Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks by LaRay Barna - Article Example

Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks by LaRay Barna The article provides an insight on the common barriers that people from different cultural backgrounds faced while communicating. To support the argument regarding these inherent differences, Barna provides various factors that act as barriers to intercultural communication with these factors including anxiety, a tendency to evaluate, perceptions and stereotypes, language differences, and non-verbal symbols and signs. While identifying these differences, Barna also appreciates the important role that the differences in intercultural communication play in the world. Nonetheless, the article identifies these stumbling blocks to intercultural communication as the primary challenge to diversity. In line with this, I strongly agree with Barna that communication is an important factor for integrating people in different cultures although communication hinders achievement of this objective. On the other hand, I do not agree with Barna’s argument that high anxiety should act as a communication stumbling block since I believe that it promotes interaction in different people in order for people to overcome high anxiety, which makes them learn other languages. It is evident that Barna’s article expounds on a challenge that every individual has faced in their life. In this case, it is evident that we have all experienced intercultural communication barriers at one point of our life by interacting with people who were different from us in our daily activities. While supporting his arguments, Barna uses real life experiences to highlight the challenges that intercultural communication posed on the interaction of people in a society that is increasingly becoming both multicultural and multiracial. In an approach that highlights different perceptions of people on other cultures, Barna starts by highlighting the problem of intercultural communication in the United States by carrying out a review of the perceptions of students from other cultures on the American cultural way of communicating. In this regard, Barna identifies reservations present in people from different backgrounds regarding the way they perceived a different culture’s approach to communication. Case in point, Americans smile all the time when communicating, even to total strangers while a foreigner plays along with the American and smiles while nodding, which to the American is indicative of effective communication although the foreigner confirms their stereotypes regarding Americans’ insensitivity and ethnocentrisms (Barna 68). Misunderstandings and misconceptions during communication may have disastrous effects with people resulting to hate each other since they cannot understand the point the other was passing. In line with this, it is common knowledge that effective communication is an essential way that people understood others, which means that its ineffectiveness posed a challenge. In the course of my life, I have experienced challenges that are related to intercultural communication. In one incident, an Italian neighbor passed me with his hand raised as he moved his fingers in a manner that suggested that he required my attention. After approaching him, he told me that he was not interested in me and he sped off in his car, which made me view him as arrogant and disrespectful only to realize that it was a result of intercultural communication barriers. Barna highlights other communication barriers that prevented effective communication in people. In line with this, I agree with Barna’s argument that language is a major stumbling block to communication since we do not have a universal way of communicating that was common to all people in the world. Importantly, language hinders communication since it is challenging to understand what other people communicate once we fail to understand their language. Conversely, I agree with Barna that, “The lack of comprehension of nonverbal signs and symbols that are easy to observe-such as gestures, postures, and other body movements-is a definite communication barrier” (69).Case in point, the incident I experienced with my Italian neighbor is proof that misinterpretation and the failure to understand nonverbal signs and gestures contributes to communication breakdown between people. I agree with Barna’s assertion that the perceptions and stereotypes we held contributed to inefficiency in the way we communicated with other people. Importantly, I agree with Barna that we lose objectivity in incidents whereby we held preconceived notions about other people and fail to understand the message they tried to communicate (70). In this case, it common for people to avoid interacting with others based on the perceptions that they held about others, which prevents effective interaction since they become less objective while trying to understand their message. On the other hand, I agree with Barna that the tendency of people to evaluate others results to their approval or their disapproval, which happens devoid of the fact that they did not take to understand them and consequently barring effective communication. Despite my agreement with Barna regarding these factors as essential in barring communication between multiracial and multicultural individuals, I do not agree with Barna that high anxiety should be classified with these other factors as another factor that acted as a stumbling block to effective intercultural communication. In this case, it is my opinion that high anxiety between people can bring them together in order for them to resolve their challenges and problems in an amicable approach. In this case, I realize the importance of fear in contributing to uneasiness in people that made people seek reconciliation. For example, an individual living with another stranger may find it easier and important to communicate with the stranger than maintain silence in order to break the uneasiness between the two people living together. In this regard, it is evident that silence will only act as a way of raising anxiety between the two people. Rather than focus on anxiety, I believe Barna should have focused on the mindset of people regarding the fear of the unknown that contributes to discrimination and ethnocentrism. In conclusion, it is evident that factors that acted as stumbling blocks to intercultural communication challenge multicultural and multiracial diversity in the contemporary society. In line with this, it is evident that Barna’s article elucidates on this challenge by presenting the problems and the solutions to these problems. While I have experienced some of these problems, I agree with Barna that these factors act as a barrier to intercultural communication, but I do not agree with the assertion that high anxiety acts as a barrier. Instead, I identify the importance of high anxiety in bringing people together to break the uneasiness in them by communicating and seeking to understand each other. Work Cited Barna, LaRay. Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks. Guidelines: A Cross-Cultural Reading/Writing Text. 3rd ed. Ed. Ruth Spack. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print. Read More