Intercultural Issues in Communication - Term Paper Example

Intercultural Issues in Communications Globalization changed the face of the world as we know it today. Although globalization has been with us throughout history, the 20th and 21st century saw a spate of rapid migration and travel, speedier communications and more effective delivery of information. With the increase in the number of people from different countries with different beliefs and cultures going to another country vastly different from their origins, communication – or intercultural/cross-cultural communications – becomes more important to enable peoples of different cultures and backgrounds to understand each other. Whereas in the days of yore, intercultural/cross cultural communication is the purview of diplomats, high level executives and military representatives, nowadays this type of communication has reached the grass roots level, i.e. a German senior engineer needs to give instructions to his Pakistani or Indian guest workers, a Mexican born and raised science teacher must be able to understand the language nuances of her Southern California middle school class or a Japanese interpreter should be able to interpret correctly negotiations between an American businessman and a representative of a Japanese zaibatsu. Thus communications between people of different cultures, religions, ideologies and beliefs become a challenge and those involved in the communication process should and must be cognizant of the rules and etiquettes of the communications processes of each concern. This makes for a healthy exercise in broadening ones mind and knowledge in understanding cultures, cultural identities and cultural diversity. “The fact is that peoples stated identities -- the things they tell about themselves -- are only circumstantial elements in describing and interpreting their behavior in communicating with members possessing other stated identities. Suggesting that intercultural communication is above and beyond all else a matter of colliding cultures, of culture clashes and culture gaps, of uncertainty, stress and loss of confidence, often contributes to the construction of problems. (Blommaert, 1998)” Thus cultural diversity comes into play and this miscellany cannot be seen as a stumbling block but rather an opportunity to learn and broaden ones knowledge regarding a different lifestyle. Cultural diversity will give rise to varied intercultural issues but once the idiosyncrasies of each culture have been learned, then understanding and respect will follow suit. “The key to effective cross-cultural communication is knowledge. First, it is essential that people understand the potential problems of cross-cultural communication and make a conscious effort to overcome these problems. Second, it is important to assume that one’s efforts will not always be successful, and adjust one’s behavior appropriately. (Conflict Research Consortium, 2007)” Aside from being able to understand the problems with intercultural/cross-cultural communications, it is always important to learn the language of another – especially the ones dealt with – and gain “plurilingualism (Mendes and Moreira, 2005)” or the linguistic diversity, which is “acknowledging identity construction as an intra- and inter-personal process. The development of an intercultural communicative competence concomitantly allows awareness and (re)definition of others alongside an awareness and redefinition of the self… (Mendes and Moreira, 2005)” By taking Mendes and Moreira’s assumptions further but actually going back to basics, the communicator must first ask himself the following questions: “Are our expectations different?; Are my assumptions valid in this different context?; and Are people interpreting what I say differently than I think? (Wood, Landry and Bloomfield, 2006)” Once these questions are raised, the intercultural issues in communications, awareness of new or hidden things in communications is revealed and (Wood, Landry and Bloomfield, 2006)”: From this comes the awareness that, in all forms of human communication, the information is making a journey through several filters (see Figure 1). First, the communicant is inscribing their message with meaning derived from their own cultural preconceptions (i.e. they are encoding it). Second, the addressee is receiving the information and reading it according to their own cultural preconceptions (i.e. they are decoding it). Figure 1. The Communication Process (Source: Wood, Landry and Bloomfield, 2006) As an appropriate adjunct to the above, the communicant must know and understand that “people from different cultures not only speak different languages but, what is possibly more important, inhabit different sensory worlds ((Wood, Landry and Bloomfield, 2006)” Plurilingualism and understanding the intrinsic nature of the communications process is not enough though to fully hurdle the myriad intercultural issues in communications. As stated by Woods et al. “inhabit different sensory worlds” and recognizing subtle or overt differences is important. Take the case for instance of the article Intercultural Interviews with Mexicans (Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists, 2007) where several observations were made while interviewing for jobs non-Americans from south of the US border (Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists, 2007): Assumptions - The key to any successful intercultural interview is to overcome assumptions about people. Assuming that because a person is Mexican they have certain traits, i.e. "all Mexican men are sexist." In short, assumptions are no good. They taint judgments and lead to bad decisions. Eye contact is a strange thing and varies across cultures. On the whole in the USA, Americans usually state that "you cant trust people who wont look you in the eye." Rural Mexicans judge too much eye contact as a sign of bad manners. Communication styles differ too from culture to culture. In an intercultural interview one needs to bear in mind that people give information in different ways. Some cultures, such as the US, communicate explicitly – "cutting to the chase." Explicit communicators put all the meaning into their words while implicit communicators use other subtle ways of getting their message across such as body language, tone, eye contact and inference. Hence, not only do languages or the means of expressing thoughts into words are vastly different but gestures, postures and other action traits such as eye contact, manner of shaking hands (i.e. one-handed shaking for Arabs signifies formality and distance while two-handed handshakes symbolize closeness and affinity) or overall body movements. The communicant or communicator must and should be aware of all these factors especially in dealing with a culturally diverse environment. This is more important considering the context of globalization has brought about various peoples closer to one another not only in the field of social migration but in business, economics, academe and tourism. Plurilinguistic skills will not answer the intercultural issues in communications but rather is just one step to fully understanding the intricate nature of the interaction. These other factors can be determined by using the communicative predictions model whose data are based on three levels (Glaser, 2007): Cultural – involves information about the others culture, its dominant values and norms; often the only level of information available when communicating with a stranger but a better understanding of the strangers culture yields better predictions. Socio-cultural - includes data about the others group membership, or the groups to which they seek to belong; type of information is the predominate data used in intra-cultural communication. Psycho-cultural - Information about the individuals characteristics, and is the sort of data most relevant to communication with friends. Taking the three communicative predictions into consideration and consolidating them with plurilinguism and physical manifestations communications will enable one to better appreciate subtleties and ambiguities of communications in the intercultural/cross-cultural arena. Written, spoken and acted forms of communications will not suffer from false assumptions or misinterpretations but rather a holistic comprehension of communications minus intercultural and/or cross-cultural issues of language, ideological, cultural and other beliefs. In the end, the communicator will attain “cross cultural knowledge (surface level familiarization with cultural characteristics, values, beliefs and behaviors), cross cultural awareness (changes within the learner’s behavior and attitudes such as a greater flexibility and openness), cross cultural sensitivity (ability to read into situations, contexts and behaviors that are culturally rooted and be able to react to them appropriately), and cross cultural competence (signifies the actor’s ability to work effectively across cultures) (Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists, 2007)”. Achieving the ability to resolve intercultural and/or cross cultural issues in communications is no easy feat. Though understanding is the end result, no less than continuous training, learning and practicing is important to enable the communicator to relate not only his ideas but to grasp other’s as well. Assumptions, stereotypes and negative “isms” (i.e. racism, ethnocentrism) should also be set aside to have a clearer understanding of intercultural or cultural diversity. One’s mind must adapt the tabula rasa principle wherein a blank slate is on hand ready to take on the challenges of cultural issues. A student or adherent to communications in the intercultural, cross cultural or multicultural context can be further aided by a checklist made by Mendes and Moreira in one of the cases they presented in Living the Intercultural Narrative: Iintercultural Beings, Language Educators and Spaces in Between, the list of questions can be a guide when dealing with intercultural issues in communications (Mendes and Moreira, 2005): What are these different cultural backgrounds you refer to (values, beliefs, or just the nationality and the feeling of belonging to two different worlds)? What kind of problems did you have? How did you overcome them? How did you manage to mediate and negotiate differences and the contact with otherness? How did you do this within your relationship and having to cope with a third different culture? Do you think you needed to create a “third space”, a “third culture”, so that you would establish a common ground for understanding and communicating beyond the identity of each one of you? How did your identities and perspectives change, or had to change, or didnt at all? What skills do you think you required or developed to establish communication and develop your relationship? Do you see yourselves as people with different attitudes towards, and skills of relating and interpreting otherness? Adhering to the above list of questions and further learning about communications process in multidisciplinary fields will ensure optimum learning and understanding in any interaction endeavors. Thus, globalization can truly benefit not only in terms of the various social, political, economic and technological benefits it brings but it will also break the language barriers in terms of bringing about a collegial understanding of cultural diversity. The communicator involved in plurilinguistic training, communicative predictions modeling, learning of inhabit different sensory perceptions can and may end up as a driver of globalization that helped making the world a small but habitable place to be. In achieving positive communications skills in the light of intercultural and cross cultural issues, the communicator would have achieved the modern – or globalize – version of the Biblical “gift of tongues.” Bibliography: Blommaert, Jan. Different Approaches to Intercultural Communication: A Critical Survey. 28 February 1998. 03 March 2007. . Conflict Research Consortium. “Cross-Cultural Communication Strategies.” International Online Training Program on Intractable Conflict. 2007. 03 March 2007. . Glaser, Tanya. "’Communicating With Strangers: An Approach to Intercultural Communication’ by William Gudykunst and Young Yun Kim.” Conflict Research Consortium Article Summary. 2005. 03 March 2007. . Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists. Intercultural Communication Articles. 2007. 03 March 2007. . Mendes, Luís and Moreira, Gillian. Living the Intercultural Narrative: Iintercultural Beings, Language Educators and Spaces in Between. March 2005. 03 March 2007. . Wood, Phil, Landry, Charles and Bloomfield, Jude. Cultural Diversity in Britain: A Toolkit for Cross-Cultural Cooperation. Layerthorpe, UK: York Publishing Services Ltd., 2006. Read More