Human Communication - Essay Example

Intercultural Communication by Intercultural communication is a complex and multifaceted phenomena that has acquired special meaning in the recent decades. Globalization processes and the spread of the Internet have changed the paradigm of intercultural communication bringing new aspects, problems, and tasks to attention of the specialists. The development of transportation, aviation advance in particular, has led to intermingling of societies. Now it is easy to imagine the life of a person who grows up in China, studies in Europe, and then works in the United States of America. However, it does not mean that such quick and common shift of geographical locations, languages, and cultures will not lead to misunderstanding, problems, and even cultural gap. Since intercultural communication has become inevitable for achieving education, finding business partners abroad or simple travelling, human civilization faced the problem of effective management of this sphere of relationships. Each of these activities involves close contacts with the people whose image is formed only with the help of media. Internet, for example allows the societies to get the information about each other quickly and directly, however, it requires efforts, time, and preparation to achieve deep level of intercultural communication because there appear negative aspects and challenges in this kind of interaction. Moreover, with the Internet introduction many people have simply lost basic communicative skills as online communication substituted real. Thus, population of the planet has to look for new approaches to intercultural communication and solve the problems that had already appeared in this sphere. The necessity to define cultural identity as well as acquire cultural competence becomes crucial for effective intercultural communication. With fast pace of development of the global processes in politics, science, economy, and media, new concepts of intercultural communication, such as cultural identity, intercultural competence, appeared in the beginning of the XXI century. The concept of cultural identity has become important in understanding the challenges of intercultural communication. Cultural identity Kim states that cultural identity or the sense of belonging to the particular ethnicity has become an active component of intercultural communication (237). The author suggests that merging personal identity with group identity gives cultural identity as the result. This concept guarantees a sense of common origin and belonging that is why it is extremely important in the process of personal development of each personality (Kim 239). Identifiers of cultural identity are common for each person, they include race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, language, aesthetical view, cultural peculiarities, sexuality, and even culinary preferences. Achieving all information about personal cultural identity makes intercultural communication more effective and much more productive (Kim 238). Cultural identity representation in the culture that is new for the person is a demanding and complicated process, which requires certain cultural competence. Cultural identity as a concept brings to attention many cultural challenges and problems arising in communication. Global conflicts involve clash of cultural identities and the absence of information about a cultural identity of “the other”. Appearance of numerous prejudices, stereotypes, general unrealistic assumptions, discriminatory statements can be regarded as visible consequences of cultural identities negligence. Adherence to one identity and emerging into “other” culture requires basic cultural competence, which can solve cultural tension in most cases (Kim 250). It is worth noticing that cultural identities are basically defined more by contrast than the idea of common, in the same tome the idea of stranger is common and known to all the cultures. Due to racial, ethnical, and national sense of belonging we do not have any doubt who "we" are, however in some sense we need to figure out how to live with uncertainty of constant shifts of cultural merging and boundaries disappearing. Close study cultural identity brings even more questions to be answered. This is on due to the fact that it clearly centers on distinctions and the negative meanings that originate from any differences. On this favorable ground the concepts of racism, prejudice, and social rejections grow. That becomes one of the most visible challenges of intercultural communication. Psychological mechanism of this issue launces when we define our own self by an alternate common concept, and it gives a feeling of who we are not, or more probable who we would prefer not to be. This essentially prompts the denigration of the other and the admiration of us. Obviously, a direct social constructionist methodology to social character is useful; it demonstrates how a typical cultural identity is developed in connection to "standards". Thus, it is important to keep away from over generating of concepts of belonging in global context, as the concept of the other is always constructed with the help of differences underlining. For intercultural communication such identifying can be harmful and it is more reasonable to seek for common things rather than necessary differences (Clark 527). It could be presumed that cultural identity is fluid and unforeseen in connection to social circumstances. We may have various identities to picking a given setting. As the concept of cultural identity is flexible it is possible to use this privilege in communication barriers overcoming. In communication we may choose what traits to represent and how to make interaction more effective and pleasant for both parties (Clark 527) Cultural identity concept correlates with the notion of cultural competence. According to Stier, cultural competence presupposes knowing of the basic elements of the home culture as well as new culture in order to be able reinterpret personal cultural experience and elaborate new skills in communication. Such elements usually consist of language, history of the country, traditions, and peculiarities of non-verbal communication, preferences and restrictions of verbal communication, female and male roles in the society. Intercultural competence requires cognitive skills and substantial preparation (7). The difference sometimes are extremely striking if people from various continents start interaction, thus for Korean and Brazilian understanding each other in a right way will require much effort. This competence also presupposes an ability to place oneself to the place of the other during intercultural communication taking into account all volume of knowledge. Emotional receptivity is also necessary for developing cultural competence (Stier 8). Overall, intercultural competence requires from the participant to decode cultural cues and interpret verbal and non-verbal language of the participant from another country in a right way (Steir 8). Analysis of cultural signs distinguishes between cultural scales and aspects, including: individualism (individual incentives) and collectivism (group incentives); femininity (the conflict resolving according to the principle of identity, orientation on united collective and the best quality of life) and a masculinity(the conflict resolving in equal fight, orientation on the competitor); uncertainty avoiding (on requirement to a formalism or resistance against it); power distance (the actual or experienced distinction between hierarchical levels); monochrome (all actions are carried out consistently) and polychrome (many actions are carried out at the same time); structural signs (for example, orientation on values, feeling of time and space, selective perception, nonverbal communication and behavior manner) (Ratje 260). Justin Irvin distinguishes more concepts helpful for intercultural competence: Intellectual, Psychological, and Personal Capitals. The first concept consists of volume of knowledge and general cultural awareness of the specific culture. Psychological Capital focuses on emotional sensitivity, and empathy towards “other” phenomena. Social Competence is the driving force to acquiring knowledge about the culture, so called passion (Irvin 5). All these concepts provide general understanding of the complexity of factors to be taken into account in the process of intercultural communication. For countries which are built on the base of different identities absorption such as the United States of America or Canada, cultural competence becomes daily requirement. It is easy to perceive intercultural communication as simple and universal today as the World Wide Web gives impression of global connection, and English language knowledge allows expressing basic thoughts and requirements in almost any country of the world. Moreover, according to Irving, the widespread of world brands has also caused the appearance of homogeneous world culture. When the traveler, for instance, flies from Chicago to Shanghai and sees well-known brands as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, he might mistake market globalization with intercultural homogeneousness (3). However, this assumption is deceptive as there are strong cultural identities of each person. Cultural identities on the one hand perform their positive functions by giving the owner the sense of racial, ethnical, national, and language belonging. And on the other hand emphasize differences as the means of identifications. This attention to the differences serves the ground for biases, stereotypes, and discrimination appearance. Thus, dealing with complex issue of cultural identity in intercultural communication is a primary thing. Here cultural competence turns out to be helpful and effective notion. This concept simple means learning, understanding cultural peculiarities of own culture as well as the culture of the contacting person. Such information may include language, traditions, ethical, and moral norms. Thus, for contacting with representatives of the other cultures effectively, cultural competence is obligatory. Creating real deep intercultural communication requires long preparation and substantial amount of knowledge which gives cultural competence as the result, however with real desire it is possible to cope with all the challenges of intercultural communication. References Irvin, J. (2010). Educating global leaders: Exploring intercultural competence in leadership education, Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 1-13. Clarck, S. (2008). Culture and Identity. The SAGE handbook of cultural analysis. Retrieved from: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/healeyregc6e/study/chapter/encycarticles/ch01/CLARKE~1.PDF Kim, Y. (2007). Ideology, identity, and intercultural communication: an analysis of differing academic conceptions of cultural identity, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36 (3), 237–253. Rathje, S. (2007). Intercultural Competence: The Status and Future of a Controversial Concept. Journal for Language and Intercultural Communication, 7(4), 254–266 Stier, J. (2006). Internationalisation, intercultural communication and intercultural competence, Journal of General Psychology, 11, 1-13. Read More