The Intercultural communication
Introduction:
Definition:
Intercultural
communication is a form of communication that aims to share
information across different cultures and social groups. It is used to describe
the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear within
an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social,
ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes
used synonymously with cross culture communication . In this sense it seeks to understand how
people from different countries and cultures act, communicate an perceive the world around them. Many people
in intercultural business communication argue that culture determines how
individuals encode messages, what medium they choose for transmitting them, and
the way messages are interpreted. As
a separate notion, it studies situations where people from different cultural
backgrounds interact.
Aside from language, intercultural communication focuses on social attributes,
thought patterns, and the cultures of different groups of people.
source: wikipedia
The major aspects of the intercultural communication are:-
1. Importance of inter cultural communication
2.Cultural barriers
3. Management of cultural barriers
4. Non verbal communication
IMPORTANCE OF
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Intercultural
communication or cross cultural communication is important because it helps us
understand other cultures. With this understanding we are better able to trade
and do business with different countries.
Learning
about other cultures by communicating with someone from that culture leads
towards understanding and acceptance. So much tolerance would be gained if we
all communicated and learned from each other
How it is important in universities?
University
is the centre of various students of different cultures that creates an
opportunity for the students to learn different cultures and respect them
honestly.
B tech 1st semester
B
tech 8th semester
The
above photography shows how universities play a very important role in
maintaining good intercultural communication between the students and develop
respect on other cultures.
Why Is Intercultural Communication Important in the
Workplace?
So the above photo reveals that a good intercultural
communication is very essential in workplaces.
These are
the few advantages of good intercultural communication
Avoiding
Conflict
•
The workplace grows more
diverse every day. People from all over the world, of every possible
background, creed and nationality create a highly heterogeneous workforce.
Managers cannot assume that what they find inoffensive, their subordinates will
also. A lack of sensitivity can lead to claims of discrimination or harassment,
which costs firms big money. Intercultural communication involves exercising
sensitivity and tact to avoid such conflicts.
The In
exactitude of Language
•
Humans develop language to
communicate ideas to one another. Still, language represents an imperfect form
of communication. Sometimes, words cannot accurately convey an idea, because
the information might be highly complex. Also, a concept that exists in one
culture or language might not be a part of another. The biggest problem of all
in language is that a number has an exact value; a word does not. Effective
intercultural communication tries to bridge language gaps as best as possible
so that everyone at the workplace finds themselves on the same page.
Preventing
Misunderstandings
•
Given the in exactitude of
language, misunderstandings can frequently arise between people from different
cultures when they exchange information. Idioms often become lost in
translation. For example, the English expression "to shoulder responsibility"
translates into Swedish as "be a man for your hat." Intercultural
communication does not rely on expressions native to a particular language that
could lead to confusion; rather, it relies on clear messages that all parties
understand.
Fostering
Respect
•
Communication happens
differently in various cultures. What one society finds acceptable may be
anathema to another. When co-workers from different cultures do not take these
differences into account, not only does communication suffer but conflicts come
to the fore. If respect cannot find a foothold in the workplace, resentment
will reign, and it will thwart progress and success. Effective intercultural
communication does not try to ignore societal differences; rather, it respects
the variations among the human race and enables people to transmit information
clearly.
With good knowledge intercultural
communication
Barriers to
intercultural communication
Before
knowing about barriers to intercultural communication first we should know
about inter cultural communication. Cross cultural communication is defined by Gotland
University as “a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one's
cultural differences through language, non-verbal gestures, and space
relationships
Inter culture communication is a form of communication that aims to share information across
different cultures and social groups. If any difficulty found to describe the
wide range of communication processes and problems to other culture people is
known as inter culture communication.
If one faces
any difficulty to share information across
different cultures then barriers take place in inter cultural communication.
The problems in intercultural
communication usually come from problems in message transmission. In
communication between people of the same culture, the person who receives the
message interprets it based on values, beliefs, and expectations for behavior
similar to those of the person who sent the message. When this happens, the way
the message is interpreted by the receiver is likely to be fairly similar to
what the speaker intended. However, when the receiver of the message is a
person from a different culture, the receiver uses information from his or her
culture to interpret the message. The message that the receiver interprets may
be very different from what the speaker intended.
There are many barriers regarding to intercultural communication some of
them listed following:-
1. Language
barriers
2. Cultural
barriers
3. Physiological
barriers
1.
Language barriers: A conceptual barrier to effective communication, that
occurs when people who speak different languages attempt to communicate with
each other. In other words any difficulty which
partly or fully prevent in communication created by difference in languages is
called language barrier According to Census of India of 2001, 30 languages are
spoken by more than a million native speakers, 122 by more than 10,000. Language
barrier is a figurative
phrase used primarily to indicate the difficulties faced when people who have
no language in common attempt to communicate with each other.
Source: wikipedia
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Which can
lead to misunderstandings when taking direction, understanding level of urgency
and communicating issues or concerns.
Never assume that because your instructions receive head nods. VIT
UNIVERSITY is hub of different cultural students. So there are many students
having different languages so we face language barrier while talking with them.
Video
source ( YOU TUBE )
2) Culture barriers: Cultural differences
between listener and speaker can create barriers of effective communication.
All of these differences tend to lead to
communication problems. If the people involved are not aware of the potential
for such problems, they are even more likely to fall victim to them, although
it takes more than awareness to overcome these problems and communicate
effectively across cultures.
3. Psychological barriers:
Psychological barriers are closely linked to emotional barriers, emotional
barriers play an important role in the intercultural communication of a
message. An example of this maybe when receiving a message you cannot properly
interpret or decode the message because of your stereotype thinking about other
culture in a negative manner. Psychological barrier may also appear in
different ways for example one cultural people have high social status to other
then there will be definitely a psychological barrier which will obstruct their
communication. Other psychological abstracts are like
(a) Fear to talking other cultural person.
(b) Hesitation to talking
other culture person.
(c) Ambiguity among them.
(d) Grouping of same culture
people.
(e) Gender problem.
(f) Social status.
(g) Arrogance.
(h) Stereotype thinking.
(i) Generation gap.
(j) Motive.
(k) Emotions.
(l) Different perceptions.
(m) Premature evaluation.
(n) Rules and Regulations.
Video
source : -YOU TUBE
Management of intercultural communication barriers
One
of the basic things we face during our daily life communication is
communication barriers. T There are few tips we can follow to reduce the
communication barriers
1. OBSERVATION: It is always better the behaviors
of the group and follow them
2. WATCH THE HUMOR: When using the humor please observe
that it will be understood in the other culture or not .For example British
sarcasm usually has a negative effect
3. AVOID SLANG: We should avoid slang for better
communication because the danger is that the words will be understood but the
meaning will be missed.
4. BE SUPPORTIVE: Please make sure that you are
supportive that means giving the encouragement for those who don’t have
confidence and trust in you.
5. WRITE IT DOWN: If you have a doughty that you
had hear please write it down and then check it so that it can avoid a lot of
confusions. This is very useful particularly in the class during lectures.
6. TAKE TURNS: Inter cultural communication can
be controlled or developed by taking a turn to talk to making a point and then listening to the response .First we have
to interact with them and then chance to
talk or ask for confirmation
7. AVOID NEGATIVE QUESTIONS: First of all we
should avoid the thinking of negative questions otherwise it will lead to the
miss understandings
*we must review the technical terms in advance
*speak slowly and clearly
*watch your body language
*you must have good eye contact with the
listeners.
Now coming to the point of management of inter
cultural communication in VIT
In VIT there are many social clubs which helps in improving the
communication .In clubs it provide an opportunity to interact with the people
of different cultures which helps in building the friendly relationship. Due to
clubs and chapters in the university we as well as they are getting benefited
in so many ways. As in related to event they are advertising a lot in which
their creative skills are being improved and they are sharing their knowledge
about technical aspects is being distributed to all the others rather than
limiting to only some.
In
Riviera one of the biggest cultural fest conducted in India. Different cultural
people get interact in the programs in the Riviera. Riviera Nights are being
held in the university in which cultural dances are held
There
is a technical fest held in the university called GraVITas. In which people
from all parts of India. Where the best technical events take place and people
interact about the events.
In
this way, in our university we are interacting a lot which help in managing the
communication skills which in turn reduces Communication barriers
Non-Verbal
Communication
Nonverbal
Communication is a process of communication in which the message is transferred
wordlessly.
Communication
can be basically differed in two types:
1.
Verbal
Communication
2. Non-verbal
Communication
There are many parts of body languages:-
Out of them major things are:-
1. Body
language-kinesics
2. use of voice-paralanguage
3. Touch –haptics
4. Distance-proxemics
5. The actions of looking while talking and listening- oculesicus
Each and every type of communication has two definite process included in
it. They are encoding and Decoding. It is as simple as Laplace Transforms in
mathematics and Programing environment in computer science. The above two are
examples it can be explained in this way when a sender sends a message the
format, style, language, and all things will be interpreted by them in his own
way that is he takes the meaning of the message based on his mind set, way of
thinking, Culture, values and based on his past experience. The person who
receives it will also do in the same way his understanding will be based on his
own things related to culture
This all what actually happens with every one, everyone do think that a
particularly word means same to the others, but it is not actually the same so
the Miss-communication happens which leads to destruction of communication
Where is nonverbal communication learnt from?
Nonverbal communication is learned from social-emotional
communication, making the face rather than words the major organ of
communication. The major parts of nonverbal communication is learnt contains
Gesture, clothing, body language and postures which basically depend upon
social, economic conditions of the daily life and way in which we are bought up
from the childhood.
Relatively a small part of brain only process verbal
communication when compared to the nonverbal communication.
The major aspects of nonverbal communication are:-
1. Posture: - There are many
different types of body positioning to portray certain postures, including
slouching, towering, legs spread, jaw thrust, shoulders forward, and arm
crossing. The posture or bodily stance exhibited by individuals communicates a
variety of messages whether good or bad.
Posture can be used to determine a
participant's degree of attention or involvement, the difference in status
between communicators, and the level of fondness a person has for the other
communicator, depending on body "openness. Posture can be
situation-relative, that is, people will change their posture depending on the
situation they are in
2. Clothing: - The study of clothing and other objects as a
means of non-verbal communication is known as artifactics or objectics.
An individual's clothing style can demonstrate their culture, mood,
and level of confidence, interests, age, authority, values/beliefs, and their
sexual identity.
3. Gestures:- Gestures may
be made with the hands, arms
or body, and also include movements of the head, face and eyes,
such as winking, nodding, or rolling one's eyes
4. Adapters: - Some hand
movements are not considered to be gestures. They consist of manipulations
either of the person or some object (e.g. clothing, pencils, and eyeglasses) –
the kinds of scratching, fidgeting, rubbing, tapping, and touching that people
often do with their hands. Such behaviour are referred to as adapters
5. Eye contact:- It is the
primary nonverbal way of indicating engagement, interest, attention and
involvement
When coming in terms of
university
nonverbal communication cannot take a specific place because it had
already been part of our daily life actions.
In
our university we have class ,events, lectures and other programs held all over
when we come to each and every thing we are intentionally or non- intentionally
using our communication skills and trying to develop them in a way.
Survey
we have taken survey among some people about the common aspects of communication.the survey was taken with the help of surveymonkey.com
The survey Questions were :-
1.
What would you feel is that necessary to have
different cultural people in the university?
2.
Does it help you in any way by having different
cultural people around you?
3.
Does it make you hesitate to communicate to
people of other culture or other language any time?
4.
Is university is a good platform to have
different cultural people?
5.
Does it make you to communicate differently to
other cultural people in the university (or) you will communicate in the same
way to every one?
6.
Do social networks make you to communicate
better?
7.
Do you find other cultural people helpful to
work with you in a team?
8.
Did you work in a team with other cultural
members as teammates, was it a good experience?
The analysis of the survey was given in below link :-https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/Z6QVAjVtd952ovsnJ7LgOhsVyPWpAZJO2CwBEhv_2F1XE_3D
Interview
we also took some interviews of people of different cultures. so that we can know different opinions of different people:
The Questions of the interview were:-
1.
What do you feel about your culture being a part
of different cultures in university?
2.
Does it make you find something need to be
improved in university in making Communication better?
3.
What are the intercultural communication
barriers you face in the university?
4.
Do want to say something about intercultural
communication in university?
Suyash sukthankar,
13BCE00044, Marathi from Mumbai
1. there
are people from various cultures in our
university not only form our own country but form the other countries as well in
that sense university presents unique rich culture of which all these cultures
including my own are a part of it is really great experience to interact with
all the people and learn about them
2. more than the university change should be made
in ours communication people should avoid being judgemental about each other
and communicate in a more effective manner
3. Linguistic
barriers I face in them university .Lack
of knowledge about other people’s
culture makes Communication difficult
4. Before coming to the university my interaction
was limited to people who are brought up in my own hometown and my own culture.
But after coming to the university it interacted with a lot of people from
different cultures. This kind of exposure that our university provides
something we don’t find in many places and we should be proud
Joseph Thomas kurisunkal,
13BME0268, Malayalam form Kerala
1. It is very good thing ,it gives us a very good
exposure to other cultures which gives us the confidence to go outside our
native place for good jobs
2. It would be better to make law that same
cultural people should also speak in English so their language will get better
3. When people are in group and speak their native
language it make it difficult to speak with them
4. Inter cultural communication is not making any
barriers in making friends
Sistla Karthik,
13BCE0067, Telugu from Vijayawada, Andhra
Pradesh
2. Yes,
many things need to be improved to make communication better between people of different
linguistic, ethnic and cultural groups’. I usually observe that people tend to
speak more with the persons who share the same language or people who are from
the same region. This spoils the healthy atmosphere the university has. When
people move in a closed box with persons of the same culture, they tend to look
at other cultures in an inferior manner and this often leads to fights which
spoils the repute of both the person and the university.so I personally feel
that people should break this barrier and interact with persons of all cultures
and respect all cultures and languages equally.
3. As
I mentioned above, people don’t tend to move freely or speak freely with
persons of different regions and languages other than their own. Many a time I
feel the need for a common language and so English being the mother language of
the world needs to be imparted taught and imbibed into the student’s lives. The
medium of a common language solves many of the barriers of communication and
facilitates free, open and healthy communication between the students.
4. Yeah! Inter cultural communication In University
needs to improve by and large. I usually see posters citing Bengali night,
Rajasthani night, Punjabis conclave and many other things. Although having such
things fosters a sense of enjoyment and culture among the students they get
alienated from the rest of the groups thus creating divisions and competitions
among the other cultural or regional groups who have the tendency and the
competitive spirit to make their event a better one than the others. This if
taken in a healthy manner is good for the university. But many a time this is
taken in the negative sense and henceforth needs to be improved drastically.
Thank you!
Arjun Tamizharasan,
13BMA0032, Tamil form triunellvelly
1.
The fact that my culture is a part of this
university, give me great pleasure. This is not only applicable in our
university, but also in the place we live in. In short, I feel proud that my
culture is a part and parcel of this university.
2.
Communication is a complex process where in one
expresses his views about a general topic. As such, improving this process
depends upon individuals. A far as my opinion is concerned, I would strongly
say that groupism should not be present in people’s minds as a mind-set.
3.
The fact that people misunderstand what one says
or misinterprets it as something odd. This causes many unwanted situations.
Mostly because the way one is brought up with respect to one’s environment.
4.
It’s a great experience being part of the
intercultural communication because it gives us an opportunity to learn
something about someone else and the way they are brought up, which in turn
develops our way of communicating with people belonging to similar category
Yash Mishra,
13BCE0226,Hindi form
uttarpradesh
1. Belonging to a University where people from
various cultural backgrounds study, it increases our exposure to other
cultures. And my culture being a part of this university makes me feel proud.
2.
In order to improve communication in the
University better, the students must be encouraged to learn the local language
of that place. For example in VIT University the students must be encouraged to
learn Tamil.
3.
People belonging to opposite cultural
backgrounds usually are less interactive with each other due to the language
barrier. This situation can be avoided by encouraging them to learn the local
language which can act as a common language
and then there won’t be any
barrier while communicating.
4.
It’s a good experience in a University with
people of diverse cultural backgrounds and languages as it gives us the
knowledge of other cultures and also encourages us to learn new languages.
Conclusion :
After seeing all the types of communication ,by conducting the survey and taking interviews. Studying about the concepts of the communication and thinking how it works how it runs and how it was being from the history. we came to conclusion that effective communication is always based on the trust in communication
The persons who communicate to each other if the have trust on each other they never face communication barriers.the communication barriers which are faced by normal people won't be
barriers for actual people. So,we suggest always have trust in the other person and believe that he always says in favour of you.
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