Examples Of Cultural Differences In Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is defined as when people communicate with one another who have different cultures. They may differ because of their languages, beliefs, values, and behavioral characteristics (Bennett, 1998). The intercultural communication plays a key role in globalization. It will help organizations to have a long-term success if they can manage the cultural differences and intercultural cooperation effectively to conflicts. Increasing shared knowledge and dealing with miscommunication are the two main factors for having a successful intercultural communication. However, the difference in discourse systems is the most miscommunication issue that leads individuals to misunderstand and misinterpret to the contents or messages

Alberts, Martin and Nakayama (2011) describe communication as “ a transactional process in which people generate meaning through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages in in specific contexts, influenced by individual and societal forces and embedded in culture.”(p.7) They then go on to state that intercultural communication “occurs in interactions between people who are culturally different.”(p.122) Cultural differences thus affect many interactions, with the communication process being one.

The organization I have chosen is NEA (National Education Association) that deals with communicating cross-cultural and what teachers should know about diversity. The Website address is http://iteslj.org/Articles/Pratt-Johnson-CrossCultural.html which is found in the NEA link. The article explains the need for educators in terms of culturally responsive and competent as schools and classrooms become increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse. The article highlights five important points of cultural difference with which all teachers should be aware when teaching students of diverse backgrounds. These five points are ways of knowing, ways of solving problems, ways of communicating nonverbally, ways of learning, and ways of dealing

Previous researchers have found that for a person to achieve better and more effective communication competence, it is necessary to develop skills that allow an appropriate participation in specific situations. The ability to listen, ask questions, and express concepts or ideas effectively is an important part of communication competence. Intercultural communication presents an unexplored and challenging field that needs to be understood for a better development in communication. (Dillon and McKenzie, 1998). The variables of listening depend on the different perceptions that a person obtains through their cultural background. Furthermore, culture often affects the structure of consciousness in the act of listening. When a person seeks to

With the growing of globalization, opportunities of intercultural communication become more common to individuals’ everyday life. Thus, it is of vital importance that people understand linguistic relativity and language ideologies in order to avoid misunderstandings and achieve effective intercultural communication.

Interpersonal communication held great prominence in daily human interactions, as it was a path to building a relationship and exchanging ideas and feelings. Although achieving a more effective communication would be the goal, there was no single answer to this pursue. A certain style of communication could be evaluated differently under various circumstances or in distinct cultures. Therefore, examining and reflecting on how one’s culture impacted each area that contribute to interpersonal communication was essential to gain a better understanding with cognitive complexity.

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?

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.

The business model, into this age of information, has integrated itself with many cultures. One of the results of this globalization is development and research into international business and work related culture. In a recent paper by Mooij & Hofstede (2010), it found focus on researching and investigating culture is becoming more popular. Looking at the exponential growth and influence of international, more International Managers are becoming aware of the impact and importance of national culture on organizational culture.

When people from different cultural backgrounds communicate, this is called Intercultural Communication. A person’s beliefs, values, norms, etc., can influence the way they see and respond to the people that come from different cultural backgrounds than they do. In a business setting, having a diverse group can have many benefits, as well as some challenges. Having a diverse workforce offers a business the chance to have a wider assortment of viewpoints. Acquiring many viewpoints empowers a company’s ability to understand and relate to diverse markets. Some tension may build when people communicate with others from different cultures because one seems to believe that everyone else sees things the exact same way they do.

In today’s society, our culture is made up of many different types of people from all different backgrounds. Over time, intercultural communications have become essential not only in the business world, but everyday life as well. Intercultural communications can best be defined as the study of communication throughout a variety of social groups/cultures, and how these differences effect the way we interact with one another. Our nation is made up of individuals with very dissimilar religious, educational, social, and ethnic backgrounds, so naturally a wide range of opinions and beliefs are formed and expressed, and the need to understand these differences arises. Although we mostly experience intercultural communications in the US, there is also international communications to consider, which is more associated with government and business concerns on the global level.

When a company starts to do business in a foreign country, there are often many business practices that are different and difficult to understand. Cross-cultural communication refers to communication conducted by people from different ethnic, social or gendered backgrounds, that is, communication between people who do not share the common linguistic or cultural values. Through identifying some most important influential factors in cross-cultural communication, the paper points out some steps and sugestions which can be use to make a successful meeting between an Australian young business women and a traditional Japanese manager and discusses how those factors can lead to cross-cultural communication failures. After that, it provides solutions for main types of cross-cultural communication breakdown and strategies for enhancing effective communication. Finally, the paper ends with a restatement of the main points, which is also the conclusion part.

Intercultural communication occurs when culturally diverse people interact with each other, and providing quality care to everyone is the reason many individuals enter the health care profession - to make life better for others. Intercultural communication is a barrier that the health care industry is facing as a whole, and our society must work to uncover biases and cultural blind spots, improve and be prepared to lead in a diverse environment. In February, 2013, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, noted the “overall health of the American population has improved over the past few decades, but not all Americans have benefitted equally from these improvements. Minority populations, in particular, continue to lag behind whites in a number of areas, including quality of care, access to care, timeliness and outcomes. Other health-care problems that disproportionately affect minorities include provider biases, poor provider-patient communication and health literacy issues”. Awareness of diverse cultures and subcultures, and management of barriers to intercultural communications would improve the sharing of good practices and innovation spread within the healthcare industry.

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

sub-groups of individuals belonging to one or more national and regional cultures. To ensure consistency of this diverse group, the organization needs to create a collective identity, which will become the benchmark for all its members. This identity has a strong influence on the behavior of the members. The culture of a company determines its code of conduct expressed by the rules and the system of rewards and sanctions applied. Values establish prohibitions, taboos, success and the margins of freedom that should not be breached.