Introduction to Intercultural Competence

This blog is dedicated to intercultural communication and competence. The purpose it is to serve is to document my journey as I gain further clarity on how to interact with people outside of my own culture and strengthen my communication skills with people within my culture.

To begin, I want to point out a few cultural stereotypes that usually inhibit people’s interactions with one another, breaking down the lines of communication.

Americans: Arrogant, wasteful, and lazy

Jews: Greedy and power hungry

Muslims: Terrorist

Mexicans: Laborers and Illegal Aliens

African Americans: Thugs and drug dealers

Asians: Smart

And the list goes on and on. As crazy as it may seem, these stereotypes are commonplace in the minds of people around the world. It is important for use to communicate more effectively to one another and breakdown these barriers. The world is becoming a global village, where everyone is connected through the internet, economies, and more. In order to progress ourselves as humans, we must embrace the ever-shrinking world and facilitate conversations to ensure peace as we begin to face challenges globally.

To understand how we must can learn about intercultural communication, communication must be defined.

Communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which people create shared meaning.

Think about a conversation you had with someone and try to identify the characteristics of communication. It is pretty simple!

The symbols in conversation usually take form nonverbally such as eye contact, closed hands, and tense shoulders.

Interpretation is what you do when listening. You attempt to understand what the other person is saying in a way that doesn’t take it out of context and in a manner that you understand

          Transaction is key in communication. Information flows easier when people are engaging one another and gathering feedback

          Finally, communication is contextual, which means that the setting in which information is exchanged is important

          Example: Social Events, Church, School, etc.

          This sets a pretense for appropriate conversation

With all this information, we can begin our journey to learn more about communication.