The Pros And Cons Of Intercultural Communication

Convergence People tell you how scary it could be, you read about it, you are not so sure how you should handle it, you are both excited and anxious… If you are an international student, you could probably guess what I am talking about here: the cultural shocks and barriers. Prior to my arrival, all I forced myself to think about was how I could Americanize myself, how I could pretend better and so on. My wake-up call arrived soon enough—incapability to understand other people; endless anxiety that filled my mind; ridiculous mistakes made because of my erroneous perceptions… About much of the contents you could read in articles like Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks written by LaRay M. Barna. Although at first sight I completely

For example, Barna mentioned in her passage that except for the verbal part of the conversation, nonverbal signs and signals can severely interfere foreign student’s communication with the local speakers. (69) This situation, however, could be counted as the least concern in the present world. In my own experience, some nonverbal signs have long become globally recognized: my peer in Tufts come from distinctively different countries and cultural backgrounds; however, we all know that thumb up means great and thumb down means the opposite; we all know that in this country nodding your head means yes and shaking your head means no; we all know that do not use the middle finger… From my perspective, globalization should take the credit. I firmly believe that cultural differences still exist, the only thing that has changed at all is that people started to acknowledge these differences and begin to respect them. Just like one of my classmates said one time: “We have very different gestures than the ones used in the States, but we all know that no one is going to understand our versions anyway. Besides, we also know what kinds of gestures are used in the States. So, why not?” However, globalization does not play the role of terminator of custom, but the role of a catalyst for understanding and consensus among

It is actually simple to dispute this point, just imagine if you are an American in China: wouldn 't you prefer to hang out with someone speaks the same language, that shares the same culture? I know this is a fact since that was what my American teachers always do back in my high school in China. And if that is the case, we could say that Americans only hang out with Americans: I would doubt if that is a common stereotype. This example brings to stage yet another benefit of globalization: it is increasingly easier to “make sense of” everything that goes around us due to a simple understanding that people are not that much different after all: we could laugh at different jokes, but we enjoy laughing at the same. As a result, people stop overgeneralizing others; alternatively, they start to “think in other’s