Intercultural Conflict

Whether we are aware of it or not contact zones are prevalent throughout are daily lives. I try to look past it and I feel like we all do but it’s something I can’t escape. I’m constantly reminded of the contact zone that we live in whether by the personal experience, word of mouth, or the media. I see the fight between multiple cultural groups, leading to the oppression of the inferior group and the dominance of the superior group. The social differences of people have been around since man existed. I experience it all the time in my daily life with small issues, as well as larger issues, contact zones always seem to be appearing. I ask myself all the time what really is a contact zone? A contact zone is not only the clash or emergence of contrasting cultural groups, but the thought that one sees himself/herself as better than the other.

There are several different positive and unique aspects of intercultural relationships. Intercultural relationships allow individuals to understand other people of different cultures, ethnicities, gender and etc. It is interesting understanding other peoples beliefs as well as how they have lived there life’s. A positive aspect of intercultural relationships is the difference between the two people. I think it is interesting learning how other people think and how they were brought up. When you are in an intercultural relationship you get to understand how that person feels about certain situations that they have been through. You get to learn who that person truly is.

Cultural dissonance is an uncomfortable sense of discord, disharmony, confusion or conflict experienced by people in the midst of change in their cultural environment. When I migrated to Australia a few years back, it was the first time I had travelled to a Western country. I went shopping to a supermarket and asked the Sales Assistant for a specific ingredient which we use for cooking. He could not understand my English accent and called the manager for help. When the manager came to help us, I explained the ingredient which I wanted and was trying to explain her use of the ingredient. The manager could not understand what I was explaining and midway she told me that first I should go and learn English in a manner that Australians can

the purpose of this paper is to describe the author’s second encounter with cultural immersion within the community of older homeless individuals. This reflection paper outlines what occurred, the experience, challenges faced, and emotions and thoughts of what transpired. As this project coming to an end, the student expresses a deep level of understanding of the population presented.

EBOOK COLLECTION: Schultz, K. M. (2012). HIST2, Volume 1 (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage

We line up for lunch. Mrs. Price thinks thinks everything’s okay after I gave the sweater to Phyllis Lopez, which made me upset, so I yelled at Phyllis, “You ruined my birthday!” Phyllis ignored me, which made me furious, so I step on her foot. Then she did it back to me, and Mrs. Price sees that and we both get in trouble. Mrs. Price give us a warning, but I decided to calm down instead of breaking down again.

The primary cause of the problem faced by officials and citizens is that ethical matters are not clear to the citizens. Most people abide by the ethnic issues in a succession of generations. Although many people do not understand the ethnic concerns and issues they would obey them fully. The misunderstanding of the racial issues poses a significant problem to the officials. If the ethnic issues were made clearer, the chances are that there would be no problem for counsels and officials in handling critical ethnic issues. The construction of policy proposals would become a grave concern in regions where communities maintain complicated ethical considerations. The construction of important ideas in the regions dominated by strong ethical beliefs

A current cultural conflict taking place in America today is religious. Many Americans discriminate against the Islamic faith and there have been countless acts of mistreatment of Muslims in the work place, at school, in public, and in the media. Negative feelings and acts toward Muslims have become so prevalent that in 1991 the Runnymede Trust Report coined a term for it. The report defined the “unfounded hostility toward Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims” as “Islamophobia” (Defining “Islamophobia”). There has always been some religious cultural conflict with Muslims in the United States, but since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, conflict has escalated significantly.

"Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are nuisance at best and often a disaster." - Dr. Geert Hofstede

Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze

When dealing with an intercultural conflict, it is important to keep in mind the cultural differences that keep either side from approaching the situation in the same manner. This paper will illustrate a conflict between a Vietnamese teacher and an American teacher. It will then explain the way that the Vietnamese culture views conflict. Followed by the way an American would view conflict. Finally, it will explain how both sides could proceed when dealing with another intercultural conflict. This example of conflict appears to be very simple but given that the Vietnamese culture is a collectivist culture; it can be very complicated.

Intergroup conflict is when members of a group have hostility towards one another. This can be seen in the cases of juvenile delinquents within a detention center who are also members of active gangs. They all have one thing in common – they are part of a group (the detention center) and are part of smaller groups (their individual gangs). These differences cause the intergroup conflicts.

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.

As a ‘becoming’ novel in the sense that it is a coming of age text, Nervous Conditions tells of the conflicts between individual, familial and cultural. The novel highlights the conflict that individuals meet when defining identity in a hybrid national and ethnical environment (Eslamieh). The coming of age being portrayed, revealing the hybrid between child and adult, allows the characters of Tambu and Nyasha to metaphorically reflect their conflicting hybrid surroundings through their grappling of such elements throughout the novel. Their contradicting reactions therefore reflect the contradicting outcomes which may occur from the intermingling of national and ethnical environments.

In the eyes of a strict culture descendant, the American culture would be a mockery to the traditional Pakistani culture. My daily life has been surrounded by American traditions as opposed to my parents ' expectations pertaining to their culture. The Pakistani culture revolves around many aspects including education, marriage and family, body image, and interactions with the public. Education is highly stressed in typical Pakistani families, and most families prefer their children to become doctors or lawyers since both professions hold an elite position in society. The marriage aspect tends to aggravate the Pakistani community, including me, which is only bounded to arranged marriages, leaving it to the parents to make a lifelong decision for their children. Body image is generally pertained to women, who are obliged to dressing “modestly” or otherwise, would be considered “shameless.” Interactions with the public are also limited to women, who are restricted from any contact with males, and critically forbidden to have any sexual relations before marriage. These cultural restrictions and practices are associated with my parents ' expectations towards me, which disharmonize and create conflict with the current society. I 've been absorbed into the black hole of American morals and standards and it 's inconceivable to depart from its hollow atmosphere.