The Importance Of Cross-Cultural Communication

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

The book includes some psychological research to explain how our minds prevent us from admitting our mistakes. The authors propose valuable solutions to promote insight, honesty, and personal awareness. Although self-justification seems to be challenging to understand, Tavris and Aronson give very helpful advice that can make relationships successful.

They point out that assumptions are based on our own feelings. For example, if we feel hurt, then the other person must have meant to hurt us. Furthermore, we should acknowledge the hurt feelings of the other, even if this was not our intent. The final component of the “what happened” conversation is the problem with the assignment of blame, which inhibits the ability to learn about the cause of the problem or to collaborate to fix it. The authors remind us that “…blame is about judging and contribution is about understanding (p. 59).” Attention should be focused on examining each person’s contribution to the problem with a goal of understanding cause and avoiding future problems. An effective “what happened” conversation illuminates the fact that the situation is more complex than either party’s original perception. Next, the authors discuss the importance of having a “feelings” conversation. Although emotions frequently drive difficult conversations, people often ignore them. However, unaddressed feelings generally re-emerge to impair understanding, hinder listening, and damage relationships. Although feelings do not always make sense, they still exist and require acceptance, so that both parties can feel understood. The third conversation is one that we have with ourselves about what this situation means about our personal identity. We may question our competence, goodness, or

According to my experiences and different sources of theories, the challenges aside from languages which we have faced in communicating with people from a different country are dialects and complicated term, nonverbal languages, and languages disabilities. The first challenge we have confronted in communication with people from a different country is dialects. Each country consists of several regions which might have diverse dialects and complex terms, consequently it is difficult for non-native person, who don’t completely understand that languages to interpret the real meaning. Therefore, dialectical diversity can be a cause of misunderstanding and gaps between communication. Another barrier aside from different languages communication is

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.

In the book Communicating with strangers: An Approach to Intercultural Communication, Gudykunst, and Kim state,” Whenever you interact with others, you interpret their communication in part by drawing on information from your schemata. But your schemata is are filled with the beliefs, attitudes, and values you learned in your own culture.” People from different cultures perceive the meaning of certain communication very differently as Nancy Adler states in International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior, “ Cross-cultural communication continually involves misunderstanding caused by misperception, misinterpretation, and misevaluation. When the sender of a message comes from one culture and the receiver from another, the chances of accurately transmitting a message are low. Foreigners see, interpret, and evaluate things differently, and consequently act upon them differently.” Culture usually ends up being the main factor in how people perceive communication because to communicate effectively with people you have to perceive it in the same

Many assume that their daily life and basic education is enough to be fluent in communication, gender and culture, but they are severely mistaken. As our society becomes more diverse the need to learn about communication and culture increases ever more, for with communication and understanding of one's identification, we can limit and decrease the bigotry in the world. Therefore, allowing to build a stronger foundation for a better society.

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

This paper is about comparing and contrasting the American style of communication and that of Bahrain. Different countries have their own interpretation for every single issue based on their culture background and their way of thinking. The most significant characteristics of American culture are: individualism, equality, competition, freedom and privacy, action orientation, directness, particularity, and a problem solving orientation. In Bahrain is somewhat the same as other Arab countries, religion faith and local traditions play a large role in the people’s lives, although Bahrain constitution is more liberal compared with other

Healthy relationships are unattainable without honest and efficient communication. Relationships with strong and effective communication can flourish, while those without these links crack under pressure. When communication occurs in all facets of a relationship, it enhances the connection between people. Facades are lifted and concerns are discussed without fear of dismissal, all while strengthening the bonds between people. Relationships amplify both the positive and negative aspects in everyone, and without dynamic communication in all aspects, relationships collapse under life's stress and adversity.

Today, we are going to discuss and review How to Communicate Effectively in Cross-Cultural Communication.

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 society today, people have friends that belong to numerous diverse cultural groups. When it comes to meeting new people from unique cultural groups, the form of communication are all different. Those that do not use the correct form of communication when encountering new people from different ethnicity, it can lead to misunderstanding and tremendous conflicts. For instance, I am Vietnamese and in our culture, the way people communicate determines their characteristics, personalities, and how educated they are. This is extremely important in my culture since it reveals how we treat adults and if we admire them or not. On the other hand, my friend Yary, who is Cambodian, her way of communicating defines how respectful one is, based on their tone. The Cambodian and the Vietnamese’s lifestyle tends to have multiple similarities, but also have a few differences about certain topics. When it comes to communicating, the situational context, physical appearance, and self presentation all plays a different role in every heritage. To learn extend my knowledge about different cultures and their way of communicating, I interviewed my friend Yary, to compare and contrast our way of communicating through our culture.

Cross-cultural communication is the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimizes antagonism, that is, it looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavour to communicate. The study of cross-cultural communication was originally found within businesses and the government both seeking to expand globally. Communication is interactive, so an important influence on its effectiveness is our relationship with others. All communication is cultural -- it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages. We do not always

As Jeane Kirkpatrick once said, “Cross cultural experience and communication teaches us not simply that people have different beliefs, but that people seek meaning and understand themselves and others in some sense as members of a universe ruled by God.” Effective cross cultural communication with people of different cultures can be especially challenging. Culture itself provides human beings with different ways of thinking and responding, which includes a variety of different ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. While there are ways of translating the language of other cultures in order to have the ability to effectively use cross cultural communication (most specifically for collaborative purposes), the same words can mean different things to different people from different cultures, even when they speak the same language. In fact, when languages are diverse, and translation has to be used to communicate (cross cultural), the potential for misunderstandings and difficulty rises. In the case of “Strategies for Smooth and Effective Cross-Cultural Online Collaborative Learning” written by Junfeng Yang, Kinshuk Huiju, Sue-Jen Chen, and Ronghuai Huang, describes the difficulties with cross cultural communication and the findings of a study done by Hangzhou Normal University (China), Athabasca University (Canada), and University of North Caroline (United States) about this difficult subject and its gravity