Improving Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication is a vital part of our world today and is almost impossible to avoid. I have personally dealt with intercultural communication many times throughout my life (ok maybe like five times total, but who's counting?). Whether it is a person from another nation or even just a person from a different part of the United States, cultures can be vastly different. Communication can be difficult if you are not prepared, but if you take the proper precautionary (precautionary is a big word people in college use! Yay for me!) steps and are aware of the other person’s beliefs and customs, communication between the two parties can be successful (a successful communication? Neat.).
When it comes to improving communication, there are many steps that should be taken to ensure the success of the communication. These include, preparing yourself, reducing ethnocentrism, confronting stereotypes, increasing mindfulness, avoiding overattribution, recognizing differences, and adjusting your communication (I can't take credit for this part, it was straight out of the book). An example of when I took these necessary steps was when I had to communicate with a foreign exchange student on the first day of my math class (And so begins the story of Vladimir, the made up Russian student). Vladimir was from Russia, so it was obvious his culture was very different than my own (duh!). Even though this difference was present, I took the proper precautions (<---once again, big college word) so we could have a successful conversation.
I prepared myself for the conversation by asking a friend (Dallas, this is you) who was taking Russian that year how I should approach the student (Apparently they were an alien so I couldn't just approach them by saying hi). I wanted to appear friendly and not offend them in any way. Then I reduced my ethnocentrism (<---nice word choice, unfortunately straight out of the book) by trying to see his beliefs, values, and customs as equal to my own even though they were much different (We all know Americans are superior though. haha). Next, I confronted my stereotypes that because he was an exchange student he was smarter than everyone else in the room. Just because he was an exchange student, it didn’t mean he was any smarter than the rest of the class (Of course exchange students are just as dumb as the rest of us...except the Asian ones. They are all geniuses, but Vladie was Russian so that ruled out that he was a genius). After that, I increased my mindfulness and avoided overattribution by not making any assumptions or jumping to conclusions before I actually got to know him. Finally, I recognized our differences (Vladimir was a boy and I was a girl. Took a long time to recognize that difference) and adjusted my communication.
Through that conversation we got to know each other a little better, and even though our backgrounds are very different, we came to be friends (awww...I have an imaginary friend). Our conversation opened my eyes to many differences, but it also showed me the similarities we had. We are still in contact today (BFFs!) even though he has traveled back to his home in Moscow. (I was really tempted to say he had to travel back to mother Russia but that might have been a little over the top. :D )
Intercultural communication is a vital part of our world today and is almost impossible to avoid. I have personally dealt with intercultural communication many times throughout my life (ok maybe like five times total, but who's counting?). Whether it is a person from another nation or even just a person from a different part of the United States, cultures can be vastly different. Communication can be difficult if you are not prepared, but if you take the proper precautionary (precautionary is a big word people in college use! Yay for me!) steps and are aware of the other person’s beliefs and customs, communication between the two parties can be successful (a successful communication? Neat.).
When it comes to improving communication, there are many steps that should be taken to ensure the success of the communication. These include, preparing yourself, reducing ethnocentrism, confronting stereotypes, increasing mindfulness, avoiding overattribution, recognizing differences, and adjusting your communication (I can't take credit for this part, it was straight out of the book). An example of when I took these necessary steps was when I had to communicate with a foreign exchange student on the first day of my math class (And so begins the story of Vladimir, the made up Russian student). Vladimir was from Russia, so it was obvious his culture was very different than my own (duh!). Even though this difference was present, I took the proper precautions (<---once again, big college word) so we could have a successful conversation.
I prepared myself for the conversation by asking a friend (Dallas, this is you) who was taking Russian that year how I should approach the student (Apparently they were an alien so I couldn't just approach them by saying hi). I wanted to appear friendly and not offend them in any way. Then I reduced my ethnocentrism (<---nice word choice, unfortunately straight out of the book) by trying to see his beliefs, values, and customs as equal to my own even though they were much different (We all know Americans are superior though. haha). Next, I confronted my stereotypes that because he was an exchange student he was smarter than everyone else in the room. Just because he was an exchange student, it didn’t mean he was any smarter than the rest of the class (Of course exchange students are just as dumb as the rest of us...except the Asian ones. They are all geniuses, but Vladie was Russian so that ruled out that he was a genius). After that, I increased my mindfulness and avoided overattribution by not making any assumptions or jumping to conclusions before I actually got to know him. Finally, I recognized our differences (Vladimir was a boy and I was a girl. Took a long time to recognize that difference) and adjusted my communication.
Through that conversation we got to know each other a little better, and even though our backgrounds are very different, we came to be friends (awww...I have an imaginary friend). Our conversation opened my eyes to many differences, but it also showed me the similarities we had. We are still in contact today (BFFs!) even though he has traveled back to his home in Moscow. (I was really tempted to say he had to travel back to mother Russia but that might have been a little over the top. :D )
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