What Is Intercultural Reflection

Culture is a shared set of values and norms between certain groups of people. These values and norms are unconsciously presented in the interactions and communications of the cultural group, which they do on a daily basis. Therefore, the behavior of people on different occasions would reflect their culture in a way or the other. I had the fortunate experience of attending a Thanksgiving lunch with a few American friends of mine last year. It turned out to be a warm and culturally rich experience, which showed a great vision about the cultural values and norms of the Americans, and how they celebrate the occasion of Thanksgiving.

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

Communication involves more than exchanging words between people. Gestures, postures, facial expressions and even eye contacts are important during communication. Both verbal and nonverbal cues are important during communication and can help a person understand the speaker or listener’s emotions, attitudes or status. Understanding the existence of various cultures is necessary since different cultures have varying ways of communication (Lustig & Koester, 2012). Therefore, a communication style that is perceived as bad by a culture may be good in another culture. Besides, characteristics that may be essential for a particular culture may be quite irrelevant for another. In line with this dissimilarity, individuals need to adapt carefully and understand communication preferences and desires among cultures.

To me interpersonal communication describes the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between two different people. Joseph DeVito states that “interpersonal communication is inevitable, irreversible, and unrepeatable” due to these things effective communication is a necessary skill for us to function in our day to day lives (p. 20). Therefore, I have created a theory for interpersonal communication that goes as follows; To experience effective communication you must understand: your culture, the other person’s culture, and how to listen effectively. By knowing these three things you can consistently avoid misunderstandings and promote understanding in your interpersonal and intercultural relationships.

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.

The purpose of the survey is to bring awareness to the need for an understanding of intercultural communication. Everything that happens within a school, and in particular in the classroom, involves communication. Communication is the act of sharing information. On occasion, communication involves the use of oral or written verbal symbols. Sometimes, communication involves various types of non-verbal symbols, including gestures and facial expressions..

Have you ever wanted to view the world through another person’s eyes? Well, recently I received the chance to do just that. I was able to take a quick glimpse into the Asian culture and see their view on family, culture and life in general. Truth be told, my views and thoughts on their culture was way off. In this study, I was able to interview sung (sun) on his view of the Asian culture. After applying the communication concepts of verbal and non-verbal communication, I found that Asians are more of a formal and direct culture than mine and a few others as well.

In modern society, interpersonal communications refer to communication betwee two or more people. Meanwhile the verbal interpersonal communication is one of the major element for interpersonal communication, such as sounds and word choice, and it is the oral, spoken and unwritten way of the communication (Beebe, 2002). During the process of communication, most people will meet the situattion about the cross-cultural. cross-cultural can be defined as the interaction and comparison of different cultures (Beebe, 2002). Therefore, the verbal interpersonal communication and cross cultural awareness will be useful. In the following, I will reflect on the verbal interpersonal cultural based my experience and analyse how to develop cross cultural awareness.

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?

Cultural shock is the culture of a country that is different from a home country; it is not told in the book but depends on individuals’ experiences. People usually have many emotions while adapting to a foreign culture, changing from excitement and interest in the new culture to depression and fear of the unknown. For instance, there are some culture shocks that visitors who move from Thailand to America may encounter such as the tip culture, greeting strangers, and meeting friends of friends. For the first culture shock, there is not a tipping culture in Thailand. Some people pay a tip when they go to a restaurant, but some do not; paying a tip usually depends on a person’s desire. In contrast, paying a tip is almost necessary in America. When visitors go to a restaurant, they have to pay tip at least 15% of the cost of the main meal. It means they have to calculate an appropriate amount of tip to be given to the servers, and the cost of the tip also rises along with the cost of meal. For the second culture shock, people in Thailand neither say greetings nor smile at strangers. In America, however, it is not unusual to say “hi”, “how are you?” or smile at strangers while walking on the street or when buying groceries in the supermarket. For the last culture shock, people in Thailand seldom meet their friends’ friends while in America, it is not unusual to have a meal with friends’ friends, whether knowing each other or not (Hyun 1). On the other hand, another example of culture shock is when visitors move from other countries to Thailand. There are some culture shocks that they will face such as meeting and greeting, taking off shoes, and respecting the anthem. According to www.expatarrivals.com, for meeting and greeting in Thailand, it is very different than in many other countries. Thai people always greet each other by placing the palm of their hands together at

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.

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

Thai people like to share things especially food. Thai people like to go out and eat with friends. One of the Thai habits when eating includes ordering many dishes and put them in the center for sharing. While for foreigner, they have a habit of ordering a few dishes for themselves because they do not want to share their food. They only order the food that they want to eat. But for Thai people eating together and sharing is a fun and sociable things to do. Thai people may find foreigners are not sociable because they don’t share things such as food.