Human beings like to be with people similar to themselves. This is because they share the same values and act by similar rules. When we are with people who are similar to ourselves, the ways we do the things seem like common sense. But, sometimes work or study or a sense of adventure takes people out of their comfort zone. By understanding intercultural communication everyone can be aware of how to make the interaction between people from other cultures a positive experience.
In everyday usage, the term culture refers to arts, literature, and philosophy. However, the term culture has a much broader meaning that goes far beyond simple personal refinements. The only re¬quirement for being cultured is to be human. Thus, all people have culture.
Moreover cul¬ture is everything that people have, think, and do as members of their society (Ferraro 2002: 19). The three verbs in this definition (have, think, and do) can help us identify the three major struc¬tural components of the concept of culture; that is,
…show more content…
Today when many multi-national and global companies appear, it is unlikely to do business without communicating cross culturally. This millennium was viewed as era that global organizations will increasingly focus on the critical value of cross-cultural communication process, efficiency and competence and cost of doing business. Effective cross-cultural communication in global economy provides with tools about how to define a communication strategy, train representatives and conduct business talks in order to achieve success. By understanding how people identify the world, their values and beliefs, we can better understand what they mean and anticipate potential cross-cultural misunderstandings. For better understanding intercultural communication we need to understand what we mean by using the terms ethnocentrism, stereotypes, prejudice, language and non-Verbal
A little cross-cultural communication can go along way, and can put us on the right track to a better and more equal
Culture refers to the social heritage of a people- those learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items. Culture provides the meanings that enable human beings to interpret their experiences and guide their actions (Hughes and Kroehler, 2013). The African culture have played a role in our society for many years. America is known for its diversity and is called the melting pot.
One major problem I have encounter with the Hispanic population is how they distrust their medical provider if the provider is of a different race and does not speak their language and/or understand their culture. A large number of the patient’s we see only speaks Spanish and are from low socioeconomic status, some with little reading and writing comprehension. To complicated the situation they do not share with the medical staff or physician that they cannot read or write. Not being able to communicate makes it difficult to assess pain level; it can lead to the patient taking the medication incorrectly, and makes its difficult to build a relation with the physician. In a study done on 2014, the diabetic patient health outcome was improved
Culture is significant in forming our World’s history along with defining what a society is. Cultural impact will always exist due to history and national pride. But what exactly is a culture? To Americans, culture is the everywhere. Within our pop music, fashion, cuisine, and much more.
As you can tell from the videos, without knowing anything at the beginning, it is impossible to understand what other cultures are, but I also felt that it is also impractical to overcome all of these 6 stumbling blocks of intercultural communication. For example, if you don’t assume something, you become anxious and that navigates us to another issue that she mentioned, which was stress. The misinterpretations of nonverbal communication are something that is linked with assumption. All of these issues are big issues that prevent us from communicating fully. However I believe there is something more important to us, for example like how fully interested we are in cultures, how optimistic we are to this subject, how much we realize that there are ubiquitous cultural conflicts to cultures in the world.
My interest in intercultural communication and determination of pursuing a career in international education motivated me to apply for the MA ICBP at Warwick University. The decision has been carefully made based on my bachelor degree in International Communications Studies with Spanish, voluntary teaching in primary schools in China and Cameroon. After graduation, I wish to work for as an administrative coordinator in an international education institution or as a program manager of NGO, promoting quality education. With 3-5 year working experience, I will head for a PhD degree to prepare myself for a research-oriented position. Undertaking my bachelor degree in the first Sino foreign university, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), is the first step for me to engage in cross-cultural communication as a learner.
A culture, by definition, is a set of shared beliefs within a society; learning how to interact with people from different cultures is important in order to communicate and work with each other. It helps us become understanding of one another and widens our perspective of what the world has to offer. To be able to cross cultural communicate with others, the first step is to be aware that every culture is complex and has its differences. While traveling to new countries and trying to understand each other, there is a large possibility of miscommunication, which can come in the form of misinterpreting messages or body language; therefore, it is crucial to keep an open mind whilst communicating. There are multitudes of factors in various cultures that play a role in decision making, so being aware of the expectations that are influenced by someone’s culture will help you understand their choices.
Our one-to-one connections with each other are the foundation for change. And building relationships with people from different cultures, often many different cultures, is key in building diverse communities that are powerful enough to achieve significant goals. Trusting relationships are the glue that hold people together as they work on a common problem. As people work on challenging problems, they will have to hang in there together when things get hard. They will have to support each other to stay with an effort, even when it feels discouraging.
Culture is the way of life. Culture is generally the beliefs, behaviors, practices, and artifacts a social group shares with each other through commonality. This is rather interchanged with “society” which is difference because society talks about the people who share a common territory or definable region and culture. Culture will not exists without a society, and neither would society exists without culture. Culture consists of two types: material culture, the tangible objects that may be used as symbols to cultural ideas or belongings to society, and nonmaterial culture, the ideas and attitudes of a society, of which both types are linked to each other.
Culture is a belief system commonly shared in the society. Every human in a society share a common value and behavior distinct from other people, depending on where one was raised. That being said, I like to compare and contrast three divergent characteristics and describe which one I hail from. Individualist versus collectivist Individualistic culture is a culture where people cherish liberty and privacy and often trust their personal ability to emerge victorious and successful in their endeavors. Whereas, in a collectivist culture, people emphasizes the collective need of the society in general.
The interaction can be described as more interpersonal than intercultural as a result of the degree of interactant is drawing on personality traits, personal values and experience. When people from different cultural background become close to each other, their interactions typically move along the continuum from more intercultural to more interpersonal, though intercultural elements may always play a role. There is no doubt that no matter for casual or business communication, be sensitive to intercultural communication is always a key to achieve
Cultural identity plays a very vital role in cross cultural communication, people from a particular culture communicate with partners and employees from many different cultures and in this situation every individual strives to keep their cultural and individual identity. According to Gardiner and Kosmitzki, identity is defined as “a person 's self-definition as a separate and distinct individual, including behaviours, beliefs, and attitudes” (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2008, p. 154). Also, Ting-Toomey defines identity as a "reflective self-conception or self-image that we each derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization process"( Ting-Toomey, 2005). Both definitions bring out the generalisation of cultural identity
Cultural Analysis of China The definition of culture is; the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time. Mainland China has a rich and prosperous culture which dates back more than 4,000 years, which is full of Chinese culture and history. China has a colorful history, which focuses on more traditional aspects like food, customs, and the life style of its people. The Chinese people have shared a common culture longer than any other group of people on earth.
“Rules of different kinds guide all communicative interaction, and the learning of rules and of their proper application is essential to our becoming competent members of our society.” This statement means that rules are important in intercultural and interpersonal communication. Intercultural and interpersonal communications are guided by different rules such as family rules and social rules among others. People have to observe the rules of intercultural and interpersonal communication to communicate with different societies.
Abstract Communicating successfully with people from different cultures can be a real challenge. Cultural differences may lead to tensions, arguments, and even wars between peoples and nations. This paper deals with one of the most common problems in intercultural communication cultural shock, it introduces its concepts and basic traits, causes and symptoms, stages of adjustment and strategies of overcoming culture shock with the aim of improving intercultural communication competence for smoothing intercultural communication. Key words: Cultural shock; Intercultural communication; Stages of adjustment; Intercultural communication competence Wang, M. L. (2015).