Challenges in Cross-Cultural Communication and How to Overcome Them.

Different social, professional and cultural contexts may affect relationships and the way people communicate due to of a lack of understanding or knowledge of one another’s background and culture. This could be through their race, religion, ethnicity or where they come from. Each one of these can have similar or very different ways to communicate. For example

Explain how people from different backgrounds may use and/ or interpret communication methods in different ways

Explain how people from different backgrounds may use and/or interpret communication methods in different ways

The other aspect of this communication gap is mitigation. “Mitigation explains one of the great anomalies of plane crashes” (Chapter 7, pg.197). The people in high power-distance cultures often mitigate which means that they sugar coat their

Language is a communication method that makes everything easy to communicate with others. The language barrier is the biggest challenge and hurdle of most people whom their English is a second language. Growing up in a family with parents that only speak another language could be viewed very similarly to a double-edged sword. This challenge with society forces people to learn the English language. Although there a lot of difficulties with the second language, eventually the transition between both languages would become easier by time and more practice. Starting to be able to comprehend the English language is the best way overcomes this barrier. Although these challenges were not easy to overcome, persistence, dedication and hard work would facilitate everything. Despite the fact that language is considered the biggest barrier, culture comes as a second harder barrier in means of communication. Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Culture on the other hand, provides people with ways of thinking, seeing and hearing and, then understands the things around. Thus, the same word can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the same language. Stella Ting-Toomey describes how culture involves with cultural understanding where ach culture has its own rules about proper behavior which affect verbal and nonverbal communication. How close the people stand to each

I know how to speak, and I can hear when people talk to me, but why is it that we still consume ineffective listening skills between one another? When we think of effective listening at work or on the job, most of us think of what we actually say or what is said to us. What I am going to cover is the factors and barriers of effective communication, strategies for active, critical and empathic listening and understanding the impact of gender and culture on interpersonal communication.

Explain how people from different backgrounds may use and/or interpret communication methods in different ways

Everyone’s background affects how they interpret information. It is important to take that into account when communicating with others. For example, when communicating with people from another culture they may converse with their faces only a few inches apart. I have experienced this in communicating with other cultures and I always find myself feeling uncomfortable with the situation. I feel that my space is being invaded. Some cultures take a long time to answer questions while others answer immediately. Another example is how some East Asian cultures believe it is rude to answer a question with a “no” even if they mean no. They will say “yes” just because that is how they show respect.

In the Japanese community there are body language and facial expressions particularly directed towards family and social orientated interaction. These interactions concentrate on how nonverbal communication occurs through gestures during speech and the effect visuals have on an individual. These elements of the communication style are what construct Japan as the country it is today, one still positioned (“Japan Nonverbal Communication”, 2001, para.1) around a high context

Culture: Culture refers to values, languages, symbols, norms, beliefs, expectations that members of a group possess and the good things they produce and use in their life. Culture is the thing that all the members of a group or society follow.

Dillon and McKenzie (1998) study and found that the most important factors that should be analyzed for better listening are receiver apprehension, willingness to communicate, and readiness to listen, in addition to improving culture competence. To achieve intercultural skills is to avoid generalizations about other cultures, unless they are completely familiar. When listening is perceived to be required, the quality and intensity of a person is mediated by their attitude toward the concepts of listening competence and performance (Imhof & Janusik, 2006). Culture forms an individual’s worldview, and is especially pronounced when intercultural communication is attempted. To take into account the effects of listening, it is important to consider the speaker and the listener. Both speaker and listener perceive the event, the process of listening, and the result of the process. One example of this is when the listener thinks what the speaker is saying is interesting. The listener assesses the situation and takes in the information, and starts asking questions. Listening is a process that we do with our perceptions of what we hear. Therefore, what one hears is analyzed by cultural perceptions.

Take the typical division of the east and the west. Research has shown that people from western cultures think differently from people in the eastern cultures. Westerners tend to see themselves as individuals.

"We didn 't all come over on the same ship, but we 're all in the same boat."- Bernard Baruch

Diverse environments, such as at work or school can also be a challenging place for effective communication. Working and communicating in a group can be difficult enough without adding any other variables. When diversity is applied to the group, communication can become a sizeable challenge. Ribbink (2003) states, "different cultures like to receive information—and trust information they receive from different sources—in different ways" (para. 6). Individuals from some cultures prefer to receive information or be taught by the leader of a team or a trusted coworker rather than a manager (Ribbink, 2003).

In low-context culture, the content of the speech should be clear and unambiguous message that the speaker is really up to the listener. Countries that use the spoken language English (Anglo-Saxon) such as Canada, United Kingdom, United States and Germany are examples of countries that have a low-context culture.