Intercultural Communication in the Terminal (2004)

However, despite his frequent airport trips William was still afraid of flying. William’s fear stemmed from the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11. Despite being a “little brown man” himself, William couldn’t help but find himself scanning the airports and airplanes “for little brown guys who reaked of fundamentalism” (Alexie, 57). Williams experience is not much different from most Americans when going to the airport. Because of the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, we as a society stereotype “little brown men” as being terrorists and often share William’s fear. Whether it happens consciously or unconsciously, William is constantly on the lookout for the stereotypical terrorist at the airport. This directly relates to the theme of identity because while William is quick to judge people that may look a certain way everyone has their own identity that may be unknown to most

All types of communication interaction involve two major components in terms of how people are perceived: verbal, and nonverbal. These cues such as facial expressions, posture, verbal intonations, and other body gestures accompany our words in order to create a clear message. Every person is continuously communicating even when they are not saying a word, thus, it is possible to send an exclusively non verbal message but it is not possible to send an exclusively verbal message. Nonverbal cues in the interaction are always more powerful indicators of what a speaker means and what the speaker feels because non verbal cues have not been learned and therefore are not manipulated. In the movie Victor Victoria, nonverbal cues

On the other hand, the film has also revealed how the director thinks about the barriers of communication. It is obvious that language is a barrier of communication since we cannot easily talk with people when we don’t speak their languages. However, is language the only barrier of communication? This movie has illustrated that other than languages, there are still many different kinds of communication barriers. For example, Richard and Susan spoke the same language, but they did not communicate very well with each other. The key obstacle of their communication is their emotion. Susan still could not forgive Richard‘s unconcern of their son’s death. She was angry. She was frustrated. Therefore, she cannot talk with Richard for this topic calmly. Other then emotion, politics is also one of the communication barriers. In the movie, when Amelia’s cousin cross the border from Mexico to America, the American police was very rude to him. The police treated him just like a criminal and did not respect him. The underlying cause for this is all about political. Since American always think that they are superior to the Mexican, and they think that many Mexican are drug trafficker, so

“Oh, right, I haven’t told you yet. You know how we got attacked by terrorists with our own planes? Well, since then, the government formed the TSA. They make sure fliers are safe to travel by checking for banned items through a metal detector and a conveyor belt that screens your baggage. So nowadays we have to get to our flights earlier than usual because of this line.” Alfred quickly said. It’s amazing what the government can get done when people die from a terrorist attack rather than a homicide at a public school.

Klotz, first officer to the captain on Avianca was a Colombian. He saw himself as a subordinate and did not stand up to the captain. He thought that he will intimidate the captain by giving orders. The air traffic control staff at Kennedy Airport is from a low power-distance culture. They fail to see any hierarchical gap between themselves and the pilots in the air which results in a huge communication gap.

Racism in America is like an epidemic that blinds society from common sense and brings out the cruelness and ruthlessness hidden within people. Since Alexie’s “Flight Patterns” takes place in a post 9/11 world, these cruelties are extremely prominent. Alexei uses this dramatic setting to distinctly point out the confining stereotypes that Americans have categorized minorities in. The main protagonist of this short story, William, is a Spokane Indian business man that is required to take many flights due to his job. Due to the recent events of 9/11, William is subjected to racist and cruel treatment. Whenever he takes a flight, there are always random pat-down searches. William said that he “figured he’d been pulled over for pat-down searches about 75 percent of the time” (Alexie, 60). This is due to the terrorism that had now become a new and fresh concern to the American people. William too finds himself also “looking around for suspicious brown guys” (63). This is ironic because according to the American society, he too is one of those suspicious brown guys. Another event, more cruel than a random pat-down that occurred to William took place soon after the events of 9/11. William explained that:

This text is a good reference point. This text is used to understanding communication within culture. This source also gave a better understanding

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.

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.

Viktor Navorski is a Krakozhia population. Krakozhia is the Eastern European nation where don’t use English to communicate. He flied to New York for follow his father’s dream. When he flied into JFK airport. Krakozhia has suspended the right to travel and canceled all passport from the old government. Therefore the US does not accept the new regime and must cancel his visa. Krakozhia has been taken over in a coup and it had a civil war in the country. He can’t enter New York including can’t back his country. He has to stay in the airport till the war cools down. The airport officials name Dixon tried to detract Viktor to escape into New York and he always fail. Viktor met Catherine Zeta Jones, a flight attendant, who was the girl he fall in

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

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.

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.

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