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Culture On Communication. Then Explain Two Ways Essay

¶ … culture on communication. Then explain two ways misunderstandings might occur among cultures with different communication styles. Finally, propose two solutions to enhance cross-cultural communication. Communication: The influence of culture on communication

Although the urge to communicate using a common language may seem to be a universal impulse, the ways in which communication takes place is highly dependent upon an individual's cultural context. For example, within an Asian cultural context, the level of hierarchy, social distance, and expectation of obedience is different between parents and children than in a Westernized cultural context. This can often cause conflict for Asian adolescents reared in the United States who are still 'acculturated' to Asian norms by first-generation parents at home (Rhee, Chang & Rhee 2003: 750). While the relationship of a child to a parent exists in all cultures, the expectations attached to that relationship are far from universal in nature and scope. Acculturation difficulties are not only associated with difficulties in language acquisition but also in adjusting to how communication expectations are conveyed.

According to one research study, "Asian students reported more communication problems with their parents than Caucasian students," in America perhaps because of the expectations of greater intimacy between parents and children within Westernized culture (Rhee, Chang & Rhee 2003: 757). Asian students more often reported that parents said things the students thought better left unsaid. They had more difficulties opening up to parents than their Caucasian peers -- in other words, their interactions did not conform to the less hierarchical expectations characteristic of parent-child relations in Western culture. However, it is important to note that this does not mean that Asian parents are less caring than their Western counterparts. It is probable that Asian adolescents, reared in an...

Asian-American students see an Americanized, friendly relationship between their peers and peer's parents and in the media. This parental relationship is founded on mutual exchanges of information rather than authoritative pronouncements. The parents of the Asian-American students are acting in a way that is considered loving within their own perspective, based upon their upbringing, but it is not necessarily interpreted as such by their westernized children. Asian-American adolescents must negotiate a difficult cultural transaction and be equally fluent in the culture of their parents and their peers to be functional at home and at school.
These differences in cultural expectations can also affect relationships in the workplace. One of the most common barriers is manifested when individuals from high-context cultures interact with individuals from so-called 'low context' culture. In general, "there is more indirectness in high-context cultures where people rely on a broad array of social cues to communicate than in low-context cultures where people rely on few social cues to communicate," particularly in impersonal work relationships (Sanchez-Burks et al. 2003: 364). Americans tend to make more errors in interpreting indirect, subtextual cues than Japanese or Korean persons and in an American office, communication is more overt than would be the case in an Asian workplace (Sanchez-Burks et al. 2003368).

For example, a Japanese national working at an American company might be surprised at the idea that he must explicitly ask for a raise and promote his own achievements, rather than his teamwork in a performance review. What is considered appropriate self-effacement and humility in a Japanese context might be interpreted as weakness or an admission of incompetence in an American context. Conversely, an American…

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Communication (both verbal and non-verbal) is key to understanding a culture. Language, gestures, expressions, and other symbols for interaction, help to explain the differences between cultures and help one understand the attitudes, values, and beliefs of a certain culture. Language, including each word, utterance, and distance between conversations, are all influenced by culture.

Language and culture are closely intertwined. Language affects culture while culture affects language. Cross-cultural research has examined miscommunication and why it happens. Two umbrella explanations for miscommunication are via the interpersonal underpinnings of politeness and indirectness (Fiske, Gilbert, & Lindzey, 2001). Scollon and Scollon (1981) found that Athabaskans (indigenous peoples of North America-Alaska), " tend to assume greater distance when interacting with unacquainted individuals than do English-speaking Americans" (Fiske, Gilbert, & Lindzey, p. 1402, 2001). Thus, Athabaskans prefer more distance and more negative politeness strategies while Americans refer more positive approach-based politeness strategies. This could result in a misunderstanding when group members interact. Another communication difference ties more specifically into language. Speakers of English tend to refer to themselves via pronouns when reporting their actions (i.e. "I went to the store") while speaks of other languages (namely Japanese) often do not do this at all (i.e. "Went to the store"). Using pronouns is a linguistic practice that tends to be used in more individualistic cultures like America, where the emphasis is on the person. Conversely, not using pronouns is related to more collectivistic cultures where the target of the sentence is decontextualized (Kashima & Kashima, 2003). Related to this is another cross-cultural difference of linguistic abstractness. South Korean speakers are more likely to use verbs when they speak whereas English speakers are more likely to use adjectives, to describe a variety of social objects (Kashima, Kashima, Kim, and Gelfand, 2006). There are many other cross-cultural differences in communication that may or may affect the way we understand others.

Enhancing cross-cultural communication requires understanding a culture's background, roots, traditions, and values, amongst other factors. Knowing whether a culture is individualistic or collectivistic is hugely significant, and would really explain the differences between at least the two examples seen here. Studying the social construction of meaning to a culture requires a lot of work, but allows us to understanding a culture's language and means of communicating, at least verbally. Knowledge of expressions and gestures and other kinesics of a culture can help to understand the nonverbal communication produced by a culture. There is no other ways to decreasing misunderstandings without knowledge of the origin of the misunderstanding itself. This requires complete comprehension of the culture in all its facets. Without that ability, one will struggle to understand and accept the verbal and nonverbal communication styles used by different groups of people. If you don't grow up with it, it is foreign to you and can often seem negative, or wrong. However if looked at from the other lens, the other group feels
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