agree with what she thinks about the language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, and the tendency
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.
With the rapid growth in globalization there are a number of firms who have taken their businesses abroad. Their challenge, cross cultural management and communication. An effective communication strategy begins first with understanding who the sender of the message is and who the receiver of the message is. Many companies have realized this and offer training in the different cultures to help better facilitate communication between leaders (Cross-Cultural Communication, mindtools.com). Without this basic understand between sender and receiver it can be very difficult for companies of multicultural to even begin to communicate. The second important understanding is that leaders must demand a cultural tolerance of acceptable behavior between cultures to facilitate effective communication (Cross-Cultural Communication, mindtools.com).
To elaborate, by mentioning intercultural understanding, I meant that each cultural group has different ways to communicate. For example, Western culture encourages people to be up-front and straight-forward with their communication; contrastly, people who are influenced by Eastern culture might be less outspoken about their ideas and pay a lot of attention to nonverbal language of the people around them. Culture is something that if one have never encountered or exposed to it, he or she would never know. I hope that after this project, besides of the knowledge we gained from the research itselves, all four of us would improve even more on our intercultural and interpersonal communication skills. Because at the end of the day, the knowledge that one have learnt might be forgotten, but all of the skills that one have gained will stay for a very long time.
Communicating with other cultures characterizes today’s business, classroom, and community. Hence, the art of knowing how to communicate with other cultures should be a workplace skill that is emphasized. Various authors have studied on intercultural communication; however, their studies have diverse perspectives and emphasis. The various views give a balanced approach to intercultural communication. This paper outlines the various facets that authors have on the importance of intercultural communication in the field of education, business, medicine and counseling. In addition, perspectives that various authors have on intercultural communicate are