Intercultural Reflection - Essay Example

Intercultural reflection Intercultural reflection Introduction Intercultural reflection is the looking back on our cultural backgrounds our beliefs, the values we hold as a community, attributions, actions and the able we have to relate with other people. This reflection in many countries has been seen through the performance of dramas that show how different cultures are. Through this performance we get a reflection of what sought people we are and what values we are supposed to uphold as a community. The diversity of this cultures are seen throughout the country through the dressing codes, eating habits, the sought of work the people do in order to get an income, the sought of beliefs different cultures have among many other elements. Intercultural reflection and communication go hand in hand because they ensure that we as a community get a broader understanding of different needs in the community, the reason of being that is why we were created, the history of our culture and that of other cultures and different philosophies that have come up during our existence. The culture of the western people of the western American culture is much diversified in that it is not only practiced by the Americans but also by other cultures such as Europe . The western culture is sometimes referred to as western civilization. This western culture has very different characteristics they include philosophy, literacy, legal themes, host of artistic and traditions. The western culture was not only shaped by the above themes, Christianity also played a major role in shaping it. The western culture is neither homogeneous nor unchanging, similar to all cultures it has evolved gradually over time. The cultural and artistic modalities are from western origin and these has been shown through the different artistic works including that of Monalisa among others the dances including ballet, ballroom dancing different sorts of music and instruments including the choral, country music, rock and roll hip hop. The western culture has grown enormous in that there are different modes of music and people have changed in different ways even moving away from their cultural beliefs for instance it is no longer an issue in the way of dressing, the different art that was believed to be valued has changed in time, the architectural works that were believed to be beautiful are now monumental and other sought of architectural work is coming up. When I look into the Latin culture although almost similar to the western culture because of the way it is rich in culture that is the high art and literature which is similar to that of the western culture and also its folk art, music and dance. Its religion is also rich and the customary practices that they practice and in the Latin American culture they have not moved away from those beliefs like the western people. For instance there way of dressing is still the same and the eating habits have not changed the people in the western culture have different sought of illnesses that are brought by the way of living where the westerners, just take junk food and sit around without doing anything while the Latin Americans have to work in their firms therefore getting illnesses that are going to kill them. The Western culture is similar to the Latin American culture because they are all influenced by different cultures and the Latin American culture has also being influenced by the western culture. The family set up in the western culture is small while the Latin culture is bigger because even the food they eat is found in their firms so the only thing that they need is education which is not at a higher rate. The cognitive and behavioral strategies have shown to result in effective understanding of intercultural communication. Where intercultural communication means understanding other peoples culture. The way in which these may be achieved is by first understanding the cultural fluency whereby different people understand the different cultures of the people living around them. The substitutes of cultural fluency are through understanding being tolerant of the ambiguity in different cultures. Secondly it’s the behavior flexibility where a person is able to adopt different behaviors at different situations because they vary from one culture to another and what is right in culture may be deemed wrong in other cultures. Effective communication may result from the willingness of the parties to learn about other people’s culture these is done through knowledge discovery whereby the individual has the ability to obtain new acquaintance in real time communication and also be aware of communicative conventions of people from different cultures and who have very different backgrounds. Individuals should empathetic in that they understand what people want at different situations; these may be achieved also through respect of different cultures and beliefs. The other means to enhance effective communication through cognitive and behavioral strategies is by ensuring that they get a good understanding of the non verbal communication that varies in different cultures. For instance non verbal communication is low context in the American culture whereby the Americans do not care a lot about the non verbal communication while in other cultures it is highly valued for instance the Japanese or Chinese culture. It is high context in this culture whereby if a person does not learn then non verbal communication they are going to miss a lot of information that will be passed through or across. The American culture has a mixture of different communities who practice different cultures throughout the country, for instance there are Indians who migrated from their native country to come America who still practice their own different cultures. Although we may try to come to terms with these communities it is very hard sometimes to get to learn all the issues that affect their culture and for that the communication becomes ineffective because yes we do want to learn but to assimilate those cultures and beliefs becomes so hard because they go against what we do believe in. When we go to school we have Jews among as us and when it comes to saying grace they do not say it with us or the Muslims because although we all believe in the same being and that is a power that is above the practices and how we worship is different and also the holidays for the Christians and Jews also differ because we all use a different calendar that helps us run the world. In my personal view I belief that although we may attend the communication conference and learn how to deal with intercultural people there are some elements that we do not need to force ourselves to understand because we may not want to accept them as our own. Intercommunication is effective because of the relations that we have among our community because we are able to accept the people as they are and we do not need to change how other people view us. For instance in my neighborhood I live with different people of different cultures and I have learnt to assimilate their culture because even the greetings vary and we greet them as their culture dictates, therefore intercommunication is effective because due to the curiosity we have to learn about other people’s culture. The understanding of different cultures and the backgrounds can be viewed as the most important because one will get to understand how to behave when relating to people of different cultures. In America there are a lot of foreign exchange students who travel miles may from Japan or China to study and their way of life is different from ours, therefore learning their culture is important in order to help them fit in our society which is quite different from ours (Hall, E. T. (1959). The low context in our culture makes us so different because in their country non verbal communication is like the most valued way of communication. Secondly understanding the my own culture comes second because by first knowing what other people want from me makes it better for to be curious about my own culture and get to explain it to other people what it entails. Thirdly the strategies for effective communication should be emphasized to ensure that each an every person gets to respect other people’s culture through learning how to assimilate them. In conclusion through learning how different cultures work I have a broader understanding and respect for other cultures in that in future when I get an opportunity to express my concern I will give an account of how intercultural communication is effective in our day today life. As a journalist in profession if I get sent out for assignments in different countries I will know how to carry myself. For instance the Muslims do not show their hair and the whole body should be covered through this course I have learnt that and ensure I practice such vices in order to respect their culture in case I get sent for an assignment there. References Hall, E. T. (1959). The silent language. New York: Doubleday Read More