The Importance Of Intercultural Communication

Growing up, I didn’t really get the chance to have a lot of intercultural experiences. I really didn’t get the chance to actually speak one on one with someone from a completely different culture either. I must say, meeting with my conversation partner, Elena, even if we only met the two times so far, really opened my eyes and helped me learn a lot. I did not think that cultures could vary as much as they do. From meeting with my conversation partner, I learned that the social norms to me are not the social norms to everyone.

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.

Intercultural communication is defined as when people communicate with one another who have different cultures. They may differ because of their languages, beliefs, values, and behavioral characteristics (Bennett, 1998). The intercultural communication plays a key role in globalization. It will help organizations to have a long-term success if they can manage the cultural differences and intercultural cooperation effectively to conflicts. Increasing shared knowledge and dealing with miscommunication are the two main factors for having a successful intercultural communication. However, the difference in discourse systems is the most miscommunication issue that leads individuals to misunderstand and misinterpret to the contents or messages

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

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 the workplace, various individuals with diverse upbringings and thought processes to come together to reach a common work-related goal. As the workplace becomes more globalized, individuals from various cultures are working together; however, individuals working in a globalized environment need interculturally communicative adaptations for working between cultures. In this paper, I will discuss the role of intercultural communication competence (ICC) in the workplace and how study abroad can implement the skills to perform in an intercultural environment. Then, I will tie this information into my intended future communication studies and career options.

Languages, behaviour patterns and the values cause the differences in all the existing cultures in the world. People have different ways to communicate with each other and how to react to information. Especially for the international business, multinational communication is essential. Understanding the many types of communication, is a subject of importance to act successful as a global player. Furthermore, there are great benefits through intercultural communication like:

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.

What is it that draws college students together in their relationships whether it be romantic or friendly? Many times when looking at how information is accessed about a certain person, there is either a passive or aggressive approach to getting to know them. There is some groundwork that is needed in order to properly understand how to approach a potential romantic partner/friend and continue along with maintaining that relationship. I chose the Uncertainty Reduction Theory to both add context and clarity to conundrum. In addition to that I also connected both Intercultural Communication and Romance Relations to allocate my ideas effectively on the subject. While contemplating all of these things it prompted me to conduct a research survey to further my understanding in how communication works in many college students seeking relationships. I found there were trends that were apparent unilaterally across both sexes in college-aged students. There is no shock that with the spike in technology/social media college students have more access than ever to potential mates. It really helps to relieve the uncertainty when building relationships in the college realm. In this research there were six primary sources to ground my thinking and focus my train of thought in the process.

Disruptions in intercultural communication regarding the law are subject to no limitations. Whether the issue lies between defendant and plaintiff, or the problem arises between lawyer and jury, lawyer and judge, and even lawyer and client, the disconnects are plenty. Effective communication is essential for the judicial system to work properly, and without proper and mindful correspondence, the system inevitably fails. Intercultural communication refers to the exchanging of information between people from different cultures; according to a study conducted by two anthropologists in the 1950’s, there were greater than 164 definitions of the word ‘culture,’ making the act of Intercultural Communication an ambiguous one. With many participants in the courtroom from different foreign cultural sectors, several challenges arise in the proceedings of daily practice, so by having a strength in intercultural competence, the person in question has an obvious edge. By recalling one’s own cultural heritage and addressing the theoretical foundations of intercultural communication, competence is significantly increased. Without this increased form of competence, it is difficult to maintain an unbiased outlook in between the barristers. Some strategies that are used to ensure that the misunderstandings are minimal include the destruction of language barriers, empathy towards other cultures and customs, and increasing the commonalities between

rent individuals or groups, with different cultural descents. Culture, religion, and race, have all been created by us humans, and this has created a system of domination in the past between different races because of the European colonizers. In the book Intercultural Communication by Kathryn Sorrells, She explains, “As Europeans expanded their reach around the globe in the 15th to 19th centuries, intercultural contact on a scale perviously unknown occurred. In theses “encounters,” any “differences” and most especially differences as they were marked or represented through the body were constructed as significant and were infused with meaning through a hierarchical racial system that justified and promoted domination and exploitation” (Page 60-61). This shows us that centuries ago, the idea of race was created and has been passed along through many generations. If this idea of what we call “race” was never created there would not be any parting between individuals and how these individuals communicate with each other based on their cultures. In the article “Place and Kinship,” by Donald Andrew Grinde, he gives us a great example of how history influenced intercultural interactions for his culture and race. In this article Grinde says, “I also understood, from the start, that by sticking to a realistic interpretation of American Indian history from the Native American viewpoint I would not gain friends and influence people in the upper echelons of the historical profession

The first statement asserts that because every culture is immensely different, communication is virtually impossible across different cultures. This is obviously not true as cultures share a common purpose, and most often have common symbols and boundaries (McClean 88). While language can be a barrier to communication across different cultures, it’s often symbols or phrases that are harder to overcome rather than the language barrier (McLean 90). Cross-cultural communication can be understood; however, we must understand ourselves and the interactions we have with others (Klopf 31). Communication between different cultures is very attainable because cultures are more similar than different.

All communication is cultural. It ties to where we 've grown up, how we have learned to speak, and even how we have learned to communicate nonverbally. That being said, intercultural communication or "the symbolic exchange process whereby individuals from two or more different cultural communities attempt to negotiate shared meaning in an interactive situation" is an ever evolving discipline (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2012, p. 5). In today 's world, intercultural communication will be extremely important, because after all, diversity and the need for cultural awareness will only be increasing. In light of this, over the course of this semester I have partnered with an international student, to see just how intercultural communication actively takes place in everyday communication events. In the following few pages, I will talk about several communication events I have shared with this student so far, and evaluate them for what may or may not make them effective in intercultural communication.