Intercultural Communication : Understanding, Culture, And Perspectives

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.

You know that feeling of home whether it’s with family members or even your loved ones? I don’t think that home is something that is automatically there, I believe that it is something that’s created. I learned that lesson through the eyes of one of my older friends who came from India with his brother when he was 16 in order to make a living. My friend Vikas, told me everything he had to do and the struggles he conquered in order to make his own successful business here in the U.S. Some things he told be reminded me of interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and intracultural communication. He had to have a lot of communication with his friend who also happened to be from India and some new friends and colleagues he met through his journey. Of course there was homesickness and the occasional depression, but that didn’t stop him from creating his now successful business.

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.

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.

In order for effective intercultural communication to occur one must be aware of the different aspects of communication. These can include but are not limited to language usage, types of non-verbal

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.

In today’s world, globalization is rapidly dominating and mobilizing multicultural interactions among leaders (Bücker & Poutsma, 2010). The Eurocentric Germanizing authoritative leadership approach is no longer dominating in a colorful society of people (NewsBlaze, 2007). As globalization comes into realization, more and more people of various gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, and even disability will continue to change the course of leadership (Nahavandi, 2014; NewsBlaze, 2007). Successful leaders are challenged to adapt new methods to seek out effective communication and address every human being with compassion and empathy (Harvard Business Review, 2011).

People communicate every day through different means, including speech and writing, and the use of languages such as English for both local and global interaction is becoming popular among those of different cultural backgrounds. The high demand in the use of English in the fields of international politics, science and technology has led to the global spread of the language. Due to this, English is currently seen as an international language, and its ownership is considered to be denationalised and renationalised. The understanding of this ownership status is crucial in establishing a successful and effective practice or study of intercultural communication, by acknowledging the variations of English, as well as cultural differences in communication styles within classroom and business contexts.

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.

Anytime I went to arts class my brain automatically shut down because of my Italian professor's witty and facetious answers he gave to every question Because I couldn't stand it and hated. Coming from a stern African background, I appreciate the use of ungregarious and straightforward responses that is going straight to the point and not beating about the bush; hitting the nail on its head. But in this situation I fell victim to the difference in cultural background that existed between us that is him being Italian hence his witty answers to questions and me being African. Intercultural communication hinders the smooth interaction between members of different cultural backgrounds due to norms such as individualism vs collectivism where some people choose to take care of themselves and their immediate loved ones like children and the latter being a way of life which people tend to care about people on a larger scale an example is the extended family system, low context VS high context, low context cultures rely primarily on words to express their thoughts which contrasts the use of nonverbal cues to express thoughts in the high context culture, also is the high and low power distance, societies with low power distance tend to challenge authority and question their actions but in high context cultures they accept the distance that lies between the people and their leaders and finally achievement vs nurturing, achievement minded societies are more focused on attaining material

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.