Communication stumbling blocks - Essay Example

For example, Barna in his works noted,“increased interaction through travel, students exchange programs, and other ventures should result in more understanding and friendship between nations”(Barna, p. 66). However, this is different especially due to variations of cultural contexts. These variations in cultural contexts create intercultural communication stumbling blocks, such as non verbal communication and time sense variations, thus lack of consensus during mediation and negotiations. Although I do not agree with Barna’s presumption that intercultural communication would result in understanding between nations, I agree with his assertion that “it takes a long time before a foreigner can adjust in a new culture” (Barna, p. 66). According to Kinetics, (2010), among the six stumbling blocks to effective cross cultural communication is nonverbal misinterpretation.

A good example is the one given by the Japanese student, whereby he noticed that his non verbal communication did not coincide with the one of his Japanese culture (Barna, p. 67). He received a smile from American girls but only came to discover that the girls had no interest for him, unlike in his Japanese case, whereby such a smile can mean the person is sexual maniac. In such a situation, it would take quite some time before the Japanese student can fully adapt to the American culture. In regard to my own experience, I think the situation is more complext that it can be explained in writing.

As I noted earlier during my visit to Tanzania in East Africa, I learned many things apart from their time factor issue. As I was speaking with some young girls, I noticed that they talked to me while bowing. In my own culture, this could mean that the person you are talking to is not attentive to what you are talking about, while in African culture it means that the person has high respect for you,