Positive Aspects Of Intercultural Relationships

Abdullah (1995) proposed that Self-awareness, knowledge, and respect for other cultures are key elements in transcultural

ASSIGNMENT: Achieving competence as an interpersonal communicator in a diverse society is necessary to your personal and professional success. One way to enhance our understanding of interpersonal communication as a relationship-building activity is to engage in first hand dialogue with people from cultures other than your own. This assignment gives you the opportunity to engage in the dual perspective – honoring the perspective of the person with whom you are communicating as well as honoring your own perspective. You are also able to contrast your worldview with the perspective of someone with a different life experience than your

The harmony of the existing cultures is crucial for the survival and success of any communication and ignoring these aspects may challenge the communication. For example, speaking to employees in Middle East is quite different from Switzerland; talking about personal things is acceptable by Swiss. Individuals who move to other countries unprepared for cultural differences may face unpleasant frustration when communicating. However, those who try to learn other cultures are likely to avoid individual tragedies. For example, Americans doing business in Mexico need to learn the local language to enhance interactions with the locals.

The first point in my theory is that you can better your skills as an interpersonal communicator by better understanding your own culture. DeVito states that there are. “several major cultural distinctions that are crucial for more effective communication” they are: individualism or collectivism, high or low context, high or low power distance, masculinity or femininity, high or low ambiguity tolerance, long or short term orientation, and indulgent or (p. 34). To be able to understand your or anyone else’s culture you must be able to understand the ways that these things affect communication. Once you understand the ways that you are oriented in these seven categories due to enculturation you can understand how you communicate and become a more effective

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.

People who interact with different cultures find that their values and interest are similar and began to see themselves as mates forging an intercultural relationship that turns into marriage.

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.

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.

Breaking stereotypes: we live to be different and at the same time, attempt to fit in with the way society dictates. Usually a few people out of certain groups of people who live and do things differently than our standard perspective, we put those groups of people, (after judging only a few), in the proverbial nutshell known as stereotype. Stereotyping is an indication of one group of people exhibiting superiority over another group of people usually by some sort of negative connotation that undermines their values. Intercultural relationships helps to break down these type of negative actions allowing for a different perspective and a better understanding. (Trulymadly, 2014)

No matter how many examples I bring about the subject, the key word will always be open-mindedness. This is what languages give you: you learn to be open-minded. Open-minded to the world, to other cultures and people. Your horizon will not remain within your own country but extend to the globe. This is such a broad variety of opportunities and views. You will be able to cooperate, negogiate and compromise. You will be able to bridge the gap among cultures! Moreover, you will be able to appreciate international literature and music in their original and most expressive form.

Being able to understand how people from different cultures and religions communicate, interact, and perceive the environment around them allows for the formation of important guidelines and practices which help combat and avoid anxiety and uncertainty in government, business, and personal intercultural relationships for the purpose of efficient negotiations and merges different cultures into more tolerant cohesive existence.

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

The world has become hugely interconnected over the last couple of year. With globalization being the preferred mode of operation for many businesses, the world has become borderless. Developments made in the field of information communication technology have also played a key role in helping bridge the gap that exists between people from different regions of the world. Thus, the world has become more interconnected with a lot of intercultural sharing. These developments have made it easier for businesses to penetrate and dominate foreign markets. In their videos on Ted talk, both Peter Alfandary and James Sun argue that there is a need for people to try to learn about other cultures as this enhances relation and understanding among people. The paper presents an analysis of existing research and current trends that reiterate or disapprove the views held by these narrators. It seeks to show that though globalization has taken root in today’s world, there is a need to take an interest in learning other cultures as this will ensure a better understand especially when doing business.

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.