An Introduction to Intercultural Communication

Cross-cultural communication involves an understanding of how people from different cultures speak, communicate, and perceive the world around them. This type of communication has become fundamental to companies as well as entrepreneurs looking to grow their business, in addition to being fundamental as the workplace has become more diverse. In this line is important to highligh the concept of high- and low-context culture.

My research is focused on the problems associated with cross-cultural communication and how awareness of culture, language, tradition, and business practices can increase the advantages to globalization. This report will be field specific in

Because communication between two people of different cultures is very challenging, there has been extensive research/studies conducted on this topic. This idea was also very interesting to me because I attended a highly diverse high school, in which we had a Global Studies program where international students were invited to come and learn at our school. The immersion of the different cultures was very difficult to adapt to at first because it was new to a lot of us students who have never attended a school where international students were amongst us in the halls, but as the days went on it became normal to me.

Today, we live in a culturally diverse society due to globalization. As our world grows, expands and become increasingly more interconnected, the need for effective interpersonal communication among differing cultures has become apparent. When people from different cultures interact with one another there is intercultural communication because different cultures create different interpretation and expectations about what is seen as competent behaviors that will enable the construction of shared meanings.

Many intercultural communication specialists mention open-mindedness as an attribute necessary for the development of successful intercultural

Intercultural communication is the circumstance in which people from diverse cultural backgrounds are engaged in communication (Samovar/Porter, 2001). Like all communication, intercultural communication is contextual which includes setting, situation, the people involved, and the relationship of those people.

Intercultural communication: A discourse approach attempts to explain the discourse approach and points to the authors ' distinction between cross-cultural communication and intercultural communication. The chapter underlines the authors ' approach and theory to intercultural communication. It covers several explanations and the distinction between cross-cultural communication and intercultural communication. The chapter discusses the many varieties of culture that exist. It also clarifies that intercultural communication can occur in conversations not necessarily when two people are from different countries.

The problem of intercultural communication is not unique. While communicating with people from other countries at least once everyone has experienced the feeling of being misunderstood. Such misunderstanding in business will certainly lead to a failure, so, besides being a good entrepreneur and professional in economics, being interculturally competent is as important, or even the most important issue while conducting international business.

Intercultural communication is commonly explained as an interaction between people of 'different cultures whether defined in terms of racial, ethnic or socioeconomic differences.' Human communication consists of verbal and nonverbal messages (language and gestures) which are shaped by gender, social class or culture. Thus, what perimeters define the intercultural exchange and what primary messages do we need or try to convey?

The problem of intercultural communication is not unique. While communicating with people from other countries at least once everyone has experienced the feeling of being misunderstood. Such misunderstanding in business will certainly lead to a failure, so, besides being a good entrepreneur and professional in economics, being interculturally competent is as important, or even the most important issue while conducting international business.

The first and most important topic is language in international business. Language plays a huge role in cross culture communication. It is one of the huge problems in today’s market which company faces on the path of internationalism in the different natural language. For instance, as per the “Ethnologue” website, the Chinese language is one of the most popular languages around the world. Over one billion people are speaking Chinese all around the world. However English is at third as per the chart. The difference in the language between workforce and marketing companies creates a huge

Intercultural communication competence refers to the ability of an individual to adapt and communicate appropriately and effectively across a wide array of cultural contexts. That is to say, for an individual to be considered an intercultural communicator they must understand other’s cultures as well as they understand their own, and apply this understanding to communication (Chen 1-2). With the increasing diversity at the workplace, school and other social settings, it has become increasingly important to learn how to communicate with people from a diverse array of cultures. More importantly, adapting to a more effective intercultural communication competence model provides us with learning opportunities occasioned by the interaction with people from other backgrounds. The intercultural communication competence model comes with some key components including tolerance for uncertainty, self-knowledge, and motivation. The greatest and most important of these aspects is motivation. An individual must be willing to foster relationships with people from a different cultural background. If an individual lacks the willingness to promote intercultural relationships, then other aspects of the intercultural communication model become moot.

International businesses that are ill informed about the practices of another culture are unlikely to succeed in that culture. One way to develop cross-cultural literacy is to regularly rotate and transfer people internationally.

'Cross Cultural Competence ' is and should be the aim of all those dealing with multicultural clients, customers or colleagues. 'Competence ' is the final stage of cross cultural understanding and signifies the actor 's ability to work effectively across cultures. Cross cultural competency is beyond knowledge, awareness and sensitivity in that it is the digestion, integration and transformation of all the skills and information acquired through them, applied to create cultural synergy within the workplace.

When dealing with intercultural business a person should be well aware of the characteristics of the culture he is to be in contact with. He should be well prepared to face attitudes not common in his home country.