Causes And Disadvantages Of Misunderstandings

Misunderstanding is a communication phenomenon that we often experience in our life. Especially, when we communicate with people from different cultures, the misunderstanding is inevitable. In reality, there are many possible reasons for these cases. But in my opinion, the main reasons are owing to language differences, different communication styles and non-verbal misinterpretation. The important thing here is what will we have to do in order to avoid misunderstanding, does not let it results in cultural conflicts. The first reason of misunderstanding is language differences. Different languages may lead misunderstand happened as they are using their own languages to express their ideas. The fact is that in the world, there many

Although language is the most obvious barrier in intercultural encounters, non-verbal communication is also known to vary misunderstandings and cultural conflicts. Nonverbal communication expresses meaning or feeling without words. They refer to body language, gestures, touch, and facial expression and so on. The gestures, symbols or body positioning for these phrases often differs across cultures. For instance, in America and some of Europe, the thumbs up sign means that something is good. Meanwhile in Australia, Iran this sign is considered rude, Nigeria’s very offensive. Another gesture’s the "fig", in Turkish, Greek or Dutch culture is a commonly obscene, but this symbol of good luck in Brazilian culture. Steps should also be taken to overcome these problems could be solved by learning about the meaning of non-verbal signals, you should absorb correctly its meanings in each particular country . You should not stereotypically think that all non-verbal communication styles are the same everywhere. What is more, sharing your cultural norms and learning about those of the sojourner will help you better understand and cope with different nonverbal