Various people throughout my educational pursuit have asked me, “What can you do with a degree in Communications?” My answer is, I can do many things but mostly I want to deliver messages in order to help others. I am a networker by nature and I want to use that skill in order to help initiate positive change. In order to capitalize on my innate persuasive talents, I feel I must strive to speak to people and not at people. Anyone can talk but a true communicator can extract information and talent from others and shed a positive light on an issue or a cause. I want to be that communicator.
The historical progress of communication has gone from face-to-face grunts, groans and body language, to cave paintings, to print media and now to social media whereby you can reach virtually anyone in the world. What has not changed are key points, first you must get the other party to hear your message, secondly the message must be received and interpreted and there must be a form of feedback and participation for the message to be successful. I remember my first State College Communication epiphany was realizing that to be a good communicator, you must be a good listener. Communication, particularly in the social media age is a continuous loop of realization that the sender of a message is simultaneously a receiver of message. Without this sender/receiver loop, a person is not communicating with another. When I think of communication, I look to Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs for answers. Abraham Maslow developed a model presenting human needs; starting with the most basic and advancing to those that motivate and foster personal development. The stages are biological and physical, Safety, Belonging and love, Esteem, and lastly Self-actualizat...
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...tions and 9) Interaction posture-otherwise known as the ability to respond to others in a descriptive, nonevaluative and nonjudgmental manner (Lustig & Koester, 2010).
Armed with the tools I obtained at State College, I am ready to go out into this complex and exciting world to be a vessel for social change and economic development. I will assist start-up companies as well as small companies that are struggling to enter social media promotion. As a former non-profit director and volunteer, I will extend my volunteer work to include cultural competencies and strategies to promote health, prosperity and cultural tolerance.
Works Cited
Miller, K. (2012). Organizational communication; approaches and processes. (Sixth Ed.). Boston
Lustig, M. & Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. (Sixth Ed.) Boston
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.
Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2010). Intercultural Communication. London & New York: Routledge.
Lustig, Myron W., and Jolene Koester. Intercultural Competence. 4th ed. San Francisco: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.
Martin. J. and Nakayama, T. (2000). Intercultural communication in contexts, (2nd ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Gudykunst, William B., and Young Yun Kim. Communicating with strangers: an approach to intercultural communication. 4 ed. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1984.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Holliday, Adrian, Martin Hyde, and John Kullman. 2010. Intercultural Communication: An advanced resource book for students. 2nd Edition. Routledge.
The act of crossing cultures can be as simple as being the new kid in school just across town or as complex as belonging to a family who has recently moved half-way around the world. Each of these examples will invariably hold familiarities as well as polar opposite situations. Having the ability to adapt to new environments, people, and their culture will give a person a unique skill set that many people do not have undoubtedly making them invaluable as friends and ambassador’s. So the question is, “Where does this cultural proficiency originate and is it possible for anyone to become an expert at intercultural competence?”
Durant, A. & Shepherd, I. (2009).Cultural and communication in intercultural communication.Retrieved November 5, 2013 fromEbscohost online.http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.troy.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=156ad285-9697-4852-955e-40fe40b75b83%40sessionmgr110&vid=6&hid=118
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).
Cultural intelligence is the capability that could give insights on how to cope with multi-cultural situations and how to engage properly in intercultural interactions. It is the individual’s ability to interact effectively in culturally diverse situations (Brislin, Worthley & Macnab, 2006). We could consider the cultural intelligence as constantly improving concept; something we can develop over time and it is not only changes through experience, but also through knowledge as well, which includes communication with other
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.
As I mentioned earlier, I thought I had very good understanding of cross cultural communication. I did not know if I would gain much in this class before I decided to take this class. For me, cross cultural communication was about talking with people with different cultures backgrounds. For example, two people are from two different countries; the communication between them is cross culture. However, I found that cross cultural communication is a more complex thing than I ever thought. The definition of cross cultural communication can be defined as the ability to successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a culture different from one’s own. It is based on knowledge of many factors, such as the other culture’s values, perceptions, manners, social structure, and decision-making practices, and an understanding of how members of the group communicate—verbally, non-verbally, in person, in writing, and in various business and social contexts, to name but a few. I know this is a long definition. It is not as simple as I ever thought.
Computer Science is the name of my degree choice. Once graduated, I intend on becoming an Information Technology Consultant. The position will be on a contract basis, i.e. I will only be employed by a company for a period of time, until a certain project is finished. If my help is still needed within the organization, then an extension maybe drawn. Otherwise I will move on and work with another organization. The role seems temporary; however the pay suffices for this. The main thing that is carried forward is my experience. Alongside experience, my communication with the other members of the organization is extremely important, as a lot of jobs in this industry are promoted via ‘word of mouth’. If I am an effective communicator, I will be able to get a lot of recommendations and will be successful in the industry. If I am not an effective communica...