Cultural Differences In Intercultural Communication By Laray M. Barna

Have you ever visited another country? There may have been some kind of misunderstandings within the people there, because of the differences between our cultures. I know I have experienced this before, for instance, when I moved back to Japan from Brazil. I was surprised by the differences between the way we think, just by being at the other side of Earth. So, when our teacher assigned us to read Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication by Laray M. Barna, many of her ideas related to my own. You can read her essay here, for more information. In this article, Ms. Barna has mentioned six key factors we have to overcome to create a better environment for intercultural communication. The six factors included the assumptions of similarities, the language difference, nonverbal misinterpretations, tendency to evaluate, stress, and culture shock. I believe that these all had an idea of "ethnocentrism." According to dictionary.com, ethnocentrism is an evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of

After he walked her home, he realized he had deep interests in her. A while later, the man decided to send a bouquet of chrysanthemum to the lady. However, it has been knocked off and was accidentally placed in front of the woman's doorstep. This led to everyone assuming that the lady has died and left flowers at the front of the doorsteps even though she was just fine. This was because in Italy, each flower had different meanings to them, other than just the beauty of it. Chrysanthemum was a flower which meant funerals and sadness. On the other hand, in Britain, you choose the flowers according to how pretty they are. This relates to the assumption of similarity, where the British man thought the culture of flowers was the same, and the tendency to evaluate, as the Italian neighbors assumed the woman has