Cross-Cultural Communication

Cross-Cultural Communication

Communicating with culturally diverse people from different races, religions, political affiliations, or sexual orientations can be challenging if you are not comfortable. I can truly say the one challenge I have encounter was when talking with a group of diverse co-workers and the conversation was about political affiliation and President Obama. One of the co-workers was talking how he can be president of the United States when he is not at true American citizen. Then the conversation went to his job performance and what is not during. My immediate responds was anger, hostility, and defensive remarks. But then I had to stop and think everyone has their own opinion about political issues, concerns, and people in leadership roles.

We must remember we are a product of our cultural backgrounds and the traditions and beliefs that have been instilled in us. Sometime we need to reflect on the various aspects of our own cultural identity and examine the positive and negative impact we can have on others opinion and beliefs. To help me improve how I respond to other people’s opinion, remarks or beliefs I will not predict the person behavior to an issue because I have known the person for a period of time.

I will talk to the person about our different views on the topic in a subtle sensitive manner without causing further discomfort between my co-workers. I know I show my feelings through facial expressions and hand gestures so I will difficulty work on changing these actions so when communicating with people from other cultural backgrounds my message will be received in way I intended it to be.

Reference

"Looking at Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures" (pp. 80–81)

Copyright 2010 by Prentice Hall. Reprinted by permission of Prentice Hall via the Copyright Clearance Center

 

Vuckovic, A. (2008). Inter-cultural communication: A foundation of communicative action. Multicultural Education and Technology Journal, 2(1), 47–59.

Copyright 2008 by EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LIMITED. Reprinted by permission of EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LIMITED via the Copyright Clearance Center.