Intercultural Communication: Towards Better Understanding and Learning
In humanity's pursuit for learning, it is inevitable that we will encounter diversity, or differences in people in the way they think, act, and behave. Most often, people whom we perceive as different are no more different than us -- that is, we may perceive them as different, but they also presumably assume us as different from the people they have been familiarized and acquainted with. This move towards crossing cultural boundaries in pursuit of learning is called intercultural communication, often defined as the "process that occurs when members of two or more cultures exchange messages in a manner that is influenced by their different cultural perceptions and symbol systems" (Adler, 1998:40).
How does intercultural communication relates to the development of understanding and learning? It is essential for any academic students to be acquainted with different cultures, within...
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
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 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
The important aspect to consider is the way that people perceive and accept these differing power distributions. The barrier and problem that Sally experiences in this particular case is that she comes from a society that favors a low power distance model of behavior as the accepted norm; whereas in the society in which she is now staying the cultural norms and accepted context is one of high power distance. In
Interpersonal communication is a form of communication that takes place between two or more people who are close to one another unlike other forms of communication it does not involve a lot of people. There are various aspects of interpersonal communication that can be discussed but for purposes of this paper it has been narrowed to look at the principles and misconceptions in effective interpersonal communications, the barriers to effective
Email was found to be a key culprit in the development of cultural misunderstandings among a diverse group of online users (Rainey, 2000). Stereotypes were found to interfere with online communication, and enhance the potential for cultural misunderstandings (Leidner, 1999). Navigation design, visual design, and information design had an effect on trust that varied among different cultures viewing a website (Cyr, 2008). This research suggests a need for culturally relevant
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