Final Essay

As my class in intercultural communications comes to a close, I would like to share our final assignment. A reflective essay illustrating the new found value of intercultural communications we most likely all have come to appreciate. While this class is one of many as I get closer to my final goals, it is one that has made a profound impact on my understanding of greater things in this world.




I have often wished for the ability to simply grasp another by the arm and instantly transfer all of my culture, history and understanding to them, and they me, as a means of ridding our world of miscommunication and all the havoc that creates. While that wish is far from realization, this class has been one which taught me the finer points of going through that process using the only means we have. I know as I work with and interact with other cultures I will be doing it from a new and fresh perspective and am thankful for that. Thank you all for joining me in this adventure and enjoy this final assignment.




-Dan-





Introduction


Communications is often referred to as an art form, and as an art, communicating with others is a practice that must be studied and experienced if one is to master its finer points. Yet communications is also scientific and readily understood by those willing to invest time into its subject matter.


More specifically, and perhaps more intricate is the art of intercultural communications. Those communications that take place between cultures and people with vastly different backgrounds and histories that can create a litany of communication barriers. Those obstructions must be understood and conquered before we, as a diverse and varied human race can ever hope to understand one another and work together for the better of us all.


In this reflective essay, a number of issues specifically related to intercultural communications will be explored. Those topics will include the impact of interpersonal and collective or institutional discrimination as well as how popular culture influences our cultural identities. Additionally, how our personal attitudes toward subjects can create intercultural communications conflict and ways we can become more intuitive toward how we communicate with cultures other than our own.






Discrimination


Few of us do not know what discrimination is, and unfortunately, many in our society still experience various forms of discrimination in our lives. For those who have experienced these situations it often comes in the form of interpersonal discrimination. Martin and Nakayama identify interpersonal discrimination as those discriminations that take place between individuals (Martin & Nakayama, 2011). People can discriminate against one another for seemingly limitless reasons like a person’s race, their religious beliefs or nationality.


In contrast, collective or institutional discrimination occurs when discriminatory acts are perpetrated large scale by entire populations or entities. Jo Freeman describes this type of discrimination as being built into the normal working relationships of institutions, its perpetuation requires only that people continue "business as usual." (Freeman, 2012). A clear example of instuitional discrimination is the environments faced by women in the workplace for many years, and which some still endure based solely on their gender.


In some companies women were often treated like second-class citizens, their roles even in a professional setting were relegated to mundane or simple tasks that organizations felt “women were good at”. Limiting women to hold positions such as secretaries, administrative assistants or clerical workers discriminated and detained women from achieving their fullest potentials in the work place. Freeman also suggests that this type of discrimination is difficult to address, since the idea that discrimination of this type is accepted by the overall organization and there is no need to change or address the injustices it creates.


While discrimination of any type results in conflicts and impedes social communication progress, intercultural discrimination is an element of human society that continues to limit the opportunities we have for advancement and understanding. Yet this is only one element of understanding we must achieve in order to grasp all that influences and shapes the art of intercultural communications. Our cultural identity as both individuals and institutions shapes how we interact with each other, sometimes on subconscious levels. Popular culture plays a significant role in the shaping of our cultural identities and will be examined next.






The Influences of Popular Culture


Martin and Nakayama define popular culture as those elements of contemporary culture that are made popular by their mass consumption by large population bases (Martin & Nakayama, 2011). For many of us, we tend to identify pop culture as passing trends or fads. When the newest pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes arrives on the market, they become an artifact of pop culture when millions of youth consumers flock to the stores to buy them. Another example is the common popularity of the latest crime drama or sitcom becoming the number one topic of discussion around social groups and water coolers.


Pop culture can influence our style and individual popularity, but more importantly, it influences our cultural identity. That is how we define ourselves by the cultures that we belong (Martin & Nakayama, 2011). We often associate our culture simply as being our national backgrounds or historical influences on what makes us who we are, but pop culture does indeed play a critical role in identity development as well.


Using the above examples, kids who have the ability to buy the latest pair of popular shoes identify with others who can do the same. Identifying with those seemingly simple cultural differences can lead to discrimination or prejudice against those who cannot. When we encounter people who have not been watching the same popular television show we can react with surprise and doubt that there are people who do not enjoy such quality programming as we do. These cultural disconnects can lead to communications conflict if not properly understood or executed.


Pop culture can also influence how we view other cultures directly. For many years, people of Arabic decent have been depicted as terrorists in movies and books. After September 11th, 2001 those pop culture depictions became a reality for many people, a reality that would negatively impact the lives of Arab-Americans in very profound ways. While pop culture may only be a passing fad for some, it becomes vitally important to understand the impacts of pop culture on how we identify others and ourselves if we are to appreciate intercultural communications on all levels.


This understanding is but one-step toward a comprehensive view of the importance of intercultural communications, how we communicate with other as well as our intercultural attitudes also play important roles.


Attitudes and Cultural Communication


Our attitudes, or the relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols is another element toward understanding how intercultural communications works, and can create potential conflicts (Hogg & Vaughan, 2005). Many people in today’s modern work force frequently encounter other cultures within the workplace. Just as cultures can differ in their value of language, family or other social constructs, differences in how view the act of work can create obstacles to effective intercultural communications.


One clear example of cultural attitudes toward work is the difference in attitudes we find in the various generational cultures in a modern work environment. Often times we do not recognize generations as cultures, but we can recognize the differences between work attitudes between baby boomers and those of the so-called millennial generation. The millennial culture enjoys the advantages of technologies only dreamt of by their predecessors and as such, use that technology to make their work lives much easier.


In contrast, baby boomers can perceive their younger counterparts as lazy and unwilling to “put in a hard day’s work”. The millennial culture holds the belief that work is simply the means to live their lives as opposed to seeing work as a reason for life. Through this difference of culture, communications conflicts can arise, and as such, it is important to recognize and understand these differences in order to maintain communications continuity.


Whether the intercultural communications is taking place between different generational cultures or cultures from opposite sides of the world, there are ways to better the process. We can see that direct communications like specific language is not the only way we communicate to other cultures.






Becoming Fluent in Intercultural Communications


Few people can master a new language in a short period. We recognize that language in the spoken and written format takes months or years to understand fully. We should also recognize the master level of comprehension that is required for intercultural understanding and take steps toward grasping it fully. Intercultural communications takes more than simply understanding the types of food another culture enjoys, or how another culture greets one another during a business meeting.


True mastery of intercultural communications requires an understanding of what it is like to live and exist within another culture. It requires a hands-on approach to working and communicating with others who are not of our own culture and background. The vast amount of variables that influence intercultural communications, such as a culture’s history, politics and social norms, demand more than a cursory understanding to be effective.


In today’s global workplace, many of us are exposed to cultures and beliefs that are extremely different from our own. To become perceptive at intercultural communications one must embrace the opportunity to reach out and experience those cultures through the individuals that know it best, those that live in those cultures and often times are quite happy to share.


As we can see, even when cultures do not share the same language, a full understanding of the many facets of intercultural communications can bridge even those divides between cultures.






Language Barriers to Intercultural Communications


The most obvious barrier to intercultural communications is that of spoken and written language. If anyone has ever traveled abroad, something as simple as getting directions or asking for help can be a monumental difficulty if one does not have a basic understanding of the local languages.


Yet intercultural communications tells us that humans communicate with each other on many levels, some even more profoundly than speaking directly to one another. Communications can take place non-verbally through hand gestures and eye contact, much of which transcend linguistic borders. However, we are also aware that these similarities of non-verbal communications can take on very different cultural values.


As an example, countries in the Far East view direct eye contact as an invasion of personal space and a threat, a common response to an embarrassing situation or one in which doubt is conveyed is laughter or giggling. These examples of non-verbal communication could be valuable to a Westerner versed in intercultural communications when working with these cultures in a business environment.


While ultimately, the most efficient form of communication is speaking to someone in his or her native tongue, the study of intercultural communications indicates there are many means of sharing ideas and feelings with others that may not share our words.






Conclusion


In conclusion, through this brief essay it becomes evident that intercultural communications is much more complex than simply learning a foreign language. It is a discipline and an art form that demands its practitioners to view other cultures from a standpoint that few ever consider. Intercultural communications goes beyond becoming a sensitive international traveller or having useful tools to take on the next trip abroad.


It is a vital tool for both international business and politics, and something that becomes more dynamic as our technology to communicate with each other continues to increase at an exponential rate. Only 20 years ago, the average American worker may never have encountered a co-worker from India or Brazil. Few Saudi Arabians would have envisioned that a large portion of the work force that runs oil production facilities there would be of Chinese or Eastern European culture. In a very short period our world has become culturally intertwined more so than ever before.


In the business world, and even the human experience as a whole, communications between individuals and large entities can mean long periods of productive prosperity or uncontrolled collapse into open warfare. As we recognize the importance of communications in general, intercultural communications begins to take on a new and increasingly important tone.


When we recognize that once we can communicate with each other, we can begin to appreciate and value each other as we appreciate and value ourselves we take steps toward a future of hope and harmony of which few could argue as being a detriment to our world. Intercultural communications serves as a cornerstone in which we all can build a peaceful and prosperous future for all those generations that will live in what we create today.









References







Freeman, J. (2012). Institutional Discrimination. Retrieved June 22, 2012, from JoFreeman.com: http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/womensociety/institidiscrim.htm






Hogg, M., & Vaughan, G. (2005). Social Psychology (4th edition). London: Prentice-Hall.






Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2011). Experiencing Intercultural Communication: An Introduction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.