Thoughts on Intercultural Communication

Hello everyone!

I hope nobody has been bored reading my previous post and it is time again for another post here! Today, we will be talking about Intercultural Communication. It is a form of communication that aims to get information across to people of a different culture. For each person, there are definitely influences of various cultures that are evident from the way the person speaks, behave and even think! It is important for us to note these aspects but more importantly, we should withheld our judgement until we get to know such person at a deeper level. Before we go into the discussion further, let us look at a short video clip that aims to introduce you to intercultural communication!

Influences of culture can vary between person to person. A person's birthplace, the place that he grew up in, the schools he attended, the kind of friends he made, his parents, his superiors and so on all will make an impart on the person himself and it manifest itself in the person's character traits and behavior. Emotional intelligence comes in handy as we begin to engage a person personally or professionally. An understanding of a person's culture can definitely help us to communicate better and be able to see from the other person point of view. This is especially crucial in resolving conflicts and misunderstandings. Now let us look at some interesting features of certain cultures.



From http://www.facts-about-japan.com/interesting.html, it says, "Religion does not play a big role in the lives of most Japanese and many do not understand the difference between Shintoism and Buddhism. However, there are also many Japanese who do understand the difference." It may be crucial to note this whenever talking to a Japanese and not assume that every Japanese is a Buddhist. Also, it may be wise to not discuss about religions when talking to a Japanese unless one has good knowledge in Shintoism.



Did you know that Spain is run as a monarchy? Therefore, assuming that Spain is a democracy may offend some Spaniards.

Remember that knowledge is important in understanding another person's culture and it is this knowledge that can guide you in your interactions with different people. One word of caution though, Do not stereotype or judge people based on their cultural traits or nationality, each of us are different in many ways despite our cultural influences. It is only through interactions and communicating personally then we will know a person well.

Thank you for reading and I wish you success in communicating with people!

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflicts usually arise due to disagreements, these disagreements could be fundamental or trivial. Many of us are motivated to resolve interpersonal conflict as it destroys relationships, be it personal or work.  Destruction of relationships can prove to be detrimental to us as stated in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, social interactions through personal or work relationships is an important need. Today, I shall look at a particular case of interpersonal conflict and examine its nature in detail.

Consider a scenario which some of us may be familiar with:

You have been assigned a room with a stranger in a hostel which you are staying in for the semester. After a few nights, you realize that he has a very different sleeping pattern from yours. You prefer to work in the afternoon and sleep around midnight whereas he work til 3 in the morning (3AM) and take short afternoon naps. The problem arises due to the lighting in the room. While he was working on his assignments, his desk light distracts you from your sleep and making it difficult for you to sleep. You politely requested him to sleep earlier, he responded to your request by sticking black papers around his desk light, without notifying you beforehand. You find that is not working for you either. If you still insist on him adjusting his sleeping pattern while compromising yours (maybe both of you could sleep around 1.30AM), how should you let him know?

I think the problem is an unfortunate one. It is nobody's fault that such a conflict arises, because our sleeping patterns develop through our early years and it is not really within our control to dictate it. That being said, with enough time and effort, we can still alter our sleeping pattern. He sent an obvious non-verbal cue, that is, placing black papers around his desk light without notifying you. Being sensitive to non-verbal cues, you may conclude that he is not comfortable with speaking to you with regards to this issue. You may interpret his actions as a signal is that he is not going to sleep earlier but compromises by placing black papers around his desk light to reduce its impact on you. However,  if that proves to be insufficient, I guess one would have to invite him to a lunch and talk about it. In a friendly and comfortable setting, discuss and understand his reasons for his sleeping pattern. Explore ways in which both of you could reach a compromise, perhaps explain why you cannot adjust more to his sleeping patterns, it could be due to afternoon lessons and so on. Convince him that he may be in a better position to adjust more to your sleeping pattern as he can easily study in the afternoon instead.

Something like this may transpire in the midst of the conversation: "I understand that it may be overboard to ask you to adjust your sleeping pattern, but considering the fact that I am unable to take afternoon naps like how you did due to my lessons, I really hope you can do your assignments in the afternoon while you are in the room so that we can both sleep earlier at night.".

However, despite all the efforts made, at times the other party may not cooperate. When such situation arises, we can only seek the help of higher authority, that is, to request for a change of room. Naturally, we would want to avoid this awkward situation and having to learn the idiosyncrasies of a new roommate. Therefore, it is important that we acquire good communication skills to avoid conflicts and perhaps more importantly, to resolve them whenever we encounter them in our working and personal lives.