Problems In Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication has no problems even if people grow in different regions with it's one personality so thinking about this issue is unneeded! Actually, there are lots of problems in intercultural communication and as a returnee myself I feel that there are lots people suffering from this. In our class we looked at three examples of people suffering from the complicated aspects within intercultural communication and I am going to explain about each problem using Ms.Laray M. Barna’s article, “Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication”
Cross Cultural Etiquette-Mr baseball The first video is from the movie Mr.baseball and is a scene with five people who cause intercultural communication problems. A baseball player coming to

On the other hand in America you can eat without rasing your bowl( in Japan this is called dog eating) and normally chopsticks would not be used. Both sides assumed the other would know or do the same thing as the Japanese people assumed that Elliot would know how to eat soba proparly and Elliot assumed that the table manners where the same in Japan. Secondly, Elliot wants a drink and sees Uchiyama raise his ochoko (a Japanese cup for beer) to Hiroko. So, Elliot raises his ochoko too but Hiroko serves Uchiyama first. Hiroko tries to serve Elliot too but Elliot serves himself. The problems in this part is assumption of similarities and nonverbal misinterpretations. In Japan while having a meal traditionally you would not serve yourself and another person would serve for you. Also, you need to wait for one person to get surved before getting served. On the other hand, in America you would serve yourself. Both sides assumed their opponent would understand their nonverbal movements as Elliot assumed Hiroko not surving him ment that :“he needed to serve himself” and Hiroko assumed

The second video is about an English man visiting Italy and as he goes into a store he bumps into a Italian women and falls in love with her. Later, the man meets the women by coincidence and tries to get fond with her by carrying her bags. After this the English man tries to get closer buy sending her a letter and a bundle of chrysanthemums and places it on her bike located in front of her house. After this a truck accidentally knocks her bike down and Italians start to put chrysanthemums in front of her door. The problems here are assumption of similarities and language difference. Chrysanthemums have a positive meaning in most countries such as the USA and is used in ways such as congratulating others. But, in Italy it represents sadness and is used in negative events such as funerals and losses as they connect to the All Souls' Day (November 2nd). So, in this situation the English men assumed that chrysanthemums meant joy and happiness in Italy as well and chose the wrong kind of flower for a present. The Italians assumed there was an accident as there was a damaged bike and a bundle of chrysanthemums, so they placed some chrysanthemums (and maybe some other flowers) as offerings to the “dead” Italian women. Also, the English man could not speak Italian and the Italian women did not seem to understand English so the two using different languages could also be said as a problem in this