Intercultural Communications -- Definitions -- In its most basic form, multicultural communication is a way of understanding how people from different cultures communicate, behave, and perceive the world. One scholar defines it as the "interpersonal interaction between members of different groups, which differ from each other in respect to the knowledge shared by their members and in respect of their linguistic forms of symbolic behavior" (Knapp in What is Intercultural Communication?, 2011). Culture is a learned set of values that is passed down and communicated through a variety of forms: parents, relatives, peers, school systems or learning environments, and society. Typically, its power focuses on the reinforcement of behaviors through positive responses and discourages inappropriate actions or responses through negative responses. Because of this learning transference, it is possible for a person to communicate, adapt, and even become part of another cultural experience -- multicultural communication. The idea of multicultural communications is multidisciplinary, and is done through psychological sociological, linguistic,...
Essentially, they are standardized and rather simplistic conceptions of groups that are often based on prior assumptions. The sociological dynamics about stereotyping are based on the concepts of groups and group norms -- those who are in-groups and those who are out-groups. Oftentimes, these norms are based not on written dogma, but culture and tradition. Thus, they often morph into stereotypes about the "other" or the outsider without giving adequate thought to…
He must instead keep aware of the accepted verbal and nonverbal communication gestures of other cultures. He should break out of the habit of preferring or revering his own verbal and non-verbal communication over those of others. Cultural relativism views all cultural practices as good. But unlike cultural relativism, effective intercultural communication does not state that al cultural practices as good. Rather the effective intercultural communicator exerts efforts to
Some cultures are overtly emotional, while there are others which believe in keeping emotions concealed, or only reveal them to a "rational" degree. Naturally such differences often lead to problems. Following are two examples from international diplomacy, cited by the University of Colorado's Conflict Research Consortium, which illustrate that lack of awareness of a certain culture and its values can result in longstanding misunderstandings, whereas accommodating cultural differences and
Intercultural Communication When people from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other, they face various problems in effectively communicating their messages and expressing their thoughts, expectations, and beliefs (Paulston, Kiesling, & Rangel, 2012). These problems lead to serious intercultural communication issues in multicultural societies. Researchers have found that difference in languages is not the sole reason of intercultural communication problems; people fail to effectively communicate due to different cultural dimensions that
Intercultural Communication in the Workplace: As the world continues to experience globalization because of the numerous technological advancements, intercultural communication has become an important element in today's working environments. Intercultural communication is critical because workplaces are currently made up of people from diverse backgrounds, races, ethnicity, and cultures. Therefore, understanding intercultural competence and communication is vital since it helps in promoting effective communication in the workplace. Such understanding also helps in
In addition to vocabulary shaped by environment, different languages also develop arbitrary differences in idiomatic expression. For just one example, modern Hebrew has a word pronounced "dafkuh" that does not translate directly into English. It is used to denote "just at that time," or "exactly that person," or "that very day" in a manner that suggests either irony, coincidence, misfortune, or even sarcasm, in the following manner: "I knew someone
Within my team of Americans are several African-Americans and three Latinos. In the book Intercultural Communication: A Reader (Samovar, et al., 2008) the authors point out what scholars, sociologists and alert journalists have known for a long time: "…Although Latinos are generally aware of the Black experience, there is little understanding of Black culture. Equally problematic is the lack of awareness among Blacks about Latino culture" (Samovar, p. 183). Albeit
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